Cake is Not Required

So when it comes to my girls and their birthday cakes I aim to please! One year my oldest wanted an apple pie, so by golly, that's what I made for her!! As a crafty person I am bound to an unwritten contract (in my head) that says I should do the cakes myself and not order them from a bakery. I have cheated here and there over the years, but I have also had a ton of fun making different cakes. I think one the best cakes I ever did was SpongeBob, that was a real fun cake to do!!

Two of my girls just had their birthdays in September. Natalie wanted a Monster High cake and it came out ok, but I was battling a shoulder injury at the time and I only had use of one arm. I was also a bit limited on time since the injury was a new and unexpected development. I was honestly surprised to receive compliments on it. lol

Thank goodness for sugar sheets...love those things! I can use my Stampin' Up! punches with these colorful sheets of sugar and press them right into the cake...which is how I added the black bats and hearts. The pink "trim" around the top layer is another sheet. I cut 2 inch strips on my paper trimmer and lined the cake with them. It was too easy!

Sydney just finally had her annual costume birthday party last Saturday. She wanted a cake that looked like a blue monster...and no, it's not the cookie monster, but similar. lol I was planning to make a mouth with black icing gel, but got distracted and never piped it on..still cute as is I think.

This wasn't even really cake. I was pressing her for a flavor decision and she asked me if I could make pumpkin bread instead. Hmmm, well, I guess why not! So I mixed up a batch of my moms recipe since it's the BEST, and poured it into 3 cake rounds. 2 of them were 9" pans and my 3rd one is a smaller size that came in a set of 4 layering pans. I was guesstimating on baking time, so I set my timer for 45 minutes with all three pans in the oven. I pulled the little one out with about 4 minutes to go and it passed the toothpick test. Went ahead and pulled the other two pans and they passed too. Baked to perfection!

Once they were cooled I just stacked them up without leveling them or even adding frosting between the layers. The little one was on top and I used extra frosting to round the sides...CREAM CHEESE frosting of course! I sprayed the whole thing blue with decorator spray, put two marshmallows on lollipop sticks and drew pupils with a food marker. Ta-da, eyes!

Birthday girl as Wednesday Addams...all the kids had fun locking each other in the Stocks we made last year!

This cake was a huge hit once we cut it up and the kids got a taste. I was told by 4 different kiddos that this was the best cake ever! Wow, thanks!



Sally's Pumpkin Bread
(makes 2 loaves)

1-1/2 cups sugar
1-1/2 cups brown sugar
4 eggs
1 cup veggie oil (I use olive oil)
1t nutmeg
2t cloves
4t cinnamon
1t salt
2t baking soda
2/3 cup water
3 cups flour (I always use whole wheat flour)
1 can (15 oz) Libby Pumpkin

Combine ingredients in the order given above in a large bowl. Spray pans well with cooking spray and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 75 - 90 minutes. If you do muffins, bake for 25 - 30 minutes and test for doneness. Pan, loaf, or muffins; I always do the toothpick test to make sure the bread is done in the center.

Stamped COOKIES!!!

We just had another Halloween themed birthday party for my daughter, Sydney. We have a really fun time decorating the whole house and backyard for her parties. Since she has a September birthday at the end of the month, we have done the Halloween theme venue a few times before. This one celebrated her 10th birthday!

Sydney in her mummy costume

I made her invitations using My Digital Studio. I just layered a few elements digitally and printed them on my printer. Once trimmed out with my chocolate bar measurements I wrapped them up for delivery to the potential party guests. And since MDS uses Stampin' Up! punches and images I was able to coordinate her cake with it. I used my Bat Punch* with a black sugar sheet to punch bats for her tombstone cake!

Party day is always so crazy I try to do as many things ahead of time as I can. The easiest was making these snickerdoodles, which happen to be the birthday girl's favorite cookie!

Snickerdoodles made with Sweet Pressed Cookie Stamps

I didn't put pumpkin faces on them using just any old cookie cutter or mold. These are reminiscent of my post on pie stamping. Stampin' Up! has released a new product for the holidays, Sweet Pressed Cookie Stamps!

They are super cute and easy to use. They're sold as a trio, so you get all three of the stamps above along with a beautiful wood handle that they easily slide on and off of. Here's a flyer with more info about Cookie Stamps! =)

The only real trick to them is to use any recipe that doesn't have a leavening agent in it. My snickerdoodle recipe listed baking soda, so I just omitted it. They came out fine. Not as puffy as usual, but still delicious and with cute pumpkin faces!!!

Here's my recipe...

SALLY'S SNICKERDOODLES
Makes 3 dozen

1 Cup Butter, softened
1-1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2-3/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda (you can leave it out)
1/4 teaspoon salt
---------------------------------------------------------
2 tablespoons sugar mixed with 2 teaspoons cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 400. Cream together butter and sugar, eggs and vanilla. Blend in flour, cream of tartar, soda (if using) and salt. Shape dough by rounded spoonfulls into balls. Roll balls into sugar-cinnamon mixture.

Place dough balls on ungreased cookie sheet and press with cookie stamp. After pressing they won't spread during baking. If not using cookie stamps (and if you included baking powder) make sure you space your cookie balls about 2 inches apart so they can expand and rise.

Bake 8-10 minutes depending on how soft you like your cookies. Eat them all!

*Bat Punch retired 2011 

Getting in the Spirit of Things

Halloween is my favorite holiday! My whole house is decked out in true fashion this year because I convinced my 9 year-old to have her party (she was born on 9/25) in October and make it a costume-birthday party! Also with everything out this year, my oldest is inspired to have her own shin dig too; she's never had a costume party and we might as well make the most of it all! :)
The photo above is a small representation of my Spooky Town. I have the whole village set up on the dining room table and you might recognize the paper I used as the backdrop. Yup, it's the packing material you get when a Stampin' Up! order arrives via UPS! hee hee

This is the cake I made her. Using these cookies as tombstones was not my original idea, but the way I saw them they had "RIP" and things like that written on them. Cute, but I wasn't going to do that on a birthday cake. I also crushed up a bunch of Oreos for the top of the cake. It tasted even better than it looks!

I did some super fun  invites using the Fang-tastic Stamp Set (Vampire on some, and a Witch on others), and I also had some done with the Make a Monster Set...so cute. I'm sorry to say I can't share a pic today though, I guess I miscounted because we gave them all away!!!
This is Sydney, AKA Vampire Girl, with her graveyard cake...

...and now for something crafty using paper! ;)
This is an 8-1/2 x 11" scrapbook page using the new Waffle Paper as well as other goodies in the Holiday Mini...LOVE it!!! The spider web was done super easy using the Big Shot, and if you like the Designer Paper I used here, you will love the whole package, too! The spiders were done by trimming off select parts of snowflakes from a Sizzlits Die 4-Pack...yeah they only have 6 legs, but aren't they cute!?

Stampin' Supplies:
STAMPS - Make a Monster (for eyes), Fang-tastic (treat bags in background)*

PAPER - Pumpkin Pie, Waffle Paper Assortment 2*, Whisper White, Basic Black, Night Owl Designer Series Paper*

INK - Pumpkin Pie

OTHER - Textured Impressions Spider Web*, 1" Circle Punch, White Gel Pen, Snowflakes Set #2 Sizzlits Die 4-Pack (3 used)

*Items from the current Holiday Mini Catalog (Sale Dates 9/1/2010-1/3/2011)

Mmmm Mmmm Yummy

Can you believe my Gloria will be 13 on St. Patty's Day!? Where has the time gone? Cuz we all know I'm NOT getting old! LOL
We had her party last Saturday and I attempted to make a "Wonderland cake." It was the theme since we kicked off the party with Alice In Wonderland in IMax 3D...loved it!!!

Anyway, she really likes the topsy turvy cake styles so it was fitting for a "Wonderland cake." I just didn't have time to make a rabbit/pocket watch/tea cups/grinning cat...etc. so I decided "funky shapes" would have to suffice. It's a collaboration of myself and the birthday girl. We had a lot of fun getting it decorated, but what a relief when it was finished!

This little basket is pretty punchy. It's sportin' a sweet little bird punched with one of our new punches, it's only available until April 30th and it's quite popular!  I also used the Scallop Trim Border Punch I got FREE with my last order...can't beat that! And I even used a Circle Punch to make the basket handles, too easy!

Oh, and lookie what's inside...

Stampin' Supplies:
PAPER - Creamy Caramel, Pixie Pink, Pink Passion, Kaleidoscope DSP
INK - Creamy Carmel (to edge the basket)

OTHER - So Saffron Striped Grosgrain Ribbon, XL Two-Step Bird Punch, 1-3/8" Circle Punch, Scallop Trim Border Punch*

*Get yours for FREE when you spend $50 on anything!

Pie Stamping

I made my pumpkin pies on Wednesday so I could focus on the feast itself on Thanksgiving. Since I was doing them a day ahead, I decided why not go Martha Stewart and try something "fancy."

I've seen beautiful pies that have the layered leaf border around them, they're so festive, love that! I dug out all my cookie cutters looking for the perfect leaf to use. Hmm a Holly leaf, but nothing else. Then I thought, "I have a SEVERAL leaf rubber stamps!" So I found one I thought would do the trick, rounded up the chickens (that's code word for my girls) and got started with my first attempt at PIE STAMPING!

I buy the pre-made pie crust thats comes in a roll. Unroll onto a pie pan and cut the extra dough off the sides. Then roll out the extra dough and stamp-stamp-stamp!

We cut out the leaves with a butter knife. A totally easy and kid friendly project. The leaves were simply pinched onto the dough in the pan and layered around overlapping each other.

Ready for the oven!!!

I always use a pie crust shield to prevent over-browning, but maybe next time I should also brush them with an egg wash? The leaves certainly lost a lot of detail in the baking process, but the pie was mmm, mmm, good and we had FUN doing it!