March Fondant Icing Enjoyment!

Although it is still the middle of winter and spring wants to come, it gives me reason to bake and experiment with the cold weather keeping me indoors with the children.  I baked a lovely Madeira cake, created into free-hand horse design, buttercream icing, fondant icing, strawberry preserve filling! I decorated with dark chocolate creations, a colored fondant bridal and curly ribbon for a mane!  It turned out fabulously! 

I then created an igloo with 11 penguins and 1 snowman out of fondant icing.  Again I baked the dense, moist, delicious Madeira cake!  It was a hit for the 11 children that came to my son's 2nd Birthday party!   Each taking home a penguin with them.   

Cake Pops!

February, the month of Love!  It was a very busy month for me!  I had a week to myself on a tour of Washington DC, for the first time.  Upon my return to my children and home we got to work on Valentine's Day goodies!  White Chocolate Dipped Strawberries, Key Lime Cheesecake Pops,  Chocolate Cake Pops, and lots of sweet hugs and kisses!

January 2013

     How wonderful, a New Year!  How exciting to spend so much time in the snow!   We enjoyed baking Gingerbread Pirates and icing them with layers of colored icing and candy!  The boys loved it!  I let them take over, which was FUN!  I am looking forward to trying my hand at making cake pops soon. 
     Not much baking this month, more time in the snow, sledding, and long walks. 

Christmas Time!!

     "Oh it's the most wonderful time of the year..."  What a beautiful holiday season to be baking, spending money on Christmas presents for others, decorating a lovely tree with every sort of sparkle and shine!  My kids and I have had an incredibly wonderful December already and still two weeks to Christmas!  I love watching the kids dance to Holiday music while I bake and clean, and to join in and feel like a kid again myself!  I am in the process of making delicious pumpkin fudge and peppermint fudge!  YUM!!  My eldest, Malachi, tried fudge for the first time at the store, "taste testers", and immediately said, "More budge please mom!"  So cute!  The four of us had a photo with Santa and my two boys wrote letters to Santa as well.  Malachi rehearsed all morning what he wanted to ask Santa for and tried to figure out how we could cut a hole in the ceiling so that Santa could come in since we don't have a chimney!  Love it!

Thanksgiving

There is so incredibly much to be thankful for! We celebrate with a heart of Thanksgiving every day at my house!!!

I created an entire choir of Thanksgiving Turkeys  out of Oreo cookies, chocolate covered Carmel balls, Reeces Peanut butter Cups, black icing, candy corn, yellow icing, black and red licorice.  They turned out incredibly cute and were easy to make even for the kids. Photos soon...

Fondant and Chocolate!

     I did manage to roll out my fondant a few too many times with too many interruptions and too much Crisco!  So, it worked the first roll out and was not so happy with me after I worked it too much.  But, all about experimenting with new flavours, ideas, and the three kids to tend!!  I opted for something even tastier and much more relaxing and lovely to work with..........yes, CHOCOLATE, white and dark. 

     I made molding chocolate, white chocolate roses, white and dark chocolate leaves, and dark chocolate baskets!   The dark chocolate cake I baked to apply my fondant to ended up covered in mocha butter cream icing and my white chocolate garnishes!  I will have to work more with fondant to find out its' secrets!  I have already learned so much about fondant from numerous internet videos that I found very helpful. 

Fondant

     I made butter cream flavored fondant from scratch today!  It was hard work kneading out the icing to form a perfect consistency.  It has a great flavor, which was my main goal.  Fondant can look so amazing on cakes, and then I find the flavor to be disappointing.  So, my aim to create a great flavored fondant worked. 
     I have yet to roll out the icing and decorate a cake with it.  I am looking forward to seeing what happens and if I can get just the look for a cake I hope to create with the fondant icing.  My 1.5 year old son decided he would help me and poured out the expensive bottle of butter flavoring all over the kitchen table.  I just kept a smile on my face and gave him a different project.  Glad I had already used the 2.5 tsp. needed for the recipe so I did not have to head to the store at the last minute.