Fireworks? What fireworks???

I don't see any fireworks, just this cake that looks like fireworks. I know we're not supposed to set fireworks off at work!

My day job asked my side job for a cake... go figure. :-)

They wanted something 4th-of-July-ish for a little shindig they were throwing at lunch. Nothing big on the menu, just hot dogs, chips, and soda... and of course cake. They didn't have any special requests, no flavors, no designs. They just let me run free with it. Dangerous, I know, but they have to learn sometime!

I saw a cool idea from Cupcakes Take the Cake (see their post about it here) and thought it might do the trick, but I wanted something that resembled fireworks. This is what I brought to work this morning... I baked one box each of red velvet mini cupcakes, white mini cupcakes, and blue-tinted white mini cupcakes. I followed the directions for the marshmallows and frosting the minis, but I omitted the fruit so that I wouldn't have to refrigerate it. I made the inside out of my favorite green Styrofoam, covered it to make it food safe, and stabbed away. There were 85 kebabs in all in this explosion!

Lessons learned here: 1. Definitely don't do this more in advance than the night before. This was served at lunch (11:30 or so) and by the time I brought the remaining 10 kebabs home, the mini cupcakes were getting a little hard. 2. Weight the base. The first couple yards down my driveway and out of our development were a little harrowing as I saw it teetering. I ended up moving it up behind the driver's seat so that I could hold it while I drove. 3. Don't stick the skewers in so far, Erin! We had a difficult time getting some of them out. On the bright side, the holes are "pre-drilled" so it won't be so hard next time.

I love to see the temple...

I'm going there someday... Those must be the only two lines of this children's song from church. So the theme this year for Stake Women's Conference was Joy and Happiness. What a better way to represent eternal happiness than the Temple?The ride to Hancock was a little harrowing. The unfortunate breaking incident described in the Graduation cake delivered the same morning did a number on the construction of the temple cake. It leaned a little, and the driveway to the church wasn't much of a help either.From the ends it looks a little better. I had to have help to carry it into the building. It had 10 pounds of fondant on it and 7 layers of cake - 2 strawberry, 2 chocolate, 2 yellow, and 1 white. Once on the table, I added the spires and fixed and nudged as best as I could.The cake stood 28 inches high (compared to 288 feet high on the actual temple), 24 inches long (240 feet), and 13 inches wide (136 feet). Essentially 1 inch of cake equalled 10 feet of temple. Here is a picture of Sister JaNae Barnes on the left and that's me on the right so you can see for scale. This cake was massive.The spires were carved from green floral Styrofoam from the top level of the cake to 2 inches below the tip of the gold spires. From there a tooth pick (4 smaller spires) or a bamboo skewer (end spires) supported the rest. The spires were then covered in gum paste and shaped for the tower and spire details. Then the upper-most portions were painted with a yellow wash and coated with gold pearl dust like I did when I originally formed the Angel Moroni.And I would be remiss if I didn't provide the obligatory cake carnage pictures of the aftermath.There were sisters who hovered and waited as layers were cut and served so they could get their favorite flavor further down in the cake.

My friend Amy had the camera for most of the carnage and decided to take a picture of me standing over it with a knife in one hand and icing-covered fingers on the other.

Some one asked me how I felt cutting into one of my creations. I replied that I was relieved that I didn't have to obsess over the lean any more. I'm glad I learned one lesson from the castle wedding cake. Moroni's trumpet broke during the trip up, but I had my trusty hot glue gun there to save the day. Lessons learned from this cake? 1. Always have someone on the trip with you. 2. Less cake, more foam, or at least better plan the construction so that there is less of a risk of leaning. 3. Once it is set up, put on blinders and quit fiddling with it. Anal retentiveness is sometimes a bad thing...

Multiple "Purse"onalities

I can't even begin to tell you how excited I was to do this project. I've been planning it for weeks now, and I finally started baking Thursday night. I cut and iced the individual pieces on clear rectangular plates from one of the local party supply stores, so I had cake pieces covering my counter top for a couple days!I finally had to pull my starter plants off of the island so that I had plenty of clear counter space to work. We had 4 flavors - yellow cake, strawberry cake, chocolate cake, and white cake.I'd decided long ago that each flavor of cake would be its own style of purse. I ended up doing 10 of each flavor for a total of 40 in all. Here they are all completed.This was the white cake. I covered it in white fondant and gave it a black ribbon and handle. This was one of my two favorites. This was the chocolate cake. I covered this one in light blue fondant, gave it a brown ribbon, handle, and a little latch/tie.

This was the strawberry cake. I marbled pink, white, brown, and black for the purse and gave it a brown and white twisted strap.

This was my other favorite of the bunch, the yellow cake. This was my first time making daisies for any cake related project. I finally got to use the gum paste flower set my mother found for me, though I decided to make the daisies out of fondant instead. I covered the cake in yellow fondant with a matching strap and flap.

I had fun getting this many individual cakes to the church. I was sweating every bump and turn in the road, but we only had two casualties that were easily fixed once we had everything inside. Overall I received many compliments for how cute they were, all of which were greatly appreciated! Many sisters suggested this idea for a bridal shower or birthday party for a little girl.

Walker's Skate Park

OK, so this was a lot of fun! Not only did I get to make a rockin' cake for a cool little boy, but I also got to play with fondant and gum paste!

The little skateboarding dudes are out of molded gum paste. Mom gave me a set with a male and female adult, a 10 year old boy and a 6 year old girl mold (archaic Wilton you should see the book that came with it hehehe). I chose the boy and started molding. Once the little guys were molded, I posed them and let them dry before I put details like hats, helmets, skateboards and hoodies on them. Then I painted them with food coloring and let them dry. I baked two white cakes in a 1/2 sheet size, filled and stacked them, then carved the center of the park out of the top layer. I used the extra cake to build up the back side of the park, then covered it with grey fondant. I had fun with the graffiti! I graffitied his age on the far side and "Happy Birthday" on the flat part out front. Walker's mother gave me a picture of him (the one they used for the invitations to his party) so that I could make one of the little guys look like him.

I did get to talk to the birthday boy the next day at church. He said he really liked it! I tell you what, that made my day and all of the work put into this cake worth it!