It’s a caketastrophe!

I finally get to use my word for real!! I made a royal mess making my second cake.  I had so much fun in the process though!  Joy Guinn (Trey and Julee’s little beauty) had her first birthday party today and knowing that I have a new obsession I got to make the cake!  I was thrilled because I wanted to make cake #2 and now I had a reason.  The party was a fiesta theme so this cake was BRIGHT.  OH wait, before I post pictures from my cake photo shoot, totally took way too many pics of my cake, here is the caketastrophe.

I’m not proud of my mess I “had” a reason for this powdered sugar storm. (by the way the air in my house still tastes sweet that stuff is everywhere even after the clean up) Let me preface by saying I enjoyed making this cake SO much and learned a lot….but I did have a minor caketastrophe – word of the week ding, ding,ding! I made my fondant Friday night and let it rest overnight. When I went to put it on my cakes yesterday evening it cracked so I had to quickly peel it off the cakes, re-ice the cakes, let them chill again and then I tried to save my fondant for the next few hours. I kneaded it over and over, added water and tried to re-cover the cakes, then when that didn’t work added powdered sugar bc I had made it too pasty, back and forth with this dry then sticky goo. At 12:00 a.m. I gave up on that batch and Greg went to the store and I made and dyed new fondant. I finished the cake this morning at ten til 6:00 I had to get up at 8:00 so I was so happy that I finished. Thus the mess, it was a 4:00 a.m. sifting powdered sugar mad rush to finish the cake. ( I was making royal icing for the piping) I’m sure I looked comical running around like a crazy lady over cake. Here is the finished cake. The middle layer is HUGE, not traditional, I planned it to be really tall but not quite so big. I topped the cake with fondant spirals at the party location so they wouldn’t damage the cake in the car.

I just added these new ones from the Guinn’s camera.  They are such sweet friends to support my cake craze by taking tons of fun pictures for me! 

Here’s the smash cake…..

AND here is what takes the cake (AHH the cheesy phrases are out of control today) The pictures of JOY, such a BEAUTIFUL, happy little girl!

a few pictures of the cake in the making…. The glaze of vanilla and eatable shimmer just applied to the dots-

The top layer was key lime cake with key lime buttercream, middle tier was vanilla with vanilla buttercream, and bottom was chocolate with chocolate buttercream. I made marshmallow fondant but with the food coloring I still think it tastes funky, fun to decorate with though.

And finally the after pictures of my house. Let me just say that I have the SWEETEST dad in the the world!! When I came home today this is what I walked in to……

My dad spent hours scrubbing a crisco-ed sugared paste off my furniture and floors…. and thanks to him… TA DA….

I have cake number three all planned out. Here is my sketch of my mom’s chocolate cake I am going to make for her birthday.

I’m so excited to make red gum paste and fondant roses and chocolate fondant. I doubt the finished product is going to look anything like what I have in my head but it is fun to dream.

P.S. feel a little guilty that my longest post in a year is about cake… hehe……

Baby Boy’s first trip to church!

I have to preface that I know I’m a crazed mom about germs (I think Ava’s bout with the whooping cough when she was a baby made me overly cautious) I’ve pretty much quarantined myself and the kiddos in the house until Austin’s four month vaccinations.  SO happy that flu season is over and he has four months under his belt  meaning we are BACK at our Sunday morning church service that we have missed so much!  Austin was in a serious mood this morning but I still had to snap a few pictures before leaving.

I couldn’t steal enough sweet kisses from my precious sleepy boy this morning.

My first Cake

Last week I got an urge to make a cake, random, anyways I thought I should try one and see how I liked it, I mean it looks fun on all the cake shows on t.v. right?  SO my verdict on cake making.. I LOVED IT!! I had a great time making this cake.  I researched how to make fondant cakes online first and thanks to YouTube I felt like I could try one.  I decided to make my first cake an “AVA” cake in her pink and green colors.  I had a few minor mishaps, cracked fondant on the top loop of the bow because I didn’t let it dry long enough before assembling and a back loop cracked off when I put the bow on top which I’ll fix tomorrow. I had a minor “caketastrophy” when baking the cakes because I overfilled the pans, oops…  actually wasn’t really a big deal I just wanted to use my cheesy word that I kept throwing out all weekend to make Greg give me the “seriously Gina?” look, I love that look ha!  The cake is a vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream icing between the cake part and the fondant.  Fondant is fun to work with but doesn’t taste so great, I’m going to try different recipes and hopefully find a good one. I’m also hoping to take some cake decorating classes for my birthday or Christmas present this year.                  

   (Hint hint Greg )

Goin’ to the Zoo…Zoo…Zoo

Ava loved the Zoo and we had fun with the questions and statements that a two year old had about the animals so we were sure to remember them. Here is Ava’s take on the zoo…..

When seeing the Lion:  “Can I feed him?!?”

We did not walk around the zoo, we RAN around the zoo, too much excitement for one day!

When meeting the Orangutan:  “Let him out, open that gate”  (Aww, that was a bit sad to me because he did look like he didn’t like being there)

Hugging a lizard….

A STATUE of a lizard of course!

Ava’s favorite zoo animals were the Meerkats. When we walked away from their exhibit she  motioned the Meerkats and yelled back to them “Come on guys!”

When seeing the elephants Ava shouted “Can I go in there? PUT me in there with them!”  Which of course was a big N-O and lead to this pout face…….

Look how cute Ava’s dress is!!! Karo made it for Ava and it is one of our favorites to wear, we call it our Monkey Dress. (had to show a picture of the back too)

Tubby

Nope, not talking about myself these days, (I’m totally laughing so you can too!)  I’m referring to my yellow tubby where I had my first baths and Ava and and Austin have both bathed in… apparently I loved my tubby and my kids do too!

Newborn Gina

 

Austin almost 4 months

Monkey… aka Ava Claire

Ava loves when we call her our silly monkey and she sure is a silly girl.  Here is what I found when she was supposed to be sitting on the potty (Ditty has a basket of soaps and lotions on the top of the toilet).  When Ditty and I walked in she squeaked “want a little bit of lotion Ditty?” and held out one little finger.

And the best way to get a girl clean is…….Ready, set, JUMP!

and a Boo too….

Boo the Lovie theif -  Baylor loves Ava’s lovie as much as Ava does, it has had lots of trips through the washer.  Aunt Jessica made the lovie for Ava when she was born and it is Ava’s favorite comfort item, we always have lovie hunt before bedtime.

Four Months Old

Firsts….

Austin and Ava had their first hair cuts at the same time.  Austin was born with a head full of hair and gradually it fell out… BOO HOO… But before it did he was rocking an awesome comb over so I took him in to get it evened out.  I’m glad I did because I got to save his baby hair, it was just so soft and precious.  His new hair is coming in even blonder than his baby hair, looks just like Ava’s did.

No more mullet jokes!

First Meal