Hey Everyone!

Hey Everyone!

It's been quite some time hasn't it?  I received a lot of emails lately asking how I've been doing.  So I thought I'd give you an update.  Even though I haven't gotten a chance to email all of you back,  I appreciate every email I've gotten! 

Health-wise, I'm doing A LOT better!! I had a little bit of a rough patch and ended up having my gallbladder out shortly after I stopped posting, but that is now all taken care of and I feel great.  My headaches are under control again, and I'm off most of my medications!!!

But the main reason I haven't posted in a while is that I made a big life decision and decided to go back to school!!  I'm going back to get my degree in respiratory therapy :D.  I absolutely love it!  With going back to school though I don't have any time to bake or decorate cakes or cupcakes.  I'm hoping that once I finish with school, I'll have a little more time and can get back to baking, decorating, and blogging!

On a side note, I've entered a cupcake contest over at celebrations.com.  If you would take just a second and vote for my cupcake i'd really appreciate it!

http://www.celebrations.com/cupcakecrown/2012/cupcake/cupcake-cupcake 

Happy Caking!!

Barbie skirt tutorial

In my last post I promised that I would show you how to do the barbie cake I made for my daughters 4th birthday. Unfortunately it looks like I'm only going to be able to show you how to do the skirt part and you will have to use your imagination and my written directions for the bodice. About a month ago I dropped my camera :(. Now it seems as though it is slowly dying on me. More about that later though.

First I started out with 4- 6" cakes (yes I know there are only 3, lol, just imagine all of them are there :).

Cut each layer in half (this isn't necessary I just do it because I like the icing cake ratio), and using a 2" cookie cutter, cut a hole in the center of each layer.

Now layer the cake and icing being careful to keep the holes in the center lined up.

Chill the cake for a few hours so it has a chance to firm up and will be easier to carve.

For the barbie I used a new one so that it could be a gift for the birthday girl afterward. In order to make her food safe you need to wrap her bottom half in plastic wrap before you insert her into the cake. It also helps with cleanup!!

Place the wrapped doll into the hole of the chilled cake.

And carefully carve a rounded top for the skirt. I had to add a little bit at the top of the skirt to hide the opening.

Ice the cake and return to the fridge to chill while you work on the fondant.

Now on to the skirt.

Roll out your fondant to 1/8" thick and about 6" x 10" rectangle. Then taper one end so it looks like the picture. The reason for this is to create less bulk at the top of the skirt.

Pleat the fondant piece and pinch at the top.

Bring cake out of fridge and spray with water or brush with piping gel so fondant will stick. Drape on the first piece and pinch and cut at the waist being careful not to cut too short.

Wet the first pieces edge and then drape the next piece, overlapping the first piece. Pressing down gently on the seam where the two pieces meet. Continue like this until you go all the way around the dress.

All the way around, now on to the top.

This is where my camera ate my pictures, or just decided it didn't like them enough to keep them :P. So for the top I just made a long rectangle that I made a v in the bottom and put it up against the barbie and marked where i needed cut for the top of the bodice. Then I cut a second v for the top. I trimmed the pieces to fit in the back and I was finished. Now you can use this method for the skirt and decorate it any way you want. With buttercreme or fondant and you can use any doll really. There are Disney princess dolls out there that would work great with this method too.

I just had to share this picture with you. It was a picture my sister took at the birthday party and for some reason it just struck me as funny/odd. I'm just glad I chose to make the baptism cake red velvet and not the barbie cake ;)

Happy Caking :D

Birthday's and Baptism's

My little baby turned 4! I'm not sure where the time has gone. It just seems like yesterday that I was losing sleep and wishing that she was out of diapers and able to walk and the fun independent things you look forward to with your precious little baby. Of course we eventually got what we wished for and were faced with newly discovered independence and then the terrible two's and then we're blessed even more with the terrible three's. So now as we dive into the 4's I look back and think about how much I miss all of those stages (of course I miss some more than others ;) but I've come to the conclusion that I really need to enjoy every moment with them. It just goes by so quickly. Because before I know it I will be sending them off to college and it will just be me and the hubby again.

Well last weekend we had her birthday party and we also had her baptized! It was quite a special day for all of us! And me being the cake person I am, I had to make a cake to celebrate each occasion. She has just recently gotten into barbies and decided that she wanted a barbie cake. Now I'm not a big fan of the doll kit cakes! I think most of them look like you stuck a doll in a mound of icing up to her ta ta's. Nothing against the decorators, it's just a bad design. So I went about making my own "skirt" and using an actual doll that the birthday girl can have as a gift after the party. I'm going to post a tutorial on how I made the skirt sometime this week.

For the baptism cake, I went simple and used a cross and the ribbon roses, her middle name is rose so it was very fitting.

Now for those of you wondering how I have been feeling, I have been doing a lot better. Not 100%, but much better. Thanks again for all of your thoughts and prayers. It means so much!

Happy Caking!
Julie :D

Hiatuses and Hermits...

Hello my friends, I know I've been gone for a wee bit longer than I said I was going to be, so I figured it was about time that I come out of my hermit hole and let everyone know what has been going on. Before I do that, let me first thank all of you that emailed or left comments of concern! I'm sorry that I didn't write back, but I did read all of them. As a matter of fact I haven't been doing a whole lot of anything until recently. I've been hiding out like a true hermit! But I am starting to feel better.

A little bit of a back story about me. I have something called a Chiari Malformation. (if you want to learn more about this condition here are some links www.asap.org and www.ninds.nih.gov ) I've had the surgery and for the most part I can get along with day to day activities without too many problem but about once a year I do something stupid and injure myself and irritate the condition. This time it was doing an exercise program that involved too much jumping right before Thanksgiving. Once this happens, I end up with horrible head pain, neck pain, and headaches 24/7. Then the fun starts with trying to adjust my medication with my neurologist so we can find a happy medium were I'm not in too much pain but not overly medicated. On a good note I've been diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Ok so not a good thing normally, but he was able to put me on a new medication that has helped me with a lot of other problems I've been having!!

So this is where things stand at the moment with me. I have been baking again and I hope to start blogging about that, but the Tuesday toppers are still on hold until I can get back into the groove of things, which I hope is soon, but I'm not giving any guarantees ;D.

Julie :D

Tuesday Toppers: Holly and berry cupcakes

I know it may seem a bit early for a Christmas topper (although I admit I've already listened to Christmas music and watched some Christmas movies with the family. I LOVE CHRISTMAS :), but this is going to be the last topper for the rest of the year. Right about now life gets very hectic for me. With making Christmas present, baking, sewing for clients, and everything else that comes with the holidays I'm going to take a short break from the toppers. I won't by any means be gone. I have my gingerbread house that I plan on posting pictures and tips, and of course the cookies and candy will have pictures and recipes! Gingerbread cookies, sugar cookies, mexican wedding rings, fudge, and so much more. After all of the madness subsides, I'll get right back to doing toppers.

Now on to the holly and berry topper, here is what you will need to make one:

-Fondant smoother
-Leaf veining tool
-Metal piping tip (any will do)
-Green and yellow fondant

-For the berries, make 3 small balls out of the red.

-

-For the leaves, divide a 1" ball of fondant into 2 pieces. Roll into logs and taper both ends.

-Flatten with a fondant smoother

-Take the piping tip and make cutouts all the way around. Two at each tip and 1 or 2 on each side in the middle.

-Using the small end of the leaf veiner make a line down the center and 3 veins on each side.

These would make great decorations for a cake too!

See you all soon! Happy Tuesday!

Tuesday Toppers: Pumpkin Pie Cupcake

Well it looks as though the flu has returned its ugly head again! My husband and youngest daughter have it now and unfortunately the girls didn't get to go trick or treating because of it :(. I guess there is always next year. Fortunately I had this topper that I did last year so I didn't have to try make one in this house full of germs, lol. This is actually the topper that started it all when I did a tutorial to put on cake central last year. So keep that in mind when you look at the pictures :D. Here's what you will need to make them:

-Fondant smoother
-Rolling pin
-Ball tool
-Knife
-White, tan, and pumpkin colored fondant.

-To make the "whipped cream" take a small ball of fondant and roll it into a log and taper at one end.

-To make the dollop, fold down the wider end about a third of the way down.

-Then start wrapping the tapered end up and around.

-For the "pumpkin filling" take a 1" ball of pumpkin colored fondant and form into a triangle with your fingers.

-Take the fondant smoother and help shape it.

-Pushing the backside with the fondant smoother.

-and pinch all of the edges to define them more.

-Roll out some tan fondant to about 1/8" thick

-place the pie filling on top.

-Cut along the front sides.

-Then cut straight back and with a little water fold the pie back onto the crust.

-Trim the back crust to about 1/2".

-Fold the crust over.

-Then ignore the cookie cutter! I'm not sure why it was even there, lol. Take the small end of a ball tool, and using your thumb and index finger and the ball tool crimp the edges.

Hope everyone is having a great (and healthy!) Tuesday.

Happy Halloween!

Just wanted to wish all of the ghost and ghouls out there a spooky Halloween! This is the cake I made last year, I had hoped to get one made for this year, but ran out of time.

The cast iron gate is made out of 50/50 fondant and gum paste and the cobblestone is fondant.

The signs, mouse, and pumpkin are made out of gum paste.

The Haunted house and tree are gum paste too, and since I've had a lot of requests on how I made the tree i'll give you a few quick tips. I took a 1/4" dowel rod and some thicker wire and wrapped the wires around the top. Then I took gum paste and wrapped that around for the trunk. For the branches i made took some more gum paste and wrapped it around the wires. For the face i just took some modeling tools and made the nose, eyes and mouth and highlighted them with some black gel paste.

I hope everyone has a spooktacular Halloween!!