Weekend Wind-Up

Well, it has been quite the busy weekend here in cake and cookie land. I got a call on Wednesday asking for two small cakes for a birthday party for a brother and a sister. The cakes needed to be delivered on Friday. Since I didn't have any other cakes to do this week, I agreed to make the cakes even though I prefer a little more notice. The request was for a Cinderella cake for a 7 year old girl and a Batman cake for an 11 year old boy.

For the girl, I made a gumpaste/fondant carriage and sprayed it with luster dust to make it glimmer. Then I just put a Cinderella candle next to the carriage. Unfortunately, the carriage took a little longer than expected to dry, so I was running a little later than I wanted to on the delivery. Then, when I finally got it ready to attach to the cake, I opened up the Cinderella candle, and her head fell off!!! I had to go back to the store and exchange it for another one before I could deliver the cakes...ugh! It all worked out in the end, and here is the final result.




And then I made this one for her 11 year old brother. I had planned to do a 3D gumpaste thing for this one too with a little Batman figure next to it so the cakes would be similar, but all I could find was Spiderman 3 and Superman Returns figures. Apparently, it's been awhile since a new Batman movie came out, and he was not the figure of choice for most cakes right now. I finally managed to find this toy, and I incorporated it into the decoration of the cake. My 11 year old gave his seal of approval, so I guess it came out alright.




After I finally delivered these two cakes and cleaned up my mess, I was exhausted. But I had promised J. that I'd make soccer ball cookies to take to his game on Saturday 'cause it was his turn to bring the snack. I asked him if we could just go buy a snack, and I'd make the cookies for the end-of-the-season party, but he really wanted them...so I made 2 dozen of these before I went to bed!



They were a big hit! I was glad I stayed up to do them for him.


I also got an email on Thursday asking for a wedding/baseball themed cake for about 45-50 people for Saturday afternoon. Apparently a couple of season ticket holders for our local AAA Baseball team got married... or married again... I never quite got that straight. Anyway, they've been together for 22 years, and they were having a Tailgate Party/Reception before Saturday Night's game, so I came up with this!



And here is a close up of the "Happy Couple"! I used a gumpaste/fondant mixture in a push-mold to form the people. I added baseball hats, painted them with food coloring and inserted toothpicks in the legs while they were still soft so I could stick them into the cake after they hardened. The bat, mitt, and baseball were made "freehand", and attached to the cake with icing.



We had a great time at the tailgate party AND at the game. Our team blew a 5-0 lead going into the 7th inning, but our good friend David Matranga was there. (He used to be on our team, but got traded. And his new team was our opponent this weekend.) It was fun to see him and talk to him for awhile after the game. Besides being our favorite ball player, he also really helped little B. with his hitting after he tore his spleen. (Little B. had fallen 8 feet out of a tree at a picnic and tore his spleen. We spent 4 days in the hospital, another week in a wheelchair, and then another 3 weeks of limited mobility. This happened just before he was to switch from "Coach Pitch" to "Kid Pitch". Little B. had lost weight and muscle tone and was quite weak and a little nervous about standing in the batter's box and letting kids throw baseballs at him!) David worked with him once a week throughout the season to re-develop his swing and get his confidence back. We became friends and have really missed having him here on our team. David also hit the first grand slam home run that we ever saw! I made him a cake for that one!! It was soooo cool!

We got home from the game just before 11:00pm. Just in time to see the last 25 laps of the NASCAR race. I got to watch my boy, Jeff Gordon win!!! What a fabulous day!!!

Then, I got up this morning and made 23 cupcakes (I guess I over-filled them, because there just wasn't enough batter for that 24th cupcake!) I didn't take a picture because they were boring. I just did big stars all over the tops because it was the fastest way to ice them while using the least amount of icing. I usually do swirls on cupcakes, but they take a lot of icing, and I was using what was left over from the baseball/wedding cake and I didn't want to have to make up another batch! They were just to take to the picnic in the park after church, so they didn't need to be fancy, just yummy.

So, that was my weekend. And now I've got to go switch my laundry from the washer to the dryer and put in the last load for the day. Then, I'm dragging my carcass to bed and not moving until tomorrow morning!!! I'll be back when I can see straight again!

Thanks for stopping by.