Witches Hat Birthday Cake

If you're curious how I made this Witch Hat birthday cake, just click on the  video link below. 

This could be used for a Halloween party, an October birthday, or just for fun.

Homemade Clay Craft - Penguin Project to do with Kids

I wanted to make some little penguins  so I bought some clay and started modeling the little guys.

Here's how to do it.

First buy some clay at your local craft or hobby shop.

Make sure you get the clay you can bake and not the remoldable clay - which doesn't harden and can always be squished back into a pile of clay.

Then make a pear shaped object out of your clay.

After you've made the pear shaped object, cut out some wings and stick them on the sides.

After you have the wings, you need eyes, feet and a beak.

Stick the beak, feet and eyes on to the pear shaped figure. Rub them into the figure at the connections. Then bake the little guy - per  directions on the clay package.

When he is finished baking, add a little paint or you can use markers.

Before you bake him, you can smooth him a bit. I accidently made indentations in his  body with my fingernails.

I think this little guy is cute but I want to practice a bit so I can make a little penguin pond in my garden ;D I think kids  walking past my little "pond" will think it's fun. 

Poop Emoji Cupcakes

Have you ever wanted to make a poop emoji cupcake? Well I have. So, I did. I made these little guys for my brother-in-law's 60th birthday. (He's a plumber - so it seemed sort of appropriate.) I simply baked a couple dozen chocolate cupcakes and then I piped chocolate frosting onto the top using a piping pastry bag, without using a tip. 

At first, I tried using a #10 Wilton tip, but the rings of frosting were too small so I piped them into a bowl and started over. I decided not to use any tip at all so the rings of frosting would be big. And, I think it worked out great.

Then I cut out the mouth and eyes using black and white fondant. I used piping tips to get the circles. And I cut the largest circle in half to make  the mouth. 

I filmed it all using a time-lapse setting so it wouldn't be too boring.

Click here to watch how I did it

I also printed out these little signs and taped them onto cupcake sticks and stabbed them into the cakes. 

Let me  know what you think. And, if you try this, please share some pictures with me. I'd love to see them.

Making, Baking and Creating

I love to bake and when one of my kids' birthdays rolls around, I'm all about baking,  making and creating. It's not to say that I'm great at it but I love to do it. So, whenever there's a birthday, you can find me in the kitchen trying to make something sweet for one of my kids, my husband, or a friend ;D

I think baking is easy. All I do is run to the cupboard--like Old Mother Hubbard--but instead of bones, I pull out cake pans and I don't always know what I'm going to make in the beginning but once I get going, something pops in my head.

It's easy to do. All I do is stack layers and cut and shape or simply decorate until I have what I want.

And, I have a BIG family so this fall I made more than a few cakes.

Here's how I did it.

I started with a couple layers of cake (this one was two pineapple upside down cakes that I stacked  together) because my son loves Pineapple... then I covered them with fondant.

And started to decorate.

I was only thinking of pineapple...so this is where I began. But then I had  to add a little bit more.

But Luke's birthday is in October and this didn't seem very Halloweenie . . . and I was thinking of scary eyes...so on the backside I added a couple of Oreo eyes

But that still didn't seem like enough...so I baked a couple more small little cakes...just in case

And I stacked those together to make pumpkins. Then I frosted them with some orange cream cheese frosting.

And to top it off, I used a PayDay Candy Bar as the stem. I guess I shouldn't have added the fondant leave because my husband said that made the cake look like an orange apple. Oh well, I never said I was  great.

And then we sang and ate and ate...oh, but first,  Luke had to blow out his candles.

I think this photo makes him look like he's breathing fire... and that  inspires  me  to make a  dragon cake...next time, I think.

Anyway,  I'd  love to hear about the cakes  you make,  bake  or create. 

 

CAKE-N-BAKE - THEY'RE FUN TO MAKE

Everyone who knows me, knows I love to make fun characters and the easiest way to do that is to bake...

I've made so many different types of cakes, cookies and cupcakes

I even love to make "Finger" food

But my latest cake was so much fun to make

My son loves to play the guitar...so you guessed it, for his birthday I had to make a guitar or like a friend told me, "It's a bass" but I never claimed to be musical. I just love to bake.

It really was simple. All I did was cut out the shape of a guitar on a piece of paper and lay it on top of a sheet cake. I cut it out and then laid the fondant over the shape. I was in a hurry because I had a bunch of people coming for dinner so I didn't have much time to throw the cake together. Plus, I suddenly had to frost a cake for my daughter too. (My 34 year old son and my 30 year old daughter share a birthday). I thought we had someone else bringing my daughter's cake but they had a "cake disaster" in the car. Luckily, I had a couple extra layers of cake in the fridge and simply had to frost them.

And look at that candle on top...it was sparktacular!

Look at the differences in the flames from the candles on Jake's cake and Kara's cake.

But no matter the flame on the food, it looks like someone liked the flavor

Because that food was finished in no time.

(Are there any other bakers out there in blogland? I'd  love to hear what you're making, baking or creating.)