Robot Cake and a Birthday!

It is that time of year again at our house.

Birthday time!!

February is the first month of the year that has a birthday at our house. 

Little Dude is turning 9 and when the time came for him to look through my cake books and choose a cake he went for it and picked a robot cake!

This book is awesome!

There are so many ideas and shortcuts to awesome cakes.

The first thing I had to do was go out searching for all the candy needed for this guy.

I don't live in a huge town so I had to make some substitutes for the candy I couldn't find. For example BottleCaps for Razzles and Mini M&Ms for the Jujubees.

That OK. 

If I didn't tell... no one would know!

I followed the directions in the book except I made my cake instead of buying store bought pound cakes.

Crumb layer

We chose green instead of blue. (I am of the opinion that blue is not a food color. Just a pet peeve!)

Once it was frosted it was time for assembly.

Head, arms, ears, neck.

The all important lollypops added. 

Frosting dots. I didn't like the little points that the frosting tip left so how to fix that? 

TIP:

Dip your finger in some water, shake off the excess and gently press the peak down. The frosting won't stick to your finger and it will nicely round out.

Yeah, Yeah, he is legless! 

I did it on purpose, I swear.

There are 6 people in our family. This year we are not having company over for cake so I left the legs off because really... 

isn't this enough cake already?

I didn't want to be too wasteful! 

Look at the kid!

He doesn't care that his robot has no legs. 

He is happy as a kid can be!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIDDO!!

Elf on the Shelf 2012 - Day 7

 He has found the fridge! 

This morning we found Ernie in the fridge where he had colored the milk. 

PINK!!

 

 I think this calls for cookies.

What do you think??

Elf on the Shelf 2012 - Day 6

Well Friday night Ernie didn't come for a visit. 

I think he was out with the other Christmas elves having a night out.

Last night he returned. 

What better way to prepare for Sunday than to read your 

scriptures.

Now that he has been spiritually fed I am thinking he is going to want to be physically fed.

Where am I gonna find this rascal in the morning?!? 

Elf on the Shelf 2012 - Day 5

 Partied a little too hard the other night I think!!

We found him this morning in the birdcage.

He doesn't look like he feels to guilty to me!

Today he was the hardest to find. It took the kiddos a long time to find him!!

Elf on the Shelf 2012 - Day 4

What happens when your elf hangs out with a 15 year old boy? 
THIS  
is what happens!!

 I went to bed before Patrick did last night. Apparently Ernie showed up and they partied.
Perhaps a little TOO hard!

Elf on the Shelf 2012 - Day 3

 I think Ernie is upset at our lack of snow this year.

He has taken it upon himself to ask the snow fairy for some snow.

Q-Tip snowflakes. 

Very creative kiddo!!

If it snows tonight I know who to blame THANK!!

Elf on the Shelf 2012 - Day 2

I think the whole rappelling thing wore Ernie out.

He seems to have chilled out last night.

At least he has good taste in candy!!!

 

When I got home from running errands this is all that was left of his visit.

 

I really hope this doesn't mean he is going to be a wild man tonight, all hopped up on  
Peanut Butter Cups!!

Ernie the Elf on the Shelf 2012: Day 1

He's baaaaccccckkkkk!!

We have missed our Ernie.

Last night he showed up. The kids were so happy to see him this morning.

He made his grand entrance rappelling from the ceiling fan! I thought the ornament anchor was a great touch there Ern.

Stay tuned to see where he shows up next!

Sand Castle Birthday Cake

Birthday season has started at our house. 

They year starts out in February with Liam. 

He is turning 7 today.

After looking through my many cake and cupcake books he chose a sand castle cake out of Cakes for Kids.

Every so often I catch my little boys lying on the floor looking through the cake books on the shelf. 

They are so cute!

Another thing I like about the kids picking their birthday cakes is that I usually get to buy a new something for baking.

This time it was a 12 inch round cake pan, and an 8 inch square cake pan. 

 We have the best store here in Logan called Kitchen Kneads. 

I love that place. 

I thought this was going to be an easy one. Looks easy don't it! Not so my friends. 

I don't know what happened. I was in cake decorating mode, I had the little TV in the kitchen with a good show on, it was just harder than I had planned for it to be.  

The frosting is made with shortening to make it look like sand. Gotta make sure there is a crumble layer of butter cream. It doesn't like to stick to the cake. The doors, windows, and little balls are tootsie rolls melted a bit in the microwave and rolled out or up. The sand is brown sugar. The pebbles I found in the bulk section of the supermarket. Caramels and sugar cones finished it off.

My only catastrophe was that tall tower in the back. It is supposed to be 3 layers of cake. Well, when the tall, heavy cake sat on the bottom round cake it was too heavy. It started to fall over. Actually, it finally did fall over. 

Solution? Rice Krispy treats. I made an 8 inch pan of rice krispy treats and cut them into the right size squares, frosted them and decorated them as if the whole thing was made of cake.

Look at his face does he care? Nope. 

That smile makes all the baking and improvising worth it. 

I would do it all over again. 

Have a great 7th birthday little man.

We love you!!

Portable Art Studio

Our kids really love to make things. There is paper scraps, markers, crayons, glue sticks and scissors all over our house. The solution was this...

 It is a Bucket Boss. A portable tool belt that you hook on a bucket. I found this one at Home Depot. It cost $7.00. The bucket I already had in the food storage stash. 

For Christmas we gave the kids markers, colored pencils, crayons, pens, construction paper, pipe cleaners, pencils, rulers, foam shapes, scissors and drawing pads. 

All of the big stuff is held in the middle, and all the small stuff is in the side pockets. 

 When the Christmas tree was taken down the corner of the living room was empty. Before I could move the furniture back the kiddos had taken it over. 

It worked out perfectly. They have a space to create and it is contained in one spot. 

It is great to see them creating things and using their imaginations!

A Crafty Soiree #71