Parshas Shemos: Basket on the River

This was real hands-on for the kids, and of course lots of fun for me.

The box is made of tea biscuits coated in chocolate, the water is decorating gel tinted blue, and the trees are pretzel rods with buttercream frosting. Jelly bean "rocks" and fruit roll up "blankie". The kids were ecstatic! The sand was put on to cover some holes made by eager fingers.

Birthday PAR-TEE

centerpiece

For my husband's birthday I wanted to make a cake that reflects something he enjoys. Golf is one of his hobbies, and I've been thinking about this golf course cake for a little while. Put it together with our Monday night class in our home, and bang, you have a golf themed birthday party! There were lots of golf related foods and play on words.

"woods and irons" and "chip it in"

Full view of the dessert table and dinner table (delicious BBQ on our new grill!)

We had a cute little game- guess how many tees.

I saved the best for last. Presenting the birthday cake!

I learned more about golf preparing for this party than I ever thought I would. It was so much fun to plan. Now on to Chanukah!

Birthday Time

It's birthday season in our family, so get ready for a few fun cakes. Here's one to start with, made for a student. I love doing flower cakes!

Cottage Birthdays

Little Sister is 1! It was nice to share the celebration with the northern contingent of the family, and her secular birthday was celebrated with the other side of the family. We're starting to see that our pretty, precious, delicate, overprotected, oh-so-sweet little girl is turning into a regular one year old: smearing food all over herself, mischievously emptying out cabinets, destroying her brothers' lego creations... Baruch Hashem!

I made these beautiful cupcakes and I was quite proud of them actually. Simple but they really look nice. These were especially yummy because the frosting was made with real butter (mistake from the upsherin that I saved for this).  I can't wait for an excuse to make more cupcakes!

Here's another birthday cake I made for someone special's 50th birthday, albeit a little belated. The cake is red velvet, with cream cheese frosting, something I've always wanted to try. It didn't quite come out the way I wanted it to, but it was nice nonetheless and it tasted okay.

Hop on the Upsherin Train!

Big Brother Jr. is 3 years old! I will treat you to loads of pictures of the beautiful celebration, just bear with me. As you can imagine, I started planning the cake months in advance of the big party. Not that it got me any closer to actually coming to any decisions, but I thought about it a lot. I looked at tons of upsherin cakes online, but nothing was perfect. I knew I didn't want to do the same thing as his older brother- too boring! I finally decided on a train cake- cute, different, and it also incorporates the upsherin ideas (kippah and tzitzis). A few days before the event which was so graciously and generously hosted and arranged by my parents, I decided that once we're at it, make it a Train Party! What could be more fun for a 3 year old boy? So it was back to the drawing board for me, or in this case, Pinterest. After pinning many more train ideas, we ended up with a cute train theme that didn't take too much extra work.

 Made from 2 loaf pans. The tray is covered with homemade marshmallow fondant, and colored coconut.

I made a train track along the length of the table. I covered containers to look like train cars and filled them with candy- it was the first thing that was finished, and there was a lot of good food!

Ice cream balls- scooped in advanced and dipped in sprinkles, all ready to eat!

 The centerpieces were plastic wind up trains that went around a track.
Look at that beautiful long hair! And there it goes...

I think this was my favorite addition to the party. I froze ice cubes of different colored drinks, and poured Sprite over it. It looked so pretty and tasted good too.

Thank you to all who helped (you know who you are), and photo credits to all those who contributed!

Cake Creations

I'd like to share with you some of the cakes I've done in the past.

This one was for Lag Ba'omer. The fire is fruit roll up, and since I made it shortly after our move with absolutely no equipment, the cake is a mix and the frosting is store-bought. Not at all the way I like it, but it was nice anyway, and it tasted okay.

The cake I made for my decorating course. I invited my neighbors after Mommy and Me to eat it. So fun to make and I was eager to do more roses after this.

Adorable booties for a shalom zachor.

And a kiddush...

Self explanatory! Boy was my husband proud! And to think that I didn't know ANYTHING about football before I got married!

Pretty Shavuos flower cupcakes.

Fire Truck Birthday

There is nothing my guys like more than fire engines and firemen. I mean, any truck will keep them happy, but fire trucks are probably the best. When I saw this fire truck cake tutorial I knew I had to make it. It's easy enough even for an amateur like myself, but still so impressive. I learned that I can't work on my cakes with any kids around, because then it becomes "don't touch anything!" instead of "wow this is fun! and "come look at what I just added!"

This little guy was my own addition, after looking at countless cakes on CakeCentral. It was actually a lot of fun to make, even though it took a lot of time. It was my first attempt at using fondant, and I was quite pleased with the results.