Ice Skating Cake

So, at my kids' school every year, there is this huge amazing fundraiser called the Halloween Carnival. Parents work their butts off, some for a whole year, most for like a week or two, to put on this carnival. There's a haunted forest, which is made of 2x4s and plywood so it's like a real maze, there's carnival games and little tickets the kids win and prizes, food, and a silent auction that spreads through three classrooms without any space to spare. It's so much fun for the kids and parents.
This year I put a gift certificate in the auction for a custom cake, and another parent at our school, Bill, won the certificate. A few parents came up to me afterward, saying they had bid on the cake too, and were disappointed to lose. That made me feel special. :)
Anyway Bill wanted to get a cake for his daughter's eighth birthday, and he also wanted to take part in creating the cake. So we brainstormed ideas for making an ice skate on the top of the cake. He actually carved and sanded an ice skate blade out of wood, and came over that morning and made the skate out of rice krispies and fondant. It turned out so awesome, and I painted it with "super pearl" luster dust and gave it the wood color for the sole.
Also, for the top of the cake I pinched the top edge of the fondant all the way around, and filled it with some light blue piping gel that was much easier to make than I thought.

Pokemon

So, I accomplished two things this week. One, I learned all about Pokemon characters and pokeballs, how some birdlike pokemon don't fly, and also how some do even though they are part penguin. Also some pokemon don't really do much, especially before they "evolve" into different pokemon. It's so complex, I can't believe my daughter knows so much about all these things, and is able to remember every little detail, yet she can't recite her multiplication tables without sounding like she's guessing "6 times 7 is...uhhhh....forty....two?" I tell her that even if she's guessing at least sound like you know it, right? It's good practice for when she has to wing it in college later. :)
My son has a friend in kindergarten, who's little brother had a birthday party today, and his mom asked me to make a pokemon cake for him. It was actually more like a family project than anything, my husband had a lot of input on which pokemons were good for the cake, and my daughter stood over me and made sure the little pokemon action figures I made for the cake from rice krispies and fondant were accurate "no mom, pikachu's mouth is red inside, not black". Needless to say, I was almost an hour late in delivering the cake but all of the pokemons were as accurate as could be!!
My favorite pokemons were the bat who looks like he's yelling at someone, and the blue radish guy, he's so cool.

~ Happy Birthday Andres !! ~

Gucci Purse for Gayla

So, my friend Gayla came back to visit from Colorado to have a birthday dinner at Blowfish in Santana Row. It was really fun, and if I had not been battling a vicious sinus thing I would probably have been able to hear much better over the loud music.
So I made her this cake, a Gucci purse, that has little "G's" all over it, I thought it was cute, since her name starts with a G. I added a tiny chihuahua, that's guarding her purse, after she told me a story about how her little chihuahua that weighs 5 pounds, viciously chases her alpaca and llamas around. heh heh, ya, don't underestimate small life forms!
And of course, a jonquil, March's birth flower (I looked it up).
The purse was pretty easy to do, although because it was a carved cake I had to keep refridgerating it to harden the buttercream so it would stay up straight.

Happy Birthday Gayla !!!

Flipping Dolphins ROCK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, my kids go to this wonderful school where the sun shines every day and everyone greets you with a smile. OK, so maybe the sun doesn't shine every day, but it really feels like it. You walk into the tiny little bubble we call campus and you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Seriously, it's like a perfect little bubble that you don't ever want to leave. My son loves his teacher "Miss Elizabeth" (he calls her Miss Alivabef) so much, he cries on Saturday mornings because there's no school. I couldn't imagine a more perfect place for our children to thrive and be educated by such nurturing teachers and parents. You feel so secure and content to be there in kindergarten, first, second and third grade, and then by fourth grade you start getting a little knot in your stomach, knowing that in a couple of years you'll have to leave the little bubble for the cold cruel world known as "middle school". It's a scary thought. Am I the only one freaking out here?
Anyway, so you get the point, our school is awesome, yah.
Every classroom gets to give themselves a name, and my son's class is the "Flipping Dolphins". What a cool name !!
So tonight we had a parent meeting/surprise baby shower for our two preggo mommies in the class. And I made this "flippin dolphins" cake to celebrate.
Congratulations Connie and Shannon !!!!

Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu !!!

Which means "Happy New Year" in Japanese. This year I decided to make a Daruma, which is something that sort of ties into the whole new year resolution thing. Traditionally, you buy a Daruma, which is like a statue made of paper mache, and it comes without eyes. You set a goal for yourself, and paint one of the eyes in. Then you place the daruma somewhere that's visible to you everyday, to remind you of your goal. When you reach your goal, you get to paint the other eye in. And, in Japan buddhist temples have a special ceremony where people bring their darumas with both eyes and burn them.
OK, everyone get your Daruma and color in that eye !!!

XBOX 360 and Halo

My husband works at a hospital, he's a nurse who takes care of burn victims. I don't know how he does it, he's such a heroic man, my studly husband.
One of his coworkers was throwing a birthday party for her son, Jarod, who was turning 21, and she ordered a cake for him. She said that he liked video games and so, after confirming that he played xbox, I decided to make him an Xbox cake, and what xbox is complete without a cool Halo helmet?
What, you mean to tell me that kids don't wear these as they play the game?? Well they should.
Happy Birthday Jarod!! Hope you had fun at your party!

Three Thanksgivings !!!

This year we had the privilege of celebrating Thanksgiving three times!!! We sure have lots to be thankful for, especially when our enormous family of many ethnicities and religions come together and eat good food!!
So, the first thanksgivings' feast was at Grandma Mary's house, my husband's granny on his mom's side. We had a delicious ham feast with all the fixin's. I made this cute little cake for the small 8 person gathering.
It's two baby turkeys on a birch log. I stacked up some six inch rounds and fondanted them. It looks much bigger than it actually turned out. It was pretty small, about the size of a coffee can.



Then, on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, we had another feast at my mom and dad's house. This time my sister and brother in law brined this turkey and cooked it, it was soooooo juicy and delicious. And my mom made her sausage stuffing, and I made some cheesy buttery Paula Deen green beans, they were so good!!
Oh, and I also made this cake, another weeping Cherry tree.



I found this famous painting on Google. My mom really liked it, she told me that my dad bought it at an art museum the first time our family took a trip to Japan. And, that's bamboo behind the picture. I painted it all around the cake. Also, my assistant helped me greatly by cutting out each of the gazillion little teeny pink blossoms out of fondant with a teeny little cutter. Aren't they pretty?? I also added some Japanese characters to the other sides, one for "family", one for "health" and one for "happiness" which is what I felt especially thankful for on this second day of Thanksgiving feasting.
More to come......