Jack's 4th Birthday

Octonauts!

Barnacles, Kwazi, Peso... doot doot doot do doot.....

Octonauts is currently one of Jack's favorite shows.  He likes to pretend to be Barnacles, a polar bear and captain of the crew.  He shouts "I'm Barnacles" and waits for you to respond with another name of a crew member.  Recently he's been crossing pretend worlds and he will be Barnacles and want me to be Sofia, or a care bear...

So naturally, for his birthday, we had an octonauts cake.  With a newborn, and PopPop, Uncle Nick, and Ingrid in town, I didn't get to work on it as much as I wanted.

It's 2 tiers, each with 4 layers.  The top tier was vanilla cake with strawberry filling and the bottom was chocolate, all covered in SMBC.  The GUP-A, and undersea decor were made from modeling chocolate, and the action figures were plastic toys that go to his new Octopod.  I let Jack help, I'm really trying to get over my perfectionism, and allow him to help me do things.  It's not the way I would have arranged things, but I want him to remember the times we baked and decorated together, not me telling him what to do, or making him watch.  I really do have a hard time striking a balance between perfectionism and quality time with my kids.  They always want to help, and usually make things harder, take longer, and more messy, but it's all about the memories, right?

Jeff's Birthday

Jeff, oh Jeff.  He gives me free reign on his birthday cake design to try something Ive been wanting to do.  I love watching different decorating techniques, and the kids usually want something specific, and I can only send in so many cakes to his work, they already hate me.  So Jeff allows me to practice something I've been dying to try on his cake.  He's not a big cake lover anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter to him.

This year, I wanted to try the newest thing I've been seeing a lot of lately, succulents.  I love succulents, I have a pot with several out on my patio.  So I decided to go for it.  Plus it's kind of masculine looking, I didn't want to give him a ruffled, rose birthday cake, not that he would mind.  

So I did a 6" chocolate (his fav) with vanilla bean SMBC, just a rustic pattern on the outside and topped it with buttercream succulents.  I piped most of the succulents earlier and froze them, then arranged them on top.  Then I filled in with other succulents, and put the finishing touches on.  This actually ended up being one of my favorites to date.

He was pleased too :)

Elli turns 2!!

Two weeks after the arrival of our newest child, our (now) middle child turned 2!!!

Elli, she's sweet, sassy, independent, loving, beautiful, amazing... I could go on.  This child is going to change the world, and I can't wait to see the big things she will accomplish.


She's really loving Sofia the 1st these days.  She used to say "Feesa" because she couldn't say Sofia, but she just started saying it correctly.  She's really growing up, tear...

Her cake this year was a simple, 6" chocolate cake with vanilla SMBC.  I did M&M's as a surprise inside, because that's her favorite candy.  The outside was decorated in purple ruffles inspired by Sofia's signature dress.

My favorite picture

Dressed in her Sofia outfit she got for her birthday

Big brother helped blow out the candle

M&M's, her favorite.

Podzemiks goodbye.

Rainbow inside. Olivia's favorite. 

Trying to lighten the mood :-)

Jeremy's birthday

This was another insane cake...

Bottom is dummy, middle is actual dr pepper cans. Top is vanilla with a surprise mosaic logo inside. SMB and sprinkles. Real toy airplane. 

Happy birthday Zane!

This cake was for a friend. Vanilla cake, vanilla SMB. 

Inside. 

Petal ombré 

Sherita's odd cupcake cake

This was an odd request... Chocolate, bacon, siracha cupcakes with a maple SMB, topped with candied bacon, in the shape of Texas....

Planning the layout. 

Baked!

Candied bacon. 

Finished product. I learned that the person who delivered the cake (Sunil!!!!) ate a significant portion of the candied bacon so the moustache looked sparse upon delivery!  It's hard to find good help.