Frog and Toad Cake Tutorial

Frog and Toad Cake
1 vanilla (white cake mix)
1 small pkg pistachio pudding
3 eggs
1 1/2 c. water
3/4 cup oil
Bake as directed on cake mix box. For frog and toad, divide the batter to fill 6 muffin cups and then divide the rest evenly between 2 large loaf pans.
Chocolate Frosting
9Tbsp cocoa
2 Tbsp melted butter
1/4 hot water
3 c. powdered sugar
6 Tbsp butter softened
1-2 Tbsp milk.
Add the first 3 ingredients. Add sugar, add remaining butter. Beat well. add milk to desired consistency.

Supplies:
Marshmallow fondant or Wilton fondant
Wilton colors (brown, yellow, green, orange, black) for fondant tinting.
Twizzlers
Wilton premium dark cocoa candy melts

(To make log bark tiles melt choc candy melts spread between wax paper layers, cool and cut.)

1. Stack loaf cakes to make logs. Frost and add chocolate bark.

2. Trim and stack 2 cupcakes to make toad (secure w/ Popsicle stick)

3. Trim and stack three cupcakes to make frog. (secure w/ Popsicle stick)

4. Add twizzlers to create base ("armature") for arms and legs.

5. Frost cupcake mounds.

6. Color and Model fondant drapes for body, hands, feet. Then do pants, jacket, belt, buttons and face details.

7. Decorate around the log with chocolate candy melt wafers.

will barter fondant webkinz

My friend asked me if I'd be willing to trade some fondant webkinz heads (for cupcakes for her son's birthday) for photoshoots for my boys-- of course. So here's my end of the deal. Along with a tutorial for any moms and dads out there trying to make your child's webkinz birthday party dream come true. These can be attached to sugar cookies, cupcakes, or made larger to cover all cake or a few mini cakes.

Tutorial for webkinz birthday cakes, webkinz cupcakes:

1 batch marshmellow fondant or wilton fondant

wilton frosting colors: orange, pink, red, green, blue, black

silver dragees for "eye glares"

Pink poodle webkinz cupcake: In pink fondant: roll out an egg shape for head base in pink fondant. Roll out a tiny snake of fondant about 1/2 in long. Flatten for ear connectors. Then roll out an oval for top of head "poof" use a paring knife to cut triangles out around the ends to make ruffling texture. Repeat with slightly smaller ovals for side/ear and face "poofs". Then in black fondant: roll a very fine snake cut and shape moon shaped eyes. Make one oval nose and on tiny mouth line. In red fondant make a tongue. Stick the pieces together by dabbing with a drop of water).

Frog webkin cupcake: Roll a cherry size ball of white fondant. Flatten with a smooth surface. Make upper half with green fondant- use thumb to make upside down u indention.
Roll a tiny ball of green fondant and flatten it. Roll a slightly smaller ball of white fondant and flatten it. Roll a slightly smaller ball of black fondant and flatten it. Attach the green circles to the top of the head. Layer white circles topped with black circle. Add a silver dragee for a eye glare.

Duck Webkinz cupcake:Roll a ball of white fondant the size of the cherry. Flatten it. Roll each a pea size ball of black fondant and flatten it. Attach as eyes. Add the silver dragee for eye glare Roll a very fine snake of black fondant cut and shape to make eyebrows. Use yellowish orange fondant to make beak wedge and shape a pink fondant tongue.

Blue hippo Webkin cupcake: Roll a ball of blue fondant.size of the cherry. Flatten it. Shape rounded trapezoid out of blue fondant for the hippo nose/mouth. Roll to a large pea size balls of blue fondant for ears. Roll for slightly smaller pink balls, two for the ears, two for the nostrils. Attach.. Roll each a pea size ball of black fondant and flatten it. Attach as eyes. Add the silver dragee for eye glare Roll a very fine snake of black fondant cut and shape to make eyebrows.

from my kitchen to yours: cream cheese sheet cake

Today I thought I'd share one of my recent cravings. ShawnTooley's Cream Cheese Sheetcake. I made it valentine's week for a "sweet swap" but it didn't satisfy my craving so I had to make another pan this week (yes that would be a jelly roll pan). Think cross between soft white cake and cheesecake with a texas sheet cake style cooked chocolate frosting. They are fast easy and makes alot! I had great plans of dropping a few postpartum pounds before a party this weekend so I would actually have more than 3 pants options but alas- the cake squares have thwarted my plan.

This is a recipe from our good friends the Tooley's- as the story goes Shawn was making these and misread the cream cheese directions and put in 16 oz instead of 6 oz as the recipe called for. The mistake proved providential and alas the improved recipe was born! After talking to our friend Jennifer (seen here at one of our late night frosting makings) the other week, about more recipes, I was missing their family, so I made these in honor of them. In our family, recipes often bear the name of the person who introduced us to them for example Kearsley Casserole (once brought to us by my friend loranna's mom) or Lauren's (college roommate) Penne Arribiata, Aunt Dawn's Special Chicken, Shelah's Best Birthday Cake, Jennifer's Festive Salad. It is one more way to remember the people I love and how they have touched my life.

So without further ado...
Shawn Tooley's Cream Cheese Sheetcake

1 c.+ 2 Tbsp. butter or marg.
2 pkgs (8oz) cream cheese (i used the neufatchel and it works fine)
2 1/4 c. sugar
6 eggs
1 t. vanilla extract
2 1/4 c cake flour (if you don't have this you can do the flour cornstarch substitution)

Frosting
1 c. sugar
1/3 c evaporated milk
1/2 c butter or marg.
1/2 c. semi sweet choc. chips

In a bowl, cream butter cream cheese and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, mix well after each. Pour into greased jelly roll pan (15x10). bake at 325 for 30-35 min. For frosting combine milk and sugar, bring to a boil over med heat. then turn heat down, cover and cook for 3 min (do not stir). Then stir in butter and choc chips until melte and smooth. Cool slightly, pour over cooled cake. 24-30 servings.

one trip down, one wedding down and 17 weeks down

whoa- I feel like i haven't blogged in forever- and then i saw the date on my last post-where has the last month gone!! That is my longest break ever-part of my lack of blogging I will blame on my parents slow dial up internet which makes me crazy (one day highspeed will come to their street!)And have been a good mom spending a lot of time each day reading books to the boys and helping Bennett with an EPGY class he has been doing this summer.

We are heading back to home tomorrow. My boys had a fabulous time in Virginia visting my parents. They loved their daily trips to visit Gigi, riding the tractor with my dad, driving the motorized jeep around my parents yard, going swimming at the club with aunt d, picking chokecherries, making "salad" for the wild animals to come eat, spotting bats, horses, deer, foxes, and millions of insect varieties, baths in the giant tub, sourdough pancakes with my dad, donuts from Ukrops, going to Tom Leonards, summer haircuts, fireworks, (although they both fell asleep in the middle of them) and all the other fun things that come with our trips here.

Thanks to everyone who has been checking in on me- I am 17 weeks this week and still kicking along- It still doesn't feel "real" yet-I am starting to show more but mostly just look thick. I am not as sick as before- but still not feeling really peppy- on top of pregnancy yucks i got a cold that went straight to my chest and has had me coughing for days! So most nights i just want to veg out and go to bed (hence lack of blogging). I can report I made it through the wedding I was doing- wedding cake, grooms cake, and flowers. It is always nice when they are done and you can breathe a sigh of relief. Smart baby loves the perks of being the son of the cake baker.

now we head back to home unpack and repack for our Utah excursion! okay that is all the patience i have for picture loading tonight!

Out of this world Party

We just finished smart son's 6th birthday party- He had 10 friends over- they are all so cute and delightful. We decorated planet cookies, painted space paintings on canvas boards, did marble planet relay, played planet-planet-comet (aka duck duck goose), did pictionary, and did a birthday space mural. I really love good homegrown birthday party-- I could tell smart son just loved having his friends in his home. There is something special in sharing your space with people- it just makes things personal. If you know me you know I am a deal master and love to make things nice without spending a lot-- And I am pleased to report we pulled off this very fun uber cool 6 year old birthday party for $58- yes call me thrifty mama- (that includes cookie supplies, cake, paper products, favors, drinks, everything. The rest of the smart family is enjoying the freakish 70 degree weather outside- but but I had to blog about because as any party hosting parent knows euphoria sets in when the event is finally over. My big tip though is plan the different activities in different spaces so you can easily navigate kids to the next activity without losing them and you can have the supplies all set out ahead of time and you don't lose the kids while you are trying to clean up one thing. We did cookies in the dining room, painting in the nook, relay in the studio, pictionary in the playroom, planet-planet in the family room, mural on the kitchen wall. Yes I went a little martha this year making the favors (We found all the stuff for them when we were on vacation in Kansas - i found the planet marbles at moon marbles and the cool writing pads and spider web pens at the crayola store- we just spiffied the pads up by covering them in black sticker paper andmaking custom labels) and I have to say the cakes were super fun-they actually came to me in a dream over vacation (yes freud go at that dream) you can see a close ups on the cake blog. I was so proud of myself for the mini smart son astronaut picture i crafted for it! and the assembly was less precarious than expected! I also loved the chandelier decoration that evolved out of my tardiness putting away Christmas and added cool bonus at 3oo pm just during party time the light shines in a reflects hundreds of light spots all over the dining room and effect is magic and perfect for a space party!

I'd love to show the pics from the party of all the kids showing their cookies and paintings but I don't want to do that without parents permission as their names are on their paintings and cookies. But here is a shot from pictionary. Now I will go take a nap!

Happy Birthday- Smart son! (a little late)

addendum-- sometimes blogger does crazy things- like add a giant space in your post you can't get rid of and spontaneously delete pictures- so I have added the mini cake from smart son's real birthday (look for the 3-D rocket cake coming this weekend) I will repost this on the cake blog too http://smartmamacakes.blogspot.com)

6 years ago smart son made his earthly debut before Christmas instead of after the New year- which adds a little extra chaos and jobs to the lengthy December to do list and although I am sure the extra years tax deduction far exceeds the trouble-- it does complicate things- i probably go overboard in attempts to not cheat him- it is probably the best time to be born for that very reason. We are celebrating on his real day and then again after the holidays with the "friend" party. And in Dec. your parents never think to give you something like a bike so they break down and buy you that in the spring and you wind up racking up extra gifts. Although it is kind of a bummer to only have one new major toy influx per year. You can check out this years rocking cupcakes he's brought to kindergarten. I actually had a mom stop me in the grocery store to ask about the rocket cupcakes her son came home talking about- so i think they were a hit. i had a picture of the cake but blogger deleted it so i'll post it later.
I sure love my smart son though- he will always be remembered as my great Christmas present. We have enjoyed 6 great years together- I am lucky to be his mom- you all know how I love his creativity, his sweetness, his constantly churning little brain. I love will never regret leaving work to spend my days with him- my time with him is worth more than any paycheck and if there is any thing I hope he always knows it is how much his mom loves him!