Feeling inspired helps!

So last week, I showed you all a picture of a Mardi Gras mask...which was my inspiration for my friends, daughters Birthday cake.  I am happy to say that I was able to make her a cake that she wanted, and I even managed to get it to the party on time! This was the sneak peek...

My poor Bella and Hannah sat and patiently waited for me to let them help build this beauty, unfortunately, the most I allowed them to do was play with the scraps and left-over icing!

Playing with fondant and my piping bags has been fun and creative, but I am thinking though, that I would really like to take a class on how to make edible flowers!  Maybe Hannah's Summer cake can revolve around a flower theme, and I can create a whole bouquet of flowers for her.

Mid February

My last three weeks are such a blur! 
At the beginning of February, we applied for a permit to build over our garage.  It has been an ongoing process since November, and we thought that the process would run smoother than when we did our renovations 3 years ago.. We were sadly mistaken though... Our city has gone though some changes in the past few years and now there are many more hoops to jump through and my poor husband has been at his wits end, going in to the city building department every few days, only to leave with some new request to come back with.  We are crossing our fingers that on Monday, our builder will be able to start demolition on our old garage, with a valid permit in hand!

On a much brighter note, my fantastic husband surprised the girls and myself with a Christmas gift this year that we would never forget.  We left the day after Bella's 6th Birthday for Disneyland!  The girls were very excited about it and I think got a bit overwhelmed on the first day!  We saw almost every character that the girls wanted to see, and surprisingly, we discovered that our girls are adrenaline junkies!  Hannah rode almost every roller coaster with her hands proudly in the air!  Bella's two favorite rides were Star Wars and Big Mountain Railroad, (which she went on 3 times!) And Isabella was so excited to buy herself some souvenirs with her own money.  Rob and I came home wishing we were leaving on another vacation, just the two of us this time though!  Disneyland is great, but all that walking really wears you out!

My next venture will be to make a cake for my friends, daughter for her Birthday!  She is having a Mardi Gras themed Birthday and I can`t wait!  Here is my inspiration...photo`s to follow!

Cakes and cupcakes from the past

Over the past 6 years, I have tried to make each and every cake/cupcakes for my daughters' parties.  I have also done a few cakes for some friends/family.  Here are some of my favorites...

This is Bella's 6th Birthday cake.  She has taken a keen interest in playing games such as tic-tac-toe...so, I decided to make her a cake that she could actually play with!

The board was made up of kit-kat bars and the game pieces were round ju-jubes and piped candy melt X's...

 These are the hello kitty cupcakes that I made for Bella's 4th Birthday party.  She had all her preschool friends over, so I figured cupcakes would be a better way to go. Then for her family party, we made a hello kitty cake!

This was the first time I ever attempted to use fondant on a cake.  It turned out to be not as complicated as I thought it would be. Must have been all those episodes of Cake Boss I watched!

This was a cake I made for one of my neighbors.  She had mentioned that she didn't get flowers very often, so I thought I'd put some on her cake...

Happy 4th Birthday to Hannah.  Her theme was ice cream, and I wasn't feeling adventurous enough to make a 3D version of a giant ice cream cone.

Here was my most time consuming cake.  My sister-in-law's bridal shower was a Fancy Nancy theme...years ago, my husband and I bought her a Louis Vuitton purse just like the one here.  The purse took me 3 hours just to put together.  I layered 4 mini loaf cakes, and covered everything in fondant.  The purple feather boa was my daughter's favorite part...I made rice krispie treats and molded them into a boa shape.

Halloween eyeballs, made with cake balls and white chocolate!

Hannah's preschool Halloween party this year was good for the imagination.  I searched for just the right, easy to make, cupcake design and found this one in a magazine.  The ghosts are fondant and underneath is a chuppa lollipop.  Hannah helped with all the sprinkles and she put on the sugar pumpkins as well.

There is a first for everything!

Welcome to my very first blog post!  
I am sitting at my kitchen table, letting a fresh batch of cupcakes cool on the counter right now... oh how good they smell!  The only problem is, I am trying my best to eat healthy and avoid foods like this.  However, the big brown eyes of my youngest daughter Hannah, have persuaded me to break out my kitchen aid mixer and whip up a batch of these dangerously delicious delights!
Today was the first time I have made a cupcake recipe completely from scratch!  I have to say that I am quite proud of myself at the moment.  After many, many years of being complemented on my delicious cupcakes, I have a little secret to share...every single cupcake I have ever made, has been from a box mix!  Eek, there, I said it, I used (notice the use of past tense) to use box mixes!  Having a little lick of the batter from the bowl, (which of course, you have to do) has persuaded me to change my ways.  Hannah and I had a little bit of fun playing with the icing for the cupcakes...here are my first 2 attempts...

 And here is Hannah's attempt!  Her's is probably the one that kids would pick first...can you tell why?

My oldest daughter Bella will be turning 6 next week and I am thinking about how I can make her the tastiest cake known to man-kind.  I have several ideas floating around in my head right now and I hope to surprise her on her special day.  
I will post a picture as soon as I have finished my masterpiece!