PS4 Birthday Cake

My nephew always requests fun birthday cakes. Last year he decided he wanted a PS4 cake, with one of his favourite games sitting on top. Since I'm a terrible artist I got a local bakery to print a picture of the game to stick on the cake. It was the first time I used the edible picture printing, and I was quite impressed! Simple to use, saves copious amounts of time, and looks great!

The pictures aren't the greatest since the majority of the cake is black.

But you get the idea!

Humboldt Bronco Quilt

I'm sure you have all heard of the devastating Humboldt Bronco's bus crash last month. There isn't anything more I can say that hasn't been said already. While I didn't know anyone on the bus, Humboldt is in my neck of the woods and my family and I try to take in a few SJHL hockey games every year.

The Haus of Stitches in Humboldt put out a request for lap quilts. Their goal was 200 quilts, and the plan was to give them to the people most effected by this tragedy. My sister and I got together and sewed a lap quilt to donate to the cause.

It is such a cute and simple pattern, I can definitely see myself making it again!

My kids even got in on sewing quilt blocks for the Humboldt Broncos. Someone at our local quilt shop donated fabric and the kids went in to help sew some blocks!

I just checked the Facebook page and it sounds like they received upwards of 1000 quilts from all over the world. That is so incredibly amazing! Quilts have already been given to the Nipawin Hawks, and to the staff at the Humboldt radio station. For whoever ends up with our quilt - I hope it brings you little comfort.

Jelly Roll Race Quilts

In the past week a couple people have mentioned my blog to me, which reminded me that I do have a couple of faithful readers - thank you to them!

I know it seems that all I make are cakes, however the last few months I've busy making quilts as well! I have recently discovered Jelly Roll Race quilts. They are the quickest, cutest blankets around. Jenny from Missouri Star Quilt Company has a great tutorial on You Tube.

The this was my very first jelly roll race quilt. It was kind of a spur of the moment purchase. I was in our local quilt shop, with my kids, when I saw the jelly rolls and they happened to be 20% off. I had been wanting to make one for a while and so right then and there I decided to pick one out, go home and sew it up. I was very excited!

I actually kept this blanket for myself and I love it!! I like to put borders on them. It just finishes them off and makes them a little bit bigger.

This quilt got all my kids excited about jelly roll race quilts - honesty I think they just like the name!

My daughter wanted to make one, so we went to the fabric store and she picked out the one with the most pink.

We are using hers for a picnic blanket.

I have a couple more jelly rolls, and when I get them sewn into quilts I'll show you!

Navy and White Wedding Cake

My cousin got married last year and she asked if I would be able to make their wedding cake. She sent me a couple pictures before deciding on this one. It was the first wedding cake I have made that wasn't all white. It nice to do something a little different. Simple and elegant.

It is a little hard to tell from the pictures, but the tiers are navy blue with little edible beads.

The cake was also supposed to have a few real white roses stuck in it. Unfortunately, the florist had the wedding date mixed up and didn't have any of the flowers ready. They really had to hustle to get the bouquets put together for the bridal party! The flowers did arrive, however not in time for me to get them into the cake.

It turned out well even without the flowers!

First Communion and Confirmation Cake

My son celebrated his First Communion and Confirmation last year. Such an occasion definitely requires a cake!

This is my favourite way to quickly decorate a cake - especially for this cross cake pan which has so many edges. It is easy, doesn't take any time at all and looks awesome!

Paw Patrol Birthday Cakes

These cake were for twin girls last year. Their favourite show was Paw Patrol - much like very other toddler!! Kids just can't resist those cute puppies. My daughter just saw these pictures and now she is determined to have a Paw Patrol birthday cake! We will see how many more times she changes her mind before then!

I didn't want to make them exactly the same, so I reversed the colours and chose different puppies to make.

Marshall turned out a little better then Zuma, but I was happy with the end result!

Those streamers in the background were still up from my son's birthday party, which was weeks before. He didn't want them taken down! I haven't put his cake up yet, but will soon!

Make Up Cake

This was a fun cake to make. Bright colours and very girly! It was for my husband's niece. I was able to make all the pieces ahead of time so putting it together didn't take very long.

As you can see there is a 7 lying beside the cake. It got stuck in once the cake was delivered. I didn't actually make it to the birthday party - instead left the delivery and set up to my very capable husband. I just didn't get a picture of it completely finished!

The Master Sword Birthday Cake

My husband is a Zelda fanatic. I finally gave in and made him a Zelda cake in the form of the Master Sword for his birthday last year. I guess there are only so many fishing cakes I can make! I don't quite get what the Master Sword is, but from what I understand it is an accomplishment to earn/find/unlock? it from the rock it is apparently stuck in. And Link needs it. I know that.

It didn't quite turn out as good as I had hoped. The purple faded out of the fondant - this has happened to me before and I don't understand why. And it also looks a little lumpy, the fondant probably could have been put on a little thicker, but at the end of the day a Zelda cake is a Zelda cake and I don't hear anyone complaining!

Millennium Falcon Birthday Cake

Camron always has great ideas for birthday cakes! For his birthday last year he wanted this Millennium Falcon cake that has a LEGO feel. It was the first Star Wars cake I ever made. I'm a Star Wars fan so I was excited to make it for him!

Silver and White Wedding Cake

This cake goes back to last year - A friend of my sister's asked me if I would be able to make her wedding cake. I was a little uncertain about it because she wanted these specific flowers on it, which I had never made before. I'm more of a royal icing flower gal, and not so much into fondant/gum paste flowers. Fortunately Wilton makes a kit for a very similar flower and I was able to make them (not without a little stress!).

As I type this I remember decorating this cake - it was getting to be the middle of the night and I was so tired, putting those silver balls on the cake one at a time with tweezers. My husband helped me with them too. We worked mostly in silence except for sound of my music and the sound of those little balls bouncing off the table onto the floor. The next morning when I swept the floor the dust pan was half full of them! They are hard to hold onto with tweezers!

I assembled the cake at the hotel where the reception was being held, very carefully putting on those little silver balls around the base of the tiers. My husband helped me deliver it so he was there help me again!

There is something about this cake that I really like, and I'm not actually sure what it is. Maybe it is the flowers since they are out of my norm, or maybe it is the million little silver balls that give it so much sparkle.

It was a rainy day, but the hall was beautifully decorated, the cake assembled and the bride was happy so I would say it was a success!

Doc McStuffins Birthday Cake

So, it's been a while! I haven't done much crafting in the last year, but I have made a few cakes and I'm behind in posting them. I'll try to get caught up!

This is a cake I made for my daughters birthday. She wanted a Doc McStuffins cake so we went on Pinterest and she picked one out. I changed it a little bit to my liking and instead of making a Doc McStuffins I ordered her off Amazon.

I especially like the Lambie, the sheep!

The Barbarian King

A few years back my brother was visiting and he commented on my horrid cutting boards. I didn't think much of it. The next time he came, he brought me a present - a cutting board - with the condition I throw away one of my old ones. The next time he came he brought me another one. Now that my cutting boards are replaced I really should invite him over and point out my chipped cereal bowls! ;)

Recently my brother bought his first house and I thought it would be nice to give him a bit of a housewarming present. As a joke I bought him a cutting board with the idea of wood burning something manly onto it. You would not believe how hard it is to find a simple wooden cutting board in this town. After about my 4th store I lucked out and found a set of bamboo cutting boards.

My family has been playing Clash of Clans and the idea of a giant Barbarian King on a cutting board amused me to no end, and really, what is more manly than that?

If you do this I recommend doing it outside - maybe it is just the bamboo but the fumes were a bit much. Of course I only think of doing these type of things in the winter so not only did I get a headache but the house smelt like burnt bamboo for a few days.

I transferred the picture to the board by placing a newspaper underneath my printout - ads with lots of dark ink work the best, and tracing over the lines. It was enough for me to easily see the lines.

It actually turned out pretty good for my first time using a wood burner. I did make a mistake in one spot, but now I can't even pick it out...never mind, I see it!

Pretty manly and terrifying, right? My brother thought it was pretty funny, says it its the best thing in his kitchen. I'm not too sure about that but it was fun to make!

Minnie Mouse Cake

Our daughter loves everything that is pink and girly, so it is no surprise that she loves Minnie Mouse! This is probably the last year I get to pick out her birthday cake so I decided I would take advantage of it and make her a Minnie Mouse cake.

I took a couple different ideas and put them together. Making Minnie out of a cookie was the easiest way I could think of making her, so that is what I did. After I finished Minnie's face, I couldn't figure out why she didn't look as cute as the picture I was copying. I stood there looking at it for a few minutes until it finally clicked...

I made her cross-eyed! Luckily it was a easy fix!

Once her bow was on she looked even better!

Minnie's Bowtiques is one of her favourite shows (or was until Paw Patrol recently took over!) so I made a big bow to wrap all the way around it. Some pink icing and sparkles and I called it done!

It turned out pretty cute and Victoria was delighted! Of course she wore her Minnie Mouse Halloween costume, complete with her Minnie Mouse ears, so she matched the cake!

Nativity Scene

I'm in between loads of laundry, so I thought I'd have time to post something! This is something I found on Pintrest - Nativity Stocking Holders - and it was one of those project that I just had to make right away, with a special person in mind to gift it to.

I decided not to make them into stocking holders, but instead as a Christmas nativity scene. The gal also used vinyl nativity pieces and stuck them on the blocks of wood, which makes for a quick and simple project. I don't have access to what ever cuts out vinyl pieces (a Cricut maybe?) and so I did consider ordering the pieces from her - she sells them every fall. But then I thought - why do that when I can paint. I googled silhouette nativity scenes and it didn't take long to find pretty much all the same images she had used. A little re-sizing and I was good to go.

I got my husband to cut some blocks for me and I sanded them, painted them an off white, sanded them again to give them the distressed look, traced the nativity scene on and painted again. It actually didn't take as long as I thought it would.

My painting is far from perfect and however in the end they look pretty good.

The faces were a little difficult since my tracing turned out to be a basic outline - the 2 x 4 I used was kind of rough which made it hard to tace a pattern without falling into the grain of the wood. I did sand them down before I painted but it didn't help.

Nativity scenes are my favourite Christmas decorations and is a project I hope to make again! It cost me nothing since I used scrap lumber and already had the paint, just took a little time!

Birthday Cake

About a month ago our neighbour stopped in, said his wife's birthday was coming up and he was wondering if I could make a cake on short notice. He basically left the design up to me, he just wanted something fairly simple and enough cake for 30 people.

I try to use these opportunities to do something a little different or try something I haven't done before - all while keeping it fairly straight forward so the cake turns out in the end!

I had some roses left from the wedding cake I make for my brother and sister-in-law, so I decided to use them. For the leaves I wanted to try making them from green dipping chocolate wafers. I dumped the chocolate in to a piping bag and traced out the outline of a few. I wasn't too sure about them, but figured if all else failed I could make buttercream leaves. With melted chocolate chips I made the letters for Happy Birthday, as well as some lattice looking things.

The only thing about using chocolate is that as soon as you touch the pieces they start to melt. Usually I'm so freezing cold so I'm not sure why my temperature spikes the second I started placing the chocolate pieces on a cake! I had to be super careful and actually ended up using my decorating tweezers to minimizing touch the chocolate.

In the end I was happy with how it turned out, simple and elegant.

I was really happy with the chocolate leaves. They brought a brightness to the cake and really pulled it together. I'm glad they turned out!

Chevron Denim Rag Blankets

I made these a while ago, and I must say I love how they turned out. I had a couple bins of denim that I finally decided to something with. By the time I cut all the squares I had blisters on my fingers and had to take a break for a few days because I couldn't even hold a pair of scissors!

Instead of sewing an x across the squares to hold the batting I stuffed them to create puffed rag blanket. I made the squares 6 1/2 inches square. I don't know how much bigger you would want to go if you were stuffing them.

For the boy blankets I put the rag to the front,

For the pink and purple I did the rag to the back. I think I like this way better.

I would love to make one of these to fit a twin size bed, only with flannel on both sides. A lot of little squares - but it would look good!

The Backyardigans Cake

I made this cake back in September for my co-worker's granddaughter. She loves The Backyardigans. I on the other hand weren't too sure who they were so I had to do some research. I'm glad they weren't the coloured blobs I had originally thought they were - I'm not quite sure what I was thinking about; maybe Teletubbies? Is that even a show anymore? I watched part of an episode of The Backyardigans, and while it helped with what the characters looked like, it really just confused me. They weren't in a backyard, but in a city - one was driving a streetcar, I think one was being a doorman. The streetcar probably lost control going down a hill and had to be saved. By the doorman. I don't remember - 5 minutes was enough for me!

I originally decided to make the character out of colour flow, however when I went to use them I found hadn't dried properly and some of them ended up breaking. I couldn't figure out why because usually colour flow turns out so well. It wasn't until a day or two later I realized it was because I used one of my plastic cutting boards instead of the 2 arborite ones I usually uses. There was moisture trapped under the wax paper which prevented proper drying. Another lesson learned! My kids were delighted they broke because then they got to make a fancy dessert with cake scrapes and broken Backyardigans. Luckily the letters for the name, and the 2 were okay.

I got out the fondant, which is what I should have done in the beginning and made the 5 characters.

I'm actually glad the colour flow didn't work because they turn out pretty cute. The moose is my favourite.

I haven't decided if the blue one is a penguin or just a bluebird, and I think the purple one is a kangaroo. I have no idea what the pink one is. No idea. Wikipedia doesn't know either.

I glad I made the flowers, it really brightened it up and made it more little girly.

There they are, hanging out in the backyard. Everyone getting along.

Kinley loved her cake and the characters were a hit. Although one of them fell victim to their dog - dogs get to celebrate too, right!?

Sunflowers and Roses

Last year, shortly after my brother and his girlfriend got engaged, my brother asked me if I would make their wedding cake. Of course I was delighted - and then a little nervous when he said he would design it! We talked about it a few times throughout the year but there were no real decisions made until a couple months before the wedding. He wanted the cake to be at least 5 tiers, decorated with sunflowers and roses (Shannon's favourite flowers!) and with pillars so the cake topper could be in the middle. The rest of it was up to me!

I pulled out my square and round cake pans, sat down on the basement floor and started stacking them in various ways. I'd text a picture of the cake pan cake to my brother and he'd make a suggestion and I'd adjust it accordingly and text him another picture. It didn't take long before we had one he liked - 5 tiers, with pillars. I told him he would have to find a fairly short cake topper if he wanted it to be in the middle. He told me he had it taken care of!

I started with making roses, adding lots of red colouring to make sure they didn't turn out pink! Then I switched over to sunflowers. I had never made sunflowers before, but following Wilton's directions they were surprising simple to make.

The tricky part of make this cake was the location of the reception - about a 2 hour drive from my place. I didn't know if I should haul all my stuff to the city and decorate there, or decorate it at my house and carefully transport it. I had this on-going list of pros and cons going on in my head for weeks. Finally I decided (the week of the wedding) that it would be easiest to decorate it at home and hope the cake made it there in one piece.

I started with decorating the bottom layers,

and then the top layers. As requested the cake was different flavours - lemon, chocolate, white and vanilla.

We loaded up the cake, an emergency cake repair kit, our wedding clothes and the kids. We hit the road just in time to make it to rehearsal (a half an hour late!)

The cake, much to my relief, survived the trip! The buttercream boarder didn't even melt despite the sun beating through the windows!

The wedding was beautiful, the reception was a lot of fun and the cake was completely eaten! I loved the cake topper my brother picked out - it was a perfect choice. And I was worried he wouldn't find one that would fit nicely between the tiers! He did a brilliant job of designing the cake as well. I don't think I ever would of thought to put sunflowers and roses together. It really was a great combination for a fall wedding. I might just have to consult him on all my cakes!