Key to My Heart

The boys loved their "iPods"! Okay maybe Chris loved his and Nathan was too busy ripping into to it trying to find candy...but whatever they were a hit.

The "sweetest" thing about my Valentines was the Key to My Heart Cupcakes I made. But Boy were they labor intensive, wrapping the bottoms and cutting out all the heart and key shapes?!?!?

Then I "created" an impromptu cake stand. I don't own a real one but the cupcakes were just to darling to throw them on a plain plate and call it a day. So I took a candle holder and placed the plain white plate on top and then used a little bud vase and the smaller version of the same plate for the second tier. I won't win any awards but, it seemed like a more grand presentation that slapped on a plate.

( I got the wrapper and topper printable set from PaperScissorsCake on ETSY and bought these adorable circus dog ones at the same time, I can't wait to use them for one of the kids Birthdays? or maybe the end of school celebration? I'm sure I'll come up with an excuse soon...)

snowman cookies

This weekend we celebrated some of the "breaks in the weather" -Yay plus temperatures and melting...with melted snowman cookies.

Actually I originally saw the idea here, I've been dying to make them for awhile but this was the first time I had both the time, energy and a clean enough kitchen to undertake a new project

But they turn out sooooo cute- really who could resist???

Pirate pop update

The Pirate pops were a hit at the preschool. At least half the boys asked Nathan for a second one. And probably close to half the moms asked questions about how they were made.

I ended up staying for all of Preschool today, one of the "room helper" moms got her days mixed up and didn't show for her appointed day. This worked out well since I owed a day of volunteering from Nathan being sick a few weeks ago. Now I'm caught back up on my days and got to see the kids eat the pirate pops that I slaved over last night!
BTW- "draw the faces on with edible marker"...uhhh yeah. That works for about 2faces before the marker is so gummed up you have to go over the lines 20-30 times to even make a mark. If I do these again I've be doing some research into finding a better ink/dye/icing/something to draw with.
AND....No matter how cute the pictures look I swear they have been photoshoped. There is NO WAY the candy coating comes out that smooth no matter what I did.

But I threw some photos up on facebook, and got rave reviews from friends and family, so that was a little bit of balm on the wound.

Tonight I don't get to do anything as fun and creative, instead I'm swearing at the computer. I took a part time job last month, which involves a lot of computer downloading and printing documents. Needless to say I've spent about 45 minutes on the phone tonight with my boss. Another hour or so trying to unzip and e-mail files not to mention the printer mess that I made Chris just deal with for me~
Tell me once this is all set up it will get easier?
Or at least I'll develop a callus on my forehead so all the banging my head again the screen doesn't hurt as much~

A twist on cupcakes for preschool.

Another few hours in the kitchen tonight *sigh*

We came out with about 23 Pirate Pops. More than enough for the preschool class tomorrow.

They are not as cute as in the book. But they are pretty cute. And it's a bunch of 4 year olds eating them.

All the Matey's together.

(although Chris may get a kick in the head. I didn't have any white confetti sprinkles so I used white and yellow stars on the bandanas. Chris kept referring to them as wizards of the Caribbean. and now its stuck in my head.)

Seems like I spent half the weekend in the kitchen

 The boys have had a very exciting weekend. Nathan's 4th Birthday is tomorrow, and Grandpa Zoom came for the weekend to celebrate. The boys get spoiled with so much attention from Grandpa you can't blame them for being totally insane whenever he around.

 I spent my day working on this....

I'd promised Nathan a Buzzlightyear cake. So I went out and got Wilton Cake pan. And spent the better part of the afternoon trying to get the icing looking like the picture.

It certainly wasn't identical. But it was good enough for a 4 year old. And considering it was my first real attempt using decorating tips. I think it came out not half bad.

We roasted one of our chickens for dinner and everyone had a very good filling meal.

Of course we had to move on to presents. The Birthday Boy got spoiled as usual!

We had quite the Toy Story theme going on too. Since he got a talking Woody doll from us, The Jessie Doll from his brother, and the Toy Story 3 movie from Grandpa. As well as lots of new clothes and army toys from his Uncle.

Now the next big adventure...tomorrow I plan on taking a run at Cakepops. If you've never seen them they are adorable. So cute I actually shelled out full price for the book a few weeks ago. I have big dreams of making the pirate pops for Nathans preschool class for Tuesday. Lets hope they at least have the resemblance like the buzz lightyear cake. Or I'll be making a mad dash into town for bakery cupcakes that day.

disney villain cakes on the food network

Chris and I watched the Disney Villain Cake Challenge on the Food Network...



They Make the coolest cakes I've ever seen.

Not only are they HUGE, but to re-create the Disney Characters in 3-D like that was awesome.



I've looked everywhere to try and grab some pics of how cool the cakes were- but I can't seem to find any...any ideas???

just to tie the last 2 post together

Strange how things- themes tie together sometimes.... I was saying there is nothing on TV in one of my last posts and then talking about cakes in another tonight. With all the new channels we just got in the new cable package, we have the "Food Channel" now, which I've never seen before. There's a show called "Ace of Cakes" on now. Wow, do they ever make some cool cakes, they are literally works of art, how much time they spend sculpting these shapes into animals and buildings. Then hand painting or airbrushing them. They're brilliant!

Can you believe these are even cakes?

Check them out http://www.charmcitycakes.com/

Cakes...

That's the other thing that was new around here.... I made 2 cakes last night.

Not that impressive, since they were just out of a box.

but I made a heart shaped one for Chris, I wrote "I love you, I miss U" on it with those little get icing scribblers. The drew hearts and swirl designs.
with the rest of the batter, I just made a round cake and then free handed Elmo as best as I could on top. The general shape of Elmo's head wasn't too bad, but without enough red gel in the scribbler to completely fill him in, I thought he might be unrecognizable.
But first thing this morning I showed the cake to Nathan, and asked him who was on the Cake?
He told me "Elmo" without missing a beat.
Now I wish I'd taken some pictures before we cut it up.

Nathan was pretty funny with the cake too.
He really wanted some
I told him he had to stay at the table.
When he finished he came out into the living room... "more please"
"No, Nathan all done"
"Cake"
"all done"
so he brought me his empty plate and demanded again "more please"

It was cute and pretty good talking for him, but he still didn't get any more till after dinner.

One of my goals this year is to try and make a fondant cake.
I bought all the "supplies" and a book on it awhile ago, but I've yet to try to make one.
I'll make sure to get some pics before anyone cuts that one. especially since they sound quite intricate and time consuming to make!