Frozen Birthday Cake

When a friend asked me if I could make a Frozen cake for her niece's birthday the first thing that popped in to my mind was sparkly snowflakes. And Elsa, Anna and Olaf. But mostly sparkly snowflakes. I just thought they would look so pretty on a blue cake.

Making princesses out of colour flow is something I've only done once before, and since they turned out not too bad I thought I try it again. The trouble with making princesses is that they are so detailed and they have to big enough for the detail to show, but small enough to fit on the cake. It can be a bit of a challenge and sometimes the smallest icing tip isn't small enough. Anyway, I gave it a go (and I actually bought little plastic Frozen characters for back up in case of a disaster!) and in the end they looked like Elsa and Anna. With bad makeup. I need to work on that.

The snowflakes turned out beautifully! Although I did break a couple and had to repair them!

If I made this cake again, I think I'd do it a little differently, although I'm not too sure what I would change. Elizabeth liked it, and I guess that is all that matters!

Mine Craft Quilt

For my nephews birthday, my sister-in-law planned to redecorate his bedroom. She asked if I would make a quilt for him. She had found one she really liked and wanted me to make him one similar. It was just simple patchwork, using the colours from Mine Craft, with a nice wavy quilting design. I didn't think it would be that complicated.

I had gotten the top all sewn together when, unfortunately, we had water issues in the basement. Since the basement was out of commission I had to set up my quilting frames in the living room which literally took up the whole room. That was the least of my troubles - all of my supplies, for all of my hobbies, were packed away in boxes in the garage. There was no hope of finding my quilting needles or my good thimble. (Luckily I did have a thimble that didn't get packed away, but it wasn't the best.) Since our fabric store closed there is no place that sells sewing supplies. I did finally find a little sewing set at the Dollar Store (I was pretty desperate) that consisted of a bunch of needles, a couple of thimbles and a seam ripper. For $2. The thimbles were completely useless, as was the seam ripper, although I didn't need that. It was the needles that I really wanted.

So I got to work quilting - sitting on the couch, because there was no room in the living room for a chair, using Dollar Store needles and a thimble with very shallow pits. Hardly ideal quilting conditions! I broke 7 needles quilting the first row. I was frustrated, to say the least! When the weekend finally rolled around, the kids and I drove into the city, took in my sister's basketball game (they won!), and went to Fabricland. I bought some real quilting needles and a decent thimble!

After that things went smoother, although I was so behind schedule I was worried I wasn't going to get it done in time. I talked my husband into helping me. I was shocked that he actually agreed! It took him 10 minutes to do 4 stitches, which was long enough for him to decide that I was crazy and that I really needed to invest in a quilting machine. Those 4 stitches were pretty nice though!

I did get it done, but I didn't get it done for his birthday. That was okay though, since his room wasn't ready yet.

I made matching pillow shams as well, that I machined quilted on my sewing machine.

We took it over to them the other evening and my nephew was just so excited to have a Mine Craft quilt! Seeing his smiling face made it all worthwhile! It will be fun to see his room when it is all put together!

Basketball Cake

This is the cake I made for my niece for her 14th birthday. She plays on the junior basketball team at her high school and just happens to be #14!

This is the third time I've used the ball cake pan. It always turns out good, but the getting it to stay in one place can be a little tricky! Even with a stick through it, it still wanted to shift. With some extra support underneath I got it to stay.

A little tricky to transport! I had to hold it on my lap and keep it balanced on the way to the birthday party. Luckily they only like a few blocks away!

Stampy Cat Cake

For his 9th birthday my husband's nephew decided to have a Stampy Cat themed birthday party. When they asked me to make the cake, I had no idea what a stampy cat was. Turns out it is a character in mine-craft.

The good thing about mine-craft is that everything is in cubes. The bad thing is that it ends up to be a lot of squares!

I made Stampy out of Rice Krispie Cake and covered him in 1/4" inch squares of fondant. For the cake I used 3/4" squares. When I was searching for pictures of Stampy Cake there were quite a few of him with a cake. I took that to mean he likes cake, so I also made a Rice Krispie fondant covered cake.

Crib Mattress

Last fall my sister and I went to the Western Development Museum Craft Show. It was fanatic, there was so much to look at! I did buy a couple of things, but the thing I was most excited to find was a doll bed. This guy, I think his name was Carl, had a booth full of wooden toys. They were amazing! I'd been watching for a nice wooden doll bed for a while and this one was perfect.

I sewed up a little mattress and pillow and we gave it to our daughter for her birthday.

My mom was going through some stuff before Christmas and found a doll blanket I had sewn when I was young. I think it was probably one of the first things I sewed myself (or mostly by myself!) She sent it to me in the mail and I was so surprised when I opened the package. I had completely forgotten all about it!

So I gave it to my daughter with the doll bed.

She was so delighted to have a bed for her baby. She even tried it out a couple of times and we had to convince her she was a little big for it!

Carousel Cake

So, it's been a while since my last post! That doesn't mean I haven't been busy! My computer was down for a while and then I was working very hard on something for my sister-in-law, for which the deadline has now been removed, so I can take the time to write about the carousel cake!

A few weeks ago my little girl turned two, and I got to make her a cake that I've been waiting to make for a long time - ever since I bought the carousel horses and separator plate kit, which was years ago. Someone asked me where I got it and I can't even remember. I just know that it was 50% off!

The only problem with this set is that it doesn't come with a roof. (The carousel set Wilton sells now comes with a plastic one and you just have to decorate it.) The box had a couple of nice examples showing how to decorate the cake without a roof, but I really wanted it to have one. So a couple of days before Victoria's birthday I sat down and started cutting out triangles, trying to figure out how to make a carousel roof. After cutting triangles for a half hour with none of them lining up properly and getting no closer to getting it right, I decided there must be a more logical way to figure out the right measurements for the base and height. Now, I always was a pretty good math student, but that was mostly because I could follow a formula and use a calculator. However, I was never very good at geometry, once it got complicated, and all that sin/cos/tan stuff. And whatever Math C30 was all about (or was that trig too?!). I remember thinking, a time or two, that I would never use some of these math skills again, even though Mr. E insisted we would. I guess you were right, Mr. E! So for anyone sitting in a math class thinking they are never going to use math again - pay attention and learn it. You just might need it to make a cake.

So, basically, there was no way I was going to figure this out on my own. I send out a mass text with my math problem to my smart siblings. I knew someone would know the formula and tell me how to figure it out! It took about 4 seconds before a couple of my brothers answered, with the formula and then the answer. I should have went to them sooner! For future reference: For a 8 sided roof, being built out of triangles, on a round house that has a diameter of 10 inches, with the peak of the roof being 4 inches taller then the walls - your triangles should be 6.4 inches tall, and have a 3.9 inch base!

And look at how perfect it all fit together!

And the rest of it!

This cake was a little tricky to decorate because I didn't want to move it around too much because I was a little worried about breaking the roof and I hadn't made any extra pieces. The side panels on the top part overhang a bit, so it had to be lifted up to put them on. I decorated most of the top with the cake all assembled, which probably wasn't the best idea because I was using a cake stand that wasn't very stable. I didn't want to risk knocking it over, so instead of turning it around I ended up reaching across the table at awkward angles trying to get at the back of it.

The best part about the cake, is the stand! Which is why I used it, despite it being tippy. It actually rotates - very slowly, has flashing lights around the plate, and it also sings 'Happy Birthday'! Perfect for a carousel cake! It is always a huge hit with the kids! And Happy Birthday gets sung about 15 times because everyone needs a turn pressing the button.

It was a fun cake to make and I'm glad I saved it to make for my baby girl!

A Christmas Dress

One thing that was on my Absolutely Must Do Before Christmas List was to make my little girl a dress. I've been wanting to make her one for a while now and Christmas seemed like the perfect excuse. I've never made a dress before, although I've sewn quite a few simpler articles of clothing. I found a Butterick pattern for a cute party dress that didn't look too hard and after going Christmas shopping made a pit stop at Fabricland. I picked out some deep red satin and some really pretty embroidered organza. I couldn't wait to get working on it!

The pattern itself was quite simple and I was making the plainest dress. I sewed up the skirt first and then started on the bodice. Everything was going well, until I realized I was going to have to gather the sleeves. I'm not sure why that didn't occur to me sooner! (Not that it mattered - I still would have bought the pattern!) Gathering is not my favourite thing to do, but my mom told me if I hand basted the sleeve the gathering would go a lot smoother. And it did, but as I was gathering 5 miles of sleeve into 3 inches I couldn't help but think if Marilla had told Anne of Green Gables to make her own dress with puffed sleeves, if she wanted one so badly, Anne probably wouldn't have mentioned it again. I did, eventually, get it all gathered and I did get both sleeves sewn in. (Twice!) And if I thought gathering the sleeves were a pain, the skirt was worse!

I didn't quite get the dress done before it was time to leave for my parent's farm, which is where we were going for Christmas. I just had to hand stitch the lining of the bodice down and attach the ribbon - which I forgot to bring with me!!!

Regardless, the dress was still so cute and she looked like such a little princess.

My mom found an old flower girl dress and took the bow off of it for me to use.

I made a size 3 so it is just a little bit too big for her. It should fit her for a little while at least, which was the plan! Now that I've made one dress successfully I'm sure it won't be hard to find a reason to make another! Like my brother's wedding next fall!