True Confessions.....

Both my boys love cinnamon bread. Last night when I went to the grocery store, it was on sale so I picked up a loaf. This morning when I was getting their fruit filled pancakes ready, I thought I'd give them a piece of cinnamon bread and be the best mom of the day.
Well, I went to cupboard where we keep such items and it wasn't there. Bummer. I figured I must have left it at the store at the check out -you know how the cashier keeps your bread and eggs at the top of the conveyor belt until the end so they don't get squished. Oh, well, it was only $1.98 so not worth going back for.
As I was getting my lunch ready to take to work I went to grab the pickles in the refrigerator. Nope. Not there. I quickly remembered that Brett helped put the groceries away and if I'm not paying attention, the ice cream ends up in the pantry so I thought maybe he just stuck them somewhere else. Nope. Can't find them anywhere. Then I thought, huh....I don't remember putting away the green olives either. They are nowhere. Ugh.
I grabbed my receipt and started noting all the other things that were "missing" - tomotoes, cream of mushroom soup, mandrain oranges....I went out to the car hoping that I left a bag in the trunk. Not so much. I called the grocery store and sure enough, my missing items where logged in their "paid but not taken" book. I stopped there on my way into work and had to go gather all the items that I forgot, bring them to the counter and then sign that I picked them up. I felt like such an idiot! The cute, young gal working made me feel better by stating, "oh, don't worry, it happens multiple times everyday where people leave their stuff." Oh, good.

Cake - Part Deux

Colton's kid birthday party is tomorrow. He really wanted a Star Wars cake that was blue, so I accepted the challenge. I learned a lot from my first attempt to work with fondant and I wanted to give it a try again. Here's how it all went down.
I made 2 cakes on Thursday night and cut the marble cake into two squares and left the chocolate one as is. Next comes the thin layer of buttercream frosting. After my first cake I realized that you need to frost the sides too - not just the top. Lesson 1 learned.

In the bag is the colored fondant. My hands looked like I was turning into a smurf as I worked the color into the white substance. Lesson 2 not learned - wear plastic gloves. The beds of my fingernails are still blue.

Lesson 3 learned - Measure, measure and measure. Last time I just thought I could eyeball the size that I was rolling out. It works so much better to actually know how big you need it to be.

Lesson 4 learned - don't be skimpy on the amount of fondant you use. I had no tears this time since I used more fondant than I needed, but it was better than not having quite enough.

Here it is after I moved it from the table to the cake.

Then you need to trim the excess off. See - there's proof that I measured!

Remember the marble squares? Here they are stacked and frosted, waiting for the fondant.

Much better.

The stacking process....see that little hole on the top of the white cake? That's a wooden dowel you need to use to keep the cakes together.

Oops, not sure what happened to this picture - it's vertical vs. horizontal. Anyhow, you have to do something to cover up the hideous look of the space where cake one meets cake two. This time I opted for little balls.

And the moment you've all been waiting for....the final product. Colton placed all the little action figures where the need to go. They all have frosting on their feet and then are stuck to little fondant circles which in turn are stuck to the cake.

The cake was a lot of fun to make. Nothing spectacular and I have no plans of quitting my day job. Colton was grinning ear to ear when it was all done and that's all that really matters.

What We've Been Up To.....

It's been a busy week. Thursday my mom and step-dad came down to spend the weekend with us to help celebrate Colton's birthday and Easter. Since Colton didn't have school on Friday, I took the day off to be with him. He wanted to go mini-golfing, so that morning we dropped of his little brother at daycare and we were off to the MOA for 18 holes. We all had a great time. I think our scores were 56, 57, 58, and 60 - it was a close one!

Once we got home, I worked on Colton's cake. Since he requested a Star Wars cake for his kid party, I was able to talk him into letting me do what ever I wanted for his family party. I made a big old birthday cake and for the first time used fondant. Whew. It looks a lot easier than it really is. I had a heck of time rolling it out into a circle shape. I got it a little thin in parts so it did tear a bit when I put it on the cake. I tried my best to cover my errors with the circles.

We had all the family over for dinner. It was a great time. Colton received so many wonderful gifts!

Saturday was our 2nd annual neighborhood egg hunt. Here is Colton with a couple of his best buds before we let them loose.And they're off....

Once all the eggs are found, it gets serious. They wheelin and dealin - trading this for that.

Here are the boys with their loot from the Easter Bunny. Brett got busted a few times throughout the day sneaking candy. We knew what he was up to every time it got quiet!

Birthday Boy

HAPPY 7th BIRTHDAY!!!