Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Cakes from the past

Here are some of the cake that I have made over the years
for other people's monkeys and a few for friends of friends
One of my dear friends asked me to do a Nemo themed cake for her parents' birthdays
This was for a friend's son's Baptism
Our babysitter had me do this for her mother's birthday

My friend's daugther wanted a James
cake and she got one!
A 40th birthday cake for the sister of a friend
Monkey #1's teacher asked for a cookie cake for her son's birthday.



Carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting
This was for a friend's baby shower

My award winning cake for the local library's Edible Book Contest


A 4th birthday cake for a friend's daughter
5th birthday for a babysitter's nephew
3rd birthday for a babysitter's niece

Tiki mask cake for a friend's daughter

13th birthday for a friend's daughter
I was asked to do a 50th birthday cake for a friend of a friend.
The birthday boy was always losing his glasses so that was the theme of the cake
Tie die cake for my dear friend's twins
The little girl that wanted a James cake for her 3rd birthday wanted a cake with
Tinker Bell sitting on top of Thomas for her 4th birthday
My friend's son loves skateboarding so I made him this for his 14th birthday

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Let's Go Under the Sea!


The start of birthday #2 for the month. Monkey #1 loves animals with all her heart and creatures of the sea are her favorite. Work on the cookies has begun.




5 down!  just a few dozen to go!

Lego Party!

This month Monkey #3 turned 6 years old.
Lil' man loves Legos so that was the theme of his party this year.

Let the party begin!

I bought yellow paper bags and yellow paper cups,
using a Sharpie, I drew Lego man faces on them

The cake was chocolate with blue buttercream frosting. 
I used tea lights as the candles for the cake. I covered them with the frosting. 

One evening after the monkeys went to bed I sat down with
a large bucket of Legos and sorted the Legos all out. 
At the party I had the Legos set out for the kids to build and create.


The Invites!
I used cardstock cut down to about 3"x5"
and using my large hole punch I made the Lego pegs. 
On the computer I did up the invititations and glued them to the backside of the invites.

Favors!
I bought silicone molds in the shape of Lego men and Lego blocks. 
After making the yellow chocolates I enjoyed an afternoon peeling
and melting crayons to make Lego crayons. 
Quick Tip:
 place molds on a tray before filling, place mold in freezer to harden quickly. 
 Be careful taking Legos and minifigures out of mold.  They are fragile.

A great way to personalize the cake: 
Mini figures that spell out the birthday boy's name.

Lego sugar cookies
I rolled out my sugar cookie dough and sliced them into rectangles and squares. 
I then put them on cookie sheet and placed the cookies in the fridge to chill before baking. 
This keeps the dough from spreading when they bake. 
After the cookies cooled down, I mixed up some royal icing, put it in a zip lock bag and made a small snip in one corner of the bag to make a piping bag. 
I first piped an outline around the cookie and then filled in the center. 
I let the icing set up before putting drops of icing on the cookies to make the Lego pegs. 

Quick Tip: 
If you don't want to make your dough from scratch, you can use a mix from the store but just add more flour to the mix to make the dough firm enough.


Lil' Man  needed something to wear so I bought him a shirt at Target
 and using my computer I printed off the Lego images onto
iron on transfer paper to make a fun t-shirt for the party. 

Quick Tip:
when you print the image out, make sure you flip the image before printing


Marshmallow Lego man pops!
I did not invent this yummy treat but I sure did love making it! 
I bought the jumbo campfire marshmallows and regular large marshmallows,
some candy sticks and yellow candy melts chocolate. 
I cut the regular marshmallows in half and placed them on top of the jumbo marshmallows. 
The stickiness of the cut marshmallow does a great job of holding it in place. 
Then I placed it on the candy stick. 
I did a double boiler with a pot of about 1 cup of boiling water and a metal mixing bowl
and melted the candy melts.  Then I applied the chocolate to the marshmallow heads. 
I tried being as neat as possible but there was just no way around getting my hands dirty. 
So I ended up just using the spoon to just apply the
chocolate and used my fingers to spread it around. 
When they were all hardened I used edible markers to draw on the faces. 
The markers do not work as well as it looks like they would from the picture on the package. 


What's a party without ballons.  In the past I have gone to all the trouble of buying a helium can and having balloons floating everywhere.  Not that I don't like that but there are other things that I can think of spending that $25 on.  So now I just hang the balloons at varying lengths from the ceiling. 
This year monkey #1 and #3 have their parties a week apart so I used colors would work for both parties.  After the Lego party I took down the red balloons but left the green and blue and will add another shade of blue for #1's Under the Sea themed party.

Make a Wish my lil' prince!