I know I am getting old when....

So...my oldest daughter turned 15 today :) a part of me is so proud of the beautiful, strong young woman she has become, the other part wants her to STOP GROWING UP!!!! Just stop the train for a few years... what happened to the last 15??? ;) And seriously... I am going to be teaching her to DRIVE???? WHAT??? I am seriously not even wanting to think about that one... let alone the fact that my other daughter turns 15 in 10 months and 7 days (yes my daughters are 10 months and 7 days apart :)) ... oh heaven help me!

OK... gotta stop thinking about it... Well, on another note :) she took the initiative this weekend and wanted to draw the cake she wanted for her birthday.  She is quite the amazing artist- and I said sure :) We went through a few designs and came up with a simple but pretty awesome cake :) Here are her drawings.... (I know I know... I need a new camera :))

So her drawings went from that ... to this :)

 

 The side pictures are the 4 sides of the square... I hope that makes sense... the skull was on top of a square (and since it is black... it is hard to see that isn't it?... sorry) I did feel like we needed something else... not sure quite what, I mean I do like the shiny black fondant... but hmmmmmmmm.  We had wanted to do some quilting with blue and pink pearls but for some reason, this particular fondant  batch was just a little too soft so it only tore when I tried... darn it... but I was still pretty darn proud of the result :)

Oh I almost forgot! Shame on me... Megan painted the colors on the crest (the pink and the blue.) I didn't want her not to get credit for her part :) She chose a cherry vanilla cake with vanilla and marachino cherry filling for the square, and the skull was mint chocolate chip cake with mint filling both with white chocolate buttercream :) and of course, my homemade marshmallow fondant :) I think with it being so hot, I didn't want it to get too hard so I held back on the powdered sugar... but next time I will definitely stick to the recipe.

Speaking of which... instead of shortening, I have been using butter in my fondant recipe (I haven't tried margarine... I wouldn't recommend it seeing as how much water there is, but you can certainly try it :)) and it really does seem to improve the texture.  I will have to try it a few more times to make sure that I like it better, but so far, it seems to be a pretty good recipe :) 

So what do y'all think?? Any ideas for what we could have added? I am really scratching my head about it...

Happy Monday everyone! And happy birthday sweetheart! We love you!!!!
Sweet Dreamz!!!

For all you Twi-Hards out there...

I know I am really going to anger a few people here, but I have to admit...I am not a huge fan of Twilight... Yes, I have read all the books, and I have seen the first 3 movies.  That was more than enough for me.  That said, my daughters are :) and at 14 and 13, I guess who can blame them- everyone else is.  Just not my cup of tea I guess. I have always been more of an action/suspense movie person, so maybe that's why... there are a few other problems that I have with it, but we'll just leave it at that.  What's even more "fun" is that my eldest daughter is a die hard Edward fan and the other is Team Jacob... yah. If you were to ask me, and if I were forced to choose... I would have to say I am, if anything, Team Emmett. I have always loved guys who are happy and funny, not so depressing and morose all the time (that and I may or may not think the actor who plays him is quite adorable... well, in his non vampire-mode anyway) But again... that's just me. Now what in the world does this have to do with sweets? Let me tell you :)

So my  daughter's birthday the last two years has involved making a rather large Twilight cake.  You can probably guess which one it is...

The "book" was made of cake and was leaning back on some skewers for support - these pictures are also laminated prints not edible. The flames on the side weren't exactly what I wanted, but overall, I was pretty proud of myself for the first try.  I will say this... YOU try finding pictures of "Jacob Black" with a shirt on... not very easy ... ;)

And of course I can't just do the same cake twice... so I had to mix it up a little bit :) And definitely improve on the technique for the second year.  I had a lot of things that I knew I could improve upon so I thought why not? For not liking Twilight I admit I definitely had fun planning and making this one.

See... this is part of the reason for the apology about my pictures... my camera phone really leaves much to be desired when it comes to taking pictures.  I really should go and get a decent camera... someday :) 
I absolutely loved the picture of the wolves- they were fan art, so not from the movie, but I really thought it was well done. It is a very ethereal sepia tone picture of wolves with a silhouette of wolves howling in the foreground and it says "I run with wolves".  I wish I had a better picture of it... All of these pictures were done on rice paper with edible ink. The book was standing straight up with straws up the middle for support instead of leaning back- and I liked that much better. I hand painted a forest on the bottom tier (this is all buttercream by the way) and the flames on the middle tier are hand painted too. I did make a major cake decorating faux pas (aka huge boo boo) though and forgot the supports between the tiers.  Hence the pretty obvious leaning of the cake... thank goodness it wasn't for a paying customer ;)!!

I think I will definitely encourage her to have a new theme for her party this year, I don't know if I could come up with another one :)

Please feel free to let me know what you think!!! :)

Hope you all have a most fantabulous rest of your week and Sweet Dreamz to you all :)

Hello- My name is Renee and I am a former Fondant hater.... ;)

I used to be of the opinion that fondant was pure evil. Sure, it looked pretty, but it was totally gross... a waste of time, and in a way kind of an easy way out.  Please don't hate me.  I have since changed my ways :).  

So about 6 months ago, I broke down and finally tried Marshmallow Fondant - and it is a-mazing.  While it is sweet, it tastes infinitely better than store bought, and also is MUCH cheaper (like I mentioned before, I am all about cheap ;))and looks just as beautiful.  I know there are a ton of recipes out there for it, but this is the one that I use- and it has worked pretty well for me so far.  Not that I won't change it in the future if I find a better one... 

Try it- I hope you will love it just as much as I do :) This recipe is adapted from a few different recipes on Cake Central.

Marshmallow Fondant

1 16 oz bag of marshmallows

2 TB water

1/4 cup Crisco (approximate)

powdered sugar ( approximately 2 lb... I have found that different batches used less, so go by feel not by measurements!) 

2 TB corn syrup (helps with pliability)

1 TB any flavor extract you wish :)

1/4 tsp popcorn salt- or salt ground in a coffee grinder (no I don't drink coffee- but I use the grinder for spices and other such emergencies :))  

2 TB Dream Whip (dry powder) You don't have to use this, but it adds a nice flavor...

(***Please note, if you are coloring the whole batch the same color, you can add it to the original melted marshmallow mixture before putting it in the sugar.)

Let me first say that if you have a KitchenAid or other comparable stand mixer- this is SO much easier :) Use the dough hook, and grease the bowl and the hook before making this recipe... trust me. 

Grease a large bowl (larger than you think you will need because the marshmallows do puff up when cooking) and add the marshmallows and water.  At this time, you can add any flavoring you wish... (vanilla is good, but try 1 tsp almond (clear), 1/2 tsp butter extract (clear), 1/2 tsp lemon extract and 1 tsp vanilla... I know it sounds funny but it's really good :)) Cook in the microwave at 45 second intervals stirring until completely melted. Remove and add the corn syrup. 

Sift half of the powdered sugar, salt and Dream Whip powder onto a piece of waxed paper.  Pour the powdered sugar (remember this is just half) in the greased stand mixer bowl, making a small well in the middle.  Take the marshmallow and add this mixture to the sugar.  

Turn on your stand mixer (LOW of course, unless you want to clean powdered sugar off your walls and ceilings...) and knead the mixture, adding more powdered sugar and the Crisco in small amounts as it is incorporated until you have a soft pliable ball. Pinch a small ball off and play with it- it should be soft and stretchy - be somewhat gentle.  You may take it out of the bowl before this point and knead it by hand so you can get the feel of it as well... I do this to make sure I dont add too much sugar. If you are not coloring the whole batch, you can split it and color the separate balls with your desired color- using gel food colors:)

Once you are done kneading, shape it into a ball and wrap it tightly in plastic wrap (put a very thin coat of shortening over the ball) It's best if you can store it overnight, but I have used it as soon as 3 hours after making it and it's ok.

** If you feel your motor is straining, you have added too much sugar so be careful... (I did blow my Kitchenaid making a batch last Christmas) 

(I used the same recipe with the two cakes in the previous "glitter" post just in case you were wondering :)) Here is the first cake I made with it- for two of the sweetest little 4 year old twins ever!  It is just like Playdough- only more fun- I didn't have a closer picture of the little firefighters in the bottom left corner, sadly, but the firefighters, the hose, and the fire hydrant and all of the decorations on the firetrucks are made of fondant :) One of the birthday boys came up and pointed saying "that's me!" There is nothing like seeing a child's face light up like that... it makes it all so worth it to me!

Hope you all enjoy- and as always Sweet Dreamz to you!!!

Renee :D

Happy 4th BDay Destiny :)

Just made a cake today- and haven't had a chance to make one in a while so it was definitely a fun one!!! My neice, Destiny just turned 4 and apparently loves the Disney Show "Little Einsteins".  When my sister called me I admittedly had no idea what that show was... my youngest is 11 (that and we don't have the Disney Channel- so sue me ;)) so I had to look it up on the internet. I have to say the show looks pretty cute!

Here is the very happy little birthday girl with her cake :)

And that little blurb under the Happy 4th is supposed to say Birthday... however she comes up and says "I just want a taste..." (it's her cake after all!) So she went around saying "It says Happy 4th" Hey- we all knew we were there for her Birthday right? ;) And we call her Desi - and since I didn't have a whole lot of room on the tray cuz I always write too big;) I put Desi on the cloud just in case you were wondering what that blob was!

She is so funny... I had originally planned on printing out a color picture of the characters to put in the window- of course my printer decided to flip out (Murphy's Law anyone?) so sweet little Destiny decided to color some little black and white printouts to put on the window just so it would be perfect. So here is the final result :)  

Not too bad if I must say so myself. I had fun- and she loved it- and most of all she recognized it (phew ;)) so that's all that really matters to me!!! 

I will try to post pictures of creations I have made, and recipes very soon here... but for now :) Sweet Dreamz everyone and have a wonderful night!

Renee :D