April 23, 2011

Hubby just got back from a business trip.  He brought home treats for our little girl and me – marshmallows with mango filling for mini me and for me a fresh supply of accessories to add to my Obento-related inventory…

Weee!  These ought to inspire me to again be creative with my daughter’s lunches. I’ve gotten a little lazy in the school lunch making department. Catching up on my favorite tv shows via dvr recordings has me staying up late almost every night.  Having said that, it’s too difficult for me to wake up very early in the morning and come up with creative lunch ideas.

We’re on the final stretch of the school year.  I can almost already smell summer vacation and Outer Banks vacation rentals, as if NC is just a stone’s throw away.  It’s free to dream…and to smell that dream! Hee hee.

April 16, 2011

We went strawberry picking some time last month.  It was our very very first since moving to the US almost 4 years ago.  We were in the company of dear friends which just made the experience even more fun.

The strawberries were mostly bright red and quite big.  Unfortunately, they weren’t very sweet. I used them to make strawberry filling for my cakes.  Good thing I remembered to bring a cooler with ice.  5 pounds of freshly-picked strawberries going to waste would have been a travel emergency, not to mention a travel nightmare! It was quite hot that day and after our fun at the strawberry farm, we spent the rest of the day until late that evening hanging out with friends.  Good times!

Click HERE for the Strawberry Filling Recipe.

Check out my designer purses!…

So they’re made out of gumpaste, but I sure don’t mind!  Hee hee.  I was requested to make this cake as a surprise present to the milestone birthday celebrant (whom I don’t know personally).  The fabulous birthday girl happens to love anything “designer” so I thought this would make the perfect theme for her.  The gift giver loved the cake, which made more doubly happy.

I hope all this “practice” I’m getting baking and decorating cakes for friends leads to a successful future cake shop complete with store front complete with small business phone system and a coffee shop area. That will truly be a dream come true.

For more about this cake, click HERE.

On the first weekend of April, I baked and decorated three cakes – two baby shower cakes and one birthday cake.  All of them were covered with fondant and adorned with fondant and gumpaste  decorations.  By the time I was done with all three cakes, my arms felt like they’ve been doing some pull up bar workouts.  But I’m not complaining!  Here’s one of the cakes I made that weekend, a princess-themed 3rd birthday cake…

The base is a 10-inch Chocolate Chiffon Cake with Strawberry Filling.  I used the princess dresses mini cakes as toppers, each of which serves 2.  All the flat-bottomed parts of the turrets have cak in them as well. I had a ball making this cake, pun intended. *wink*

I made two baby shower cakes during the first weekend of April.  One for a friend who is having a baby girl and one for another friend who is having a baby boy.

I made these cake toppers for my friend who’s having a baby boy…a pair of baby-size All-Star shoes…

It was my second time to make baby shoes out of gumpaste.  This one was just a teeny tiny bit more tedious than the first pair I made, which was used for a baby girl’s baptism cake.  Besides the shoes, the decorations I made included  a teddy bear, building blocks, feeding bottle and a quilt.  I should have probably added a ball or something like personalized bats.  But nah, I thought the cake looked gorgeous as it was…if Imay say so myself. *wink*

For more photos of this cake, click HERE.

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