I'm Ba-aack!

Hey, friends!

I'm back finally!

 It's been a busy month, so blogging has taken a backseat unfortunately.
BUT! Here I am!

Here's a peek into what's been going on:

I made my first wedding cake! It was actually my first cake that I've made in about three years. I had to do a lot of googling to find tutorials on how to make bows and burlap flowers and to learn how to smooth buttercream, but by golly, I got it done! 

Props to my cousin for asking me to do this for her wedding when I had no experience.

She likes to live on the wild side....

We have a new kitten.

We may have acquired this kitten by me playing dirty using the super cute Sofia pout.

I'm a terrible wife, aren't I?

 Our great state of Arkansas was hit with some wicked storms. It was a somber week as the images of the aftermath flooded social media. The stories from survivors were so personal and it was absoutely heartbreaking. 

Fortunately all we had happen here at our house was a branch broke and almost fell on the car. 

Really, after knowing what could have happened, this was absolutely nothing.

Please keep Vilonia and Mayflower in your prayers, friends.

 Isaiah's birthday party was this weekend. He wanted a Dr. Who themed party and I happily obliged. 

I mean.. come on... 

It's Dr. Who.

I made chocolate dipped pretzels, bow ties made out of fruit roll ups, marshmallow adipose, and of course a Tardis cake.

It didn't turn out as well as I had hoped, so I won't share that picture. It would have turned out better, but I was caked out at that point.

 This is my gorgeous niece! She had a DEBS dance to go to. (It's like prom for Jr. High) She asked me to do her makeup for the dance and I was so happy to do it!

                                                


                                            

                                                  

                   

                                               Also.... She may take after me some....

I've entered a new business venture (yes, another one) and I've been making cake and cupcake orders for friends. This cake was made for a friend's daughter and I was fairly happy with how it turned out!

And I may have danced a little when the order was finally done...

 

This, friends, is my nephew. My sister's storage unit had been broken into, so we were cleaning up the mess when I persuaded him to joust with a Swiffer and tricycle. I even made him pose for 5 minutes while I got the picture just right.
I was laughing so hard the pictures were coming out blurry.

I'm such a good aunt...

And finally, this was my "Josh-is-gone-for-two-weeks-so-I-need-to-keep-busy project". 

 I've seen other tutorials that used a projector, but since most people don't have those hanging around, I had to improvise.

This wall originally was chocolate brown, so I painted it the same sky blue as the rest of our bedroom.

Then, I found a picture of a branch silhouette that I liked to use as reference. I used a pencil to free hand the branch and I printed and cut out swallow silhouettes, placed them on the wall with tape, then traced around them as well. 

Then, used a watercolor brush to fill in the whole thing except for the thick part by the light switch (I actually got to use a normal paintbrush for that) with black paint. 

It took forever since I had to use such a small brush, but if I had used any bigger, it would have been sloppy.

  

I'm pretty stoked at how this turned out. 

Like, super happy. It made me smile when I woke up this morning.

So that's what this lady has been up to lately.
I would love to see some projects y'all have been working on!

Happy Wednesday,  y'all!

-Heather

Kids Birthday Cupcakes/Cakes

                                                       MUNO CUPCAKES
For Sawyer's 3rd Birthday he was REALLY into Yo Gabba Gabba. So, I decided to make him Muno cupcakes.
I just used the regular white cake mix recipe and whipped icing recipe. Then, I took a pizza cutter and cut out "muno-shaped" pieces of fruit roll ups. I used tiny pieces of black licorice for the mouth. I put two dabs of frosting on the upper part of the body then  I used chocolate mini m&ms for the pupil. I broke red mini m&ms in half and stuck them on the edge of the body. Tada! It's MUNO!

                                                          SOFT SERVE CUPCAKES
 For one of my niece's birthdays I decide to do "soft-serve" cupcakes. I totally used the wrong muffin tin. It was supposed to be deeper. You can find the proper one here. I took an icing bag and skipped using a tip. I just cut the bottom off of the bag and iced in a clock-wise direction finishing off with the "Dairy Queen swirl at the top). I sprinkled some sprinkles on, stuck a candy stick in for the straw, and topped it off with a hot ball on top for the "cherry".

                                                               




                                                           DIEGO CAKE
Okay, The Diego Cake, oh the Diego Cake. I made a backpack cake (you know, the annoying one from Diego? Yeah, him) for my nephew. The cake split down the middle so I had to stuff it with the remnants of the part of the cake I cut off. So, it didn't look too bad after I had iced it and made the eyes and mouth. I turned around for a second to grab the foam piece I used as the straps, and as soon as I turned around, I was in tears. My son had dug a big ol' finger full of cake out by the middle of the cake. Long story-short, he was banned from the kitchen and I managed to kind of repair it. SO, the point of all of this was to explain why it doesn't look as good as you could make it.

                                                              GUITAR CAKE

SO, this one doesn't look as awesome as Bekka and I had planned, but it was hard work, so I'm still proud. There was a lot of icing, and a lot of carving.

                                                         SPONGEBOB CUPCAKES

I just decorated these with Spongebob horn blowers and red sprinkles. Easy enough!

                            
                                                            DEATH BY CHOCOLATE

This is just your regular ol chocolate cake with chocolate icing. However, I added cookies and creme kisses on the top and peanut butter cups on the bottom. This was SO good!

                                                     
                                                                   Music Cake

 This is yet ANOTHER cake that cracked. But hey, the sides are pretty! This has crushed oreos on top and chocolate chips make up the musical notes.

 Well, there you have it. I know they aren't perfect cakes, but I worked hard on them. Hopefully you can execute some of these ideas a little better. =0)

Happy Eating,
Heather

Rainbow Brite Cake

So, when my sister's birthday rolls around, I like to do "throwback" cakes for her. This last year, I decided to do a Rainbow Brite cake with Twink on it.

First, I found this recipe. I followed it straight through. I rolled out pre-made colored fondant and cut out stars. I twisted the rest of the leftover  fondant into a long string and used it as a bottom border.

Next, I took Rice Krispies Treats and rolled a big ball. I stuck a smaller ball on top of that and put a dowel through both of them. then I made the arms and legs, covered them in the fondant and stuck them to the cake using long toothpicks. I found some star candles at Wal-Mart and used those as his headpiece. Finally, I "starred" the icing all over him, and then I stuck the larger dowel deep in the cake to ensure he stayed put.

It was a fun cake to make. I'm thinking of doing a Strawberry Shortcake cake for my daughter's first birthday in May.

 Happy Eating!

Heather