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skittles cake

So the girl's group I volunteer with had a cake auction fundraiser today and I needed to bake a cake. The girls love rainbows and sugar, so I used that as my inspiration, and went to the store and bought all the skittles I could carry. The boys were very excited to see the 'groceries' that I brought home. And VERY excited to hear that they had a job to do to help me with my cake….

…sorting skittles!

Sort, sort, sorty sort. I can't even tell you how much they enjoyed this. 

The Little Dude drew me a diagram for how to decorate the cake we would make. 

So here we go.One layer, baked and frosted. 

Two layers, baked and frosted. 

Three layers, baked, stacked and frosted. And skittle application begun. Note: the boys were not allowed to help me stick the skittles on. Though you can see the Little Guy there in the background, still managing to have a good time, getting all creative with the baking garbage; a cake tester and an empty Skittles bag turned into a flag. He was singing "oh Skittles Cake, we stand on guard for thee!" in the most hilarious off-key manner. 

And after what felt like HOURS of saying "NO, you may NOT eat one!", it was finally finished. 

At which point I was very pleased with the result. 

And the boys were very pleased to finally be allowed free-rein with the leftover skittles to decorate the extra cupcakes I made, knowing that I would have revolt on my hands if there was not something for them! How could I make such a cake and just give it away! All those Skittles, just slipping through their fingers. 

Ah, but to their great joy we had a LOT of left over Skittles. I wish I didn't have to buy so many packs, but it was necessary because I completely used up/ran out of the purples and the pinks. But there is NO WAY the boys are going to be allowed to eat all of these. I think I will be giving a lot of these away.

A few technical notes on the cake (if you want to make one exactly like it, or, more likely for me to refer to at the next birthday when a Skittles Cake will most certainly be requested). The cake itself is made from this recipe for what is reportedly The Best White Cake Recipe Ever! from the Add a Pinch blog. And I must say, it is pretty damn good. I made two batches of it in order to fill all my pans (an 8", a 7" and a 6" round) and make almost a dozen cupcakes besides. Then I used good ole' Martha Stewart's recipe for Swiss Meringue Buttercream, but did my usual trick of adding another couple of cups of icing sugar at the end of the recipe, because I don't actually find it very sweet. Which is surprising for me. I bought eight large bags of Skittles all together, two of each 'flavour' that was available, except not the sour Skittles, as the texture is too different with the sour coating on the outside. I split all four layers in two, and iced between them. I chilled it after icing and before putting on the Skittles 

So there it is. That's it. Another week another cake!

button sudoku game

I've been a little lax in posting the stuff I've been making lately, (which I think may have been the original intension of this blog. ahem.) so I wanted to take a moment to share some pictures of this cute quilted game I made. This is a little quilted, button sudoku game! There are nine sections, and each is divided into nine squares. It could not be easier to make. I got the pattern from the lovely book "A Month of Sundays" by Cheryl Arkinson. This is a great "new quilter" project. The hardest part is finding 9 buttons in 9 different colours in your button box! And I have to say, it has been very well received by my 4 and 6 year olds. The play value is pretty high, because when it is not being used as a sudoku game, it becomes a sleeping bag for their stuffies, an Island to stand on, a picnic blanket for pretend-food picnics, and the bag of buttons is very popular as "a bag of fake money".

Here's how you play it: You need to reach into the bag of buttons and pull one out. And preferably, you should close your eyes and make a squinchy, hopeful face while you do. 

When you pull out a button, you should be surprised and delighted by the colour. (Unless it is white or black. Apparently those are boring, disappointing non-colours).

You then place your button on one of the nine squares' little segments. But be careful, each different square can only have ONE button of EACH colour in it. Like real number sudoku, but with colours. 

If your kids are really little, just make it a matching game and designate one square for each colour (this is the "green square", this is the "red square") which makes it a little simpler.  

They are so fun and easy to make that I made three of them, to have on hand for gifts. The tops are mostly made from "new" fabrics, as I don't have very many neutrals in my stash, but the backs and bindings are all made from vintage sheet fabrics. So if you happen to be the parent of a small child who is related to me, try to act surprised when you open up the package that came in the mail….

In the meantime, I need to go and replenish my button collection. I've got a whole box full of the darn things and did not realize how few orange ones I have!

 

owl cake!

I've been a bit busy lately, a bit distracted by projects and, you know, life. So I haven't yet gotten around to posting the pictures of the cake I made when our Little Guy turned three. But it did turn out so nicely, and in the interest of sharing the way I made it, I now present to you, The Owl Cake. 

Oh, but wait. First I have to tell you that the Little Guy originally asked for a different kind of cake. When I told him he could have any kind of cake he wanted, he said "A Doggy Cake!" But that's what you had last year, I told him, how about something else? "A Kitty Cake!" he exclaimed. Ok, I said, I can do that. "No," he said "A Kitty Cat Cake AND a Doggy Cake!" Weeeeellll, I demurred, I don't know if Mommy is going to make two cakes. "No WAIT!" he said, holding up his hands, as if to stop the presses, "I know what I want!" And then after a pregnant pause, he said "A cake that is a kitty cat dressed up as a doggy, AND a dog cake dressed up as a kitty cat!" I know. Mind blown. What do I look like, a cross between Anne Geddes and Martha Stewart? Luckily, I was saved from the meta-cake baking challenge that is kitty cats and doggies dressed as each other, because he was watching over my shoulder one day when I was browsing cake recipes on pinterest and he saw a cake decorated to look like an owl. "THAT! I want THAT! An OWL CAKE!" he exclaimed gleefully. Done, and done!

So here's what it looked like before frosting. I used two 10" round cake pans to make it. Made my favourite cake recipe (a light vanilla flavoured white cake) and baked and cooled them, and then had handy Hubs cut it up and make it look like an owl.  

 

And then I frosted the daylights out of it in order for it to look like a nice, feathery owl. You know I have no great love for food colouring, and I was very happy to be able to pull this off without using any, and still having three distinct colours of icing. I made a Swiss Meringue Buttercream (our favourite fancy cake icing from good ole' Martha Stewart, but I must confess I add an extra cup or so of of icing sugar at the end because we like it a bit sweeter than Martha does) and took out one third of it before adding a tablespoon of strongly brewed instant coffee to get a mocha flavoured icing which is tan coloured, and then I took half of that out of the mixer and added cocoa powder to get the chocolate/mocha flavoured icing which is dark brown. And then I used my #19 tip (manufactured by Ateco, don't know if the numbers are the same for Wilton etc.) and made the long, feathery shapes. I was very pleased with how the feathers on his chest worked out, by alternating the vanilla and mocha icing. That was Hubs' good idea. He went and googled owl pictures and suggested it. Clever man. 

The eyes are opened up Oreos, and the pupils are droopies (a weird salty dutch candy that my kids love, but yours will probably hate. M&M's would work well in their place) and the nose is a long gumdrop cut on the diagonal and stuck back together. I'm pretty happy with it, though if I had it to do again I would have made the nose a shorter triangle, so that he would look "cuter". Also, it'd have made his feather horn thingy's on top of his head shorter too. Again for the cute factor. Short features equals "cute". But luckily my big Little four year old Guy had no such criticisms for me. He just wanted to make sure he got to eat the nose. 

Even his friends were licking their lips in anticipation.

 So we sang and blew out the candles and cut up our delicious owl. Everybody got the piece they wanted ("just chocolate icing for me!", "I want vanilla!"), and there was plenty to go around.

And even an extra piece or two to save for this guy to celebrate on the day after his birthday party. Because that's how we roll, cake and lego for daaaaays!