First Dessert Table

Well I'm sure the title is self explanatory.  I did this as a favor to for my husband's friends.  He asked if I could do it on a Friday night and I thought about it until Sunday.  Then I worked at the lab Monday and Tuesday all day.  So when I got started I had THREE days to pull it off.  It wasn't easy and I wouldn't have accomplished it if not for some crafty help from Miss Putt and emergency powdered sugar from my bestie.  Oh, and my sweet mommy who gave me the table and the cloth. 

I wanted lots of goodies to appeal to everyone there.  I made sure to lay an assortment out.  Even something salty for those who don't like sweets. 

Matthew's friend, Aaron Carter, took all the photos.  He also holds the copywrite, so ask before you pull them!

The paper cupcakes were made using a Cricut. 

I hope you enjoy the pics!  Let me know what you think! 

Oh, and we will be moving this week, say a prayer.

I took this one.





I took this too.  Orange slices below.

I think his photos are amazing.  Wish I was that good!
I'll be posting some more recipes for some of the desserts I used.  I also did another mini-table this weekend and I'll get those up soon too.  (As soon as I have a computer in the new house.)

Have a delicious day!

Pink Anenome~A crisis

Recently I had an old friend call me up and ask me if I could make a bridal shower cake for her best friend.  Of course I jumped on the opportunity.  She requested my Butter Nut cake with blue frosting and a pink anemone flower accompanied by 12 strawberry cupcakes. 

Quite honestly, I had never made an anemone specifically, though I have made flowers.  I looked forward to the challenge though.  Since it was over two weeks away, I thought I would make it in advance in case I needed practice.  I watched several different video tutorials first.  Then I gathered all my supplies, including a new gum paste mix I had just ordered.  I was really excited to try it out.  Just add water, how nice is that! 

The mix comes in black, red, white, and chocolate.  Isn't that lovely?  I mixed it up per the instructions and add a smidgen of pink gel food coloring.  Then I rolled it out pretty thin and cut it with small cookie cutters.  I only cut a couple of circles at a time to ensure it didn't dry out while I worked with it. 

I thinned the edges with a ball tool and put it in my very expensive flower former to dry a bit.  What?  You say that looks like an egg carton covered in tin foil?  Yes, well, I like to reduce costs when possible and recycle to save trees.  Flower formers aren't as important to me as things like tasty gum paste. 

After all the pieces had dried for a few hours I realized I hadn't left a pink circle to adhere the new petals to.  Whoops!  So I mixed up some black gum paste I would need for the flower center and cut a small circle.  (More on the awesome-ness of the black gum paste later.  Flexible royal icing anyone? Yeah, you wanna know!)

Using an equal mix of meringue powder and water as glue, I slowly adhered the petals to the black circle base.  I also inserted a clothe covered wire into the center so I would be able to place it on the side of the cake more easily.  After the center of the flower was glued on, I hand painted some white flower pistols black to make it appear more life like.  Next, my favorite part, I lightly painted on some dry luster dust to give some sparkle.  I love me some glitter!  I took some quick pictures and then let it dry. 

I was rather pleased.  It looked pretty.  I wanted to make some extras but I'd used all the pink gum paste I'd made.  The flower was so grand, it would suffice alone.  I could always make more later in the week.  I had plenty of time.  If only I had known then....

Shortly after, my husband asked me to do a dessert table for someone he knew, and I would need to do it all in three days!  It was an insane under taking, but I wanted the opportunity to network with other individuals so I couldn't pass it up.  But now I wouldn't have time for more flowers.  No biggie, I had already made the cake and frozen it.  I would just use the extra cupcakes from the bridal shower for the dessert table.  Easy again.  Piece of cake.  Speaking of cake, the church called.  We'd recently paid off our mortgage and we wanted to celebrate with a cake.  Could I make one in two days for about 100 people?  Of course.  How flattering you would even ask me!  Completely doable, or....

Not.  I did the whole dessert table and was still conscious on less than two hours of sleep in over two days.  Still needed to go home from that gig, and add the flower to the frosted cake.  Next I'd bake the church cake and frost it up.  No problem.  I pull the well dried anemone out.  I flipped it over and prepared the place it on the cake I where it.  That's when I noticed a teeny bit of wire exposed.  Can't have that, so I went spin some floral tape on it.  Can you see it coming?  Yeah, when I went to pick up the flower by the wire I discovered that it wasn't so secure.  The flower plummeted from the wire and onto the counter.  I was afraid it would land on the floor so with my Superman-like speed, I smashed it onto the counter space, cracking three petals off.  "NOOOOOO!!!!  WHY ME?  NO!"  I started shaking and practically hyperventilating.  My friend was literally on her way to get the cake.  This could not be my life! 

After my five minute meltdown, I realized this is life and it is my life.  I better toughen up.  This is why you make extras, because in the long run, it saves you time and heart attacks.  You can always use extra gum paste flowers.  They last for weeks.  But now what to do?  I can't place the flower on the side, so the top will have to do.  I don't have time to make more gum paste.  So I quickly dyed some buttercream pink that I had made the night before.  Carefully, I put the flower on the top side with a dollop of buttercream underneath.  Then I added the broken petals in discrete places to hide the jagged edges using the pink buttercream as glue.  I filled in any cracks with the buttercream and hoped it still looked pretty.  I'm not gonna lie, I was still on the verge of tears.

When my friend arrived, I told her.  Apologized.  And asked if she still wanted it.  She said she couldn't even tell it was messed up.  She loved it.  I hoped it tasted half as good as it looked.  Later that evening, as I made extra buttercream "just in case" for the church cake, she texted me the photo below and said, "It tasted amazing!"

All I can say is praise God.  Now time to do the church cake...

Teacher's Appreciation Day

God bless teachers!

Today is Teacher Appreciation Day.  I think almost everyone has been touched emotionally by a teacher in some way.  I've had several teachers who said some not so nice things to me or about me, and even they managed to make me a better student or person, if nothing more than to prove them wrong.  I've also had some really inspiring teachers over the years too.  Brave individuals who stood against what was wrong and instilled in us what was right.  No matter the teacher this is your day! 

I meant to write a tutorial on some cupcake cookie combos today, but alas, life got in the way and the sugar cookies aren't finished.  Maybe I'll get them all ready for the first day of school instead (naturally, I'll have to eat the ones I made now and redo them later--Whoops!).  I did manage to make some carrot cupcakes and some little fondant apples and worms (why are worms in apples associated with teachers?).  I'd like to dedicate them to my favorite teacher-in-training, Miss Putt.  One of my favorite people, in fact.  She has really worked hard to be an inspiration to the future minds of this nation.  I was going to drop these off for her to enjoy today at work, but she is at home trying to finish her thesis in order to be a real, live, grown-up teacher!

The cupcakes were leftover batter from a carrot cake made for a birthday.  If the top of the leveled carrot cake is any indicator, and I believe it is, of the inside of the carrot cupcakes, this is an awesome recipe.  

Look at all those chopped carrots!

He's smiling at you : D

So even if you don't have time to make something for the teachers in your life, maybe you could just drop them an sweet email or handwritten note, thanking them for all they do and all they put up with. 

Ode to Stay at Home Moms (and Dads) {Hydrangea Cupcake How To}

During Spring Break from school, my 6 year old niece came to stay with us for a few days.  I absolutely love having her over.  What a great excuse to do all the fun things you loved as a kid but might be shunned doing now, like coloring with crayons or watching Beauty and the Beast 5 times in a row.  Plus, it gave me insight in what it might be like being a stay at home mom, which I've learned can be abbreviated as SAHM.  It seems people I know are either team SAHM or team successful working mom.

Dear Lord, what a glimpse I got.  I was trying to spend time with her, clean, bake, and still shower and look presentable.  I've seen TV shows and met women who can do it.  They look amazing!  Their houses are perfectly ordered.  They violate thermodynamic laws of entropy!  It's disorder to order. 

From a scientific standpoint this is NOT POSSIBLE!  I tried.  Those women must be TV magic or aliens.  Or perhaps it takes years of practice.  That's not to say I didn't complete some of my tasks, but all were not accomplished or all were only half done.  How do they do it and make it look so easy?  How is it that our society shuns these individuals as if they don't have 'real' jobs?  Let me tell you, before you DARE insult a stay at home parent, try it yourself for a few weeks.  Some people can't even handle their own kids that long.  It's challenging.  However, it was a truly rewarding experience and I only did it for a few days.

One thing we did she got a big kick out of was frost some leftover strawberry cupcakes I had frozen for this exact purpose.  I placed some purple buttercream frosting I had from a couple of days before in a pastry bag with a 2D tip.  I've also heard you can place the same tip in a big plastic bag you snip a corner off of.  I've even done the work with a smaller star tip when I didn't own a 2D.  The result of this is hydrangea cupcakes.  Yep, the beautiful 'snowball' flower as we called it when we were kids.

She was so proud!

Then with me holding and positioning the cupcake I taught her to "squeeze and lift" the frosting bag all around the cupcake.  I said, "Boo, you just hold the frosting in the same hand you color with like you are about to milk a cow."  Being a country girl, I think this was the easiest way to explain it.  So all over the cupcake we "squeeze and lift".  It's a decent amount of pressure to get medium consistency frosting out so I helped hold it a bit too, but she did most of the work. 

Isn't this just the cutest!?

Since we were also working on decorating cookies (a later post), she added some yellow royal icing centers to a couple of the cupcakes for a different look.





These cuppies would look even better with a mix of lighter purple and blue or pale green and pink to mimmick real hydrangea flowers.



Oddly, she really just wanted the icing off them.

It's a really simple activity that you can get the kids in on.  While they eat the fruits of their labor you might even be able to fold a load of laundry. 

Hope your day is as delicious as ours was and God bless SAHM's everywhere.