I love the 80s...it's all in the details!

Where, oh, where do I begin to explain how much preparation went into Brett's birthday party? Wait...that's not what I meant to say...where do I begin to explain how much FUN I had helping plan Brett's birthday party?!

It was such a freaking blast! Gen made all of these amazing plans and I am so honored that I got to help her execute it all...that's why they call me "the executor." Not the most flattering nickname, but whatever. It works.

Anyway, we had so much fun! We made tablecloths and photo booth backdrops by spray painting "gnarly," "rad" 80s words on drop cloths and then splattering paint all over the place. At one point in time, it looked like I had been splatter painted myself.

Richard Simmons!

Look at these awesome costumes! :)
The photo booth was a hit!!

We also made "Brett Says Relax" floppy disc coasters by gluing cork board to the back of rainbow colored floppy discs. By the way, do you know how expensive floppy discs are these days? I think they might be more expensive than they were when they originally came out. Shocker! But we found them for a pretty good price!

Next we decided some beautiful signs were necessary. We made a whole bunch of them...my favorite is the cocktail sign. :)

Pretty sure that Evan and I were the only ones who played this game...
but with all the couples (and the few singles) it might have been awkward
if more people had played...

Throw in some antique store finds and some super creativity on Gen's part (she did the poster collages all by herself!) and you've got some fun!

Then we come to the chalkboard signs. I found a bunch of metal platters at Goodwill and we covered them in chalkboard paint. Gen found these awesome chalk paint markers. Doesn't it look AWESOME?!

Note that there is only one thing on the scavenger hunt list...

Yes...that's an original Hulk Hogan doll!

Now we come to the part you've all been waiting for: The inside of the cake...

It's NEON TIE-DYE! How oh how did I do that? Simple, I divided the batter up into 4 parts and used neon food coloring to make it super vibrant. Then I poured in about 3/4 of a cup in each pan of alternating colors. That's it. That's all there is to it. :) Here are some additional pics of the cake taken by Rachel and Lauren. Thanks for remembering your cameras, ladies! I can't believe I forgot mine!!

I love the 80s by Shelly Kapowski

Today marks a monumental day in my best friend's husband's (also known as my faux big brother) life...

Brett is 30! And how do we celebrate birthdays? WITH THEME PARTIES, of course!

Now, when someone was born in 1981, what is the most logical theme ever? 80s party!

As always, Gen comes up with the cutest ideas and I have to say that the party looked great! I can't believe how much work she did and how fantastic she made everything look!

I did the cake. :) I'm pretty proud of this one. I'm not gonna lie and say that I'm not feeling the effects of my one-too-many "MC Hammered" cocktails last night, so this post is going to be pretty short. I'll have more amazing pictures uploaded later, but for now, some simple cake images are going to have to suffice! Here ya go, 1981...a tribute to you and all of your neon-colored glory!

And yes, I did dress up as Kelly Kapowski. I would now like to be known as Shelly Kapowski. I think it's only fitting.

The Rainbow Cake-nection

One of my favorite movies growing up was "The Muppets Take Manhattan" and my favorite song was "The Rainbow Connection." I can't explain why, but during one of the craziest, suckiest weeks of my life, this song kept playing in my head. This hard week just so happened to coincide with my birthday and that of a very dear friend of mine. Before any of the negative stuff happened, we had all planned to go up to the lake for the weekend and I had planned to make a cake to celebrate our joint birthdays.

I went back to my childhood and decided to go with the rainbow theme. All it took was a quick glance at google to find this amazing website: Whisk Kid. Not only are her baking and photography skills exquisite, but her writing is phenomenal. I find myself in awe of her. She is years younger than me and has already achieved my life goal of meeting Martha Stewart. She truly is amazing and I can only hope that I did her justice in recreating her cake, kind of.

Anyway, I used her techniques, but skipped some of the hard work that she put into it. I cheated a bit by using a box mix for the actual cake, but I did follow her directions for the yummy buttercream frosting. Check it out here. Delicious! This cake was perfect because, like me, it looks pristine and calm and average on the outside, but on the inside, it's a rainbow of complex emotions, experiences and events. The end result is actually quite stunning and I'm so happy it turned out the way it did.

On this tenth anniversary of September 11, 2001, I find myself remembering the shock I felt that day. I remember feeling like I was so small and insignificant and that the world was crazy and falling apart in front of me. I felt that the world lost its innocence. Listening to this song, reading the lyrics...it brings me back to a time when I felt safe and secure and full of possibilities for the future. That's why I decided to publish this post today. The song speaks to the kid in me. The innocence. The hope. The tomorrows I can't wait to experience.

Rather than bore you with all of the details, I'm going to simply show you some pictures of my cake with the lyrics of "The Rainbow Connection." Enjoy!

Why are there so many songs about rainbows
And what's on the other side?
Rainbows are visions, but only illusions,
And rainbows have nothing to hide.

So we've been told and some choose to believe it
I know they're wrong, wait and see.
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection,
The lovers, the dreamers and me.

Who said that every wish would be heard and answered
when wished on the morning star?
Somebody thought of that
and someone believed it,
and look what it's done so far.

What's so amazing that keeps us stargazing?
And what do we think we might see?
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection,
the lovers, the dreamers and me.

All of us under its spell,
we know that it's probably magic....

Have you been half asleep
and have you heard voices?
I've heard them calling my name.
Is this the sweet sound that calls the young sailors?
The voice might be one and the same.
I've heard it too many times to ignore it.It's something that I'm supposed to be.

Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection,
the lovers, the dreamers and me.
La, la la, La, la la la, La Laa, la la, La, La la laaaaaaa

Chocolate Covered Goodness!

Sometimes it seems surreal, but almost a decade ago, I met my absolute best friend. We weren't exactly friends at first, but one fateful weekend in our old sorority house, when everyone else had gone home for a break, Gen and I had no choice but to bond. Since then we've done practically everything together. (You know, except for the fact that she has a husband and a kid now, but that's besides the point.) 

Anyway, two weeks ago I got to celebrate Gen's 27th birthday with her. How better to do so than with an epic cake and some new Jessica Simpson shoes! If you don't know me, I LOVE shoes! Evan thinks I have a problem. Maybe I do, but I love the fact that Gen and I wear the same size! 

Nicole, Gen and me in our FAB shoes!
We all love shoes and share excellent taste,
if I do say so myself! :) 

While putting on our dancing shoes and hitting up our favorite places in Buckhead was fun, the cake definitely deserves a mention! I usually try to surprise people, but I pretty much run everything by Gen, so why should this time be any different? I asked her what kind of cake she wanted. She said "chocolate with strawberries. Nothing too fancy."

You really want me to do something simple? I didn't think so! I took her idea and I ran with it.

I knew I wanted to do something with strawberries in the middle and I knew I wanted to layer it a little. Kinda like a trifle, but not really. I started with the basic chocolate cake (2 of them actually) and baked them in the awesome 9x square pans my mom just bought me (thanks mom!). After they cooled, I sliced them and put a thin layer of cream cheese icing on the first layer. Then I put a layer of strawberries on top of that.

A note about the strawberries: I cut them up, sprinkled them with sugar and let them sit for a while. When I say I sprinkled them, that is a lie...I actually poured sugar on them, but I suggest just sprinkling because pouring lead to a massive mess later.

After the strawberries I added a layer of homemade cream cheese-based whipped cream. This stuff was AMAZING! I can't even pretend to be humble about this. It was a total success. You blend the cream cheese and sugar together with my secret ingredient: 2 teaspoons of ALMOND EXTRACT. My Nana is probably fussing at me from Heaven because she believed religiously in vanilla extract and would NEVER have put cream cheese in her whipped cream, but let me tell you...this was a whole new ball game, Nana...you would have been proud. Whip in the heavy whipping cream until it makes a stiff peak. Layer that on top of the strawberries. Add another layer of cake, icing, strawberries and whipped cream. One more layer of cake and you're finished with the inside of the cake.

Stick it in the freezer for a minute while you mix the fondant. I set some aside once it was mixed and left it white. Then I mixed up the color for the rest of it. I was trying to make red, but unfortunately I mixed pink in there instead. Fortunately it ended up looking really pretty so I decided not to freak out about it. Later. I did freak a little at the time and my hands were stained pink for quite some time.

With the leftover white fondant, I did something that most people would call...obsessive. I rolled it all into little tiny balls to look like pearls. :) Pearls make everything classier!

Once the cake was cooled and delicious looking, I covered it with the same cream cheese icing and then rolled out the fondant and placed it over top. Then I stuck it back in the freezer. For good measure. And to solidify its perfection.

While that was going on, I decided to cover some strawberries in chocolate and drizzle with white chocolate on top. Then I did that on the cake too. Top it off with the strawberries and add the pearls at the bottom and voila! You've got a masterpiece for your mouth. Delicious!

Happy Birthday, bestie! So happy we've been friends for so long! You're the best!

Beer me, Baby!!

So. I'm pretty much the best girlfriend in the world at this point. Evan and his twin brother had their birthday this weekend and I have been planning an epic birthday cake for months now. Evan and Cam both really like beer. And I really like challenging myself. So I decided to make a "beeramid" cake.

As much as I would like to go into great detail here, I'm not feeling super hot today and I've got to work (7 days off and I've forgotten how cute these kids are!) so it's gonna be a short post with lots of pictures.

Here's the short-hand how-to...

Cut off the end of a can: 

Spray it with PAM and stuff it with rice krispie treats that you JUST made (don't let them cool down and harden!)

After you've made as many as you want (one batch of rice krispies will make about 4 cans), let them harden over night. 

Cali badly wanted to eat them. Mercedes did too, but she
was trying to be stealthy about it and was hiding
from the camera. Smart cat...

Mock-up of how they'd stack...looking good I think...

Put a ring of fondant around the top and use some fondant to fill in any weird holes or gaps in the treats. 

Then cover the whole thing with grey fondant. I also used a little darker grey to make the hole and the same light grey to make the pop top. :)

Make sure you are using cornstarch to keep the fondant from sticking to your rolling surface or itself. Please avoid getting cornstarch on your dog. She will not like it. 

Now you've got to figure out what you need to do for the labels. I talked to one of Evan and Cam's best friends, Andy, who just happens to know everything there is to know about craft beer. I asked him to send me a few pics of craft beers in cans that the twins liked. He recommended Brew Free or Die, Gordon, Dale's Pale Ale, Surly Furious and then I added in Yuengling because I know Cam likes it. 

I rolled out white fondant in the right size for a label and used edible markers to decorate. The lovely ladies at Cake Art also suggested this white edible food coloring that I used much like acrylic paint. It worked some of the time, but not all of the time. Might have been user error on that one. 

Anyway, I can't tell you how I made the labels look so awesome because I'm just talented like that...ok, I'm just really good at copying things. But I still can't help you get better at that. You have to do that for yourself. Anyway, I finished up the beer cans and decided to do some playing cards as well. Reason for this: anytime there ends up being a "beeramid" on the table, there has usually been a drinking game of some sort that involves playing cards. Simple enough. 

Anyway, the next day, Cam's girlfriend, Allie came over to help me do the grunt work. We made the cake (1/2 sheet red velvet...exciting, right?) and covered it in icing and fondant. She also had the great idea to make a playstation remote for the cake as well. Since I am lousy at sculpting on my own, I was glad she was there to do that part. She sculpted the remote and I made the buttons. Then we decided it was time to add everything to the cake. 

We used skewers to make sure the cans stayed where we wanted. That was harder than it looks.

Remote close-up

Crushed can: I carved some of the sides out and made it
look all crushed like that before I added the label.

The cake with all the candles.
There is a napkin in front of it for a reason.
Someone decided to put their finger in it. :(

Anyway, that's all she wrote. Hopefully y'all liked the cake. I sure enjoyed making it! :) Thanks for the help, Allie! Happy Birthday, boys! :) 

Chow down!!

It's Good to be the King

I love making cakes! It's by far my new favorite thing to do, so I jumped at the opportunity to make a cake for my friend Ben's 34th birthday!

Ben loves Crown Royal. Ben loves a lot of other things too, but one of the first things I found out about him was how much he loves Crown Royal. Therefore, when Ben's wife, Phyllis, called and asked me if I had any creative ideas for his birthday, I immediately googled "Crown Royal cake" and came up with my own plan of action.

First I made 2 cakes (red velvet mix, cream cheese icing- this is his favorite icing flavor and I always like to pair it with red velvet cake...) and let them cool. Because I have a crappy apartment and a crappy oven and really crappy cake pans, the cakes came out a LITTLE lopsided. By a little I mean a LOT! (side note...now would be a perfect time for SOMEONE to save up for some nice cake pans...or a house...unless you're saving for something else...

sigh.

fine. cake pans it is)

Anyway, luckily for me, I was able to put the thin side of one on the thick side of the other and it ended up more or less level. With a thin layer of icing in the middle it looked pretty great. Then I eyeballed the shape of a Crown Royal bottle. It wasn't that hard, but if you're nervous, print out an image and cut around. Cover it with icing to crumb coat and prepare for the fondant.

Here comes the fun part! And boy oh boy am I glad Evan was there to help with this part.

I was trying to be cost conscious, so I bought white fondant and some candy coloring. I used this instead of icing coloring because it's not water based and using water-based food coloring in fondant can cause it to break down and soften, rendering it useless. I played with some colors (creating a very unsuccessful brown that is not suitable for human eyes) until I got the proper brown for the bottle, yellow for the cap and purple for the bag. This takes quite a bit of lower arm strength and your hands will get discolored and cuticles will look like crap for a while. Thanks for the help, Evan!

I rolled them out (pretty thick for the bottle so you can make lines in it like on the bottle--the rest pretty thin) and placed them on the cake. First the brown over the entire bottle. Smooth. Then the label in white. Brush a small amount of water on the back of the label and place on the cake. Repeat with the cap and band around the cap.

Here comes that iconic purple bag. I had fun with this one! I played around with it a few times before getting it perfect. I rolled it out, folded part of the top over so it looked like the section where the tie goes. Then I kinda gathered it up like folds in fabric and placed it on the cake. But I forgot to put water down first. So I held the folds in place and picked up sections and brushed water on the area under and placed it gently back down. I also used some extra yellow to make the cording. I rolled it out kindergarten snake style and twisted them together.

I had already gotten Evan to wrap it in plastic wrap but we took a picture of what it should look like thus far...

The next day I painted on the details by combining lusterdust and clear vanilla extract into little paint buckets. I brushed the gold paint onto the label and the cap and ties, bronze onto the bottle and purple onto the bag. I added a little food coloring (because I was too lazy to go to Michael's AGAIN to get more luster dust in the right colors) and it worked out pretty well but a little runny. I made red and purple for the details on the label. I also used the gold luster dust to write Ben's name on the bag and add some details. Here's a hint with that one though, maybe try writing the name on the bag BEFORE you put it on the cake because it was really difficult to do it after. Anyway, sorry for glossing over the last details, but you can be creative after you get the basic shape done. Here's what the finished product looked like. The lighting is quite a bit different, but you get the idea!

Hopefully will have some pics of people enjoying the cake later! :) I really should have taken my own pictures this time, but I had a little bit going on. 

OH! Forgot to mention that for party favors, I made the same oreo truffle recipe from before but did them as pops and just went with purple candy coating. Added some edible confetti with some corn syrup to make it a little more glittery. Then Evan bagged them up and I tied purple ribbons around them and BAM! All done! :) 

Happy Birthday, Ben! Hope it was the best day ever!