July Birthday Celebration!

My husband and nephew have birthdays two days apart, so today we are having a combined party. It will be all but one of the Minnesota family, because he's off in the Dakotas trying to save the world and our living environment. In addition, we'll have some long time friends and their kids celebrating with us. It's beautiful day here in Minnesota, perfect for barbequing outside and shooting the breeze with friends we haven't seen in ages.

The spouse is making homemade hamburgers and chicken wings with homemade pineapple sauce (plus pineapple/habenero sauce for those inclined to spicy food). We made Bleu Cheese dressing from scratch last night, as well as salsa and a spicy cheese dip (recipe courtesy of our friend Steve). The spouse will be making a Spinach/Articoke dip when he awakens from his slumber. The evening's dessert will be a circus train birthday cake. I think we'll pick up some marshmallows and roast them as well.

I look forward to hanging out, catching up, and pigging out. I'm sure pictures will make their way to Facebook. Wish my friends from Texas could join us, would be a blast and you need to escape the heat and the drought. Miss you guys.

12th Birthday Party

This weekend we held our daughter's 12th birthday party on Saturday, this was her final Texas party. We were a bit nervous, because in past years the turn out has been very small. This was partially due to the fact that so many of her classmates were Hispanic, and her parties always fell on the same weekend as the Cinco de Mayo celebrations. The move to junior high alleviated much of this issue with the end of the Dual-Language program. Luckily, though not everyone showed up, we had plenty of people come. The original plan was the zoo, but I realized that I had scheduled in on Mother's Day. Oops! So the date was changed and the venue altered. Who doesn't love a pool party?

 The Girl requested a Gir cake, this is a character from an older cartoon called Invader Zim. It's a show with a lot of dark comedy, created by Jhonen Vasquez (@JhonenV). The merchandise has become very popular with the pre-teen and teen set recently, though sadly many have never seen an episode or even heard of the show. Gir is Zim's defective robot sidekick, and most people's favorite character from the series. To the left is the model I used for the cake.

Creating this cake was an experiment for me. I made two cakes, and carved on of them to make the character. This was very nerve racking, as I had never done it before. I used store bought tubes for the black icing, because it's so hard to mix black and have it turn out to be really black. The Husband and The Girl both complemented me on the appearance of the cake. It was also a huge hit at the party.

The mini-hamburgers seasoned and grilled by The Husband were declared by several guests to be "the best hamburgers ever". Many chips were consumed, as well as two whole bowls of popcorn. All guests went home full, tired, and happy. I'm glad The Girl has made some good friends this year, and I hope that she can stay in touch with them after the move.

6th Period Class Reward

A reward for 6th period. It was made with German chocolate cake mix. I know that this isn't an authentic German Chocolate cake, as my husband repeatedly told me. However, they also wanted Spiderman and I had to consider the possibility of nut allergies in the class.

11th Birthday Cake

My beautiful child has her birthday party on Friday. She originally wanted a girl pirate theme, but we found invitations that looked like carnival ride tickets and she changed her mind. She decided instead she wanted popcorn as her cake. I had seen it in "Hello, Cupcake" and thought it was adorable. However, there was no way to put candles on it safely. So, I decided to create a ticket cake as well. This was my first attempt at carving a cake, it was simple but still challenging in a way. I think it turned out pretty well.

The Continent Cake

I did not utilize my usual care and patience with this cake, to my shame. This is my last cake to rewards my students for being excellent during the 8th grade testing.

Due to other commitments, I had to do this cake in one night. I was up until 12:30 am. Thank goodness it's Friday. I hope it is a semi-reasonable facsimile of Asia.

The Girl's 10th Birthday

It's official as of Monday, I now have a 10 year old, a child in the double digits, a pre-teen. Broke down and got her a cell phone, she was over the moon with excitement. I just couldn't stand not being able to find her the first circuit of the apartment complex while she was out playing.

We are having Luau themed swimming party today. She asked for a lemon cake decorated to look like Hawaiian flowers, aka hibiscus.

The Taj Mahal

My 5th period class rose to my challenge of staying quiet while the 8th graders tested, and it was a challenge for them. They also earned a cake. They chose triple chocolate cake and asked me to make the Taj Mahal, so with icing and my limited skills I did.

Two, Two Updates in One

I made another cake for the March and April birthdays at work. I experimented with butter cream fondant icing. People liked it, but seemed to prefer the old-fashion butter cream icing.








I've also continued working on that wedding gift, I hope that I am able to finish it on time with my studies keeping me so busy. Luckily, the professors have had to back off on the workload, as they were giving us at least 35 hours of coursework a week. If I was a full-time student it would be fine, but everyone in this program is a full-time teacher and most have families.

A Reward for My Class

I've found that positive reinforcement, aka bribery, is often very effective when it comes to classroom management, especially when food is involved. Even more so when it's done in the form of a competition. So I put forth a challenge to my 5 different classes, which ever class could spell "CAKE!" first got one. My fourth period was the first class to do so. I love this class, by the way. So I made them a cake of the choice, with homemade butter cream icing too. Since the holiday started today, I made it a Christmas cake.

I got a surprising cake-related request today. One of my co-workers, that I could have sworn hated my guts, said she had been meaning to talk to me about making a cake for her daughter's birthday. I am very excited and happy, also a little nervous. I'm not sure what to charge, I'll have to think about it.

A Cake for 4th Period

I promised my kids a party if they improved their TAKS scores. Well, they all passed. Each class gets a party. We had 4th period's on Friday and we'll have 2nd's next Friday. They'll get their own cake too.

Its Official

I have made my first commissioned cake. I am now truly a professional baker. My sister and her department at school are my first clients. I wish the cake looked a little better, but I am never satisfied with my cakes anyway. She asked for it Monday, to be ready today. I had to freehand the lettering, so its not as perfect as I'd like.


Its for two of her coworkers birthdays, Elizabeth likes dancing and Chris is a journalist. I hope they like it and appreciate the joke.

A New Endeavor

I have decided to start my life as an entrepreneur. I love to bake, and people always tell me it's so good, that I should do it as a business. Well, I am. I'm not quite sure what I'm doing, I'm sure I can figure it out as I go.

Kid's 5th Birthday Cake

I love this cake

Look What I Made Today

I made this