Aileens Baby Shower Cake

Aileen is one of my cute co-workers from the inbound department. She is a doll! We were all so excited for her when she found out she was pregnant! (even though she was in denial for quite some time) Her and her husband struggled for a LONG time on picking a name for this little babe, but finally agreed on Ethan just about a week or two ago. ( to my knowledge at least) They did toss out some cute names that we all agreed would have been soooo darling. But she is so cute and wanted to please all the grandparents and family members. I am just glad the little babe finally has a name!!

 
So like normal there is always some tragedy that happens when making this cake. This time i had totally FORGOTTEN about this cake until like 9 pm Sunday night.. I normally bake the cake 2 nights before the event and pop it in the freezer. The day before the event i pull out my already frozen cake and do my magic. (magic HA! used for lack of a better word) So that way it is already finished on the day it is needing to be ready, its just a matter of delivery and final touches. But since i was in slacker/procrastination mode, it was a longer journey since i had to bake, cool, and freeze in a shorter amount of time. AND to top it all of i decided it was finally time to get over my fear of homemade fondant... GUESS WHAT?! It paid off I finally figured it out! I will NOT be buying store bought expensive fondant anymore!! I guess the determination of not wanting to go into debt over making a client cake is good will power!

Gabe's 7th.. Basketball Birthday!

My nephew Gabe turned 7!!! He made it very clear when i was making Isabelle's cake that he wanted a BASKETBALL cake. He even described to me what a basketball looked like. Then when his mother confirmed that this is still what he wanted he goes "yes, you know like a round orange cake with black lines on it like a basketball??" Oh goodness Gabe we sure love ya!!

I kept going back and fourth on the idea for this cake. I could not decide if i wanted to cover the ball with fondant or just ice it with buttercream. I ended up just doing buttercream for the fact alone that i did not want to make fondant. I bought black fondant to save my counters because black is a pain to make! The cheaper Wilton brand fondant is hard to work it and tastes AWFUL so i only used a small amount that i had left over from Nate's cake. Other than Nate pestering me when dinner was going to be made it turned out rather well and i am starting to realize its ok to make a cake in one afternoon and not three.

Sadly with every cake there is trial and error. i had never made a ball shaped cake before and the bumpy drive through Pleasant Grove and Saratoga Springs didn't go over well..... The ball started to slide off of itself and created a not so perfect ball for when we arrived. I tried to save it when we got there but there wasn't much i could do at that point, what was done was done. I now know for the future that a dowel or two may be needed inside the rounds to keep them together. AND…. buttercream might not have been the better choice. Lessons learned Gabe still enjoyed his birthday cake and it tasted delicious!

Nate turned 24!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Only thing missing was a banner!

Nate had his 24th birthday yesterday! Right after I got off work I was supposed to head straight to Costco to pick of some Ice Cream, BUT I really wanted to get Nate some Balloons for his birthday so…. I went to Pioneer Gift and Copy. They have the cutest balloons there. I would recommend them for ANY of your balloon / party needs! I’m sure the people that were driving past me as I was trying to get this BIG bundle of balloons in my car were getting great entertainment. When I finally got home I quickly started to finish the cake so I could attempt to get the kitchen back in order BEFORE Nate got home… Well that DIDN’T happen. Nate got home and helped me put the kitchen back together. We were planning on having Tomato Macaroni for dinner and when I say WE I mean HE. (I do NOT like Tomato Macaroni I always joke with him that it would be the same if he just thickened some Tomato Soup and poured it over Noodles) Since we had just cleaned the kitchen we didn’t want to mess to up before his family came over for cake. So we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner and stopped at Costco to get the Ice Cream that I had forgotten. I didn’t completely avoid Tomato Macaroni night though he asked if he could have it later this week….. 

I will FOREVER go there for my BALLOONS!

I like to have a theme that I can work with, so that I can coordinate the cake, gifts, and decorations. The theme for his birthday this year was FISHING! He got a FISH balloon... Some new shoes he can wear with pants... (Not sure what that means but that's what he asked for)  I was going to pick out a new hat for him but I struggled, so I took him to pick out a hat and his shoes. And I also got him a Fishing Wii game that he is HOOKED on! (No pun intended) 

He was excited to open his MASS present

Fake Surprise ( he picked it out)

Fake surprise take 2

Hey a REAL surprise face!!

 His cake was another story… I tried making my own fondant this time around and FAILED. It also didn’t help that I was a little short on the amount I had rolled out and I didn’t want to dye more so I had to pull it weird which made it NOT SMOOTH :( I am definitely learning through trial and error what works for me. It did taste AMAZING though. The top tier was White Cake with buttercream frosting with a fresh strawberry filling. The bottom was Chocolate Cake with Oreo buttercream and an Oreo filling. 

I was trying to get an angle that you could see the little fishing pole and wire you can kinda see it

HAPPY 24^th BIRTHDAY Nate!!!

Isabelle's 4th Birthday!

My adorable niece Isabelle turned 4 yesterday and i was lucky enough to be able to make her birthday cake for her.. The theme was pink princess so here is what we came up with....

It was thrown together really quick and i did learn some valuable lessons.. Letting someone else bake the cake is AWESOME but.. Don't just assume they know what your brain is thinking if you need 2 of each you need to tell them and not just assume they make cakes in their sleep like i do. Luckily i was able to figure it out without loosing all the height of the cake! Looks pretty cute for a short afternoon of work.

My 21st Birthday!

November 2nd how we meet again... you seem to show up once a year around the same time...( imagine that). Whelp its birthday madness again and here is how we celebrated! Brianna turned 6 so on Tuesday she had a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese, spoiled little thing enjoyed every second of it! Nate and I ( mostly Nate he picked it out) gave her a hot wheels car play set. THEN.... Wednesday the REAL birthday i got to work to have a fun decorated desk thanks to some awesome co-workers!

 After work I headed home and worked on my cake for a few min until Janet and the boys stopped by the say Happy Birthday. Soon after that Nate came home and we put another coat of finish on of table (yes we are still working on it....) We got ready and headed to dinner Macaroni Grill YUM :) We ended the night with some Cold Stone ice cream the best kind EVER Cheesecake Fantasy :) and the movie Tangled. Best part of the whole day though??? My INCREDIBLE birthday present that my WONDERFUL AMAZING husband got me!

My Beautiful kitchen Aid!!!

Saturday Nate and I decided to have a birthday party/ game night with Mark & Katelynn ( who just recently got engaged!)  Jerrica & Kellen, and Ashley & Braden.  We were planning on having a poker night because it was my 21st but that died quick when the girls got bored REALLY fast.. So we played 3 games! Catch Phrase, Buzz Word and Pictionary and played boys vs girls. It was a blast i am so glad that everyone could come over and celebrate with me! We even decided to start having a monthly game night with them since they all live in West Jordan we dont get to see them nearly as often as we would like to!

This is my fun birthday cake!