Crafty, crafty!

I'm not normally a crafty gal.  I enjoy nice things, and always have big dreams of making them, yet it RARELY happens!  I just don't have the time, or if I do have time I would rather play with the boys, read a book, or hang with Kev or a friend. 

I have big plans, really, I DO!  I have tons of boards full of great ideas on Pinterest, yet usually they stay right there...on Pinterest!

Finally, I have done something! 

We recently had our staff end of year social event.  We had a few people leaving us, and one was retiring after many years of service to our school.  I'm part of the social committee, and we were discussing her cake.  My mom made wedding cakes as I was growing up, so I had a bit of experience, and suddenly found myself volunteering to make the cake. 

I found out through some sneaky behind the scenes work that the woman's favorite flavor was coconut, so I made a chocolate cake with a white chocolate coconut ganache filling in the middle.  Obstacle #1!  I had made and frozen the cake in advance, but didn't think about the filling.  As I was making it-the morning of the party in a limited amount of time because I had to be at work in less than two hours-I saw that the instructions stated that I had to let it set.  Uh oh.  I improvised and added a bunch of icing sugar, which worked great to thicken it up and it still tasted amazing! 

For the frosting I REALLY wanted to try fondant.  I had only used it once before, for Rusty's second birthday party.  I had made regular fondant, which didn't taste great and was actually really tough to work with.  This time I wanted to try marshmallow fondant.  I had seen the recipe for it on Pinterest and it looked fairly easy and SO cheap!  I also figured since it was marshmallows it would probably taste pretty delicious!  I followed the instructions, melting marshmallows and mixing them with water and a bit of coconut flavoring and then adding icing sugar and kneading it until it formed a smooth, elastic ball.  I let it sit overnight.  The next morning it was ready to go and was amazing!  It was so easy to work with. 

It rolled out easily, with NO cracks or tears.  There was one tiny little dent in it, that I was able to smooth out by adding a tiny bit of Crisco and rubbing and then rolled it out again.  I covered the cake with some buttercream to make the fondant stick and then just smoothed it right on!  It was so easy!  I loved working with it, and I definitely want to try it again.

The last bit of craftiness I wanted to try was the pineapple flower!  I had seen this idea on...yep, you guessed it-Pineterst!  Apparently a thinly slice piece of pineapple could look like a flower when baked on a low temperature for a long time.  I learned that if I soaked the slices in colored water beforehand I could also change the color.  Thankfully, this worked too! I put the baked flowers onto the cake, frosted on a blessing message, and surrounded the cake with some little frosting balls. Voila!  Here it is!

The other bit of work I have been doing is something I really enjoy...sewing!  Rusty has a birthday party for one of his daycare buddies tomorrow.  When I asked her what she wanted, she repeatedly told me a caterpillar.  Rusty and I looked everywhere for one, and couldn't find one anywhere.  I decided to make one...sort of!

She has a unique name, and my guess was that she doesn't find a lot of stuff with "Ziara" on it.  I decided to make her a pillow with the very hungry caterpillar on it. 

I had to totally improvise, as I didn't even have a Pinterest idea to go off of, but I am so pleased with my final product!  I also enjoyed the chance to use my new sewing machine and check out some of the different stitches and such.  What fun!  I can't wait to try out more projects in the future!  I hope she likes it!