Mario Mayhem

This weekend seemed like one non-stop party. I truly feel like I have a queso hangover today. It started Friday evening with my attempt to create a Super Mario themed birthday cake for the young un. We searched on-line for inspiration and finally settled on this:Being realistic, I knew that I would do better with a cake, and that it was for a bunch of 9 year olds, so perfection wasn't in the future. But, my experience as a baker/cake decorator did not give me much confidence going into this fight. Armed with the Mr's Mactop, 2 boxes of fondant and a box of food prep gloves, I started my fondant battle.


It was actually easier than I thought it would be, a lot like playing with clay. I had a pretty rhythm going that lasted right up to my busting open the buttercream icing box. Then my progress came to a screeching halt. Let me just say that the cleaning ladies had done a wonderful job on the kitchen which I promptly negated with the powdered sugar butter combo. I was so glad the Mr was already in bed and could not witness the mess I created.

Once the icing issue was cleaned up, I was pretty pleased with the results.

I will admit that Mario intimidated me and I chickened out of doing anything more than his hat.

At midnight, I threw in the towel and waited for the arrival of our weekend house guests. If you know anything about traveling with kids, it's that they will sleep on the drive and be wide awake when you reach your destination. This was the case with our house guests. Two of the young-un's friends from Louisiana were wide awake when they arrived shortly after midnight. The adults? not so much.

Saturday started way too early with the boys throwing stuffed animals from the loft bed. It was all we could do to get to the birthday destination without drinking. Luckily, the party included lots of "wear them out" activities, like

The adults decided to try out the arcade while the kids were in laser tag, so we grabbed our game cards and let loose. Papaw spotted the motorcycles and tried to plead his case for a Harley.


After Laser Tag and games, the kids devoured pizza and cake while I pouted over the destruction of my creation.

A few more arcade games and I was waving the white flag in surrender. Main Event+ 9 year old boys+ Saturday afternoon= 1 bottle of wine/tequila/rum.

What I learned from cake decorating class...

It seems like only 4 weeks ago I walked into Michael's excitedly clutching my Course 1 student kit; visions of the beautifully crafted cakes I would learn to create playing in my mind. How could I be graduating already? Didn't the instructor get that cake baking incident memo? Didn't I need some type of remedial Betty Crocker course before I earned my diploma? Apparently not, because last Monday night I recieved my "icing" diploma. In honor of that accomplishment, here are some things I learned in cake decorating class:

1. You can cover any mistake with leaves.

2. If you drop your cake you can just add a thicker layer of icing to hide the damage.

3. Piping gel will last as long as the cockroaches.

4. Your mouth can become a third hand.

5. They give you a blank diploma.

I may just have to sell that little number on ebay to pay for class two.....hmmmm....

I was told there'd be cake...

Last night was my second class in the Wilton Cake Decorating Course. Thanks to the airport fiasco Sunday, I barely had time to bake a new cake for the class. I decided to stick to the basics with an 8-inch round since my last attempt at the shapes left me scarred. We were told to have a crumb coat on if we were bringing a round, and I was running pretty tight on time, so I opted for the slap a bunch of icing on it and smooth it down later method.

I am proud to say my Baskin Robbins background has finally come in handy. I can zigzag border with the best of them.

I wasn't digging the rainbow design, and want to amaze everyone at the big Tech vs Miss St tailgate, so I tried my hand with the Louisiana Tech logo. I love the piping gel transfer, but am a little scared to actually consume too much of this stuff...

Star Tip anyone? believe it or not, in college days I used to do this with easy cheese and ritz crackers. Shocking I know :)

The 92% finished product... I only did the part of the border that showed in the picture.

Next week is cupcakes and clowns...