03 October 2008

Frosted Friday - A Re-Post

I am phoning it in just a little today. Actually it's more like copy and pasting it in. As you read this, I am elbow deep in blue buttercream. A very dear friend is very, very pregnant, and her shower is tomorrow. I made the cake for her wedding shower, and am very pleased to be making this one too.

I will post about it soon, but for now I am re-posting this from when I made my son's 1st birthday cake.

This will look familiar to some of you.

Act surprised.


Dear Wilton Industries,

Thank you for the lovely 3-D rubber ducky cake mold you make. It is perfect for my son's first birthday party. He has loved duckies since he could focus his little eyes, and as this is his first cake too, it should be great fun all around. I do have one small issue, though.

When researching and purchasing this mold, I somehow missed the tiny writing that said baking the cake would require oven safe cotton string or wire. Had I noticed this, I may have stopped to wonder why such tools would be necessary. Unfortunately it wasn't until this morning that I read the directions included inside the box, and realized my mistake. Apparently, I will be strapping two mold halves together rather than gluing two cake halves together with frosting as I had assumed. Granted, this is partly my fault, but really! Since when does cake rise like that?

Thankfully, I had planned ahead and arranged for an auntie to distract my son this afternoon to allow time to fix anything that may go horribly awry. I would ask, however, that in the future you include a warning on your cake pans. I'm no Martha, but I am fairly adept when it comes to all things baking...

No, seriously. I gots mad SKILLZ.

For reals.

But if the cake my son is expecting will require channeling Duff from Ace of Cakes, I would appreciate a little advanced notice.

Demonic-level possession takes a lot out of me, and I still have vegetable dip to prepare.

Thank you for your time,

Alicia

And now, the cake that took hours to make:And mere minutes to destroy. All humans in attendance had a wonderful day.

The duck, on the other hand, probably did not enjoy it.

The little duck on the smash cake actually looks like he knows what is coming... poor thing.

It was yummy, and everyone loved it, but man that thing was labor intensive! It was a little lopsided and had cracked on one side, as most cakes do. It's leveled, plastered with frosting, resting on a ramekin and cake board base, and has a chopstick shoved through it's head to keep it steady.

Seriously, I think I qualified for college-level engineering credits with this cake.
We went with vanilla for the tub and chocolate for the duck. The suggestion of red velvet with a strawberry filling for the duck was vetoed, as I did not want to shell out mega-$$$ for therapy for the children in attendance.

02 October 2008

Drumroll, Please

Eight lovely comments in a bowl. And the winner is:
Lauren W!

Congratulations! Let me know where you would like your prize sent!

BTW, all. Lauren is pretty talented herself. You can see that for yourself here and here.

As I've said, I am not new to crafts or even to blogging (If you got that, shhh!) but I am new to craft blogging. Blogging has been a lot of fun for me, and it has introduced me to many, many wonderful people. Thank you all for your nice comments and for helping me to kick off my crafty new adventure.

Hold for silly girl-ness in 3... 2... 1...

***SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!***

(Please picture hand clapping and jumping in place for the full effect.)

Ok. I'm off to gather the fixin's for cake for 40.

More on that tomorrow!

01 October 2008

Grand Opening Giveaway!

September is SO the new October.

My Etsy shop went live in the waning hours of September 30th!

I'm counting that one as extra credit.

And check out that fab little widget over there ---->

I'm positively giddy, I tell you! Decaf for me today.

Ok, so what is in the shop is just the tip of the iceberg. There are a lot of other things still in progress, not to mention the other crafty categories - paper, crochet... I'm tickled pink by the thought of finally doing something with all the fun and funky crafts that I seem to have been attracting my whole life.

Not counting the horror of the dark days of my puffy paint addiction, of course.

Anyway....

On to the rules for the giveaway:

Go here and take a look around.

Pick out something that strikes your fancy and come back here to tell me what it is.

After comments close at midnight I will randomly select one commenter to receive their favorite item, so choose wisely.

As always, feedback is not only welcome, it is very much appreciated.

Oh, and anyone you send over here today should also let me know you sent them, so you can win bonus entries!

**************************************

Edited to add:

I should have specified 12 AM EST.

Silly me, but thank goodness we're not dealing with Daylight Savings Time too!

And sorry if there has been confusion, but the top Etsy Mini links to Oh2122.

The bottom is my Esty Favorites Mini, and contains items I like but were not made by me.

Deepest apologies if I have disappointed anyone, but I encourage you to go check them out too. Etsy is chock full of amazing people!