Saturday, February 25, 2012

Drinks in Mexico Layout

Good Evening!

Time for another layout from our trip to Mexico 2 years ago.  I didn't use the cricut very much on this one.  Pina colada is from Don Juan and H2O is from the H2O cartridge - my girlfriend cut this out too big for her layout and it seemed to work well for mine.  I inked the edges in blue.  Papers are DCWV Tahiti Stack. 

Sunday, February 19, 2012

My First "Cricut Cake" Cake & Circle Blog Contest Entry

Well today was really a test in patience.  Not to mention lots of trial and error.  I started the day at 8:30A after having made the cake, buttercream frosting, marshmallow fondant and gum paste the night before.  I was finally done decorating the cake at 2:30P.

First off, some pictures from last night.  Mixing the marshmallow fondant, it was very sticky but a lot of fun to mix!


Here it's finally getting to the right consistency.


Our cake frosted first with a 1/4" layer of buttercream frosting that we made the night before.


The fondant colored a light blue and rolled out to about 1/8" thick.

I used a pizza cutter to cut off the excess fondant.

Everything went perfectly up to this point.  So, we moved on to the gumpaste.  I used the Linda McClure recipe and had watched all of the videos.  I'm not sure what went wrong, but it was not good.  The color wouldn't incorporate into the paste and it was very brittle.  Not to mention that the gum tex made it smell and taste like vinegar - yuck!  I know that Linda recommends a kitchenaid mixer, but I don't have one, so maybe that added to my string of bad luck.


So, into the garbage this went!

I decided at this point, to just try using the fondant in the Cricut Cake.  Hmm, the blade did not like the fondant - too soft.  Put the fondant on the mat and into the freezer for a half hour, this worked better but still not ideal.  I definitely need to find a better recipe for gum paste IF I ever try this again.

After several hours, here's what I finally ended up with.  I'm also entering this into the Cricut Circle MB February Monthly Challenge.


In the end, I was pretty happy with how my first attempt turned out.  Not sure when I'll try this again, since it took the majority of my weekend.  If anyone has a gum paste recipe that works in the cricut cake machine and doesn't taste horrible, please let me know.



Saturday, February 18, 2012

Buttercream, Fondant and Gumpaste - Oh My!

I won the Cake machine from Provocraft several months back and now I have a reason to try it out.
 My daughter and I spent a good portion of the day making a cake, buttercream frosting, marshmallow fondant and gumpaste.  Tomorrow we will frost the cake with the buttercream frosting and then cover with fondant.  We'll use the gumpaste {hopefully} in the Cricut Cake machine to cut out some decorations.  Wish us luck! 
My dad requested that I make him a birthday cake using my Cricut Cake machine for his 71st birthday.  Only one problem, I've never used the Cricut Cake before and I've never made Fondant or Gumpaste. 
 
I'll post on our cake decorating progress in a day or two.
 
I also received my Disney photopass CD - it was so worth it, the photos are magnificient.





Sunday, February 12, 2012

Valentine Treats

Today my daughter and I made her valentine treats for school - Chocolate Covered Oreos - 74 of them to be exact.  The Wilton Chocolatier, mold and melts were a Christmas gift from my daughter.  I think our creation turned out fabulous for our first time trying this!



Friday, February 3, 2012