Oh, Fudge!

Only I didn't say "Fudge"...

A customer ordered two pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving...this was one of them. Gorgeous pies, I was so proud of them. It was in the box, ready for pickup, then dummy me decides to chop chocolate on the table. Pie, I'd like you to meet Floor. Floor, this is your new friend Pie.

Things like this happen to me all the time. While getting prepped for my wedding, I shaved off an eyebrow.

Luckily, I've grown accustom to my klutzy side and take these things in stride. I looked at the pie, decided there was no saving it, and started in on another one. The customer called 20 minutes later, I told her the story, she laughed and offered to bring me a bottle of wine.

I made a new pie, and luckily, it was as beautiful as the original.

I should also note this...I love pumpkin. It's something I craved when pregnant with my oldest son, and it has stuck with me. Pumpkin whoopie pies, pumpkin cake roll, pumpkin cheese balls...I look forward to September/October/November just for the pumpkin flavors. The tragedy of losing a pie is one thing, but a pumpkin pie makes it three times worse for me.

Since the actual pie didn't hit the floor, I was thinking about turning it into a southern trifle for Thanksgiving dinner...We'll see how it goes!

A Very Blue Week

I did four cakes this week. Not really one for the record books, especially since one was for my son.

Interestingly enough, all of these cakes had a predominantly blue color scheme. Not by customer choice, but mine.

Here's the first one:

Joseph Wayne Robinson (aka My First Addition to Cardinal Nation), loves the cartoon The Penguins of Madagascar. So this was his cake.

He also had to take cookies to preschool...they also had a blue theme:

I should explain that Joey Wayne has an attachment to a gameshow on Nickelodeon called "BrainSurge"...so our conversations went like this:

Amy: What kind of cookies do you want me to make to take to Mrs. Nelson's class?

Joey: BrainSurge cookies.

Amy: Huh?
Joey: BrainSurge cookies.
Amy: Not Penguins?
Joey: BrainSurge.
Amy: Not Number 5s?
Joey: Momma, I just want BrainSurge cookies! Didn't you hear me the first two times I told you???

Amy: BrainSurge cookies, got it.

Sunday night, I was sitting in the kitchen with 18 cookie squares and not idea ONE on how I was going to pull this one off. I went to the computer and got the logo and did the best I could. He's 5 and still easily impressed with his mother's semi-competent-logo-copying skills. Lucky for his mother.

Joey's birthday is over, let's move on to the other cakes...

Number 2, The Electric Gee-Tar:

Luke is now 3 and a BIG music kid. His mom couldn't decide between a guitar and a drum, so I'm certain that her house is plenty noisy.

The only instructions given were: Make it fun, I don't care what colors you use. Don't forget he's allergic to chocolate.

So Luke got a blue cake. Luke also happens to be a fan of the Eastern Illinois University Panthers, so the Panther blue ended up a good choice.

To get nice a nice dark black or red, I usually start with chocolate frosting. The food coloring gels do not taste good, and the more you have to use, the worse your frosting tastes (Think Windex and toothpaste mixed together). Luke is a no-chocolate boy, so we just stuck with a nice blue and white. The black pieces are marshmallow fondant that I instructed Luke's mom to peel off and throw away. I don't like the texture of fondant, I think it has the consistency of over-chewed gum.

Number 3, More Logo Copying:

Logan is turing 9 and got Lego Castle set for his birthday from his Grandma Nancy. She wanted a cake to match his present.

Easy enough, right? The Lego Medieval warriors are kinda creepy, especially with their weird 5 o'clock shadows. I got sick of looking at them. The blue is the color used on all the backgrounds of the Castle packaging.

Note to Lego: you have the easiest logo to copy EVER.

Last one...Whew!

Number 4, Fondant Dolphin:

I used a picture from a UK cakeshop as inspiration for this cake...I really need to get an airbrush thing, I love the look of airbrushed cakes.

Blue was a logical choice, I guess.

I'm not really satisfied with the way this one came out, mostly because of the airbrushing; I wanted a subtle blue mist instead of an all-over blue. It's difficult to be subtle with Crisco.

I re-frosted this one at least 3 times...they're going to be surprised when they cut into it and see 1 inch of cake and 3 inches of frosting.

And there I go, exaggerating again.

Thus we come to the end of my blue week. Next week we're looking at a black electric guitar and wine bottle and wine glass cookies. Any thoughts on a theme for that weird combination?