December 16, 2009

Just A Little Something


I needed a little something for bus driver appreciation day, so I whipped up a batch of chocolate chip cookies. The problem is, that's not much of a gift. So I wanted to take it up a notch. I wrapped up a paper plate of cookies with purple cellophane (you can get it at party or crafting stores) and tied it with a pretty fabric ribbon and a homemade card. I have learned using a fabric ribbon makes things look nicer, instead of the regular polyester ribbon. I don't always understand why something looks good unless someone takes the time to explain the design rules behind something. Often, an artistic friend will say, "that's just the way you do it". I need more, I need to have a principle behind it. That's how I learned about fabric ribbon - crazy I know.

December 13, 2009

Racing Birthday


This was a birthday cake I did a few years back before I knew anything about cake decorating (I'm sure you can tell). It was an idea I saw in Family Fun magazine. The reason I share this not so perfect cake is twofold: anyone can make this cake and kids don't really care how beautiful it is, my son was THRILLED about the results.
Bake two cake round layers. Cut a small portion out of one cake so the cake fit together in your 9 shaped racetrack. You could use chocolate or green icing on this. I added the green sprinkles as grass for the infield. Then I used black sugar (you could buy or make) for the track, just follow the outline of the two cakes. I piped a length of white icing around the outside of the track with a plastic bag that I cut a hole in (yes, mine looks terrible). I used the white candies from Goody & Plenty for the middle dashed line. I bought a couple of smaller cars to put on the track which the birthday boy got to keep. Looking back I would have replaced the inside line of the track with dark colored life savers to look like tires.

The invite I made was designed like a ticket to a race. I put our phone number in the RSVP section and our address and phone number in the middle part. I just looked at a real ticket and tried to mimic the look.



December 8, 2009

Elmo Cake - Color Flow


This was the first "decorated" cake I ever made for one of my kids. I used the color flow technique. I printed an Elmo coloring page (we didn't even have any coloring books back then!) to make the design. I used full strength black to do the outlines and filled him in with red, white, orange, and black in the appropriate places. You can see the black outline bled into Elmo's eyes. That's my impatience. I should have waited longer for him to dry. I used mini marshmallows to prop him on top of the cake I had made. I actually took Elmo off and saved him so we could use him to celebrate on Super Bear's "actual" birthday too.

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