Papa's 75th Birthday Party!

Last weekend was my Papa's 75th birthday!  We went to Lindsay for the celebrations.  We had an open house on Saturday for friends and family and then a family celebration on Sunday, which was his actual birthday.

Our present to him was to make his birthday cake.  (I've been trying to take every opportunity I can to make cakes!)  I decided on a golf theme, after looking up some ideas online, and adding a couple of my own, I decided that I would made a golf course, more specifically one hole, with a fairway, water and sandtrap.  Wilton has this little golfing cake topper set which I bought that helped add to it.

Friday night, I made the cake.  I made a 12x15 cake, which was the first time I had used that cake pan.  I only make 2 cake batters, but it turns out I probably should have made 3, as it didn't rise much, but it was ok, there was still lots of cake!

Saturday morning I decorated the cake.  I made a light green icing to cover the whole cake with, on which I would do the rest of the decorating.

Once I had it all iced, I used a toothpick to draw out my fairway, water and sandtrap.

Next I filled in the water and sand trap.  I decided to use graham cracker crumbs for the sandtrap versus coloured icing, as I thought that it would add to making it realistic.

I started on the rest of the grass, using a darker shade of green.  I ended up enlisting John's help as the icing was a little thick and my hand was cramping.  We sort of took turns placing the grass.  He also helped me make the cake look more realistic as I didn't have the grass quite the right way for how it looked on a golf course.

Here's the final product with the added cake toppers!

I was really pleased the final product.  It was definitely a fun cake and everyone really enjoyed it.  Here's a few pictures from the party we had on Saturday.

Wilton Cake Decorating Course 3 - Class 3

Last night was class three of my fondant and gum paste course.  We learned how to make leaves, daisies and mums. It was the least intense course...or I'm just getting used to all the work!

Leaves
We started by cutting out the shapes for the leaves for the roses, carnations, and lilies along with just regular leaves. We started with the calla lilies, they were the easiest.  Just a medium round circle cut in half, take one half, put a little gum glue and wrap it around the bottom of the flower. That's it!

The other two were slightly more work.  For the rose, we cut out a flower (a pointed petal one), rolled it out on our small foam piece, put a little gum glue and then slide it up the noodle (if it was still there) and slightly bent the leaves out a bit.  The carnation leaves are leaves are basically the same, only you cover it completely in gum glue and cover the whole   Here is how they turned out.

We also cut out little leave with the leaf cutter and then used the veining tool (or dentist tool, as I like to refer to it) to thin it out and put some definition to them and then folded them in half to give them some depth.

It's hard to see, but they look cute.

Finally, before we moved on, the teacher brought in pearl dust for our carnations, if we wanted to try, which I did.  They make them look so pretty and even more realistic!

Daisies
Next we moved onto the daisies.  These were made with straight gum paste that we had to roll out quite thin.

We were given two daisy cutters in our kits, out teacher told us that they are suppose to be two different sizes, but the majority of the time they are the same size.  It turns out that I had two of the larger ones, but luckily there was another woman in the class who had two of the smaller ones, so we just switch.  After this, our teacher also told us that these cutters are not hat good at cutting, so she has found that putting the gum paste on top and rolling it over the cutter actually cuts the gum paste easier.  I did this for the daisies, but forgot for the mums, although I didn't find it made a huge difference, they still didn't cut well.

Rolled gum paste over the cutter.

Peeling away...

Perfect little flower

Then we placed the cut flowers in these forming cups which make the flowers curve up.  For the daisies, you use two cut flowers, place them one on top of the other, off setting them, with a little gum glue in the middle to hold them together.

While the flowers dried together, we made the centers.  I went out and bought some yellow sugar to put on the centers to see how it made them look.  I like the extra sparkle it gives the flowers, especially for white ones, it gives them a little more pop.

I felt my centers looked more like clown noses then daisy centers,
but my teacher said that it just depends on whether you want
real looking ones or not when determining the size of the
centers.

Mums
Finally we made the mums.  These were made with the colours gum paste and fondant mix.  We had to cut out six of the daisy flower shapes (both sizes), as we needed three for each flower.

Next we took four of the large flower shapes and placed them in the forming cups (since we only had three forming cups, we had to use one of the cutters as the fourth).

While those dried, we started assembling the mums. Starting with the small flowers to the largest.  Allowing the first flower to completely wrap the center (we used the small ball on a noodle we made in the first class) and then slowly letting the next flower remain a little more open.  This way makes them look a little more like water lilies.  The teacher liked them more than how they look in the book, because she thinks the book's way makes it look like a cabbage.  I tried both out to see how I liked them.

Used the veining tool to give the petals dome definition and
help them hold a bit better.  This one got a little away from me
in the one spot.

The "water lily" looking one is the complete one.  

Here is the one that looks more like the one in the book.

My creative way of getting them to stay in the forming cup
with the noodles sticking out.

That's it!  Even though it felt like less work, the time still went by quickly.  Next week we are bringing in cakes to decorate.  John came up with an idea for mine last night, so we'll see how it turns out!  You'll have to tune in next week :)

Wilton Cake Decorating Course 3 - Class 2

Last night was my second class of this gum paste and fondant decorating course I am taking.  It was as much work or more as the first class, but it was just as fun!  We got to make three different types of flowers.  I think that in the end they were easier to make with the fondant that with buttercream (especially the roses!)

Calla Lilies
We started with the calla lilies.  I really like these flowers, they are so elegant and simple to make!  First we cut out heart shapes from the gum paste and used our tool with a ball on the end to roll down the edges so that it makes the petals have a little shape.

Next we wrapped the hearts on this plastic cone we had, and put a little gum glue on the end to help it stick together, then set it off to the side to dry.

Then we rolled out some yellow gum paste and cut out a medium circle and cut it in half.  We took one half and rolled it into a ball and then into an inch and a half long line.  We put a toothpick in one end, then put gum glue on the inside bottom of the lily and placed the center inside and viola! A calla lily.

You could put gum glue on the center and roll it around in
yellow sugar, but I didn't have any to do that.

Roses
Next came the rose.  The rose is my enemy with buttercream, so I was a little hesitant with the fondant.  Fortunately, it is a lot easier to make using fondant, so we got along more last night :)

First we cut out 6 large flower shapes (3 for each flower).

Then you have to make 1/4 inch slits between the petals, roll out the edges and then poke the petals with the ball tool to give the petals some shape.  Once you do that, you place the petals on the cone base we made last week (I thought we were using these for the lilies...oops).  You glue and fold the petals up one at a time to make the rose.  They turned out really well.

First layer, you could use this as a rose bud if you were
doing a bouquet. 

Second layer.

Final layer.

The spaghetti noodle broke on this one, but it still turned out
really goo considering.

Carnations
I really like these ones and for some reason I'm really good at making them.  My friend kept asking me how I was able to make the petals ruffle so well, I don't know though, I just followed what I was told to do! haha

The process is pretty much the same as making the base for this one, except you only go around it with the plastic dentist looking tool to make the petals ruffle.  You make 6, but you can use anywhere between 4-6 petals to make the flower.

Once you have them all made, you take the base and put a little gum glue in the center where you put a hold in them, the you stick one of the petals in and use the ball tool to push it in.  Once it's full enough, you take the last petal and fold it in half twice, add glue, stick it in and use the end of the paint brush to push it in.  I was very pleased with the final product.

That's all we learned last night.  We were suppose to learn how to make leaves, but we didn't have enough time, so we will be doing them next week along with mums and daisies! 

Home Reno 3.7

It's been a while since I wrote a blog on the renos, it's because the end of John's week didn't produce a lot of picturable results, so I never feel like blogging unless I have some sort of progress I can show.  Fortunately we have been busy this past week and a bit, so I have lots to update on.

First, John grouted the tiles last Saturday, which we rigorously cleaned three times every 15 minutes to get all the excess off and then let dry.  It really made them look complete!

Unfortunately, the rest of the main floor turned into a disaster zone, as John had to move everything he needed (or things that where just in the way) into the living and hallway.  We cleaned it up on Sunday after picking 12L of strawberries!! (We got sidetracked from the work that needed to be done :) )

Not as bad as Wednesday, but still
bad enough!

This is missing 2L, which I left out for us to eat.  This sink
full has since been frozen. 

During this past week, we sprayed the tiles down with a grout and tile sealer.  We had to wait until Wednesday for the grout to set, but after spraying them down twice, they are all finished.

Yesterday was a pretty productive day.   John ripped off all the trim (as he got mortar all over them) before breakfast.  After breakfast we put the first coat of the varathane on the shoe shelf and then made a run to Home Depot to pick up new trim and a couple of things we needed.  I'm pretty sure the staff there know us all by name...

Once we got back, I got set up to iron the veneer onto the bench and did the second coat of varathane on the shoe shelf, while John cut and put the trim on the bench and in the entrance.  

I forgot to take pictures of what we did today, but we made another trip to Home Depot and then came home and finished staining the bench and cut the rug up for the shelves for the shoe shelf and brought it inside.  John was going to caulk, but decided he wanted to rest instead, which was fine by me! He did, however, put one coat of varathane on the bench later on in the day, so one more coat and it will be brought inside!  The end in sight!  Until next time...