elliemoon

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUSHI LOVER!

i found a picture of a sushi cake when i was searching for cake inspiration for kai back in early june. i quickly printed the image and squirreled it away for late september. this cake had 'big b' written all over it. thursday i prepped::

friday i got busy::

i had to strategically photograph this, as my heavy handedness with the frosting lead to some fondant malfunctions. but all in all it had the desired effect. he was genuinely surprised! not an easy task to accomplish, trust me. 

happy birthday big b! here's hoping we get out for some real sushi before the end of the year!!

SCHOOL'S IN SESSION

the hurricane delay came and went, the power issues were resolved and now the buses are rolling. so i made some treats to take the edge off::

i saw this on the my cake school blog and had to try it. i had planned on doing the bus cake as well but i guess that will have to wait until next year. if you love baking and then decorating your treats, you will want to visit this blog frequently. so many great ideas and tips.

THERE GOES O'S SECRET IDENTITY

the cat's out of the bag::

happy seventh birthday owen! the best fourth yet!

SCHOOLS OUT 2011!

its all over! for a couple of months anyway. i for one, will not miss the mad dashes to the bus each morning. and here, as promised, is another faux food extravaganza from the pages of hello, cupcake. this one wound up being pretty simple::

and was very warmly received::

not that i was expecting cupcakes covered in jellybeans not to be!

CAKE AND ICECREAM

we had kai's family party over the weekend. we were rained in but, aside from a few moments of complete pandemonium, had a great day nonetheless. no bodily injuries or broken housewares, shocking! kai received enough reading material to last for at least half of the summer vacation. i love that little bookworm. and his cake was warmly received, although it lacked a bit of the wow factor of his previous cakes::

i admit, i tried to make up for this by slightly misleading him. i sort of played it up that the bugs had taken a bit of time and were a special treat and so his cake was going to be something simpler. it worked like a charm::

and it definitely was one of the easier cakes to put together. big b designed the stencil for the top. a little wrapping and some cutting and pasting with fondant and we were done. for the first time i had everything ready more than an hour before people arrived!! i had time to shower! inconceivable. 

LATE NIGHT BUG FEST

did i say i hadn't ever made birthday treats for school? i would really like to blame that comment on a few too many glasses of good wine, but unfortunately its just another example of the pile of mush that my brain has become. some sleep would help, but i'm not expecting that for at least another two years. its true though, that it was the first time i had to make a girl birthday treat. and previous school treats haven't been terribly exciting; o is a july baby, and kai requested cookies last year. the year before that he had a teacher that was better suited for working in a penitentiary. i don't remember if he took in treats that year. i try not to remember anything about that year. and now that its much too late for a 'long story short', here's what i surprised kai with this year::

yet again, i have to give props to this book::

and you will be seeing it again soon for this years last day of school celebration. 

i thought i had this one in the bag. but then it was midnight, and i was still sifting through m&m's and frosting cupcakes. in my mind, i always have everything mapped out. i honestly pictured myself sitting on the couch around 9pm, feet up, perhaps knitting or maybe eating an icecream sunday and finally watching those two netflix movies that have been on my desk for two months. the cupcakes, of course, sitting sweetly on the kitchen counter in the background. will i ever learn? 

9 years ago today::

happy birthday kai! now seriously, slow it down. i am not prepared for the tweens! better get a move on.

 

 

LE CAKE

this one was a while in the making. very simple overall, but we had so much going on over the weekend and for her birthday in general that it seemed as though it would never come together. in the end bella decided to let me surprise her as far as the cake theme went. an excellent decision as it allowed me to go super simple and super sweet. just a cutesy little girl cake::

yet another design idea lifted from the pages of the cupcake book. i also couldn't help but add some of those ladybugs from the sunflower cupcakes. the butterflies are made with chocolate wafers. i was aiming at easy and smallish, but in the end it would have been nice to have done three tiers to allow for more of a butterfly swarm. though bella didn't mind at all, she loved it just the same::

happy birthday bell! and happy easter to all of you! hope you have a restful weekend and a lovely holiday!

 

 

SUNFLOWERS AND LADYBUGS

these were the cupcakes i made for bella's preschool birthday festivities. the boys are both summer babies, so this was the first time i had to prepare a celebration snack for someone to bring to school! not surprisingly, i got a bit carried away. these are another design found in my favorite cupcake book::

somewhere around midnight (at which time i was still elbow deep in frosting) i realized that these should have been used as her birthday cake. but i had already promised "fancy" cupcakes for school, so i was sunk. besides, the cakes were already made and ready to be leveled and, really, who better to appreciate these than a room full of preschoolers?

THE CAKE

this accompanied the cookies for the shower. in my head i was picturing white with blue flowers. but after some serious hunting, i found that blue flowers at this time of year are scarce, to say the least. there were none, to say the most. so i took another direction::

there are just a few more weeks before this little guy arrives!! lucky for us, his parents live right next door! i will have to restrain myself from walking over there everyday. i'm hoping to take the role of primary babysitter::

and there's cierra. all belly and cuteness and just about ready to go! let the countdown begin!

 

 

ONE FINAL NOTE

due to unforeseen circumstances, the big thanksgiving day dessert was not complete in time for the actual event, but did get hand delivered to most of the attendees the following day! i had already made all of the cupcakes and the frosting, we just hit a glitch! what are you going to do, right? just extend the holiday! thats what i say. so without too much more blabbing, here it is::

this is, of course, another faux food cupcake gem from the ultimate cupcake book. so much fun and the kids loved how they came together. okay, thanksgiving 2010 is officially history. now, on to the "to do" list for christmas. over and out!

and happy december!! yikes!!