A Birthday, A Holy Day, Insane Days

First let me apologize for my absence. A lot has happened in the last week! So much that I was too tired to even think about writing anything. So sorry, but here's the scoop:

Niece's Birthday
My adorable niece turned 2 last Saturday, April 7th. She had a great day. My parents got her a little climber gym thingy for outside, and of course as soon as she saw my dad putting it together, she had to go outside NOW. That worked out for Aunt Bekah, who was busy making chocolate hazelnut cake bites. It was an arduous process that yielded delicious results. You bake a cake, let it cool, crumble it, mix in frosting (or in this case, Nutella) and whatever else (mini chocolate chips), roll them into little balls, cool them, dip them in melting chocolate and let it harden. From start to finish it took about 4 hours.

Her other gifts included a play vacuum that actually works, clothes, toys, and a pair of blue Converse that matched a pair I bought for myself:

Aren't we cute? She loved her shoes, I gave them to her as soon as I got home with them (bought both pairs that morning) and she was walking around hugging them, she even ate breakfast with them! Too funny.

Easter
Easter was nice and low-key. Here is a slice of LDS Easter goodness, 'He is Risen.' For dinner I made salmon, roasted veggies and tomato/cucumber salad. We're not huge fans of ham (as an entree) around here.

The Baking Extravaganza
Remember how I was asked to make the cake/cupcakes for the wedding of my bishop's youngest daughter? Well, the wedding was this past Friday. I prepared all week, getting last minute ingredients, tools and who knows what else! I worked Monday-Wednesday and took Thursday and Friday off. I think I was in AC Moore at least 3 or 4 times this week. By the number of coupons I had that were valid this week, I must've been there at least 3 or 4 times the week before as well.

I made one batch of fondant Monday, three on Wednesday and one more on Thursday. Thursday morning at about 8:30am, the mixing and baking began. My mom had invited 3 of her friends over to help, they were amazing! We finished at about 4pm with 156 "cupcakes" (they were really just cupcake sized mini square cakes) and four 8" round cakes, to be trimmed and layered later.

After cleaning up, I spent about a half hour sitting down, then returned to the kitchen to tackle the biggest/worst part of the whole project: THE FONDANT. I've never worked with fondant before, and promises of help from an old friend who is a pastry chef had my hopes held high, but as the hours ticked by with no confirmation of help, I knew I was on my own. Thankfully, a new friend had offered her services and was over just in time for the fondant-ing to start. The two hours immediately prior were spent figuring out how in the world I was going to trim a round cake to the size I needed...there was some trial and error and a bit of a meltdown which caused the members of my family to scatter and scurry out of the house to leave my to my own devices.

7:30pm, new friend arrives and we begin. She frosted (with the cream cheese frosting that was also made that morning) and I fondant-ed. We had a good rhythm going for about three hours, then she had to go because she had to be up at 5am. My dad had just gotten home from a meeting so he stepped in and took her place. Frost & fondant, frost & fondant, frost & fondant...it felt like it never ended. The hours ticked by slowly...midnight came and went, and between 1-2:30am there was nothing but silence. My poor father and I were so tired and ragged that we couldn't even speak. But at about 3am, the end was in sight! We perked right up and my mounting nausea finally went away. The last cake had fondant on it at about 4:45am Friday morning. We cleaned up, and I was asleep by 5:15am.

At the unholy hour of 9am, I rose from my bed like a zombie from the crypt. The cakes needed ribbon. My delirium was at an all-time high. Just as my mom and I were discussing how to proceed with the ribbon-ing, I received a phone call from yet another of my mom's friends, offering her services. She came armed with scissors (to cut the ribbon) and adorned the cakes with ribbon with my mom while I made a hard candy garnish that I never ended up using.

The original deadline for the cake was 2pm...my mom had it pushed back so we wouldn't lose our minds, but we would've actually come very close to being on time if we'd had to! I was going to try to squeeze a nap in, but that didn't happen. My dad and I delivered and set up the cakes around 5pm and were finished a little after 6.

Some of the cakes have a bluish tinge because at the end, I decided that rather than going back to the store to get more marshmallows & powdered sugar for another batch of fondant, that I would use the excess that had been trimmed from all of the other little cakes. There were cake crumbs in it, and since the cake is blue, the fondant is a little blue. It matched the wedding colors, so it worked out.

The Aftermath
The reception was lovely. The cake was a hit. When I got home around 10:30, I pretty much passed out cold.

Yesterday I made more cake bites using the excess cake from trimming the round cakes. I mixed the cake with leftover cream cheese frosting and then dipped them in melted white chocolate. They were tasty.

It's back to work tomorrow. I finally feel sane enough to join the real world.

Next up on my list of projects: church Memorial Day picnic. After that I'm clear until September, where I've been commissioned to figure out a "Cowgirl" themed cake for my best friends 1-year old.

That's about it for me. Back to reality tomorrow. For once, I'm happy to return to it!