October: Baseball Cakes and Pumpkin! Oh my!

I love, love, love October!  I am widowed to the playoffs, yes, but in all honesty, I like baseball!  Maybe just not AS much as my cute hubs.  He is (we are) DIEHARD Redsox fans.  So when our beloved ex-roomie asked me to make a Yankees hat for her fiancee, he was less-than thrilled!  I had Devin send me pics of Shaunee's favorite hat, and since she's not a cake fan, we decided to do a giant cookie shell filled with ice cream for her sweetheart.

I thought this whole cookie thing would be easy peasy.  Um, no.  I went through three rolls of cookie dough to finally get the cookie to be cooked evenly in my Bake n' Fill pan (Betty Crocker- it's amaze).  Finally, I loaded it with a whole carton of chocolate ice cream and iced it.  Mmmmmm.

I used a new fondant, and wasn't that impressed.  If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?  I'll stick with Duff!  I used sugar paper and my Cricut to cut out the logos, then painted them.  I have a normal Cricut and it works (most of the time) with sugar paper, but I'd love to get my hands on a Cricut cake!   But I digress.

Here's how she turned out!!

Go, Ya....Baseball!  And happy birthday, Shaunee.

P.S.  Stand by for an ENTIRE month of pumpkin recipes.

Star Wars Party

Sooo...much to my dismay, my husband is obsessed with Star Wars.  Like, ob. sessed.  I had no idea until about two years into our marriage.  About two years too late.  ;)  This year I decided to throw him a little Star Wars shindig for his birthday.  It turned out super cute, so I thought I'd share!

We had  a start of summer BBQ with Han Burgers, Pod-a-to Salad, Chewie Chips and Dip, and a rad Death Star watermelon my friend carved.

For Dessert we had Leia Buns, Wookie Cookies, Tatooine Trail Mix, and of course, cake!

 I got a lot of ideas on Pinterest (duh) and I made light saber napkin holders (which were my fave) and pool noodle light sabers for the kiddos!  (Don't I have the cutest nieces and nephews ever?!)

 

 I was planning on light sabers out of large pretzel rods dipped in chocolate, but my mom bought me little pretzels instead.  Have I mentioned how I hate not being allowed to drive?  Ugh, epilepsy!  So, not wanting her to fret, I decided to make a trail mix with the little guys.  I melted some candy melts and dipped them.

Then, I added some whoppers for thermal detonators!  Next, I wanted to add something super scary...Darth Vader heads.  Around Easter I found some Darth Vader easter eggs at Target.  (I'm sure you could find them on Amazon.)  

I sprayed them liberally with cooking spray, then filled them with my candy melts.  This little deviled egg transporter was great for holding them in place while I filled them.  Sidenote:  I make stellar deviled eggs.  It's a secret recipe, though.  ;)

It was REALLY messy.  Be warned.  They were a little difficult to get out, so I used my hairdryer to melt them a little, then used a meat mallet to pound them till they came out.  They looked a little scary when I finally got them out, but he's scary, right?

Finito!!

 Now, let's talk cake.  This was one of my fave cakes.  Hubs said it was my best yet!  Isn't he cute?  It was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. I didn't dowel him so by morning,  he collapsed on himself a little.  Next time I'll dowel his body and add a board under his second layer and his head. I used four six inch cakes stacked on themselves and one half of a Wilton ball pan for his bod.  His head is covered in gray fondant sprayed with Wilton color spray and his body is buttercream with fondant accents.

 For his arms I got a little tricky.  I was going to use rice krispie treats but I didn't have any on hand.  I used four cupcakes dissected; two regular cupcakes and two jumbo ones.  Now, to explain this, I had to utilize my technical writing degree in all it's glory.  Click here for instructions on how to assemble R2D2's arms.

Be sure to leave a comment and a link to your R2 cake!  Happy birthday, Honey!

Princess Castle 2.0

Okay, so my girl Liv was turning 5 and having a huuge party.  Like epic.  Like bouncy house epic.  So, in lieu of this standard princess castle cake:

 I decided to kick it up a notch!  Here is the final product:

It was huge!  She loved it! I want to talk about a few things concerning this cake. Let's talk frosting!  This is a fondant covered cake.  I know, I can hear a collective groan.  Stop groaning.  This is a fondant  created by Duff Goldman of Charm City Cakes.  And it is awesome.  It tastes really, really good and it has a soft texture like a marshmallow.  Like MARSHMALLOW fondant.  It tastes like buttercream frosting.  Trust me!  Just try it.  And it is so much easier to use!  It stretches, it's pliable, it's not sticky, and it covers cakes so much easier.  SO much easier than the stuff that I won't mention by name.  I usually by Duff's at Micheal's with a 40% off coupon. I recently saw the fondant at Walmart, but with the coupon it's actually cheaper at Micheal's.  But how convenient to be at Walmart!

I also textured the fondant using another one of Duff's products.  He has these cool texture tiles you can use on your fondant.  I have a stone set, which comes with two sizes of stone, and a wood set, which also comes with two sizes.

Here's an example where I used my wooden set on a Smurf House cake I made:

Now, let's talk about what's underneath the fondant.   Okay, so, this may be the most exciting thing that has happened to me in a long time.  I was perusing the cake aisle at the grocery store and found icing mix ins called Flavor Creations from Duncan Hines.  At first I was like, "Oh, cool."  That was before I saw the flavors. Flavors like:

• Caramel
• Key Lime Pie
• Lemon
• Lemonade
• Fruit Punch
• Bubble Gum
• Cherry Vanilla
• Chocolate Almond
• Chocolate Marshmallow
• Cinnamon Roll
• Cotton Candy
• Chocolate Mint
• Mocha
• Orange Cream
• Strawberry Shortcake
• White Chocolate Raspberry
• Peaches n’ Cream

Of course, I had to try one of them.  I knew Liv and her friends would love either bubble gum or cotton candy.  I opted for cotton candy and just added it to my icing recipe.  It turned the most beautiful shade of blue and it. was. so. GOOD!  I wanted to take out a cup and just eat the frosting.  I cannot wait to try the rest of them!  I saw that during the holidays they have flavors like eggnog and gingerbread too!  Oh, yes!  

Ps.  Bouncy houses can hold up to like 500 pounds, so obviously I got in.  I am expecting one for my 30th birthday party.