Cake Decorating Week

It has been a week of making and decorating cakes! Our swim team had an end of season banquet on Thursday, and I decorated a cake for the team, as seen below. That was lots of fun to do with the lane lines and wave-like border. Everything on this cake was done with decorater's icing, which is just Crisco, powdered sugar and almond extract. Easy to work with, requires no refrigeration, and firms up nicely to keep the cake sealed and fresh.

I was also commissioned to make a cake for a wedding shower my mom is throwing for a friend's daughter. The theme of the shower and the engagement has been much like a fairytale, so I went with a fairytale theme, indirectly. This cake, unlike the top one, used fondant for all of the decorations and covering the cake. Usually fondant tastes awful, and while it makes a smooth and beautiful cake, everyone takes it off because it doesn't taste good. I found a recipe online to make your own fondant using marshmallows and powdered sugar, and it tastes just like marshmallows....much better. Anyways, before you cover the cake with fondant, you first ice it smooth with the decorater's icing, and then roll out the fondant and put it over the cake. All of the decorations were made from fondant or gum paste, which is similar, but hardens like a rock. This was probably the most involved cake I have ever made, but I think it turned out almost exactly as I had planned, so I was happy with it!

One thing that did happen after making both of these cakes, is that my kitchen was COVERED in sugar and grease, so it gave me an excuse to give the kitchen a good scrubbing tonight after it was all done!

Twins turn 50!

Dennis, Mike, Kevin, Chris, Leah

Micael Joseph, Nicholas & Eric (Cousins)

Everyone waiting for dinner :)

Birthday Boy Kevin

Birthday Boy Mike

Dennis' twin brothers, Mike & Kevin just celebrated their 50th birthdays, and since Kevin happened to be in town, we invited them and some other family that live nearby for a little cookout. It turned out to be a beautiful day, after the heatwave last week, we enjoyed an afternoon in the mid-80's. Eric got to reunite and hang out with some of his cousins, and they had a great time swimming, kayaking, playing Star Wars, and swinging on the long swing! Everyone else enjoyed catching up with each other and just hanging out.

Summer Carnival

I think Eric is now officially too big for this ride :) He was being a good sport though to ride with his siblings!

Believe it or not, Bay and Leah loved the ferris wheel! They kept screaming, "Higher! Higher!" Crazy kids.

Well, it is that time of year again...time for the local volunteer fire department's carnival! The kids got a double dose of it this summer. Friday night their grandparents took them, and then Saturday night, Dennis & I and our family friend, Russ, took them as well! Needless to say, they had a great time. Eric's new favorite ride is the Tilt-a-whirl, and as long as an adult could go, it is also Bay's favorite ride!!! They still enjoyed some of the kiddie rides too, but mostly Leah had a blast ringing the bell on the train, riding the carousel, etc... They ended the night with a couple of pulls on the Lucky 7 (pull a string, get a prize). The thing that is so fun about this carnival is that we always see tons of people there that we know...families from Dennis' office, swim team, home school, church...everyone, it seems, makes a stop at the fireman's carnival!

Around the house we've been taking it easy the past couple of weeks...but not too easy! The garden is coming in in bushels (literally!)...we've frozen corn, canned green beans, frozen tomatoes, eaten tomatoes till they come out our ears, pickling cucumbers, and then getting ready to do it all again as the next round of veggies ripen. I have just about finished teaching swim lessons, but the weather is so hot and humid that it seems we have plenty of swimming left in us for the summer! I'll close with one more cute shot of Leah at the carnival. There are additional pictures on our webshots album.