A Teacher's Gift

Last Thursday was Riley's preschool graduation.  It's hard to believe that the school year is over for him, it went super fast.  It's also hard to believe that we will no longer be a part of a Good Shepherd preschool class.  We have been going there the last three years.  The teachers at Good Shepherd are wonderful and have always been so sweet to our kids.  In the three years we were there, the teachers  discovered a huge like for my cake pops.  Their eyes lit up like kids anytime I presented them with the goodies.  So what else would I give as the final teachers gift...                                                            

You got it, cake pops!  I tried to make them as fancy as I could.  I had three different designs and each teacher (three in total) got a dozen cake pops to share with their family, or hide and save them all for themselves.  Thank you Mrs. Lagina, Miss Malcore and Mrs. Magoon for starting my little ones on the right path to loving school.  We will miss you next year.                                                                         

A First

Back in April, I made a first communion cake for a friend's youngest son. All her son requested of the cake was that it by white with white icing.  Ok, I can do that.  This cake became a first for me for many different reasons.  I have never done a first communion cake, and I decided to try my hand at making modeling chocolate.  The last time I dealt with modeling chocolate was in culinary school, and that was a long, long time ago.  Plus, in school I didn't have to make it myself.  I found a super easy recipe on a blog called The Crafty Penguin.  Here is the link for the recipe (because I took no pictures of me actually making the chocolate, plus she described it so well, I thought I would share) http://www.the-crafty-penguin.com/2011/07/cake-with-horizontal-stripes.html.  Not only is this a recipe, it's also explains how to cover a cake in horizontal stripes of modeling chocolate (another first for me).

So here is what I came up with for the cake.  I'm not going to lie, I had some troubles with modeling chocolate, mainly the blue because I don't think I made the colored modeling chocolate correct.  I tried using colored candy melts instead of coloring the white modeling chocolate, which I should have done.
                                   
Not really knowing what to do with a first communion cake, I tried to put symbols associated with one.  So I put a loaf of bread, grapes and a cross on one side.

 

And I put another cross, chalice and stalks of wheat on the other side. Our friend was pleased as punch with the cake and she told me that her son really enjoy it too.

Look Hoo's Having a Baby

This past weekend, we had a surprise baby celebration for our friends who are expecting their third baby. I say baby celebration because it wasn't really a baby shower with gifts and games, just a family bbq with good friends and family. We all had a great time. When my friend was first announcing she was pregnant, she started pinning (on Pinterest of course) adorable things for a nursery. One thing she found was a wall decal of a tree with three owls. Around the same time, I saw this adorable cake that matched the wall decoraction perfectly.   So from that, the owl theme was put into place, with another good friend making the most adorable party invitations (sorry no picture).

Here's the version of the cake I made.   I loved the little owls, and how they sit on top of the tree.  The cake was red velvet and devils food with cream cheese frosting.

I added some fondant bumble bees, flowers, bushes, mushrooms and a bird all around the cake for added fun.

Happy baby number 3 to our good friends. Welcome to the crazy parents club. ;)