MomIsMean

I'm only making two costumes this year.  A Shroomboom for the Little Dude, and a crab dinner for my 11yo.  Shroomboom is almost complete.  The body and cap are done, and I've made a slingshot and mushroom, but still haven't made gloves.  I also haven't given him eyelids, and am considering whether or not to add them.  The crab dinner is still in pieces.

Making some cupcakes for a wedding today.  The theme is the game, Settlers of Catan.  I'll have a fondant covered board that will represent the game board and 19 cupcakes decorated for the various resources.  The cupcakes themselves will be classified for various dietary restrictions of some of the wedding guests who won't be able to eat the wedding cake--vegan, gluten allergy, egg allergy, nut allergy, and chocolate allergy. 

For a couple of years now I've toyed with the idea of buying more gum paste toys-errrr, tools that is, specifically for making flowers, but hadn't been able to justify buying them just because I wanted them.  After all, the cakes I've been making have been predominantly animal shapes, not plant, and I was working primarily with fondant.  But then last week my son's voice teacher sheepishly asked me if I mightn't make another cake for her to celebrate her and her son's birthdays?  Her birthday was in two days, but they weren't celebrating until 5 days from then.  And she wanted flowers.  She and her son are avid gardeners and every year they give each other something new to add to her amazing backyard, and she wanted a cake to reflect that interest. She'd do a trade--lessons for cake.  I winced at the thought of having to come up with an overall design, buy the necessary tools, learn how to make the flowers, and actually make the cake while also working during most of the intervening days, but I finally had my excuse!  Okay, so I spent more on tools than I'm actually making (in trade) on the cake, but now I have them for future projects and don't have to play that should I shouldn't I game every time I find myself in the cake making supplies aisle.  Well, not about those tools at least. However there are some interesting coloring options that might be worth investigating....

Hubby's birthday is coming up, and I'm stumped what to make him.  In previous years I've made him a beaver, a sulfur shelf mushroom, a pig (he goes by the name Piggy at work) but I don't know about this year.  I had a great idea last week.  It seemed like a stroke of genius at the time, but I didn't write it down, and have since forgotten what it was!  I might make a Planet Express spaceship from Futurama, or a Tux penguin, because he' a Linux fan.  Then again, I could go with an anime theme and do a yellow duck representing Princess Tutu.  Or Totoro.  Or the cat bus from Totoro.  That would be cool.  I'm thinking I could do start with gum paste and make the shape of the top of the cat bus with windows so it could be hollow and then put fondant over that to get the texture to blend with the bottom part which would be cake.... hmmm...experimentation time.

Hubby got me an airbrush for my cakes for my birthday.  I'd meant to try it out earlier, but only just now got to it what with decorating my son's cake.

Got all my layers baked for a beaver cake for hubby's birthday.  The animal kind of beaver, not the naughty kind.  It took a double recipe of vegan chocolate cake to make enough for a 10" tall standing critter.  Once they're cool I'll stack and freeze them and start carving in the morning.  I'd also like to make a tree stump for him to be leaning against, but right now all my pans are in use.  It will be an AWFUL lot of cake, but I figure hubby can bring leftovers to the office.  There will be lots of scraps after carving, so I'm also considering what kind of cake pops to make.  I could make lots of miniature beavers or I could mould a bunch of stars and freeze them and finish them with red white and blue for the 4th of july.  I also have to figure out who to give them to, because I DON'T WANT THEM!  I love making them, but God knows I don't need them plastered to my voluminous backside.

Thinking about doing something like a jellyroll with the tree trunk.  It won't require intricate carving, and the beaver itself is dairy and egg free for my allergy daughter, so I could use a boxed yellow cake mix and mocha hazelnut filling, giving the illusion of tree rings when cut.