Last week while Stirling was on spring break we tried to do as much as possible, with all my cake planning and all. We all went to RAM on Thursday morning, unfortunately we all be came hungry after looking at the animal dioramas on the main floor we decided to eat in the RAM restaurant - what a mistake that was. $8.99 for a sandwich!!! But what do you do - we were planning on hitting a Mr.Sub after our trip, anyhow....It was a lot of fun; Stirling really enjoyed his trip, especially after feeling let down from his short trip to the Discover Room at the RAM to learn about dinosaurs with school; he didn't get to see the rest of the museum. Madison and I hung out in the DR's boot room shall we say. She had no interest in going into the rock and bug section which I love, humph. They both loved the Munsch exhibit; they've grown up on Robert Munsch, I think we have all of his books come to think of it:oP It was a good way to spend the day; we stopped by the Ukrainian Bookstore on our way home to pick up the dyes and tools that we needed to work on our eggs for Easter. We picked up a couple extra tools so Stirling could experience this too - his first time. Dave and I have been doing it for so many years. Here are our creations that we did on Saturday.

David is very good at it!

I can never seem to fill in the piece evenly.
Stirling did very well for his first time, but couldn't quite understand the idea of starting with the lightest dyes first. Still really great; very artsy if you ask me.

There are yellow, red, purple and green squiggles on that egg :oP
Madison wasn't quite ready for this style, we thought it best for her to use good old non-toxic crayolas, which in the end was a good choice - she new the egg was cooked and kept putting it in her mouth, yick!

Here is a shot of the collection of eggs, only a couple of them weren't actually done by us - I had no luck finding pussy willow branches for our Easter tree this year:o( I did find a weeping pussy willow tree that Safeway was selling for $20, but I wasn't sure how hardy it would be here in Alberta; the florist assured me it was like a rose - burlap for three years in the colder months.

When I finally decided it was my last option, I went back to find all the blossoms had bloomed into big fuzzy things with yellow hairs sprouting everywhere...not so pretty. So in the end I opted for a nice flower arrangement, and plan to seek out my own pussy willow plant to grow in my yard, so I won't have to worry about the season not being right or whatever it was this year. The lilies just opened yesterday - the colour is beautiful.

My mom brought an Easter Lily as a gift on Sunday; it is beautiful and the fragrance that is around my house these days is wonderful. Thanks mom!

I promised pics of my final decision on the barrette holder and also crafted a couple more pieces to add to it - I have almost filled it, oops :oP I just bought more ribbon!

Cake...cake...what cake??!!! Argh! LOL! I don't know whether to be stressed out or just insanely ha ha about the situation I placed myself in. Two weeks ago I volunteered to go all 'Ace of Cakes' on an up and coming project for my niece's 25th birthday. My sister-in-law was originally ordering cupcakes for over $80 and I volunteered to make something; bigger and better you might say. Luckily I've managed to get some pretty good deals on the supplies I needed with such short notice. Wilton takes forever, and I could never guarantee my supplies arriving in a timely manner. Thank goodness for Michael's coupons - which saved me on fondant, piping gel, and a ginormous cake pan. Two Friday's ago I sketched up the coolest looking 'Hippo' cake and faxed it to my sis in law at work - I would say she loved it and got the contract. I wish I had done a little more research on how much this cake would cost as I have never made a cake for 50 people before (Pirate cake was about $60, this one regular price would run $120 approx.). 210 oz. of fondant later, 3 dozen eggs, and 5 lbs. of butter if that gives you any idea of the complexity of this cake - that I made nine times! 2 - 12x18 (body), 2 - 8" (head), 4 - 6"(head&feet)cakes, hopefully will be enough, especially when I was considering the cake to 8" high when completed; 4" high will be more than plenty; I'm not feeding 100 people, I'm also basing the slices on 2"x2" instead of the standard wedding serving of 1"x1" (poor wedding guest :oP)
I've been baking cakes since Tuesday evening, as I was short on milk and my car (having Dave start his new job on Monday)decided that it wasn't going to run anymore :o( Seems having only used it twice over the last two and a half months was a bad thing - killed the battery (we hope):o( Ever night this week I've had to run out for more ingredients. My initial list was just to make four recipes of my cake not nine - it takes three recipes to fill the 12x18 pan alone (four if it were my chocolate version)! Now I know! :oP
The last cake came out of the oven after 9:30 last night. Dave is going to cut my plywood...I mean cake board tonight (3'x2')and I hope to assemble and get the fondant ready today. Assembling hopefully tonight and tomorrow. Problems with fondant in a residential setting is there is a lack of space! I have cakes stuffed in my little apartment size freezer and the stuff that usually goes in there is crammed into my fridge's freezer space, working thus far I might add, as long as I don't go for the extra two layers of the 12x18 cake.
I plan to do a strawberry and whipped cream filling as per the request; at the same time I have flashes of my masterpiece sliding off/shifting on the board as we transport it downtown. How many stakes should I use to avoid this...I really don't know. I don't think the piping gel water is going to hold anything in place. I feel like emailing AofC and seeing if they have any recommendations - is it better to have no filling on the larger portions...I just don't know :oP
Well I should run I have a ton of fondant to colour (I bought it as the discount made it cheaper than making it this time)and a gum paste flower to make to set on the Hippo's ear as well as whipping up a few batches of buttercream icing to keep this sucked together. I plan to use some pink petal dust to colour the pinkish areas on my gray hippo, I hope this is a good solution as I don't trust piecing together two different pieces and having them stay together either. Cake boss and Ace of Cakes have shown many of the do's and don'ts of the trade. I hope they will come in handy as here I go a wastling, I mean building :oP
Here is my vision:


Sorry for the poor quality - pencil sketch :o( If I don't over think things and not stress too much everything will be just fine...yeah...keep telling myself that.