2011 in (a lot of) Pictures

January

 

 

February

 

March

 

 

April

 

 

 May

 

 

June

 

 

July

 

 

August

 

 September

 

 

 October

 

 

 November

 

December

 

 

Bennett's Dinosaur Attack Cake

Bennett's 4th birthday was a couple weeks ago, and I knew I was going to incorporate dinosaurs into his cake this year.  I saw a cute idea online and thought I'd try my hand at it.  So first, I made this cute little birthday cake:

I love doing cakes like this.  They're so fun and colorful and neat.  I could do these all day long.  :)

But for Bennett's "Dino-Mite Birthday Party," this wouldn't cut it.  There needed to be a dinosaur attacking that cute little cake.  So, I made my first batch of modeling chocolate.  Actually, we first tried making a T-Rex out of rice krispie treats, but that was a terrible failure.  So the next day, I made green modeling chocolate.  Josh was given the task of forming our dinosaur, since I knew he would do a much better job than I would.  He was able to do it, but it wasn't easy.  The modeling chocolate softens so fast, just from the heat of your hands, that it makes it difficult to work with.  I'm sure we just need more practice with it. 

Anyway, we formed him and stuck him in the freezer to harden.  And then we left him there overnight.  Mistake.  In the fridge would have been fine, but the freezer was a bad, bad idea.  The result was a wet, slimy dinosaur the next day, because he was trying desperately to thaw.  Had we done the fridge, he would have hardened but wouldn't have had that excess moisture trying to come out.  Oh well.  We'll know next time.

So while we wanted him to be standing upright with a big chunk of cake and icing in his mouth and a gouge out of the cake, we instead had to just lean him up against the cake just so he'd stay there.  He was sliding and would have fallen right down if we had tried to stand him up on his own.  He also didn't have any teeth.  He was supposed to, but that was another failure and I didn't have time to make it right.  So, he's gumming the cake.  And in this picture, his arm had fallen off and had been reattached directly to his side in a pinch.

 

So really, the dinosaur was a complete mess, but do you think Bennett noticed or cared?  No way.  He loved his dinosaur cake.  And that's all in the world that matters.

 

Winter Snowflake Cake

My mom and I worked together on this cake.  She made the cake and I decorated it.  The lady who ordered it just wanted something wintery and festive, so I decided to make royal icing snowflakes.  I love the way the snowflakes turned out; I just wish the photo captured them more.  They actually had some pearl luster dust on them to make them shimmer a little, and there was a pearl dragee (aka edible bee-bees) in the center of each one.

Lord of the Rings Cake

Back in November, Le Jardin Blanc sent me this picture and asked if I could re-create this cake.

Of course I said yes.  So this became my first Lord of the Rings cake.  They only needed the cake to feed 25 people, so I suggested making the 'book' layer a dummy cake so that it wouldn't have to be scaled down to a tiny little replica.

It was a lot of fun to do, but as most of them do, it took a long time.  I am such a perfectionist when it comes to these, that I spend a LOT of time on them.  But I think it's worth it in the end.  Here's my recreation:

 

 

Happy Birthday Poppa!

My dad's birthday was last week, so Bennett called him on his way to school that morning.  He talked to Poppa for a little while and then asked to talk to Grandmama.  When he got on the phone with my mom he asked, "Are you making a cake for Poppa?" 

So I'm pretty sure Daddy can thank Bennett for the chocolate layer cake he got on his birthday.  And of course we had to go over there after Bennett got out of school so we could partake.

Hopefully Mama won't kill me for posting this video.  I mean - not that there's any reason that she should... but - ahem.  Let's just say that most of the time when she sings, Cannon screams, "Noooo!!!"

(love you, Mama)

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