Bite Me!

My favorite books right now are the Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer. I was hesitant to read them at first, despite rave reviews from friends. I mean, come on, Vampire books??? But after having them forced on me, I love, love, love them! As does a majority of the women in my ward. So when the Relief Society asked me to make a cake for an Enrichment talent show/display night, I came up with this cake. It is a poppyseed cake with Orange flavored Italian Meringue Buttercream. Yummy! The stem and leaf are gumpaste as are the baubles on the bracelet (replica of the one Jacob gives Bella for graduation.) I did make a chain out of gumpaste, but it didn't look so great and then broke, so the chain is metal. I couldn't decide whether to write "bite me" on it or not, as it was a church function, but since I put a little placard explaining the inspiration went ahead and did it. We'll see if I shock any little old ladies tonight.....

Empty the Camera!

So we are heading to Utah this afternoon for National Clogging Competition at Lagoon tomorrow and I needed to empty the camera, so I figured I'd post them while I had a minute.
This is my cute fam in their jammies hanging out. I love our round brown chairs. We all pile on them for scriptures in the morning, everyone fighting over who sits with dad of course!
This lovely injury was my Mother's Day present. The pictures do not do it justice. About 45 minutes before all Paul's family and my parents were coming to dinner at our house, there was a colliding of Kegan's and Payton's heads with Payton's lip caught in the middle. There was quite a bit a blood and it looked pretty deep. We took him to a friend who is in the medical profession so he could tell us if a trip to the ER was needed. Thankfully it wasn't as bad as it looked at first and is healing pretty good. But it still looks really nasty, especially the part that is inside his lip....Yuck!
He thinks he's pretty cool now, but he was pretty freaked out in the beginning.
I was trying to get dinner done last night and Zander was fussing at my feet so I had Kegan take him to play with him for a few minutes. Well about 1 minute later there was complete silence. There are two things that make my "spidey sense" tingle as a mother. Complete silence or uncontrollable laughter. Either will make me envision crayon drawings on the wall, spilled nail polish, toilet stuffing and flushing, you know that sort of thing. So I went in search of Kegan and Zander and this is what I found. A cute sleeping baby on Kegan's shoulder. He must have fallen asleep instantly!
All right. Here is a quiz! What in the world is this? Cake and rice crispies and fondant? What in the world have I done now!? Scroll down to find out!

Sully! And Mike! I had so much fun doing this for my twin nephews. I do question my sanity a little though....
I got to buy a ball pan for Mike. I have wanted it for a while, it has so many possibilities!
I belong to a website called Cake Central and there has been much discussion about doing licensed figures in cake. Apparently it is a huge no-no if you are selling them. Disney has no problem suing the little guy for copy right violations. So let me say that these were a gift and NOT for profit! (Which makes me question my sanity even more! But hey, like I said, it was fun!)

New Background and Caking

So, I have been noticing really cute backgrounds for all of my family and friends blogs. I finally found a place to change them, and it was really easy too. Cutestblogontheblock.blogspot.com Try it out!

I've been caking a lot lately it seems. The first is a GIANT cupcake or mini cake, depending on how you look at it. (6 in cake) The second picture is of some cupcakes I made for one of my friends Senior Recital. She conducts our ward choir and is conducting the Cornerstone Choir at the Twin Falls Temple Dedication. So I made them look like our Choir! The bald one is Paul....he is the accompanist. ;) I am currently planning my twin Nephews' birthday cake for in a week or two. I hope that it turns out as cute as it is in my head...I got to buy a new pan, which I LOVE! Look for those photos soon!
Yellow cake with vanilla frosting for the "cupcake paper" and chocolate for the frosting! This was for one of my primary girls turning twelve as well.
Butter Pecan cupcakes (new Betty Crocker flavor - yum!) with Burnt Butter Frosting. It was the perfect skin color, and delicious too! It's flavor kind of reminds me of my Grandma's Olympia Creams she used to make at Christmas time.

Stuff

This is a thank you picture for "Aunt" Amelia. Zander really is a Chick Magnet. He wore this shirt to Activity Days and all my girls thought it was "so cute." I don't take him there very often because the girls don't want to do anything when he's there, except play with him! So thank you to "Aunt" Amelia for the cute shirt!
This is Kiara and her new glasses. Genetics are not on my kids side when it comes to seeing well. Kegan is very jealous and I keep telling him that he shouldn't worry, eventually he will need glasses. She has been really excited for them. Today is the first day she is wearing them to school. I really hope that she doesn't get teased so she won't want to wear them..... But she's so cute in them surely that won't happen!

Princess Adarah's Cake

My brother and sister-in-law asked me to make my niece Adarah's birthday cake. They gave me free reign to do what I wanted. I have been wanting to try a pillow cake and tiara for a while, and Adarah is such a sweet little girl that I figured this is my opportunity. I tried Marshmallow fondant, which is definitely a step up from regular fondant, taste wise. I also made the tiara from royal icing. Sometimes I think I must be crazy doing all that work! (I chose the cake, I knew what I was getting myself into.) But I love it, and I had fun!

Front view

Back view

Close up of the tiara

My Favorite Place

This is a story Kiara wrote in school. (Keeping all grammar, puncuation, and spelling as she had it.) They were given a topic and then told to write about it. The topic was "My Favorite Place." She got slightly off-topic, but its a pretty cute story. It reminds me of when my dad used to tell us he found us on a fence post. Maybe we will find Kiara's sister on a fence post in Salt Lake.....

"My favorite place is Salt Lake city it is Big and fun. Once upon a time there was a family who lived in Salt Lake city they were having fun there was kiara, kegan, Payton, Zander, mom and dad. Kiara wanted a sister so badly But her mom and dad did not let her. She cryed. So a little girl was standing on the sidwalk and she stoped crying and asked would you like to live with me and she said yes. She said my mom does not want me any more so she dropped me off right here. I really wanted to live in salt lake city so I am glad I live here with you I had 5 brothers and zero sisters and I wanted a sister so did I. They hugged ech other. I am so happy so am I. So they went to tell kiara's mom She said yes."

Isn't it sweet, and kind of sad too? So if any one sees a little girl on the sidewalk in Salt Lake, she just might me ours!

The Box

My kids' favorite toy has always been a nice big box. Kegan especially. Well we got a new grill, (our old one had rusted out in a few places where the gas comes out from the little holes, and lets just say our food was seriously flame broiled.....) so we got a new box for the kids in the deal. It is a car on the outside and a house on the inside, complete with a shower. Kiara and Kegan just started showers instead of baths, so I think that is why that feature was included. Kegan slept in it the other night. And even Zander has enjoyed it.


I know this picture shows the opposite, but Payton had the lid closed and Zander was laughing and giggling. But he probably spotted me running away (or heard me) to get the camera and was not happy when I got back to snap the picure.

So the recipe exchange was fun as always last night, but they changed it from 5 ingredients to desserts. Not complaining, everything was great. And next time will be 5 ingredients, so thanks for everyone's help, I'll still get to use your ideas.