• About
  • Project Gallery
  • From The Kitchen
  • House Tour
  • Playing Dress Up
  • On the Road Again
  • Featured On

Another Big Bite

Another Big Bite

Tag Archives: birthday cake

The Cake that Almost Wasn’t

14 Wednesday May 2014

Posted by anotherbigbite in Bitchfest, I'm a Crafty Mo' Fo', Party Hearty

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

birthday cake, elsa, Elsa Cake, frozen, Frozen Cake, party

Another Big Bite - Elsa Frozen Cake

Thanks to Heidi over at Sassy Crumpet for taking a WAY better pic than I did. 🙂

“Don’t spend that much on an Elsa cake!  I will totally make one for you.”

Ah, ha.  Famous last words.  Why is it that whenever I expect things to go smoothly, I end up with chunky peanut butter?

One of Finny’s preschool friends was turning five, and like just about every girl under the age of fourteen, she is a major fan of Frozen.  Surely you have heard of this small, independant film?  You know the one; made by Disney, starring not one but TWO sparkly princesses…  The same one that people are spending hundreds of dollars on merchandise on Ebay…  The movie whose soundtrack I have managed to tune out much like a seasoned mother tunes out the tantrums of her two-year-old…

alice bday1

In December, I made Alice and Ariel cake and I thought I would tackle this one in much the same manner.  A plain, round cake with a VERY basic princess on top.  Nothing too fancy, and “not Ace of Cakes or anything, so don’t get too excited.”  The internet is chock full of Elsa cakes.  I’d find a little inspiration, get to try my hand at marshmallow fondant (to get rid of the marshmallows taunting me from the pantry) and maybe even get super fancy with sugar “ice.”  Hell yeah.

Hell no.

My first batch of sugar ice never got any harder than maple syrup.  Many YouTube videos and and two hours later, I was proudly admiring my second batch of perfect blue sugar glass.  And I was ready to tackle a fondant Elsa as soon as the kids went to bed.

Fondant Elsa had other plans.  Turns out marshmallow fondant isn’t quite as stiff as regular fondant.  Just as I was working on her head, I noticed her slowly slumping to one side.  I went to cut another toothpick to hold her up and as I turned around, I watched the skewer holding her up poke through her shoulder.  I gave up and waited for her to dry out a bit before I kept going.

She dried up enough to stand on her own by the next morning.  The cakes were baked, frosting was made, and the following evening I got to assembling everything.  Purple and blue marbled cakes got a coat of teal frosting and marshmallow fondant snow.  I made a fondant Olaf which turned out much better than expected.  The blue and purple sugar ice was set to go on the next morning before the party.

photo 3

photo 4

Just as I was finished putting the sugar ice on, I stopped to snap a picture of my handiwork.  It turned out pretty cute and just as I was patting myself on the back, Alice decided she would take a taste.  She gouged out a hunk of fondant and cake from the top of the cake and I completely lost it.  I started crying and yelling; it was as ugly as the time Finn knocked over the Christmas tree and smashed half of my childhood ornaments.  A few minutes later I realized I was being an idiot.  I smooshed in a few more shards of sugar ice and packed everything up in the car.  I may or may not have sung “Let it Go” to move past my drama.

photo 5

It was hot that day.  We stopped to get lunch at McDonalds on the way to the party.  Just like every Saturday afternoon, the place was packed, but the kids were so excited to get to the party that they didn’t ask once to go in the playplace.  We headed over to the gymnastics gym.  And we were the only ones there for Ava’s party.  Because I was an entire day too early.

photo 1 (2)

On the way home, I noticed that the whole cake was slumping…  It was too hot, and all the movement in the car was making all the frosting slide down around the cake’s ankles.  By the time I got home, I was crying again.  (Might I mention I was more than a little hormonal?)  I did the only thing I could think of; I pulled Elsa and Olaf off and we ate the cake.  I drug the kids to the grocery store and gathered all the supplies to make a whole new cake.

“The cake never bothered me anyway….”

photo 2 (2)

As I was putting it all together the next morning, Finn was more than a little confused.

“Didn’t we eat that cake yesterday?”  Yes we did, son.  Yes we did.

Cake 2.0 made it to the party relatively unscathed and the birthday girl loved it.  Which made it all worth it in the end.

Nifty Bite? Share it:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Disgruntled Foul utop Dessert

09 Tuesday Apr 2013

Posted by anotherbigbite in From the Kitchen, The "Joy" of Parenting

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

angry birds, birthday cake, birthday cakes, cake, finn

1 Finn Bday

Finn’s birthday was a success this weekend.  There was cake, ice cream and candy…  This last week has been pretty tough to stay nice and healthy.  It started with Easter dinner which was healthful as holiday feasts go.  But there was candy everywhere…  And with the Finnster’s birthday, we had cake, ice cream, pizza; the works.  Which is fine.  I’m glad the crappy eating is over, though, since it seems that the more crap I eat, the more apt I am to keep eating it.

Back to kale.  De-lish.

Finny is pretty into Angry Birds at the moment; not that I understand the draw of it, but he spends little time playing the actual video game and lots of time stacking objects up and throwing plastic birds at them.  It is loud, but he seems to get something out of it.  Naturally, he wanted an Angry Birds cake for his birthday.   In fact, he told everyone that would listen that he was having an Angry Birds party; nevermind the fact that it was just going to be the four of us here at the house.

photo 3

The irony is not lost on me that I joyfully awaited becoming a parent so I could make adorable, awesome birthday cakes and now that this blessed chore befalls me, I have no energy or drive to cover the kitchen in a thin film of powdered sugar. This cake would have been the bomb, if not for the kids.  And work.  And laundry.  And cooking.  Such is the life.

The thought of breaking out fondant for a cake that would be half eaten and tossed in the trash was not tempting.  Not to mention fondant kind of tastes like the inside of a dogs rear end.  Instead, I got a package of gumdrops and went about snipping and molding and smooshing them into what vaguely resembles an indignant red cardinal and irritating green pigs.

photo 1

I used little white sprinkles for the eyes and (shhh – don’t tell anyone) used a Sharpie of all things to make the little black dots for their eyes.  That’s me; poisoning my family, one Sharpie dot at a time.

photo 2

Throw a package of wafer cookies in the mix and you’ve got a cake that will delight any four-year-old – enough so that he may be content playing with his cake the entire day until he blows out his candles, gets a giant slice and promptly ignores it in favor of playing with his new Legos.

Since Nathan had to work over the weekend, I asked Finn what he wanted to do.  He decided that the zoo was the place to be (again), and I happily obliged.  Besides getting mugged by an entire herd of giraffes after being the only one in a crowd with a scrap of lettuce, we headed out so Finn could ride on the ponies.  He was so excited that he couldn’t even stand still.

photo 4photo 5

After the cake and presents were out of the way, we dumped what was left of the cake in the trash so we wouldn’t be tempted to eat it.  Finn played with his new toys extra late and wearily stumbled up to bed and both kids were out cold in less than five minutes.

Which happened to be my very favorite part of the day.

Nifty Bite? Share it:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Howdy. It’s Lisa!

Welcome to my corner of the universe, where we fly by the seat of our pants.

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 176 other followers

Top Posts & Pages

  • Lettuce Touch the Boobs
  • DIY Minion Hats
  • Probably the Most Disgusting Thing You'll See All Weekend
  • Vegan Avocado-Lime Soup
  • A Little Self-Help, Blogger-Style: A Long-Winded Mantra

Tweeting up a storm. Or not.

  • @HEXBUG Will do. Thanks for the help. :) 6 years ago
Follow @anotherbigbite

perfectly delightful ways to waste time...

  • 4 Men 1 Lady
  • Apartment Therapy
  • Buttered Toast on the Beach
  • DesignWorkLife
  • House*Tweaking
  • Pile of Babies
  • Prudent Baby
  • Reddit
  • Young House Love

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
%d bloggers like this: