Cake Take - Rolling On!

Big Girl, RM turned 9 recently. As her birthday approached, I was again faced with the dilemma of what kind of cake to make for her....... especially after her own suggestion of a Selena Gomez cake! Yikes! No way! Well, of late, the girls have both been very much into roller skating and I thought that would be a much better theme for our birthday.

The cake was a Yellow Cake filled with her favorite dark chocolate pastry cream and Whipped cream frosting. The roller skate was made a couple of days ahead with royal icing using the Color Flow Technique and let to dry hard. It was placed on the cake just before it was cut.

I must say that Selena Gomez got no mention after Big Girl saw her cake ........ Guess she's a bigger fan of dark chocolate! Keep Rolling, Girl!

Mita.

p.s : Just wanted to share some of the t-shirt art some of our friends and us did at the party!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM...

"M" is for the million things she gave me,
"O" means only that she's growing old,
"T" is for the tears she shed to save me,
"H" is for her heart of purest gold;
"E" is for her eyes, with love-light shining,
"R" means right, and right she'll always be,
Put them all together, they spell "MOTHER,"
A word that means the world to me.

Mom was here with us on her birthday so I had to bake a cake for the occassion, well I am just a beginner as compared to my big sis - the pro. Anyway mom said that it was good....!!! We had a nice little cake cutting ceremony in the evening which mom wanted to avoid as she didn't want to remind herself that she is yet another year older.

The cake is the white butter cake from http://www.joyofbaking.com/WhiteCake.html.

I tweaked the wilton buttercream icing recipe a little. My modified version of the buttercream icing is :

1/4 cup solid vegetable shortening
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine softened
1/2 tsp Vanilla Essence
3 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (approximately 1 lb.)
2 tablespoons milk

Cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth whenever not in use.

--I used a flower nail to get level cakes as explained in http://cakecentral.com/articles/651/cake-baking-flower-nail-method-tutorial. Nice tip as it avoided formation of the dome in the centre. Hence very little sawing of the cake.

So once again "Happy Birthday" to our dearest mom...!!!

gita

Cake Take! - We are 1 today!

Oh My!! A year gone by since we started this blog! Really? We made it to our first birthday ?! I know that we've taken long breaks and vacations in between, but we've kept it going! Starting this blog has made us set aside some crafting time to keep us sane in this ever-in-a-hurry routine life. We've also got to know so many talented bloggers who have inspired us with their work. We hope to have done the same for somebody,too.

I want to thank my mom today as she is the person who got Sis and me ( and the Bro!) into crafting since we were young! A special thank you to our followers......You guys keep us motivated! Liz, Ira, Wickedly-yours, we appreciate all the comments, suggestions, pushes and pats on the backs!

So, Sis, I know you are used to sharing your birthday with the Bro (Yeah, they are twins!), but today it's Happy Birthday to Us! Let's keep it rolling!

Mita.

Check out our very first post here !

Cake Take! - Poinsettia Cake.

Before the holiday season passes, I just wanted to show off my Christmas cake. It was made as the final cake of my Wilton Fondant and Gumpaste course. I chose not to go by any of the cakes given in the course book as I wanted to make something apt for the season. The cake is the classic yellow cake filled with vanilla pudding, iced in buttercream frosting and covered with fondant. The poinsettia is made with fondant and gumpaste. I spent a lot of time figuring out how to make the poinsettia, even handcutting some of the leaves and buds and covering it with lusterdust. Finally, it was bone dry and time to assemble the whole thing and would you believe I had no clue how to do it. So now I had the sense to go online and figure out how to do it, but to my disbelief, every site I checked said that we had to wire each leaf while the gumpaste was pliable, let dry and then form into a flower by twisting the wires together. I almost had a heart attack! My uncle and family were coming over for Christmas, so there was cooking to do. We have a little tradition of baking cookies for Santa, so that had to be done! I also had to bake the cake to be decorated. I couldn't start over again, oh no!

Anyway, after a restless night , I decided to just stick the buds in a ball of pink fondant and arrange the leaves around it and glue them to the cake with royal icing. And voila! Am I proud of myself or what?! I know its not a great 3-dimensional poinsettia or anything but I sure am glad!

On this happy note, I want to wish everybody a Happy New Year and I hope the next year turns out to be great!

Mita.

In Memoriam.

I'd like to dedicate this post in memory of my little cousin, Sachin, who lost his 7 month long battle with astrocytoma on the 21st. He was just 14. His passing has left a big vacuum in our family which is going to be real hard to fill. When he was little, we used to envy his beautiful, long eyelashes and tease him about it. His quick wit caught almost anybody off-guard and if there was anybody who could make his mom laugh whole-heartedly, it was him. I still remember the smile on his face when I told him that he was an uncle when my older daughter was born! While his siblings are rather on the shy side and just had their mom do their shopping, he was always outspoken and very particular about what he wore. I don't think I've ever come across any kid who has said he wants to go to a boarding school, beacuse he thought it was a better school. He did. In the long months that he suffered, not once did he complain, though he was confined to his bed and also lost his vision. He even assured his mom on the day he left that everything was going to be okay and that she shouldn't be sad. Typical him! I think he was an angel sent down by God.

Sachin had a big sweet-tooth and loved all those sweets from the bakery. This cake was made as the finale cake of my Wilton course 2 on the day before he passed.

Sachin, this one's for you! You have spread so much happiness in all of our lives and though you are in a much better place now, you will be greatly missed !

Mita.

Sibling Act - A long overdue post after an over-extended summer holiday!

The past summer flew by quickly, but somehow its been quite a task to shake off the holiday mood and get back into routine. It was the first time we had a sibling reunion after all of us got married. Amongst all the sisteracts and all, we have a brother in the mix, who is so talented but never gets to complete any of his projects and also a sister-in-law, who is a constant source of encouragement.

Little girl SS had her birthday while everyone was here. She wanted an Ariel or mermaid cake. This really was a "Sibling Act", as the three of us were up almost the whole night to make it a surprise for SS. The marshmallow fondant cutouts were mostly done free-hand by the artistic brother! Anyway I think the sleepless night of toiling paid off as little girl SS was so excited in the morning, we had to eat cake for breakfast!

Mita.