Number 3 shaped cake tutorial

I've decided that it'll be fun to always make a cake for Hannah shaped in the number of years she is turning. I made her a two last year and I hope to continue the tradition for a while. So, this past October little Hannah turned three! Crazy. How can she be three already? Anyway, I wanted to make her a three cake so I looked on pinterest and came up with a design to make a number 3 shaped cake. I asked Hananh what she wanted on her cake and she told me "blue flowers". I asked her again a week later and she said "blue flowers" so I guess since she didn't change her mind that's what she really wanted. I'm not big into having fake food coloring in my cake decorations but since it was her one request and since it would be a small part of the cake I figured it would be okay. Plus it's hard to find natural things to turn fondant blue (I even asked a pastry chef). But Hannah loved her cake so all the work was worth it. I really do love making cakes for my littles!

 I'll just let you browse through the photos rather than trying to explain every little cut. Sometimes photos really do speak louder than words! Start with two bundt or jello molds! You want doughnut shapes! This cake is pretty simple and only requires you to cut two pieces from each circle.

 This was my first time making fondant and it actually was fairly easy to do and turned out pretty good. I just did melted marshmallows and powdered sugar. I didn't really plan on eating it (or having others eat it) so I wasn't too worried about the flavor but they were okay to eat as well as pretty. It's kind of a pain to get the marshmallows to mix with the powdered sugar at first but eventually it's like working with a regular dough.

 I bought the little flower cutters at Hobby Lobby and I love the different shapes and colors of the flowers! It was a good choice because hand cutting flowers wouldn't have been so pretty.

 So, I crumb coated my cake...

 Then added a final coat of frosting.

 Here's my tip...If you are writing something on your cake use a dowel or tooth pick to write it out first!! Then if you mess up you can just smooth out the frosting and try again before you add your colored frosting to the cake!!!

 I love how it turned out and can't wait to see what Hannah will want on her "4" cake!!

 Oh and put the leftover cake to good use...make cake balls and just mix the cake with some leftover frosting then dip them in melted chocolate after they're frozen!

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Fruit Salad Flower Apple Bowls

If you hang around me long enough it won't come as much of a surprise that I like to make things. I love to be crafty, to rearrange things that are in place to make something different. I love to bake but when I saw this pin I knew it would be a great snack for Naomi to take to school on her birthday. I am all about cupcakes but I know that teachers don't always love the idea because kids aren't always very clean eaters!! There was nothing with the pin to tell me how to make these fruit salad flower apple bowls but that's okay, I just need a photo (sometimes two) and I can pretty much figure out how to make things. So I talked to Naomi about making these apple bowls and she loved the idea. So, here is a photo step by step tutorial of how I made the fruit salad flower apple bowls for Naomi to take to school on her birthday!

I washed the apples in water with a splash of vinegar.

 Cut the apples near the top with a slight diagonal cut. Not too deep.

Then turn the knife the other way to make a "petal"

 Make ten cuts thus making five petals.

Cut the top part off the apple

Cut little triangles out between the petals giving it more of a flower look.

Then scoop out the apple insides to make a bowl. I used a melon baller...and you can save the apple pieces to use in the fruit salad as well (obviously not the seed part though!)

Then soak the apple in sprite or ginger ale or lemon juice to slow down the browning...

Once I had all the bowls and flowers made I added some fruit inside the bowl and called it good!

 I wrapped each apple individually to make it easier on her teacher and to help prevent further browning since I made these up the night before.

She said the girls loved them! And those who didn't like kiwi gave them to Naomi and she LOVED that!!

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Baseball Birthday Party

Hey friends, I am sorry for not showing my face for three weeks around here...I'm a blogging space cadet! Ha! Well, I'm back today to share some details from my sons 5th Birthday party!! Three weeks ago I shared with you the Stadium Cake that I made for him...which was my favorite cake yet! So, now here are some of the details from his friend party!

Micah's birthday party was a lot of fun, we couldn't have asked for better weather. We had 9 great kids and their parents join us to celebrate five years of life for our sweet little man. What an incredible day. Micah was so anxious for his party and wanted it to start right when he woke up in the morning but we kept him occupied with helping to set things up to keep his mind off the time...it worked for a little bit. We enjoyed being outside almost all day and even ate lunch outside because it was so nice.

I had posed a question about treat bags on facebook and got some great responses. The majority of people said that they tried to stay away from a bag of candy and little plastic toys but still liked for the guests to leave with something. I was planning on having the kids trace themselves on paper and draw their own jerseys but there just wasn't a good place to do it. I also had cut out triangles so they could decorate their own pennants to put on a pencil but totally forgot to bring that out at the party. Those were originally going to be my "gifts" for the guests to take home but while I was at the dollar store getting a few things for the party I noticed some bat/ball combination toy so I decided to get that. I also got some plastic popcorn buckets for the kids to use at the party and take home. My kids love to use their popcorn buckets when we have movie night so I thought it would be a good versatile take home party favor. So, all in all the party was great and Micah had a blast. I'm glad we're not going to do the big blow out birthday party every year...you plan and plan and plan and then it's over...just like a lot of things in life. But we truly enjoyed celebrating Micah. Here are some photos from the day.

 Our "thanks for coming" gift.

 The kids "pitched" the ball through the hula hoop.

 Everyone ran around for a bit and just had a good time playing with friends and being a kid.

Greg then helped all the kids who wanted to have a chance to hit the ball off the tee. They loved it!

 The kids enjoyed some peanuts, popcorn, pretzels and fruit!

 My dad helped the kids play pin the ball on the bat.

 My frosting fell flat...I think I added a little too much milk...but it still tasted good!

 The cake pops were a hit too!

 A great suggestion that a friend made on facebook was to have the gift giver sit next to the birthday boy while he opened the gift from them. It gave the gift giver a great view of Micah opening their gift and it took the pile of kids on the birthday boy opening presents away.

Baby girl slept through part of the party but had a blast watching all the kids running around!

 A good time was had by all. If you're planning a party and need some help let me know. My dream job is to be a party planner...so let me know how I can help!!

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