Tank you very much!

Okay, so I haven't posted in a super long time...I've been busy. This past week I had a "tank" cake to do. I had never done a tank, but I saw some pics online and thought I could do it. This cake was for the same lady I did the "diva" cake for a few weeks ago. Well, I was a little worried since that cake fell into itself once it went across town to the pizza place. I didn't know if I wanted to try something so ambitious, but I did NOT want to just try and draw a tank or something lame on a sheet cake...that's just not what I do. I like to go big and beautiful (just like me LOL). Soooooo...I said I would do the tank cake an actual 3-D cake. I knew I was going to have to use fondant just to make sure the cake stayed together. I have learned my lesson. I didn't take pics along the way because I lost my camera for a couple days, but found it the day of delivery (thank God).


This cake was a huge undertaking. It was a week long ordeal and I was up to my elbows in fondant. The cake was monsterous and I had to spend aan entire day just baking. On Wednesday, I was chilling the cake getting it ready to carve when a neighbor calls and asks if I can do her daughter's birthday cake. I need the business, so I said "Sure, when is it?" She lets me know that it's this Saturday. What??!!! We talked about it and it was no biggie. She wanted a cowgirl themed cake for about 25 people. I let her know that I could do it as long as it was simple. We decided on a cow print cake with a paisley print bandana. I told her she was in charge of what else to put on it. I didn't have any time to shop for a topper. So, I had 2 cakes this week, which I am sooooooooo excited about. Misty (tank cake) said that everyone loved the cake and she gave out my number to a lot of people. I'm hoping I get a lot of business from the cake. So, no more waiting...here they are:
They put on the hat, boot and #7.








Chase and his cake.

Store Stories

Okay, so the last couple stores I've been in, strange things have happened. The other day I was buying some groceries to make Matt (hubby) a nice dinner and I was at the express checkout. I was by myself because my parents were visiting the kids. I was just kinda looking around while I was waiting in line. I saw this guy waving at me and he was about 10 feet away, so I just smiled politely and turned back and looked forward. Next thing I know, he's right next to me saying, "Hi, your hair is beautiful." Okay...kinda freaky. So, I said thank you and turrned back around hoping he would catch a clue. But oh no..."Hi, I'm John." I wasn't even looking at him!!! ME: "Nice to meet you." (turned back around)
JOHN: So, what do you do?"
ME: I'm a stay at home mom. (turn back around)
JOHN: Oh, so you're married?
ME: Yep. (turn back around)
JOHN: Your husband is a very lucky man.
ME: Yes he is. (turned back around)
JOHN: Well, (shakes my hand) thanks for having an open mind.
ME: okay, no problem. Have a great day.

In my head: What the heck??!!! What just happened? Are you kidding me? Open mind? Why did he think I had an open mind? Did he think that I even, for a second, thought about dating him?? I was just being nice. It's not like I'm gonna just tell him to get away from me. Then my mind goes to thinking that he might be targeting me for something. I mean, who just comes up to a single lady in the grocery store?? It really kinda freaked me out. I just pictured him following me to my car and killing me or something. Well, nothing like that happened, so I'm really glad. Once I realized that he wasn't following me, I thought, "huh, I just kinda got hit on. Too bad that it was by a 35 year old that didn't own a razor and probably still lived with his mother." Oh well. At least my hair is cute. Now, onto my second weird store story:

I was getting gas at a place that didn't have pay at the pump. I'm glad that I didn't have my kids with me because I hate to take my kids in. Anyway, I'm waiting in line that had 3 other people in it. I saw something on the shirt of the guy in front of me out of the corner of my eye. I looked and it was a HUGE spider!!! I freaked. I startedbreathing kinda hard and I said "Hey! There's something on your shirt." By this time, the spider had crawled to the collar of his shirt. He thought I said hat, so he took his hat off. I just grabbed his hat out of his hand and started hitting him really hard with his hat. He was turning around and looking for it while I was hitting him. Then the lady behind up said that she saw something fly off onto the floor. We found the spider and it was still alive!!! The guy didn't want to kill it, so the lady stepped on it. I said I was sorry for grabbing his hat and hitting him so hard with it. He told me thanks for telling him. We just laughed about it and that was that. It was much more crazy than I can explain, but how many times do you get to hit on a total stranger? I guess more than I used to think because both of these stories is really all about hitting on total strangers. LOL OKay. Until next time. I have to watch the weather.

Suds in the Bucket

Well, I made laundry detergent today. I'm super excited and want everyone to know about it. Okay, well, maybe just the four of you. I figured it up and it costs me about $2.50 for 10 gallons of laundry detergent. That's over $150 in saving in a year. That might not sound like a lot, but every time I go to the store and have to buy detergent, we usually don't get a few food items that I would usually buy that day, so it really is pretty awesome. My initial investment was more than $2.50 (more like $10), but I won't have to buy the bucket again and the borax will last a long time. It also has some great cleaning uses.

All this came from the Duggars. My brother told me about it because he started using it and likes it.

Here's the recipe and directions:

Ingredients:

1 bar of Fels-Naptha soap (Ivory works too)

4 C hot tap water

1 C washing soda (can be found at Kroger)

1/2 C borax (in the laundry detergent isle on the top)

Equipment needed:

5 gallon bucket w/ lid

cheese grater

long stirring utencil

laundry soap dispensesr

Directions:

Grate soap.

(Not Cheese)

Add to 6 qt saucepan along with 4 C water and heat over medium heat until the soap is melted/dissolved.

Make sure you keep an eye on it because when it starts to heat up it gets foamy. Meanwhile, fill the bucket 1/2 full of hot tap water and add borax and washing soda. Stir until dissolved. When the soap is dissolved, add to the bucket and stir well. Fill the rest of the way with hot tap water and stir. Put the lid on and let set up overnight. It will be thick in the morning. Xaiden not getting to play in the bubbles

To use:

Fill 1/2 of dispenser full of detergent and 1/2 of hot tap water. Shake before each use.

Top load washer - 1/2 c. per load

Front load washer - 1/4 c per load

I hope this helps ya'll out. Thanks to the Duggars, we can all save money!!!

Mountain of laundry

Okay, I'm a total slacker. I have been so lazy the past week and a mountain of laundry had built up. Ugh. I don't ever mind putting the laundry in the washer then in the dryer. I'll even take it out of the dryer and put it into the basket, but I can't stand to put the clothes away. Matt's going to be gone until Fri. morning and we're running out of clothes, so I'm having to do laundry all the way through. Did I mention how I HATE putting clothes away??? It's mostly hanging clothes up. I just can't stay focused long enough to do it.

Since I have so much laundry to do, I think I'm going to make my own laundry soap. I found it on the Duggars' site and I'm totally excited. It makes 10 gallons of detergent for like 2-3 bucks. That will last at least a year. We're talking major savings here. I'm really excited!!! I guess I don't hate laundry as much as I thought if I can get excited about detergent.

Okay, gotta get laundry going. I hear the dryer buzzer. I'm going to be making cannolis tomorrow or Wednesday, so stay tuned. Until later!!

I have followers!!

WooooHoooo!!! I don't have to write to no one!!! I have 3 followers!! Thank you all. This means so much to me. LOL

The cake wreck story continues. Okay, so I delivered it to the party place. They were then going to take it to Larry's Pizza. I really thought it would make it. I had supported it as much as I could, but it didn't make it. I'm really heartbroken. I just wanted Rylie to be able to blow out her candles and cut her cake in front of all her friends. I'm really more upset than I probably should be. The cake was SUPER CUTE and perfect for Rylie and she couldn't even enjoy it. I'm just sad. There's nothing else I could have done that I know of. I'm going to do some more research to see how to better support and stabilize the cake. I don't want this to happen anymore. Well, until next time!

Cake Wreck...seriously.

Okay, well, as you know I had a cake order due today. It was a 2 tiered cake, so I thought I would go ahead and start on it on Sunday. I got all the cake baked and all the icing made and colored.

That's six cakes. I was doing great!!! And on top of everything else going so well, Nana and Papa (my parents) were going to take the kids for the week. I was going to be able to do this cake in peace and quiet and no little fingers being tempted by freshly smoothed icing. Ahhhhh.. This was going to be great.

The next day, I started putting the cakes together and doing a quick crumb coat. ( The kids would be here until 4pm when Matt took them to Harrison to meet my mom.)Here's the bottom tier. It looks bad now, but just wait...it gets better. At least for a little bit.

So, I do the crumb coat on the bottom tier and then cut out the circle in the top of the tier so the top tier can set in the space that is level. I put the top tier on and then do an all-over icing and wait for the icing to crust. I decide to pack the kids' clothes for the week so the icing would have plenty of time to crust. This is what I came back to...

There was a HUGE crack in my bottom tier!!!!! There was another crack in another place that was smaller. WHAT THE HECK???!!!! I was not going to panic. I was NOT going to PANIC! I thought of all the time that I had already put into it and I had never done zebra print before, so I didn't know how long that would take. It was a little stressful. I was just going to clean up the kitchen and start all over, so I washed cake pans, wiped off counters, set out my butter for icing and went to check all the ingredients for the cakes. I had no sour cream. Sour cream is a major part to my cakes. It makes them super moist and yummy. I was still in PJ's and I decided to just wait until the kids left to go get my supplies. I re-made all the cakes and icing and gave a lot of the cake wreck to neighbors. I was up until midnight waiting for the cakes to cool then realized that my icing had been in the fridge and was unspreadable. I just gave in and went to bed.

The next morning I was ready to go. I got all the cakes put together and went to cover my 6in cake board with contact paper and couldn't find any. No biggie. i had woken up earlier than I thought I would and so I just ran to Fred's in Greenbrier to pick some up then ran by the hardware store to get some wire and pruning shears. Both of which were for the cake. I got home and put it all together.

Here was the moment of truth. Could I make a zebra print on the cake with fondant stripes??

Not too shabby, I thought. The icing didn't smooth very well because the humidity was crazy today, but I couldn't really help it. Here are a few pics of the final product. Riley is the birthday girl and is a super sweetie. I love doing cakes for these people. Seriously, I love my customers!!

Rylie with her cake.

So, all in all, I think it turned out well. Of course, things could always be better, but I think Rylie loved it, so that's all that matters. Well, until next time. See ya!

Cake order

Okay everyone!!! Oh I forgot that no one even reads this blog...oh well. I got a cake order from Xaiden's APN (advance practice nurse). She ordered from me pretty regularly, so I'm glad that I'm back and can do cakes for her again. She's super great and her kids are too. Her daughter's birthday is this Tuesday and since it's spring break here, they're actually having the party on Tuesday. That's great!! She's having a diva party, so I'm doing a topsy turvy, hot pink cake with zebra stripes on one tier and black circles/dots on the other tier. I'm hopefully also going to have curly wire with pink balls on them coming out of the cake.

I saw bakerella's blog and totally love it. I love all the pics and she's just soooo talented. Well, I thought that I needed a camera to be able to take good pics with. All I have is a point and shoot camera. I found a camera that I wanted. I was so excited, but how could I talk Matt into buying it for me??? I thought of all kinds of ways to butter him up (if you know what I mean), but as soon as he figured out that I wanted something, the deal was off. Oh well. I guess I'll just have to make due with my little point and shoot. Hopefully I'll remember to take some pics while I'm making the cake and all the components. I'm so excited!! Until next time.