Trial Run: The Cake

Have I told you yet that I'm making all the cakes for my sisters wedding?

Yes I said ALL... as in... more than one...

We saw this picture and fell in love with idea of a cake buffet.

Doesn't that just look yummy?

We thought that it would make things a bit easier to do too.  I mean one great big cake can easily turn into one giant mess with stacking tiers and sagging and whatnot.  Besides, we couldn't decide on one cake!  There are so many choices to make... let's just have them all!

So over the last couple of weeks I've started making some practice cakes to try out recipes and frosting techniques.

Here's my latest.

 

I'm really happy with the pretty little buttons.  I made each one by hand by pressing some of my favorite vintage buttons into frosting dough.  If you don't know about frosting dough you are missing out.  It's amazing and so simple... just add powdered sugar to your frosting until it turns into a ball of dough.  Then you can work with it just like playdoh!

 

 The inside is a strawberry flavored gradient.  To make it I just mixed up a box of strawberry cake mix.   I used a 1/2 cup measuring cup and poured 4 scoops (2 cups) into a cake pan.  Then I divided the rest of the batter amongst 4 bowls.  The first bowl got 3 scoops, the second got 2 scoops, the third got 1 scoop and the last got everything that I was able to scrape out of the bowl. 

Then I mixed up a box of yellow cake mix and divided the batter amongst the 4 bowls.  The first bowl got 1 scoop, the second got 2, the third got 3 and the fourth got everything left.  I played with a little bit to make sure they were all pretty even and poured them into the cake pans.

When they were finished baking I leveled and cut each cake in half. I was worried the cake would be too tall and hard to manage.  So in the end I had two pretty cakes!

Oh and if you noticed that the frosting is about to drip off the cake you're absolutely right!  Last night when I mixed it up, I didn't have any real butter.  I knew I would make sure to have it when making the actual wedding cakes but this was just a test cake so I didn't think it would make that big of a difference.  I was dead wrong. It was runny and really hard to work with but my kiddos didn't seem to mind!

But all this practicing and I still haven't decided how to do the cakes for the wedding.  I know I'll start baking and freezing them now but when should I put them together and frost them?  The day before?  The day of?  Have you done something like this before?  Have any pointers for me?

Can you tell I'm a little scared?!

A Vintage Picnic Wedding

Soooo, I still can't walk in my laundry room... not even close really... it's gross.  

But I've been so excited to share my latest project with you that I just can't wait any longer!!

My sweet little sister Carissa is getting married next month and has handed the wedding planner reigns over to me.

I'm sure some of you are reading this and thinking... SUCKER!  Hey, Carissa might be thinking so to!  But I couldn't be more excited!

I mean what creative, crafty, DIY lovin' chick doesn't love a wedding?

And I know that I'm not the only one who sees wedding pictures, blogs, magazines... etc. and doesn't wish for reason to throw another one... wait... that sounds bad.  Well, you know what I mean!

I'm excited!

Excited to plan, exited to help save some money and mostly just so excited to see my sister so happy.

So wanna see some of what we're envisioning for this laid back and virtually budget free wedding?

Imagine a romantic, summer picnic...

simple understated bridesmaids...

carrying simple understated bouquets...

a cake buffet featuring over 10 unique cakes on pretty little platters...

and a vintage touch here and there.

Don't you just want to be there?!

Me too!

Well the wedding is next month and boy do I have a lot to do!

I'm making all the cakes and a couple of bridesmaids dresses.  My other sister Dani is busy learning the cords for the ceremony music and Carissa is out there shopping for all the vintage goodies that will make the wedding spectacular!

Wanna see more?

I'll share the pretty little flower girl dress I made and a super easy tutorial soon.  And before it's all over I'll share the jaw dropping budget and how we pulled it off!  

Until then feel free to drool over my pinterest board where you will find all of the photos above (and a hundred more) with links to their original source.

I've been MIA... here's why!!

Well it has been a CrAzY couple of weeks for me!  I've been crafting like crazy and have a chance to sit and breath for a sec before getting back to work! So I thought I'd show off all my hard work with a HUGE picture post.

It all started with Mikey's birthday.... He was turning 5.  That's a pretty big deal right?  And this was going to be the first birthday where he could invite friends from school!  See a big deal!

So I made him really cool invitations, a 1UP t-shirt, mustache favors and a huge 3D cake of Mario coming out of warp pipe.  All for his super cool Mario Birthday bash.

So the party was over and I was glad to have a break until my husband realizes I'm pretty crafty and thinks people just might pay for these crafts I keep whipping out!  So I list a bunch of stuff online and... well... I wasn't exactly prepared for what happened next...  I got a bunch of orders for stuff...  stuff that I had to make!

Here's the stuff I managed to get pictures of!

Well after I filled all these orders I decided to check out a craft fair!  I don't know... maybe I like to be stressed out and I bring it all on myself!!

It was my first one and it was so much fun and I did really well!  I paid only $20 for a booth and made $120!  I had a good set up and a good amount of stuff.. except for slings... I need to make a lot more of those when I do it again in 2 weeks!!!

I learned from this last show that I cannot do another show without business cards, a good sign and maybe a website.  So I ordered the cards and a poster and started up my etsy shop!

So go check it out at http://thecheekyprincess.etsy.com/

I listed my first 2 items today and used my beautiful baby girl as a model!

Pretty stinkin' cute huh?

So I'm off to make some more goodies!  I guess I talk to ya again in a couple of weeks!!

Bake to School!

In honor of my first "first day of school" send off today I did some baking and tried out a tutorial on my list!!  Yeah!!!

I knew I wanted to make a fun cake for the kids to celebrate going to school and last night while searching for inspiration I found a fun pencil cake and the cutest little apple shaped "cake pops" by Bakerella.

So the crazy over achiever in me decides that I MUST do both. AND I should do them both before Mikey goes to school at noon!  Needless to say it didn't happen quite that way but I did finish them none the less.

So... this pencil cake... ummm.  Can I blame it on being in a hurry?  If I see it on cake wrecks next week I might cry!  But in my defense this was my first stab at fondant icing... AND I had no rolling pin!!  See it ain't so bad! Right?

It was yummy!

Next up?

Cake pops of course!

Now, mine didn't turn out any where near as cute as hers but not too shabby right?  And I had so much fun making these and they were so yummy I found myself accidently breaking them so I could dispose of them... yummy!

Check out the Mini Cupcakes

There's just something about sprinkles that brings the good out of my boys.  They cleaned up the whole playroom by themselves when I bribed them with these. 

So definitely check out this tutorial and make your own!