Abby Cadabby Birthday!!!

It is Lilianna's 1st birthday! YAY! First birthday parties are always more about the parents than the children. Seriously, will a 1-year-old remember their cake? Probably not, but that won't stop the parents from trying to get a sublime cake. Today's 'Sublime Cake' takes the form of Abby Cadabby from Sesame Street.

I truly enjoy making little gum-paste characters. Unfortunately, the first one I made for this cake had a little fall, and is currently warming a dumpster :( That's okay, that just means more work ... or play, depending on how you look at it.



Anyway, this two tier Chocolate cake had just the right amount of magic and sparkle to it to make it special. Now, off to get my party-mama on! (I hate that show). Here's to cake, ice-cream, children, and very proud parents!

Baby Face Cupcakes

Babies are awesome right? Cute, cuddly, sweet. Sure, they have their moments, but what child does not?

When I think of babies, all I think about is:

But seriously it's not all that bad right?
A co-worker of mine is going away on a Maternity leave soon. She's done, tired, and surprisingly small given how close she is to the 'end'. This will be her second child, yet she's not forgotten the pain, or so she assures me. Since tomorrow is her last day (Thursday), I'm sending her off with a little gift. The screaming baby, is really a cupcake!

But wait, if the screaming baby was not your type, there are more.This cliche little design is darling! I've wanted to do a cuppie like this for a while now, but given my non-baby state, and the fact that my baby-having friends have moved away from Fort Fabulous, I've not had the chance. Yeah, that's right, Fort Fabulous!

Babies, cry, scream, and drool. But they also laugh, smile, love and are cute. So, good luck Madam! Tu vas être une maman fantastique! Bonne Chance!

Roses for Rose

It is finally spring, the first day in fact. Time to celebrate. These cookies were a quick project to honor the passing of a dear friend. These cookies made me hopeful, for all the things I will accomplish in the coming spring.

Hurray for the first day of spring. We've got about another month before the snow here is gone and I can start planting my spices. I am truly looking forward to getting out and hitting the pavement as well (running).

But, until I can get out and enjoy the magic of spring as it was intended to be enjoyed, I shall take a step back, and think of Rose's warm smile.

Now, on to other fun stuff. I've gotten this award from 3 people, and I've never seemed to have found the time to accept. So, to start, let me thank the three lovely people who nominated me:
Little Eme, It's a Priceless Life, and D'Lea Designs, THANK YOU!


To Accept the award, and promote others, there are rules:

1. Thank and Link back to the person who gave you the award.

2. Share 7 things about yourself.

3. Award 7 recently discovered great bloggers.

4. Contact the bloggers and tell them about the award.

Okay, so here we go.
SEVEN THINGS ABOUT MEGHAN!

1. My favorite colours are Pink and Teal. I've actually decorated my house in pink and my hubbie calls it the 'pink princess palace,' even though he admits I am a good designer :)

2. I live in Canada (already stated), and was the First Girl Scout in my home town (along with a friend of course!). Not Girl-Scout, but like the American BSA, I was a Scout in Scout's Canada, and it was not for the boys! I loved the fact that they did more than knit and bake (which in the early 80s was all my Brownie troupe did).

3. I wear aprons around my home in the 1950s housewife-way. For some reason, I feel that is a tradition that should never end... and I have MANY MANY aprons.

4. I love to draw, A LOT! I've been drawing since I was very young. Crayons are amazingly effective for shading :)

5. I used to Cantor at my church. I never claimed that I had a good voice, but for some strange reason, I got to sing lead. YAY! In my choir I also played flute :)

6. Starbucks in a Chapters is the one place on this earth that I could spend an entire day! Seriously, I love to sit, drink my coffee and read... READ!

7. My dream is to be the perfect hostess and wife and mother (the last part is going to be tough!). The 1950s were a glorious time of entertaining and having fun with friends. I hope that I can throw many dinner parties and gatherings.

Now to pass it on:
These blogs are awesome! Check them out and be inspired!

1. Manni @ iBake Cakes
2. Lialoa
3. Butter Hearts Sugar
4. Sweet Creations by Stephanie
5. Rollin' in Dough
6. 148 Cookie Street
7. Fresh Cut Flours

Hope you enjoy the blog-hop! And thanks for the award :)

Last bit of Irish Green

Before we all go off to forget the awful holiday of St. Pats day (no, it's really not that bad... except when it's on a Thursday), I thought I would have one little pots on my morning snack!


I am a sucker for cinnamon buns any season of the year. Really, you could give me a whole plate of them and I would die happy! So, Here's my recipe for a quick batch! (Makes about 24 medium buns or 18 large).

Basic Sweet Dough
(adapted from the Kitchen Aid Cookbook)

3/4 cup 1% milk (we have to be healthy here!)
1/2 c sugar
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c butter
2 tbsp yeast
1/3c warm water
3 eggs room temp
5 1/2-6 1/2 c flour

1. Warm milk, salt, sugar and butter in a small saucepan. Stir until sugar is melted and so is the butter. Cool to Lukewarm.

2. Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add lukewarm milk and eggs. Add flour and kneed for about 2 minutes. Add flour in 1/2 c increments until it is just a little sticky.

3. Place dough in greased bowl, turning to crease the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place (1h).

Filling

1c firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup sugar
1/2 c butter
1/4 c flour
1 1/2 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 c walnuts (if desired)

Cream sugars and butter, flour and cinnamon (and walnuts if chosen).

PUT IT ALL TOGETHER!

1. Roll out your dough and spread the mix on one side. Roll the thing up and cut into rolls (large or small). Place cut cinnamon rolls in a baking pan or dish (like below). And Let rise (40 min).

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes (mine were 20 and were a little dark... my oven is on the fritz).

Green for St. Pats day! HURRAY!

I put a glaze on mine:

Caramel Glaze

1/3c evaporated milk
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 1/2 c powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

In a saucepan, melt brown sugar with the milk. Add warm milk mix to the powdered sugar and vanilla. Blend with a mixer until the mix is slightly cool and creamy (about 2 minutes). Pour over buns. YUMMY!

Honestly, nothing is better than a warm cinnamon bun... except someone to share it with :)

Little Lamb, Who Made Thee?

Hurray! SPRINGTIME!
No really!

The snow is melting, there is a light rain in the air...
I CAN RUN OUTSIDE AGAIN AND NOT WEAR ONE THOUSAND LAYERS!

It is so amazing to finally be able to go outside and see everything melting. Sure, there is dog poop everywhere, and it's hard to go for walks for fear of being splashed by cars, but the final result of glorious sunshine makes it all worthwhile.

I love Summertime in the Fort! We're so close!

Anyway, I have spring fever. My windows are all open and I'm cleaning up, getting ready for summer. To celebrate, I decided to do a cookie. It has been a long time since I've actually taken my time on a nice looking decorated cookie! To honor spring, I made cute little spring lambs. Yes, yes, they look like sheep to me too, but let us use our imagination for a while. Look, all bubbly-cute!

I made a few types of lambs to figure out how I wanted to decorate them, in the end, these lambs were the nicest (other than flat coats and non-peril topped coats). Each bubble is put on, then let to dry (10 minutes or so) then another layer, then another until finally you get this cute bubbly/puffy look. Makes for a great coat!

I'm the black sheep in my family :) But I could just as easily be the one below (Scary Lamb).

Personal Happy News, kinda boring. BE WARNED:
This summer, hubbie and I are building a home on the lake. We are super excited to see all this snow melt so we can get started... TIME IS TAKING FOREVER! Honestly! But, I am confident that it will all go down without a hitch. We just got the blue-prints back from the engineer. HURRAY! I cannot wait to get out there. Hubbie and I went out to the property last month to take photos; there was snow up to our waists! Only one more month I'm sure, then all of this will be almost gone!

Anyway, rant done. I'll post more more fun ideas soon! Ta-Taa!

Cheerleading Competition

Way-To-Go Muskie Cheerleaders on your win at the Ontario Cheer Federation Competition. We are proud of you!

Sorry for the shortened post, I've got to go back to being sick :)

Giant Cupcake Cake Tutorial

New blog design. I can't wait for spring any longer! It's too close. This cute little theme has been in the back of my head for a while now. I've been wanting to create something a little more shiny and bright. What else is shiny? Well....

Who likes Cupcakes?

How about a giant cupcake?

Like This One:

Well, I know I do! Would you like to learn how to make one? It is easier than you think. Carved cakes simply require a little bit of creativity... and a sharp knife!

What will you need:

Cakes (at least three 6-inch or five 9-inch cakes) I used a 6" pan, so three cakes here.
Icing (whatever type you like).
Marshmallow Fondant
Americolor Gel color
Gumpaste decorations


Step One:
Stack your cakes and allow to settle. Once they have rested about 8 hours you can begin to cut them. I shaved the bottom inward and the top inward. You'll see the bulge in the middle making the cupcake shape. Be careful when cutting so as not to destroy the cake.

Step 2:
Using the cake carvings (the leftovers from shaping) add some height onto the top of the cake.

Step 3:
Dirty-ice the cake. Allow time to crust.

Step 4:
Once the cake has settled and the icing has crusted, apply another layer of icing. Now for the fondant. Using a flat band of fondant, wrap it around in a swirling pattern at the top of the cake. This will be the icing on the cupcake.

Step 5:
Cut small strips of fondant (any color) to use as the wrapper. These rectangles give the cupcake a little more definition. Make sure to smooth the fondant with your smoothing tool.

Step 6:
Cupcakes need toppings. I used a small bit of chocolate fondant, and a small bit of pink fondant to make a type of sauce for the top.

Then, once that was placed on, I made jimmies and a cherry out of gum paste and let them dry.


Apply each layer of with a little bit of water to hold down the item. This part is where you can get creative. It will depend on your own design. I like cherries. This looks like a delicious sundae!

It's that simple!This cuppie is going to a friend of mine that gave up sugar. Maybe I can tempt her to the dark side >:)

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial!

Fondant Cookie Tutorial

Decorated Cookies take a lot of time, which sometimes we don't have. I had spoken of Fondant-covered cookies in this post, and thought it would be wonderful to share some ideas on how to make beautiful cookies on a limited time frame.

What Will you need?

1 wad of Marshmallow Fondant (you can even half your recipe)
20 undecorated cut-out-cookies (any recipe will do)
Food Dye (to color fondant)
the cookie cutter used to make the shape.
Flower cutters, butterfly cutters, whatever works!
A small bit of icing.

First, take one colour of fondant and roll it flat. I chose a circle for the cookie, so I am using the same cutter below...

Cut out a shape of the same type as the cookie you baked.

Using a little regular icing (tub stuff works for this), spread a light layer to stick the fondant to the cookie.

Smooth out your fondant.

Hopefully by now, you'll have some good ideas on how to decorate. Here, I made flowers out of different colour fondants, and cut them out. I also have lines which I cut.

You can STICK the shapes to the fondant-cookie with a little dab of water. I use a paint-brush to wet the cookie....

Place your design on and VOILA!

You can make any design, or you can paint on the fondant-cookie with food color gels. Whatever you want! Options are endless and easy.

Until next time!