We all make mistakes :)... right?!

And trust me, as any kind of creative person will tell you, you are always your worst critic.  Ok maybe kids are a close second (man they are brutal sometimes- but honest!) I don't think I have ever made a cake that I was 100% happy with- I always see room for improvement, or a technique that I could perfect.  Maybe that is why I am so hard on myself... there's always room for learning more :). If you believe you can't mess up, you won't try to change anything and perfect your craft so to speak!

That said, I thought it would be interesting to put on here some of my most obvious boo boos and share some insight that has helped me become a smarter and better decorator over the years :)

Rule #1... DONT forget to look at a picture of what you are trying to carve - and have a plan before you begin (that and make sure you have all your supplies ready :))! Prime example of what NOT to do...

Now, this could have looked a lot different had I actually put dog ears on the dog.  I lovingly call this my "Bear-Dog" cake.  It was my first ever carved cake. It was supposed to be a dog... a stuffed dog that my neice was getting for her birthday. It was a very cute dog... well the stuffed animal was anyway ... the cake... ummm... not so much.  I did like the way the rest of the body and the bone came out though- even the curly little tail- even though it is hard to see.  I also learned a hard lesson that day for another reason... I couldn't find any of my cake decorating tips- except for the small star tip.  Now for those of you decorators out there, you might cringe with me- that's a lot of stars :). (that and I have mild osteo-arthritis in my left hand and right wrist, so let me say I was definitely icing my hands that night and begging for a cortisone shot :)) I would have liked to use a grass/fur tip... and if I had actually thought about it, even icing the cake and using a flat knife to "bounce" the fur would have been a much better idea ... but of course for some reason, I didn't.  Hindsight is 20/20 right? I can't say that has never happened to me since... because it has :) but I do at least have a lot more organization to my madness :)

Rule #2  When in doubt... consult a color wheel :)

I have to say that a lot of times, I can pretty much gauge whether colors look good together or not. However, especially before my discovery of gel food coloring (which I adore... especially neon colors... but that's another story :)) I guess my color mixing skills weren't quite as honed as they could be...

For example:

Now back then, about 5 years ago, my oldest daughter loved the colors pink and purple. Why I thought yellow would look even somewhat ok? And the green? Seriously? What was I thinking? I do have to say though... the yellow wasn't quite that bright.. and the pink was more pastelish than that... but still. :)

Rule #3 It's all about perspective :)

In more ways than one... :) Now, when I draw a cake (which I always do) I try to get all the details pretty well figured out before I begin. It just helps the whole process go much smoother.  That said... well I will just show you the offending cake...

See now this was a cake I was so excited to make.  I had it all drawn and knew what I wanted to do... I had a PLAN... so I followed my first rule :) When I went to carve the volcano though... it ended up looking more like a coconut on top of the cake than a volcano.  Why I didn't step back and look at it to see that it needed more carving? Don't know for sure ...  We did put a little yogurt cup with dry ice in it in the top so it would look like a smoking volcano :) which worked awesome but just didn't translate in pictures as well as it did in person. That's ok though. Oh- and another cardinal rule-don't water down buttercream icing. Which is what I tried to do with the "lava"... duh... water and oil don't mix. Lesson learned :)

Well I hope these made you smile :) because I know I look back and laugh, now anyway :) But I also hope you learned that everything is a learning experience and if you can't laugh at yourself once in a while... I forgot how the rest of that saying goes.  I will put it this way though... I do plenty of laughing at myself - It's better than beating yourself up :) So that's my advice for the day... laugh about it- and learn what you can do better next time :). You will feel better- I promise!

I hope you all have a most awesome Wednesday- it's the middle of the week!! Yay! 2 more days to go til the weekend!!!

And Sweet Dreamz!!

Renee :)

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 :)

To Glitter or Not to Glitter... that is the question ;)

I thought I might pull in a few from the "archives" so to speak :) 

Personally, I am of the mindset that glitter makes absolutely everything more fun.  I totally LOVE glitter- it's just plain awesome. And ever since I first saw glitter gel and disco dust, I just knew I had to try it. OK... as far as the disco dust is concerned, before all you naysayers chime in ;) I do know that it is non-toxic, however, I also know that it is not officially ruled by the FDA as edible.  Which means to me that you shouldn't down huge amounts of it or use inordinate amounts of it everywhere.  For a little touch of bling here and there though... you just can't go wrong.  For example... here is a cake that I did for an adorable little 1 year old's birthday :) (and I am so sorry for the water marked table in the background...(hence all the pretty swirls and butterflies :))  it's a beautiful pedastal table that resembles the one my mom has- that we had planned to sand and refinish... someday...)

 Understated, yes, and unfortunately, thanks to my camera phone, you can't see the little bits of white rainbow disco dust that are on the "flowers" or the glitter gel that was painted on the butterflies.  All I did was take a paintbrush with the disco dust (dry) and shake it on so it was more random (and cleaner) than sprinkling with my hands.

This cake is 100% edible by the way :) Which is  how I do my cakes... I don't like to make anything little fingers can't reach up and grab and eat- safely anyway. The butterflies are rice paper- so while they are fully edible, they just aren't super tasty but the glitter gel helps the paper get pliable and stay so lifelike! So this cake is my example of what normal glitter usage would be. 

Now this one on the other hand...

I have to say, I did go a little glitter crazy here... It is definitely a little more than I would typically use, but still ok in the realm of decoration in my book.  This cake was made for my daughters friend's 13th Birthday- and it was close to Christmas- so how could I resist?  :) This was also the 2nd time making and using marshmallow fondant- and I have decided that I just love it.  Not only is it cheap, (I will tell you right now... I am cheap... frugal is the nice word) but it's fun to use and play with :) And I think it came out pretty darn cute. The inside -wish I would have taken a picture.. so sorry- was a white chocolate peppermint cake with candy cane buttercream.  YUM.

That said, I thought this would be a good time to share (and keep) my recipe for the white chocolate peppermint cake.  They make great cupcakes of course as well :)

White Chocolate Peppermint Cake
1 white cake mix (please feel free to just add the add ins to your regular homemade cake recipe!) with eggs etc as directed on box
1/2 c melted white chocolate
1 3 oz pkg white chocolate pudding mix (dry)
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
1 c chopped Hershey's Candy Cane Kisses (optional :))

Mix all together as directed  and put into a greased and floured 9*13 pan,  bake at 350 for 25-30 min (9*13 pan)

Candy Cane Buttercream
1/2 c butter or margarine
1/2 c Crisco Shortening (I like butter flavor, but you can use plain)
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp peppermint extract
1 lb Powdered Sugar- sifted
2-3 TB milk as needed
14 mini candy canes, crushed to fine powder

Cream butter and Shortening together until smooth and fluffy.  Add vanilla and mix in thoroughly.  Add powdered sugar a cup at a time, until smooth and creamy.  Add milk until desired consistency, beating well until smooth and creamy after adding each TB.  Stir in candy cane dust- alternatively, you can sprinkle the candy cane dust over the frosting instead of mixing it in.It does add crunch so if you're a texture freak like me, you might just want to up the peppermint extract. Totally up to you :)

So my question to you is... do you use disco dust? Do you use it sparingly or go all out? Let me know! I would love to hear what you think!

For now though, have a stupendously fantabulous Tuesday! :D

Sweet Dreamz!!!

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