Name Them One by One

It's Gratituesday!  This is an important exercise for me to undertake every week...counting my blessings.

I'm grateful for:

My sister-in-law who has accepted my invitation to guest blog (hopefully this week!)...

Online cake tutorials that teach me enough to keep me challenged...

The cupcakes I'm going to make for our Vacatiton Bible School wrap-up on Friday night and the eight little 3 year old souls I am spending my evenings with, learning about God, creation and our great Savior

God's faithfulness...even when I am unfaithful...which, let's face it, happens about every five minutes...

A really crazy, happy birthday party last weekend...

REST.  I'm a little weary - so this is a short blog today.  

What are you grateful for today?


Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

Sneek Peak: Andrew's 3rd Birthday Cake

Andrew, my one and only, precious and precocious son will be three entire years old on Monday.

I've heard so many mothers say, "the days are long, but the years are short."  So true.

I love him more than ever, and I love that we are really learning who he is inside, since he is finally able to communicate and converse like the little person he is!

There's no question about his likes and dislikes.  "Mommy, I like yellow."  "Mommy, I doesn't like celery."  And nine hundred times a day "Mommy, I watch Thomas and the Misty Island???"  The kid loves him a talking train.

So what do I have planned this year?  Dunno...maybe you recognize this friendly and very useful face...

A Very Useful Gum Paste Engine

Keep coming back to see just how this gum paste face is going to fit into the big picture!

Gumpaste Is Not Toothpaste

Have you been having one of those days?  One of those days when your to-do list is longer than your Christmas wish list, and everything feels out of balance?

That is no time to make a cake.

That is no time to try to craft something out of delicate, easily broken gumpaste.

That is in NO way time to craft something out of gumpaste with your two year old son standing on a chair next to you.

There are no pictures of the beginnings of a beautiful gumpaste bow to top my Christmas tree cake today.  No, no pictures, dear reader, because gumpaste, although a paste, is not a good substitute for toothpaste.  And somehow, my son, love of my life, thought it was important to learn that lesson first hand.

He ate it.

He ate it all.  And what he didn't eat, he licked, or spat on or chewed or otherwise mutilated.

The Gumpaste Eater

So, tomorrow I'll be at the store buying another pound of that million dollar stuff, but tonight, I've just got to ignore that defeating to-do list and laugh at the memory of my son looking up at me with yellow, blue and red gumpaste clinging to his chin and saying, "I love you, Mommy!"

The Giant Ding Dong Cake

I know I said "tune in next week..." just a few days ago, but I just couldn't stay away.

Today, I'm showing you a creation I affectionately call the Giant Ding Dong.  It's chocolate cake, covered in ganache (which is essentially melted chocolate with heavy cream) and layered with real, vanilla whipped cream.

The Giant Ding Dong...and yes, that's my washing machine in the background. 
I like to keep it classy.

My Grandma Nell used to make these famous concoctions known as Whipped Cream Cakes.  They were legendary on my Dad's side of the family, and since she passed away, I've often tried to mimic her recipes.  I do it because I miss her, because it helps us remember her and because she was a wonderful cook.

The cake I made was delicious, in a death-by-chocolate, kind of way, but it was NOT a Grandma Nell Whipped Cream Cake.  I understand her creation came about as an emergency pitch-in concoction from a cake mix, a tub of cool whip and a mystery stove top icing I'm still not sure how to make.

I confess I left the cake close to the edge of the table on purpose. 

Still, my attempt was well received...at least, Andrew liked it!  Whether it was a perfect replica of a family memory or not, it made my Dad's birthday special.  And that's what I love about cake.

To paraphrase the great Ina Garten, you can be sad before you eat cake, and even after you eat it.  But you just can't be sad WHILE you're eating cake.

Greetings, cake lovers!  It's blog time. 

I may be creating a lot of great new source material for Cake Wrecks, but it's a chance I'm going to have to take.  I've decided I'm never going to transform my love of cake - that is, truly flavorful, beautiful cake - into more than a hobby, unless I have to perform on a regular basis.  So, here I will publish my attempts to be a self-made pastry artist - pictures, horror stories, woe and success. 

This may be the worst idea I've ever had, or it could be just what I need to get really good at something I love doing.  My goal is to post a cake once a week.  It may be one from the files, or it may be the latest creation.

Here's a picture of the cake that started it all, my son's first birthday cake.  I have to credit my brother, Josh for the fondant elephant.  He needed a project that day too!

These were inspired by Mega Blocks and Leggos.

Not bad for a first try...but yeah, it's a little rough.  I've gotten a little better at the whole fondant thing. Here's Andrew's 2nd birthday cake...with a whole bunch of gum paste work.

Super Why! and the Super Duper Computer

 So there you go.  Thanks to my son, I found something I love to do and a great creative outlet.  Tune in next week for another cake creation.

Thanks for visiting Cake Lore!