Yo Ho Ho!

We celebrated Sam turning 4 last month, I can't believe he is that big already!! Sam chose a Jake and the Never Land Pirates themed birthday party, it was really fun to go all out for him :)

I had a completely hard but cool cake in mind but then Sam asked if he could have a treasure chest cake, still very cool but not as hard so I was happy to accept the challenge!

This is the gold doubloon on the front of the treasure chest, I tried to make it as much like the treasure chest from the show as possible.

The base of the cake was chocolate cake, the top of it is rice crispies, it was super humid that week so I had a hard time with things melting and drooping!

The back

I used chocolate fondant using my marshmallow fondant recipe but changing it by alternating cocoa powder and powder sugar a little at a time until it reached the right flavor I wanted. I used chocolate fondant because it helps you get to the red color faster. For the trim and gold parts I used yellow regular fondant and painted it with gold luster dust, its amazing the color it really looks like gold!

inside I made gold fondant coins and stamped some with an S :) I also made hard candy gems but they started melting due to the humidity but they tasted really good!! I  also made a ring, and bracelet out of fondant and candy pearls.

dont mind the gross corner lol we also bought the figures for my son for a present and put it with the cake.

a good friend of mine did face painting for us! You can see more of her work here http://www.provofacepainting.com/

Each child got to color their own party hat

We had a few games our first was Sink the Ship we made paper cannon balls and had painted ships tapes to buckets they would throw the cannon balls at each other and we would see how many there were when time was up who ever had the least in their ship won.

The littler ones had a hard time with the throwing part they just wanted to pick up and dump in the other teams boat :)

Then we played Save Your Shipmate where we tossed pool rings to catch the other team member

We had a fun treasure hunt, the main map took them to the first clue then each clue they found had a riddle to another place on the map they would follow all the clues until they found the treasure.

Finding more clues

                                 

Each clue had a trap by it so they would have to do something before they could pick it up :)

Here is the clue that led them to the tree on the map

Everyone got a goody bag out of the treasure chest in the end.

Sam picked a shark for his face paint it was a very popular choice.

Happy 4th to my little/big guy!

Let Them Eat Cake!

Last week I taught the sisters in my ward how to work with fondant for our weekly meeting. It turned out to be a really fun class with a good turn out.

I showed them how to trim the cake, make a dam to keep the filling from spilling out, and how to do a crumb coat. I have taught a class like this before and somehow I made the same mistake of not taking my frosting out of the refrigerator early enough to let it warm up so it was a little hard to use at first but once I got it going it worked out great.

Here are the ladies, more showed up as the demonstration went on, I didn't get a count but I felt like it was a good group of ladies.

My mom was a great help, you can see her sitting with Colten to my left, Sam was in the nursery playing with the big kids, it was nice to know I didn't need to worry about the boys while I worked.

Here I am showing them how to roll out the fondant and cover the cake, I was working fast and talking as I went so it didn't turn out as smooth as normal but it was good enough for a quick cake.

After I finished my presentation the sisters were given the chance to ask questions, taste the fondant, and decorate a cupcake how ever they wanted using my icing, fondant and tools.

Even some of the kids got in on the fun, we had lots of beautiful cupcakes and lots of fun!

Below is the handout I made with my Fondant recipe and butter cream recipe.

Marshmallow Fondant

Winterhawks Cake

Its been a while since I made a cake, so when my uncle decided to have a birthday party and asked if I would bring desert, I knew it was time for another fun cake!

My uncle is a big Winterhawks fan so I knew I had to make a jersey.

It took two days of working, the logo took the longest time, but I am really impressed with how it turned out!

Here is a close up, don't mind the holes left from the candles.

Family Friday: Birthday Cupcakes

We celebrated my brothers birthday the other weekend, and I was asked to make cupcakes.

He asked for chocolate cupcakes with vanilla butter cream frosting with crushed butterfingers mixed in.

And filled with a mixture of vanilla butter cream and caramel 

Lets just say it was heavenly!

Yummm....