Cake Making Madness

The cakes are done!  I repeat, the cakes are done!!!  I feel like maybe Ben and Cora feel more comfortable in their own house now.  This mama's stress level was through the flipping roof.  Thank goodness, I have an amazing daughter (who is actually quite helpful) and a very understanding and supportive husband.  If not for those two things, I definitely could not have made it through this week.

So, the wedding cake.  After initially wanting a very smooth buttercream look, the bride decided she wanted something a bit more modern.  Which I was ecstatic about, because every time I try to get my buttercream "fondant smooth," I fail.  It's my Waterloo, I will never prevail.  So, textured buttercream is my friend. 

We had the flavors nailed down for months.  I got all of the cakes baked last weekend and they spent the week wrapped up and chilling in the fridge.  So all I had to do on Friday and Saturday was to make the buttercream, level the layers, fill and stack the three tiers as level as possible, cover in buttercream, texture, assemble the support structure, stack the cakes, purchase the flowers and arrange the flowers.  Yeah, that's all. 

Oh, making the buttercream.  I splurged and ordered high-ratio shortening to use instead of Crisco.  Crisco long ago did away with trans fat in its recipe.  That's all well and good for your arteries, but it sucks for smooth, tasty buttercream.  The local bakers' supply here was unfortunately out of stock, so I ordered from an online store.  I will NEVER use Crisco again!  This stuff is amazing.  I'm pretty sick of looking at it though, because I made 13 batches of buttercream for these cakes.  Thirteen!!!

Anyhoodle, I left myself plenty of time and I must say, this is the best I've done on achieving nice, straight, level tiers.  It certainly helped that I also ordered a fancy, new support structure.  You can find them at http://www.cakestackers.com/.  I cannot rave enough.  That thing stood straight and tall all night long.  And it easily weighed 60 pounds.  I couldn't even carry it to the car (got a bum wrist) and Ben struggled.  It took two guys to carry it into the reception venue. 

Alrighty, enough rambling, you all probably want to see pictures.

This is the cake pre-flowers. 

She just wanted fresh flowers, so I went around to some local stores on Friday afternoon and found some things I hoped would compliment the bouquets and decorations at the reception.  My first attempt at flower arranging!  No pressure...

Here it is, fully assembled at my place.

And here it is at the reception (which was totally awesome - mini steak hoagies during the cocktail hour, need I say more??).

And here is the happy couple - Congrats Liam and Meghan!

So that was Saturday.  Today (Sunday) I went to work on Cora's cake.  And here it is.  Flower shaped bottom tier with chocolate and yellow cake, and a yellow cake "strawberry house." 

And chocolate strawberry shortcake cupcakes.  It's kind of a deconstructed take on the concept, to borrow some Top Chef vernacular.

And cake pops - some shaped like strawberries, some that are just sparkly.  Four year old girls love sparkly.

This little girl loved her cake.  Ignore the messy hair in the picture, she just woke up from a much needed nap.

Waiting to blow out those candles!

Happy Birthday my sweet Cora!!

Alright, now excuse me as I pass out from absolute exhaustion.

I Must Be Crazy...

So, as some of you know, I have a wedding cake due on Saturday, May 28th.  I'm a bit freaked, but I have my schedule for the week carefully laid out and I'm feeling a bit more confident after a couple of practice runs in the last couple of weeks.

As some of you may also know, Cora's 4th birthday is the day after the wedding.  I've always done big, fancy cakes for her birthday.  This year, none of the grandparents will be in town and I have a huge project to complete the day before, so I wasn't planning on making a cake.  Well, wouldn't you know it, the kid's been laying a big guilt trip on me.  She likes to "help" with my baking and she just keeps saying, in her most pathetic voice, "I wish I could have a cake on my birthday." 

Being the overly guilt-ridden person I am, I have now promised her a cake.  A Strawberry Shortcake cake to be specific.  I am going to give myself some wiggle room and we'll have a little cake/cupcake/cake pop (me, just do a cake?  who do you think this is?) party on the day AFTER her birthday.  Thus giving me one day to recover from the wedding cake and make Cora's birthday wishes come true.  Yikes.

Stay tuned for pictures.  Hopefully, everything goes according to plan.  It's days like these I really wish I had more than one oven...and more than two hands.

Accountability

So, after watching way too many infomercials, we decided to order P90X.  If you haven't seen the commercials, look it up.  It's a 90 day exercise and diet program that is supposed to get you in the best shape of your life.  I'm turning 30 this year and I was definitely not in the best shape.  Sure, I could run 20 miles a week and do a little lifting at the gym, but I was not happy with my general state of flabbiness.  Oh, to be 21 again.

Anyhoodle, I was super skeptical about the program, but we decided to take the plunge anyway. The diet plan is no joke.  I am pretty much starving everyday.  That's not entirely true, but for a carb lover like me, limiting me to one carb and one fruit a day is like torture.  We've been as faithful to the plan as we can (and boy, did we see an increase in our grocery bill) and have followed the workout program to the T.  We are now two weeks in and I gotta say, I am no longer a skeptic.  This thing works.

All of the sake of accountability, regardless of the level of embarrassment, I'm going to share my before photos and my two week photos.  Mind you, we're only 1/6 of the way through the program.  I'm really excited to see how fit we can get.

Before:  flabby, flab, flab, flab.  Running was doing fantastic things for my cardivascular system (resting heart rate of 52), but it wasn't really doing much for my physique. 

And after 2 weeks of working out with Tony Horton:

I think I can see a small difference.  Hopefully, the results will be a lot more drastic at the end of the program.

First Communion Cake

I was asked by a colleague at work if I could make a cake for his daughter's First Communion.  Of course, I said yes.  I haven't made a cake for anything since another colleague's son's first birthday back in October.  It had definitely been awhile. 
I did some searching on the internet to come up with a design and whipped up a little 10" cake (white chocolate with raspberry filling) with some decorative accents.  I also did some cute cake pops.  I heart cake pops. 

They have a very Irish last name, thus the Celtic inspired touches.

The cake pops:

Just for fun, I thought I'd look back at some of the cakes I've done in the last two years or so.  I have a big wedding cake due two weeks from today and I'm nervous as heck about it.  Hopefully, looking at what I've accomplished in the past will help me feel a little more prepared to tackle what lies ahead.

This was that little boy's first birthday cake - monkey!

And jungle cupcakes:

This was a luau cake for Cora's school party.  That thing was mammoth and heavy.  Even the beach ball is made out of cake.

This was a cake for a nephew's birthday last summer.  Everyone here is a huge Yankees fan, and even though it physically hurt to make this cake, I did it for the birthday boy.

This was my first (and as of yet, only) wedding cake.  The bride picked the design and color scheme.  This time, the bride has basically given me free reign, which makes me uber-nervous.

And this was a graduation cake two summers ago...I think I have a graduation cake coming up this summer as well.  The dates are unclear.

Ok, I'm feeling a little better about myself.  I can do this, I can do this, I can do this...

The Strong Museum of Play

The nice thing about government work is the holidays.  Thus, I had Good Friday free.  Ben took the day off as well and the three of us headed to Rochester to spend the day at the Strong Museum of Play.  This place is AWESOME.  It's absolutely ginormous and there are so many different things to see and do.  Cora was like a human pinball, she was just bouncing from one thing to another. 

Your eyes do not deceive, she is indeed standing on the steps at 123 Sesame Street.

We then took a left into Elmo's World, where she had a nice conversation with Mr. Noodle and took a little rest in Elmo's bed.

We met the Berenstein Bears:

They have a butterfly house at this museum as well.  It's timed entry, so you're not crowded in there with a bunch of different people.  It was lovely.  We got to see some beautiful butterflies.

And even a hummingbird.

Cora very patiently waited for a butterfly to land on her (you can see she has her finger out as a landing strip).

She was slightly disappointed when they didn't choose her.  She really wanted those butterflies to land on her, poor thing.

After that we did a little shopping at the tiny Wegman's. 

Not a bad selection for a healthy lunch:

Then, she got to dress up like a beautiful princess:

And Daddy got to be her prince:

My poor Cora, I do believe she has a mild (at the moment) form of OCD.  This was a ginormous Lite-Brite.  Instead of making shapes, she had to pull them out and separate them into different bins according to color.  She is more like me than I care to admit.

This one is for Grandpa Pranger - she wanted to fly the "hoptocopter" (helicopter).

And we finished off our experience with a little ride on the carousel.  I'm not allowed on carousels, they make me ill.

What a great day we had!  The little one passed out in the car after lunch and slept the whole way home, so you know she enjoyed herself.  If you're ever in the Western New York area with tots in tow, I strongly recommend a visit. 

Easter Wrap Up

Whoa.  Long time, no post.  In my defense, I've been really busy.  Honestly.  And a little lazy about posting.  But I'm back in the game.

Easter weekend came and went about a month ago.  I had intended on going small and low-key this year and I still ended up with a suitcase full of stuff for my already spoiled child.  A child that has so much natural energy, I really shouldn't be fueling her up with candy, but whatever.  That dollar spot at Target gets me every time.

We dyed eggs this year for the first time ever.  Cora was very good at it.

Then came Easter morning.  See, I told you, small suitcase full of stuff.

What is this candy?

I like it!

Modeling her bunny slippers!

Chowing down on her chocolate bunny (she only ate about one ear and then it sat on our counter for a week before I tossed it...I swear I heard that thing tell me to eat it on more than one occasion and I just couldn't take it anymore).

Ready to go to Grandma's house!

We still have leftover candy if anybody wants some...

At Least It Looks Like Spring Somewhere...

So, it's still terribly cold and depressing here in Buffalo.  I saw snowflakes today.  Enough said.  Instead of feeling sorry for ourselves, we packed up some lunch and drove to the Botanical Gardens.  It was so warm and lovely, I was almost able to forget my frozen surroundings.

We packed our lunches in some of my creations.

Cora really liked her "lunch purse."

She couldn't wait to eat her sandwich, though.  She was hungry.

The Gardens.

My two favorite people.

Cora got to meet the Easter Bunny.   She ran right up to that thing.  She also was completely fearless when it came to Santa this year.  I was kind of hoping she'd retain a healthy fear of strange men playing dress-up.

Some pretty pictures.

She was all smiles with Daddy and the Easter Bunny, but would she pose with me?  The answer is no.

We bought a family membership (50% off, courtesy of Groupon...score!), so we'll definitely be heading back.  They have a children's garden in the summer months and I think Cora will dig it.  Get it?  Garden?  Dig it?  Yeah, I'm hilarious.