Saturday, May 28, 2011

Super Mom CupCake Cake

Today I made a Super Mom CupCake Cake for a friend/customer of mine.  The cake was for her sister's birthday.  She said that her sister is Super Mom.  She is always taking care of her family and running her kids here and there.  That was what inspired the minivan and car keys at the top of the cake.  I added a super hero  cape to the van to give her credit for her super driving since that is where us Super Mom's spend our time when we are not cooking, cleaning, etc. :0)  The Mom sign was cut out of wood and layered together.

Again, I used my cupcake stand with new ribbon to match the cake, everything else the same.  Talk about versatile! I have a tutorial on how to make your own HERE.

Here is a back shot of the minivan's cape :0)

She wanted two cupcake flavors.  I made the Strawberry Jello cupcake I made last week.  You can check that post out if you want to hear how to make them or get the frosting recipe.  It is worth the click!!!

Here is a closer look at a couple of the custom toppers I made to show off some of our Super Mom's special skills... 
Cookie sheet for all the baking and dinners...

A little iron.  I should have gotten a shot from the other side.  I poked holes in the face to make it realistic :0)  The iron represents all the ironing, laundry and general clothing care Super Mom's do daily.  Frankly I am overwhelmed at the thought of the huge pile waiting for me when I finish this post...

Ballet slippers (even though they look more like mice than slippers-it was late when I made these last night :0) for all the dance practices and recitals girls are run to, all the time sitting in the car or the waiting room for those practices to get over, and even all the dress-up clothes picked up off the floor day after day for years!

Mop and sud bucket for all the cleaning, spill removal, mad-dash unexpected in-law visit cleaning, and those muddy footprints scrubbed off the floor stretching from the sliding glass door all the way to the upstairs bathroom :0)

And let's not forget the sporting events, practices and games out in the hot sun, hours trying on new soccer cleats at the shoe store and the even more hours hunting for those soccer cleats moments before games, orange slices cut and shared, certificates and trophies proudly displayed where Mom's favorite nick-nacks used to be.  

Aren't Super Mom's GREAT!

Here are some of the other fondant shapes I did to fill up the other cupcakes.  Again, I set aside a certain amount of time and did what I could in the time I gave myself.  I made a couple Super Mom signs, some *BAM* stars and Super Mom Capes.  

Now, I need to make special mention of the chocolate frosting I made today.  
It is the very same cream cheese pudding stuff I did for the white, I just made a few minor substitutions.  Instead of white chocolate chips, I used milk chocolate.  Instead of vanilla or cheesecake pudding, I used chocolate.  It is LOVELY!  This frosting is light and fluffy.  There is no powdered sugar so it is not that horribly sweet, sticky stuff you end up with so often.  You can find the recipe Here for the vanilla frosting and then just make those substitutions.  The picture above is after all the chocolate has melted and you beat it with the mixer to activate the pudding. 

This is what it looks like after you add the Cool Whip.  I have to say it tastes just like Chocolate Moose.  Well, at least that is what I think Moose tastes like.  I have only had that little Chocolate Moose Shooter at Applebees and it tasted just like this :0)  Give it a try yourself! 

So, Happy Birthday Super Mom!
I hope you enjoy your cake :0)

Thursday, May 26, 2011

A Little Busy

Well, we have had a little CakePop Stand explosion in Sew*CakeMaker land lately.  These are just the orders I finished today.  I mailed enough boxes yesterday to jam up the box at the Post Office, and have about the same for tomorrow.  What is inside...

I have had some crazy colors ordered.  It has actually been kind of fun to make all these stands.  I have had the chance to play around with my new drill press.  A couple of the custom requests have sent me for a loop, but I think I finally have my basic measurements figured out.  I plan on a little CakePop Stand tutorial to give you those exact measurements, but I am struggling to keep my eyes open right now.  I will save that for another day.
I will show you the other playing around that went down here today...
This was the start of my surfboard step stool.  Since Emmalee has potty trained I spend a HUGE amount of time in the bathroom.  I am SO glad I painted in there!  I would be going out of my mind with all the time I spend staring at the walls.  I am sure I am some ungrateful monster or something, but I (hushed tones) wish we could go back to diapers :0O  There, I said it!  I am sorry but it is WAY more hassle to run to the bathroom 6 times every hour than to change the diaper as needed.

OK, now that I got that off my chest, I decided to make another step stool because Emmers has to move the one stool we have to the toilette to go potty, then back to the sink to wash her tiny little hands...6 times an hour!  I think I will take one very annoying step out of the process we repeat so frequently and get this stool made.  

This is as far as I got today.  I am trying a new technique called Intarsia.  Essentially, you cut the defining lines of a picture out on the scroll saw, then painstakingly sand each and every edge to a smooth, rounded polish and then put it back together.  Usually you will see this stained different colors, or even each piece cut out of a different kind of wood so you get different shades and colors.  I am not into stained wood, Soooo I'm gonna' paint it!  Now, knowing myself, I will probably get the surfboard all sanded and ready to paint and then spend a month or two deciding on paint colors.  Ah!  I hope not!  I am really getting tired of moving that darn Ikea step stool in the bathroom!!!

I will be back to show you this and other fabulous projects once I have had some sleep.  Also coming up this weekend, a SuperMom cake.  Hmmm.  Still thinking on that one, but I am sure I can come up with something :0)

Monday, May 23, 2011

Rubber Duckie Shower Cake

I made this Rubber Duckie CupCake Cake for my friend Amber.  She is expecting a little boy next month.
You already know that I am a perfectionist FREAK so you should not be surprised to hear that I was not so happy with this cake.  I decided to put it on the blog anyway for...I don't know why :0)  

The stand is the same cupcake stand I made last year.  I just change the ribbon around the edges for the different occasions.  

I made two different cupcake flavors.  The first was a strawberry vanilla.  You are gonna' think I am crazy, but you bake regular vanilla cupcakes, poke holes in the top, then pour prepared jello on top.  I told you it was crazy, but OH So GooD!  I have two more orders for these cupcakes since the party :0)

My other cupcake was a carrot cake, dipped in caramel sauce and topped with my favorite shower frosting EVER!!!!  No powdered sugar.  It is so yummy you really don't need a cake, just a spoon!

Here is the recipe:
Cream Cheese Pudding Frosting
4 ounces cream cheese (room temperature)
8 (1 ounce) squares white chocolate-----I used white chocolate chips because they are cheaper!
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
1 small box of pudding 

Heat the heavy cream until just beginning to boil. Pour it over the
white chocolate (chopped) and the remaining 4 ounces cream cheese. DO NOT STIR!  Basically I let the chocolate and cream cheese melt before mixing to avoid lumps. Once cooled for like 30 minutes, add one box of instant pudding to the cooling mixture. Beat it with your electric mixer to whip the whipped cream for about 2 minutes.  It will get thick like pudding.  I like to use Cheesecake flavored pudding, but just vanilla would be good too.  F
inally, fold in the whipped topping.  Yumm!

This recipe colors well and pipes fabulously!  You have to try it!!!

OK, so when I started the cake I had 4 hours.  I told myself I would not loose a whole day to the making of this cake, so I only gave myself 4 hours.  I figured if it couldn't get done in 4 hours, I wouldn't do it.  I got down to the bit of time and had just finished making the fondant.  The cake as a whole was cute, but my rubber duckie on top did not look like I wanted it to and I had no extra time to fix it.

 
 Also, I was going to make little rubber duckies for the cupcakes and had no time for that either.  In a last minute rush I made these little ducks and loved them!  I used three sizes of leaf cutters.  The biggest for the body, medium sized -I used just the tip to cut the beak, and the small for the wing.  I used the wide end of a icing tip to cut the circles for the heads.  So, while I didn't get to make the duckies I had in mind, these were a cute replacement.

I still can't stand that duck on top though.  I was even tempted to re-make it when I got home just to show myself I could do it better.  Oh well, I may just have to do this cake again sometime :0}

The cupcakes however, they were another story.  They were SO yummy!  I don't really eat the cake I make, but these were hard to resist!

New Name Signs

I thought I would hope online real quick and show you two of the name signs I made this weekend.  This first one is for a cute little baby-to-be.  Her mommy's request was as much *bling* as possible without being too tacky :0)

She wanted all white flowers.  I used a daisy, two white rolled flowers, one smaller cream colored flower for some contrast, and a little silver netting to accent all the rhinestones.  

I really like this font. It looks darling with all the gems.  I brushed the whole project with a fabulous new glitter I found.  You can just stir it in with your paint!  For these name signs I stirred the glitter into the polyurethane before brushing it on.  Fabulous stuff!

This one I made for a friend to give as a gift.  And how sweet are these baby names while I am at it!  Layla and Oakley!  I bet they would be best friends if they ever met :0) 

The two signs are pretty much the same.  Same shape, same paint, same brush-on glitter.  I used a medium white daisy and tipped it with silver.  I used some colored rolled flowers for this sign, accented with pearls and other embellishments. 

So Sweet!
I am planning on making these for my own kids too.  It's about time, huh?  
That is how it goes around here.  If you are not a paying customer, you have to wait until the planets align and mom has a moment to spare :0)

Tomorrow I will show you the baby shower cake I made.  
Good Night!

Thursday, May 19, 2011

"Magic of Music" Cake

Music recital season again :0)
I made this cupcake cake for my friend Jennifer.  Her theme was "The Magic of Music" and she was having a magician and everything.  I started out designing the cake for a magician with a top hat and finally realized she wanted a Wizard Magician, not the other kind.  I came up with this hat design.  I still wish I had done some magic wands or something but couldn't figure out how to make them look like a wand and not just a log :0)

I baked a whole 3" tall, 10" cake and then decided I had better use Rice Krispies.  I made a regular batch of Rice Krispie treats from the recipe on the box.  They cooled for a few minutes, then I molded the hat and let it cool.  
 
For the little wizard hats I dipped Bugels snacks in black chocolate almond bark.

I thought for a long time {while driving} about how I could let the hats/bugles set up without having a flat spot on them.  Finally I remembered this huge chunk of Styrofoam that came with our computer.  I stabbed it with rows of BBQ skewers and had a lovely drying rack for my hats :0)  You could be one step ahead of me and put Saran Wrap across the foam before stabbing, but luckily we didn't have any drippage anyway.

Dip and dry.

Back to the hat.  I dirty iced the whole thing.  I was better this time and tinted the icing a color similar to the fondant.  I didn't do this in the past and could either see the frosting through the fondant, or -heaven forbid you have a gap or a hole-you could see the white shining through the black!  Not this time!  I was on top of it!!!

I rolled out the black fondant, covered my plate, then covered the hat.  

Now for the piano band on the hat.  I rolled out white fondant, cut it to the width I wanted, and then marked the space between piano keys with a toothpick.  

Black fondant was rolled out to make the small black keys.  To put them on the white keyboard I used a nice new kids-style paintbrush and painted corn syrup on to work as glue.

I brushed more corn syrup on the hat and attached the piano hat band.  You know, the whole time I was making this I was hoping it would not look too much like a witch's hat.  On that note, this is a fabulous way to make a witch's hat for a Halloween party :0)

Back to my mini hats...I tried to pipe chocolate in circles on wax paper.  It was such an utter disaster, I felt the need to try out modeling chocolate.  The recipe:  10oz chocolate, 1/3c. corn syrup.  You melt the chocolate, stir until smooth, then add the corn syrup.  At that point you are supposed to spread it out on a cookie sheet, refrigerate for a while, then kneed with hands to make soft and moldable.  I skipped the kneading step and just used a cookie cutter to cut out the hat brim circles.  It was really hard.  That might have something to do with me using the rest of my black chocolate almond bark instead of real chocolate.  It actually broke my cookie cutter.  Oooops!

Don't my hat brims make adorable records??? 
I wish records were still an "In" thing.  I think they are so cute.  Anyway, I blopped the brims with colored buttercream and smooshed a hat tip into it.  You can see we also cut out some music notes from the black fondant.  Jennifer is the one with students that are allergic to chocolate.  I had to do an alternative to the chocolate and the music notes were a perfect option.

Here are the little hats.  I attempted, rather poorly, to pipe a little music note on the band.  The cake store just didn't have a single note sprinkle anywhere!  Apauling!!!

So here are the finished hats sitting pretty atop Funfetti cupcakes with traditional butter cream frosting and red nonpareils (we call 'em ("ball-ies").  It just about killed me not to fill these cupcakes, but I have found that most kids don't like the fillings, unless it is some drippy chocolaty thing.  I figured Jennifer didn't want that on her carpet so we skipped it, but the next cupcakes I do are SO gonna' have filling!

Here are the music note cupcakes. 

Finished product.

Oh, I forgot to tell you my funny frustration.  Emmalee wanted to make one too so I gave her some fondant and she was rolling away right next to me.  I turned around...yep, here it comes...and Emmalee says, "Mom, someone poked a hole in the cake!"  There she stood with her Capri-Sun straw in hand.  Sure enough, there was a very cute little hole poked right into the hat, right about where that first full note is glued up at the top :0)  Yeah, Mom was mad.  While she sat in time-out I rolled out the white music notes and made my repairs.  It wasn't too bad since I was already planning on covering the cake with the white notes anyway.  Just a little disturbing to have my 2yr old "helping" with the cake :0)

Novelty Print Quilt Pattern

I have had a hard time finding good quilt patterns for novelty prints the past couple times I purchased them.  I made up this pattern so tha...