ANOTHER YEAR

Another year of life has been officially notched under my belt. As I reflect on my 6th time turning 29 (Yes, I will be celebrating my 29th birthday the rest of my life)I ask myself, do I look and feel like a 35 year old?

Then it hits me, turning 35 means I am half way to 40. So do I look at this as the glass half empty or half full? Not sure on that one. Being in my 30's I still feel very young and really don't look my age so that is a plus. But as I head down that path to 40 I wonder will I still feel youthful at 40?

My dad is in his late 50's and he doesn't perceive age with any meaning. To him it is all about how we approach life. I think he has the right attitude so hopefully I can take that with me.

Anyway last year was a very blessed year in my life and I pray that next year will be just as beautiful if not better than the past. Only time will tell what the future has in store for us. Hopefully all will be well when I post about next years 29th birthday. :)

ROUND 2, CAKE DECORATING

If you missed round one, click here. (sorry I am a bit late posting this)

This time I tossed a few things out the window. First to go... baking my cake from scratch. I decided I am going to do it the way I know best and that would be using two yummy boxes of Pillsbury cake mix. I also went back to my two pans so baking is easier because the cake isn't nearly as thick. (Less chance of it falling)

Fondant, bought some ready made. Yes, yes, much easier to work with. Not exactly yummy but makes my cake look much nicer. Presentation is so important here. :)

As you can see the Mickey house is not real smooth using Rice Crispy treats to form them. Plus when I stuck my Mickey head on the pencil I used to support it it split in half. Ugh....Instead I am going to do what others have done and use Styrofoam balls to create the house and then wrap them in store bought colored fondant. No one is going to eat this part anyway so lets not make every thing so hard. Oh and I am not sure why my house looks orange in the picture. It was red but that makes me think I need to make the red darker.

I rolled out my yellow fence that goes around the outside of my cake and made the gate. I actually didn't do to bad with this part. I know what I need to do next time to make it better. Trimmed around the top with icing to make it look like grass. I also will cut out little circles to make stepping stones and add store bought Mickey and friends to top off the cake.

I haven't decided but I do think I am going to skip the foot, hand and slide that is part of the club house. I might change my mind last minute but I am fearful of really messing this up.

In the end my big plan is on Saturday (Oct 24) to make all the decorations that go on top of my cake. Then on Sunday (day of party) bake the cake, decorate it. This might be a bad choice but I do want it to taste good and I noticed just after one day my sample cake didn't taste all that great because it lost a lot of its freshness.

I do have to make sure that I buy everything ahead of time so I am prepared. I can not forget anything!

Funny thing is I have spent a fortune doing this. Between buying new cake pans, supplies and more supplies it has become very expensive. I could have paid someone else to make two really nice cakes at this point. The good thing is most things purchased can be tucked away for next time and used again. So in some ways I have made an investment, that or an insane commitment to decorating all birthday cakes from this point forward. Not sure how I feel about that yet.

Wish me lots of LUCK! I will share the final cake after the birthday party.

Trial Birthday Cake: ROUND 1

A few weeks ago I started down the path of making a trial birthday cake. Baking is never an issue for me but I have no skills or patience when it comes to decorating. I got a couple books at the library, read several things online and decided, I can do this! LOL... LOL... LOL....

Let me just say, I haven't given up but my trials have been funny to say the least.

My goal is to make a Mickey Mouse Club House Cake for Thomas's Birthday that is in two weeks.

Round 1:

How do I make the Club House part that would sit on top the cake?
This would be the cute house shaped like Mickey's body and head. It also has a hand, foot and slide. I decided to try to use rice crispy treats and wrap them in fondant icing to give them that nice smooth color and shape.

Found a recipe to make my own fondant. Making the fondant requires lots of patients as it takes a while to need until it forms as it should. Shockingly enough, I did it. I got it to shape and turn out just like the picture. Now it was time to role it so it could be applied to my rice crispy catastrophe (I will get to that later). Ha, I don't care how much shortening and confection sugar I added to the table surface it just kept sticking. I was getting so mad because I couldn't lift it with out it ripping. Eventually I just took it and smooshed it onto the rice crispy shaped head. It stuck, just didn't look very nice. (Remember that whole patience thing, yeah mine were gone)

RICE CRISPYS PART
I can not ever remember making a good batch of Rice Crispy Treats in my entire life. I have failed at this task time and again. This time was no exception. I could not get them to shape into a ball and spear for nothing. Eventually I smooshed some into on oval shaped bowl and used wax paper to smoosh into a ball. I then had to let them sit for a few days to get hard. (Never really did that, still fell apart when I would touch them).

My frustration has reached a high point with the house part of the cake.

BAKING THE CAKE
I moved on to baking the cake part. I used a deap 8-1/2 inch pan and made my cake from scratch. As it was baking I had to open the door to check on it and it fell. UGH.....

Now my cake has a huge crevous in the middle of it. OK, this is trial 1 so lets flip it over and decorate it anyway. So I flip it and leave it sit on the counter to cool. At this point the phone is ringing...

One rule in my house, never walk away from food on the counter or it will disappear thanks to my dogs. I walked away.... when I returned the cake was still on the counter but it had a huge bit out of the side. At this point I am so mad that I am just done....

Come back tomorrow for ROUND 2 of my Cake Decorating. Surprisingly I haven't given up, not yet. Oh and I will have pictures tomorrow.