9!

 Blake turned 9!  For his birthday, we ate at Organ Stop Pizza.  The kids loved the entertainment, even though those dancing cats were looking a bit mangy!  Look closely and you'll see the organ player in the background.

                                                 We came home and had presents and cake!

I decided to play with fondant again and made this Mario cake.  It took much longer than anticipated, and I was rushing to finish in time.  I think I need a cake stand instead of a pan turned upside down!Blake is getting so tall, and will probably pass me up before long!  He's doing well in piano, and is a great artist!  We're glad he's part of our family!

Fondant Fun

I've always wanted to try to make fondant, so yesterday I used this recipe to decorate some cakes with the kids.  It was a fun experiment.  This is the cake I decorated:

The kids made this one:

A child who shall remain nameless put an elbow in the cake, hence the large crater...

First we baked the cake and frosted it.  We got a "crumb" layer of frosting on the cake, then refrigerated
and frosted again.

We followed the above recipe to make the fondant, then kneaded it well.  (Your hands have to be covered in Crisco).

We rolled out the fondant on a greased table,

layed it over the cake,

smoothed it out,

and cut off the excess.

To color the fondant, I used regular gel food coloring.  The directions said to buy some fancy kind, but the stuff I had worked great.  Just knead it till you get the color you want.

Then we cut out shapes and decorated.  It was surprisingly east to work with, and a lot of fun! 






We even combined the leftover colored fondant, rolled it out and put it on a mini cake.  It made a tie-dye effect.

With all the birthdays coming up, I'll have many opportunities to make more cakes!

I

can't

get

rid

of

this

large

space,

so

keep

scrolling

down.

weird.

Since

I
have
the
room,





I

will
say

marshmallow

fondant

tastes

way

better

than

the

kind

you


buy


pre-made.