Thursday, July 23, 2009

The Amazing Gelatin!

Hey all,
Remember when I was on last time I said I would tell you all how to do that gelatin thing? Well, I didn't forget and I will share with you how it's done. First let me show you again the cake I put it on.

Well in case you are wondering...this cake is suppose to be some kind of metal "thing" with a portal enshrouded with purple flames. It didn't quite make it past the idea stage but all those "flames" are made of gelatin. Here's how you can do it. Bye the way...try a bow.

Okay. Take 2 1/2 parts of water to 1 part gelatin. Warm in microwave. Let sit 5 - 10 mins. Peel the scum off and rewarm what's left so that it liquefies. Take a paint brush (1/2 inch works well) and paint the gelatin onto a stiff textured plastic surface. As it dries it will pop off by itself. Don't touch it until it has popped off a good amount. You can color and flavor the gelatin as you heat it. When it gets to the point of popping off you can peel it off the rest of the way. From here you can cut it with scissors into whatever shape you want. Now...I got this idea from my favorite website: www.cakecentral.com . You can visit their website and search for gelatin bow. You then can see pictures of all I've listed. Have fun and check it out! 'Til next time!

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Let's Celebrate Birthdays!!

Hello friends.
While we celebrate the birthday of our nation...Happy Fourth!...I've also been celebrating my kids' birthdays. Happy Birthday Carter of "Carter Safari" clothing! Check her clothes line out at http://www.cartersafari.com/.
It's been a busy time of year for me with cakes to make and then there were also my own kids' birthdays to also celebrate with cake. This is a picture of Sean's cake. He wanted a Runescape cake complete with portal. (Runescape is an online computer game set in a medieval world. It's actually a fun game. I play it myself...when I have time...and my two sons taught me.) Sean wanted 8 characters. They are all his character wearing different armor and garments. But eight???!!! It was very hard to do these figures. I made them out of gumpaste. I was so stressed that when it came time for Christian's cake... I said no please no! Here's what it looked like.

and one more closer.

Christian's birthday was next. Now this wasn't one of my better cakes. Chocolate cake from scratch. That was good...but...he wanted "Sonic the Hedgehog" in two different forms and...quite frankly I wasn't up to it. After doing Sean's cake, (remember he wanted 8 guys on that cake!) and trying to make those men...I just...didn't...want to...do it!!! NOOOOOOO!!! Please no! So he opted for purple flames. I did try to put 1 Sonic in the middle but it didn't work out. It looks kind of messy to me. But...here's some interesting technique to use. The flames are made of jello! This is such a cool and fun thing to do! I will share it with you on my next post so be looking for it! Oh...I cheated on the piping frosting. Don't do what I did and buy store bought already made frosting unless you plan on adding a lot more powdered sugar. It just doesn't work out. My piping (I was feeling a little lazy and didn't add the sugar) looks poorly. :( Again...he was happy with it. Kids are so forgiving. His friends and he enjoyed the eating.

Then there was Samara's cake. Well...not really cake...BROWNIES! They could be CAKELIKE brownies...anyway she wanted a Rain Forest Cafe Volcano cake, only I forgot the whipped cream!
I added some exotic looking flowers and we didn't have a sparkler. Oh well. She was very happy with it. Isn't that all that counts though. If we could make everyone happy with cake wouldn't that be nice? I doubt the French would say yes to that! Or parts of Africa! It was truly yummy!!!


So until next time...Happy Birthday United States and happy celebrating!