The Amazing Spiderman!

My son turns 5 tomorrow.  (Cue sigh...)  As I sit here and reminisce about 5 years ago tonight and how giddy my husband and I were to welcome our first child the following morning, I am also recovering from his party we had this afternoon!  He had such a great time with all his friends.  I let him do all the choosing of party supplies, games, and...the cake design.  Yep, I gave up control (which is not like me).  He chose the classic Wilton cake pan in the spiderman mold.  (Cue BIG gulp...)

So I've done cakes...quite a few actually.  BUT they really scare me.  I get anxious and stressed.  They're just so big and that buttercream frosting is thick and just different from my cookie frosting.  Well, Ben got his cake and mom got a little bit of stress!  :)  Actually, once I got started, it wasn't so terrible, but I have such a respect for cake bakers!  I love to make my boy happy with baked goods so it was so worth it to me!

 He chose chocolate.  He's takes after me!

 So I figured when I turned it over, I would see all the

details molded into the cake.

See those lines for webbing?

Boy, was I wrong!

No lines, no details, what do I do?

This was when I got a little stressed

and started texting friends.

My friend (and babysitter to my kids), Ellie, told me to

treat it like a big cookie.

Brilliant.

That is exactly what I did.

I followed the directions and covered the sides in white.

Okay, that was not so bad!

Now for the design that was supposed to create

Spiderman!!!

I sat with a picture right next to my work area.

Eyes first.

See that yellow tool?  That is a scraper.

It's the most useful thing I have in my cookie tool box.

I use it all the time.  I have three.

Get it here.

 I started with the face webbing.

My first thought was,

"I have to do this all over the cake??!"

It took a bit longer than I thought it would.

That scraper was used A LOT!  I wish I would have taken pics of the scraped off icing.  Lots of mistakes and fixes!

Let's just say, I am so glad it was a 4pm party and...

I didn't get to wash my hair!

Sorry, kids.

After the black, it was time for blue.

To do this, I used a #14 star tip.

Spiderman was coming together!

The red totally completed him!

I decided to do some fun dots on the border

instead of the white shells that Wilton suggests.

Ready to fight crime!

I had a very happy birthday boy!

(He didn't even realize mom didn't have

time to make cookies!)

Happy Birthday to my Sweetness!

xoxo

inspiration + challenge = yum!

So I thought St. Patty's week was my busiest?  This one just topped it!  I knew I had dozens of cookies to do, but I was so excited to try another cake!  My friend, Robin asked me to do a cake for Erin, who is visiting with her family from NJ.  Her birthday was last week and we surprised her with an Amy Butler inspired cake.  There are so many beautiful designs from which to choose, I just decided to "eenie meenie minie mo" it!  And here is what I landed on.

Robin also said Erin loves Etsy and Martha Stewart style.  Away I went!  This is the first time I really had no idea where to begin.  Well, I knew she wanted a carrot cake and I had an idea of my color scheme.

Very "etsy, Martha, and Amy B" all wrapped up in one!

Um, and guess what???  This talented mama is a visual design director for a cool company. Intimidation factor just sky rocketed!!

This carrot cake was more dense than

a typical cake so it didn't feel tall enough.

I added a third layer and it felt right.

I prepared a fourth, but I decided to crumble it to make

Easter cake pops with my kids (hope I get to it).

All crumbled and ready for frosting (that's another post!)...

So this is one of those times when I will go from a started project right to the finish with no photos of the process!  I hate when this happens, but I was on a deadline...naptime was all I had to get this done.  It took me 45 minutes to color the frosting alone!  The cake was for dinner at 5 and it was 1:30.  I tired my kids out that morning.  Luckily, it was a gorgeous day!  They slept for 3 hours . This never happens.  It was a miracle.  

This is the first coat.

I struggle so much with smoothing the buttercream.  I have not yet dealt with fondant (remember cookies are my specialty) and frankly, I don't care for the taste/texture of it.  So learning about it never appeals to me.  Homemade buttercream has such a wonderful flavor that I hate to deviate.  So that leads me to continue the smooth struggle. I realize that one day I will have to get past the fondant intimidation, but for now, I will struggle with smoothing buttercream and just enjoy that unsmoothed taste.

So I tried a new technique to smooth it.  It's called the "paper towel" method.  Yep, Viva towels, in particular.  Here's the finished product.

Yes, the lighting is different, but look at that smoothness!

Not perfect BUT so much smoother than I've ever done!

YAY!

When I had that coat done, I felt so much better.

Remember - there are no in between pictures.  So sad.

It was an interesting little thing...but I think

it had and "etsy" feel.

The top...just winging it!

The other side.  I'm usually so symetrical.

I really stepped out of my box on this.

I carried it over to Robin's on the cake plate.  There was a slight breeze and it was quite heavy.  We made it safe and sound.  We hid it in the office until after dinner.  Erin had no clue.  It was fun!

YUM!

Thanks, Robin for having us over for dinner.

Your friends are delightful!

Happy Birthday, Erin!

Girly-Girls

I got a message from my "makeup girl" at Saks last week asking me to make bikini top cookies for a friend who just had surgery.  I did not have a bikini cutter, but I saw the most darling bikini cookies made using a heart cutter.  I actually liked them better than the actually bikini cutter.  She wanted a very girly pink.  I think they came out pretty cute.

Thanks, Sue!

I hope your friend enjoyed them!

Onto Barbie...I also got a last minute order from a friend, Amy, for a birthday cake!  My first cake order!  Her daughter, Lydia, turned two and loves Barbies!  Yes, a 2 year-old Barbie addict.  How cute is that?  I decided to go with the Barbie Silhouette because I was short on time.  When Amy came to pick it up, she gasped.  She had another friend make some cookies and she used the silhouette too!  So it all matched and she didn't even intend on that!   

Happy 2nd Birthday, Lydia!

Inside the sea of pink is a yellow cake.  I am still looking for the most tasty yellow cake recipe.  Amy gave me great feedback and I'm ready for another try!  Thanks, Amy!  

Belated Super-Bash Pix...better late than never!

It's been a really rough week here in my household.  Not only did I have the most orders I've had in one week, but my daughter was sick...pretty darn sick...albuterol-breathing-treatments-for-7-days-and-not-much-sleep-sick!!!  So I feel extremely behind on updating my blog.  Ben's party seems like forever ago.  Paige actually developed all this yuckiness the day after the party.  Remember this post and cute picture?  Well, that was her happy during the party.  She woke up the following morning at 5am and hasn't been the same since.  We're praying for a complete turnaround by the end of this week.

Anyway, here are some highlights from the party and then I will move on to the mega orders I had last week!

Ready for some guests!!!

Love my Cricut cutter...

Healthy and happy Paige with Daddy

all decked out in their super hero gear!

Scott is truly a SUPER-husband.  He is the most

flexible, understanding, helpful, and supportive

guy out there.  He let's me go at it with all my little obsessions

and interests.  He puts up with a lot of busy-ness

as birthdays approach.

 He never fails to support and encourage me.

And...he coordinates his attire with each party with no complaints.

LOVE him!

Again, love my Cricut!  This is Ben's banner,

but what a terrible picture!

The cake...I learned a lot from the whole experience!

Super-Ben on top!

He LOVED the singing this year!

Hmmm...must be FOUR!

This is the darling shirt that Colleen from TUTEES made for Ben

(remember those Lego cookies for her son?).

She and her mom took Ben's

invitation logo and turned it into a shirt!

Thanks, Ladies!

The chocolate was much better than the white

(although Janine would disagree - she LOVED the white).

Ben's peeps.

A couple friends had already left,

but this was the majority of the crew!

Playing "Pin the Mask on Super-Ben!"

It was harder than I thought it would be!

Super-Ben compliments of my friend, Keri!

Again, my girl before she got sick!

Just enjoying her bro's party.

This is my DEAR friend, Lia - 

The ULTIMATE helper.  Thanks, Babe!

When your day comes to have a birthday party for your kids,

I'll be there to be your helper!

Super-Ben among his Super-Friends!

My Super-Fam!

145 days until Paige's 2nd Birthday Party...

But who's counting?

Ben's 2nd Birthday Cake - From the Archives

I was looking through some old pictures today to see if my son, Ben (who will be 4 yo in less than a month) looked anything like my daughter does now at 18 months.  I came across Ben's 2nd birthday party back in 2008 and realized that is when I knew I liked decorating with frosting.  I have always enjoyed baking and I knew that every birthday cake for my kids would be baked by me from scratch, but I didn't recognize that the whole decorating part would be something I grew to love.

At Ben's 2nd birthday party, I was pregnant with Miss Paige.

First of all, I REALLY wanted to make a Mickey FACE cake.  Wilton no longer carries the pan and it was on ebay for lots of $$$$, but very hard to pin down and "win."  So I settled with Mickey's body, which Wilton also no longer carries.  I found it on ebay for $30 and jumped on it (later to be sold to my ultrasound technician who I saw on a weekly basis and talked to about the party).  I scoured the internet to find the best chocolate cake recipe out there.  I settled for Martha Stewart's one bowl chocolate cake, which turned out to be fabulous and will forever be my chocolate cake go-to recipe.  I stood for hours decorating this Mickey Mouse cake - Wilton style.  I had piped Ben's first birthday cupcakes, but this was the first real time, I had to do use a piping bag in this manner.  I had to color so many shades of frosting.  I had never done anything like it before.  It was a painstaking process that included tears, almost quitting, and finally smiles.

Baking the cake was one thing.  I was so nervous about getting just the right amount of batter in the crazy-shaped pan.  But THEN when I saw that very subtle Mickey Mouse staring back at me longing to be "brought to life," I freaked out.  I still had 3 brunch casseroles to make and lots of other stuff to prepare!  We won't even go into the story about how I had to trace, trace again, and cut the cardboard to the shape of Mickey Mouse.  Seriously??

Once I started, I felt so much better.  It was one of those situations, when you just have to start somewhere.

There was a glimmer of hope.

And an enormous mess!!!

Of course now I look at it and I see sooo many things I would change.  I followed Wilton's method to a tee.  Now that I have more frosting confidence, I would do some of my own stuff.  However, I was so very proud!!!!

And Ben woke up the next morning in heaven.  This was the best part!!!

(Do you even see my dog, Lucy, wanting in on some of the action?)

Happy 2nd Birthday Ben (2 years ago), as I am ready to wish him a Happy 4th Birthday on February 21st.

What will this year's party dessert be?