Tote Bags

This tote bag was the very first sewing project I did all on my own. I had made a similar one with my instructor in our second class but I didn't like the material she had asked me to use... a shapeless, lackluster cotton. So, as soon as I could, I got myself to the local-ish fabric store and picked up some quilted, reversible fabric. I also modified the design a bit to include a large magnetic snap. Because the bolt of quilted fabric was a tad bigger than the cotton, but bad came out larger... which was totally fine with me! I use it for everything. I think next time I try one, I may attempt adding some pockets somewhere, or a zipper if I ever learn how.

Princess Tea Party

Ever since my daughter's first birthday cake, I seemed to have claimed the title of family cake baker... For her very special 5th Birthday party with all of her friends, my niece decided that she wanted a "Princess Tiana Tea Party." My sister-in-law asked me if I would consider making her a special cake to go with the theme. I agreed under the condition that I could just do something and show up with it with no direction from her, my brother, or the birthday girl. What I came up with was this:

I surprised her with this teapot cake, which include some of Princess Tiana's favorite colors and lots of edible glitter! The cake itself was a strawberry cake, made with fresh cut strawberries, and a light cream cheese filling. It's covered in fondant, and all of the flowers and embellishments were hand made. I even make the candle holders which were purple gumpaste rosebuds.

A Farmy First Birthday

So, I started my hand at cake decorating because i wanted to make my daughter's first birthday cake. I wanted to have one of those super memorable cakes, and I had been watching a lot of the Food Network, and I mean it's not like it looks that hard to do, right? Besides, I always remembered my mom making my birthday cakes... only, they never looked quite like this.

The bottom two layers of the homemade farmy first birthday cake were red velvet with cream cheese filling. This was the first stacked cake I have ever done, so needless to say I was nervous. But I thought really hard about how I was going to get everything done before I started, which helped a lot. 


Since I made the top of the cake (the barn) out of foam (the two layers of cake was already going to feed about 50, so I didn't need MORE cake!), I was able to work on it several weeks in advance. I covered the whole thing in red and then placed strips of black on top to form the roof. I then wet the strips and covered them in poppy seeds to give a shingled effect. 


I was also able to make all of the animals ahead of time,so when I was ready I could just place them all on. The actual cake layers I worked on the week of the party. My husband had to help me put the fondant on the bottom tier since it was too large for me to cover on my own. It actually came together really quickly. 


After the two bottom tiers were covered, it was maybe 5 hours to assemble and finish all the details. The back of the homemade farmy first birthday cake has a cow and a banner hanging on the barn that says "Happy Birthday." Also there is a duck on the side swimming in a pond. 


I crushed some blue jolly ranchers and put them in the oven at 350* for a couple of minutes to make a sugar pond. I also made a separate smash cake with a fondant pig rolling in mud (chocolate icing on yellow cake). Diva loved it and so did everyone else!