Canada Day Weekend 2013

Birthday Cake

It's been a busy Canada Day long weekend for us.  We went to the farm for the weekend, but came back Sunday evening so that we could hit up the Barrhaven's Canada Day festivities.  This weekend was especially busy and special as it was John's Grandpa Wilson's 80th birthday!  We had a big party back at the cottage and I made the cake!  A friend from work let me borrow this cool pan which shapes the cake into letters and numbers.

The pieces are placed in certain spots in order to shape the cake!

I decided that I would make a chocolate 8 and a white 0.

I made the 8 Thursday night and the 0 Friday night once we got to the farm.  I spent Saturday morning decorating the cake.  Of course someone had to show his nephew the cake and get him all excited about it before breakfast, even letting him touch the cake.....

Photographic evidence of the perpetrator...

I ended up having to make extra icing and sending John down to his grandmother's for some more ingredients, but in the end the cake turned out pretty well.  I had some difficulty making the roses, but Grams showed me on Sunday how she was taught to do them, which was completely different from how I was taught and WAY easier!!  I think I'll have an easier time making them now.  Grams also loaded me up with all her cake decorating supplies as she can no longer make them, so I came home with a bag full of tips, couplings, 2 cake pans and cake boards.  I can't wait to try out some of the different tips, as they are ones I have never seen before!!

Here is a progression of decorating the cakes.  I didn't really have specific idea in mind, other than the lettering, as I saw it on another cake and had liked it.  The rest I just made up as I went.

The final product!

I was and still am very happy with the final product.  I'm really enjoying decorating cakes, although I do not necessarily enjoy eating them all the time!  I'm going to be starting another course in a week and a half on fondant and gum paste, which I think will be really fun.  I'm looking forward to that. 

Canada Day

As I said earlier, we came back Sunday night so that we could spend Canada Day in Barrhaven woot woot!  The day started off with a friend from university coming to visit who I hadn't seen in a year, as he lives in Toronto.  It was great getting to catch up again!  After he left, we did some chores around the house and relaxed before heading over to Clark Field to check out the Canada Day fun with our friends the Potters.  We got there a bit before them, so we picked a spot and watched some of the live performances.  There was quite a lot going on, very different from last year when we went.  John captured a bit of what was going on around us.

This thing was amazing.  Those are kids in the bubbles, it was
like human bumper cars, as they just kept running into each other
and doing flips when they got knocked down.

Once the Potters got there, we had a picnic dinner all together, then Seth and Naomi went on some rides, while the rest of us hung back.  John and I got some bubbles yesterday for the kids to play with, except Rebekah and I were the ones who ended up blowing them for all the neighbouring kids who loved them!

Jonah ended up being more interested in eating and Gideon crawled right up into John`s lap and basically stayed there until we left!  It was a pretty fun evening, although it was pretty cool, hopefully next year it will be a bit more warmer! 

Well that`s it for now, I`m off to enjoy what is left of this long weekend before heading to work tomorrow!