A Princesses 4th Birthday Cake

I'm getting a little smarter at this whole Cricut Cake thing.  First, I cut out the images about 10 days before the party, because I know how tempermental the gumpaste can be.  The Cricut Cake works wonderfully.  It's the food product that is the problem (or maybe it's me).  My neighbor and I were in kahoots for this project.  We decided to make a large sheet cake for the Cricut Cake images and she had a Wilton Princess Castle Cake kit that you can find at any craft store.  Our, or should I say my crazy plan was to place the castle on top of a really gigantic sheet cake.  That plan was averted the night before the party when parts of our tiered cakes were started to cave in on themselves.  Even a 2 layered round cake with all the filling and frosting is surprisingly heavy!!!  So, we separated the two cakes.  It turned out beautiful.  I really appreciated all the hard work my friend put in to help me make this cake a success.  Next is her daughters birthday party cake!!!

Supplies, supplies, supplies........it gets pretty messy and I used the ENTIRE kitchen and dining room with all my stuff spread out!!!  My hubby just turns his head!!!  Hee-hee!!!!  So much fun!!!

Whoo hoo.......first cut a success!!!!  Gumpaste using the Cake Basics cartridge!!!  Will use the crowns as borders around the side of the sheet cake.  My gumpaste is still turning out marbled.  Any suggestions???

All designs below cut out with gumpaste from the Birthday Cakes cartridge.  I used the princess for the invitations too.  I think they all turned out nice.  Nothing tore during these cuttings.  Lucky!!!!!!

The swirls and crowns were from Cake Basics cartridge.  Nice!!!

I broke down and bought the Wilton Gumpaste Flower Making kit.  It came in handy!!!  These were used for the castle!!!

My neighbors and my first attempt at royal icing to make leaves, flowers and borders.  Great job for our first time!!!

And there it is!!!  MAGICAL!!!!

It was a fabulous party!!!

This was the moment she looked forward to all day!!!!

At this moment she melted my heart......She grabbed my neck and said, "You're the best Mommy ever, I love you sooooo much!"  All the stress from planning and creating this day was gone!!!



Happy Thanksgiving 2010

My second Cricut Cake project I thought would be a breeze......NOT!!!!!!!!

I really thought I did a great job on my first project, the Halloween cupcakes and cookies. I thought I would do an equally good job on a Thanksgiving cake I wanted to make for my family.  I don't know what happened exactly.  All I do know is that this project was a disaster from the start.  Maybe I shouldn't have waited until the evening before Thanksgiving to start, but now I know and I will start cutting out images at least a week before I plan on making the cake and just store them in the freezer!!!

I made a spice cake and covered it with buttercream frosting and then rolled out what was supposed to be orange fondant.  It turned out a little pinkish or salmon color and why in the world does it look marbled.  UGH.  I'm still trying to figure this one out.

I sort of successfully covered the cake with the fondant.  It was a bit lumpy and the color is marbled, but not tooooo bad for my first time.  The cut out images hide a lot of the flaws.......purposefully of course!!!!!  I cut out the Grateful phrase from from the Gypsy Wanderings preloaded cartridge on the Gypsy using precolored fondant and the leaves from the Stretch Your Imagination cartridge with precolored fondant.  The dark brown leaves were cut using the Cricut Cake frosting sheets. I learned the leaves were too detailed and kept tearing over and over.  A lot of "surgery" was used to get them half way looking decent.  This cake is just plain ugly and no one in my family took a bite.  I don't blame them.  It was a learning experience.  Hopefully I don't give all this up!!!  I'm invested too much now!!!

At least my turkey turned out FABULOUS!!!!!!!  I used Emeril's brine recipe!!!  TO DIE FOR!!!  It was a wonderful day and great dinner with family!!! 

Happy Halloween 2010

First Cricut Cake Project

I used all the money I got for my 40th birthday and my next door neighbor and I went in halves together to get the Cricut Cake.  Our daughters play together and we thought we could have a ton of fun creating cakes and other projects together.  My first project was cupcakes for my daughters preschool and cookies for a Halloween party.  I broke it out for the first time at a Moms night in craft night at my friends house.  The other gals didn't even get any scrapping done.  We were just having fun talking and they were watching me try to figure this monster out!!!  I had some trouble figuring out the difference between fondant and gumpaste, but I did some research ahead of time online and got some good tips and tricks to working with them both.  I like to be prepared, sometimes over prepared.  My hubby thinks I'm crazy!!!  I think my friends agree!!!

My first cut was these darling little pumpkins from the Stretch Your Imagination cartridge with the Cricut Cake gumpaste.  I just added some Wilton gel based food coloring.  You don't want to use regular food coloring. It was soooooo different than cutting paper.  The gumpaste sort of moves a little while being cut, and some times it moves a lot and tears.  So, I would have to start all over, but that is the beauty of it..... if paper tears, it's ruined, if gumpaste or fondant tears, you can just ball it all back up again and start over.  It is frustrating, I will admit, but after I got the hang of it, it got a little easier

. I then tried a cut with fondant.  Boy was that different.  The texture is different.  I find good and bad features with both fondant and gumpaste, but so far I think I like gumpaste better.  I will post something in the future about my experiences between gumpaste and fondant and some tips and tricks that I have found and used.  I'm still learning about both!!  The cute little monster guys are from the Mini Monsters cartridge.  Wait til you see the final product.  I think they are my favorites!!!

The ghosts and skull and crossbones are also from the Mini Monsters cartridge and cut using the Cricut Cake frosting sheets.  I'm not all that crazy about them.  They are very thin and sort of stiff and not pliable.  Their taste isn't all that great either (not that gumpaste and fondant taste spectacular).  They are very convenient, on the other hand, but I will use what I have and probably not invest in any more, unless I'm in a pinch and need to save time because the others do make a mess in the kitchen and take way more time to knead the color in and roll it out and possibly tear..........you get my drift?

  The spooky little spiders are from the Mini Monsters cartridge and cut using fondant.  Do you notice how shiny the fondant is.  Strange!!!  Some of their little legs tore and I had to perform "surgery" to get them back together!!!  Wait til you see their beady little eyes!!!

Here's my daughter helping decorate the cupcakes before putting the decorations on. She just LOVES sprinkles!!!

TAAAAAAA DAAAAAA!!!!!  Didn't they turn out soooo cute?  Not bad for my first time, eh???  Instead of layering the little devils, I just used regular decorating frosting that you can buy in the grocery store for their little features.  I just love them!!!  My daughter and her classmates loved them too!!!  I was a proud mama!!!

I had to throw in a pic of my other crazy hobby.  Chocolate candy making.  My friends and I get together and go wild during all the major holidays making these too!!!  My favorite is the rat!!!  EWWWW!!!!!

Here's our babies!!!  We do all this crazy stuff like baking and scrapping and sometimes pulling our hair out to get it all done for these little beauties!!!  I hope my daughter takes on my love for crafting early in her life.  It took me about 38 years to find it!!!  Now on to the next project.......Thanksgiving???

 



The Evolution of the Cricut Cake Crazies

This crazy Cricut Cake journey began about 2 years ago when my family and I moved to a new neighborhood and met some new friends.  We were over at a friends house for a playdate and the moms were scrapbooking.  They asked me if I scrapbooked.  I immediately replyed "NOOOOOO!!!, I don't have time for that!!!"  Even though I felt I had no artistic bones in my body, and had no idea how I would fit this into my busy schedule, I went to Joann's later that night to purchase some "starter" scrapbooking supplies.  I loved how my friends were creating memories for their children and families.  So, I jumped in......head first!!!  The scrapbooking took off like a spiraling and crazy hobby, like the Tazmanian Devil!!!  My Mom was soooo proud of my halfway decent scrapping skills.  She says she always knew I had it in me (it being the creative side like her). 

I cut letters out for a page one time and that was the first and last time!!! I first bought the Cricut Baby Bug.  I knew I should of gone ahead and bought the bigger Cricut Expression.  I am originally from Texas and like all Texans we think bigger is definately better!!!  So, I had to get that one too.  I kept the Baby Bug for my daughter someday.  Then the Cricut Cake came out and I thought to myself I would never need THAT!!!  I am not a baker.........I bet you know where this is going!!!  I thought, "Well, why not become a baker???"  I see lots of opportunities to make cupcakes, cookies and cakes in my future!!!  So, of course the Cricut Cake was added to the Cricut family!!! Now the craziness unfolds.....trying to figure out baking, and more importantly FONDANT AND GUMPASTE!!!  Ugh!!!  Now the journey begins!!!  I hope you enjoy my new blog.  I am new to this too. I have fallen in love with everything Cricut and creating fun times and memories!!!