Three hours later…

Elijah got a K-Nex set as a gift at Scott’s work party. (The same work party in which Ella was a total grump. She high-fived Spiderman and hugged Snow White, but completely freaked when we started to walk towards Santa to get her present. She needed a nap…)

But pretty cool, right?

A working roller coaster, with a real motor, chain lift, and everything! Usually Scott is the one to help the children put Lego sets together. I can handle an Ikea chair or dresser- but a million little pieces is enough to drive me mad. And being the perfectionist that I am- I can’t put it down until it’s done. I once spent all afternoon try to transform Metronome (as Prayer calls him) er, Megatron- and was quite upset when I had to admit failure and hand it back to my 7 year old.

 

Anyhow, Scott wasn’t home. Elijah really wanted to put this thing together- so, I decided I could help him.

Three hours, and a hot glue gun later…

Yep, I totally hot glued that one little dysfunctional piece into place…

He had his roller coaster!

Today… he decided to take it apart.

 

In other news, Prayer put Ella’s hair into braids yesterday! It is still so short that I never would have thought to try that- but it looked absolutely adorable!

That’s her fake-it-for-mom’s-picture smile…

 

Scott bought a few old Nintendo games for our Wii. We now have Dr. Mario, Tetris, and Super Mario Bros. 3.

Oh, the memories of wanting to kill my little sister because she tripped over the Nintendo cord and unplugged my game that couldn’t be saved…

The other day, we had finished school by lunch time, so Scott and I decided to play a game or two of Tetris before he left. It was a competitive Tetris where you can cause grief on the other person’s game with items you get from tetrises. We only planned to play one or two games, but when I beat Scott – he has to play again. And again. And again.

 

Right before he left for work, he asked the girls, “So, what did you learn in school this morning?”

To which Eve replied, “That Dad can’t beat Mom at tetris!”

I love that girl!

P.S. That wasn’t really what they learned in school. She's learning to use sarcasm. A little too well.

 

We also baked, what were definitely the best sugar cookies that I’ve ever baked before.

Which doesn’t really say much.

But I know they were good…

Cause they’re all gone now.

Can’t wait to bake some more Christmas goodies!

Marshmallow Fondant Recipe

 

(photo from my daughter’s 9th birthday- a tea party)

A friend of mine introduced me to “Marshmallow Fondant” over a year ago, and I will never simply “ice” a birthday cake again. It works just the same as store bought fondant, but tastes way better! (and it’s cheaper! Cheaper is good!) I’ve had several emails asking how it’s made- so I figured it would be a perfect recipe for the ‘i heart faces: dessert recipe” week!

 

Here we go!

 

To start, you’ll need a large bag of marshmallows, crisco, icing sugar and vanilla. (which I forgot to put in the picture, so just pretend it’s there! Clear vanilla is better if you have it, as it leaves the fondant a brighter white.)

Count out 50 large marshmallows.

Okay, well 49 will do….

Add 2 tablespoons of water, and microwave at 30 second intervals stirring in-between.

Not quite done yet…

It usually take about 2 minutes, but keep going until there are no lumps left.

Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla to the mixture, and stir well.

    

Now comes the messy part!

Get out your crisco, and grease a good 12x12 inch spot. You’ll need it in a minute.

Now, we’re going to add 1 cup of icing sugar at a time, and stir it into the melted marshmallow.

  

About 3 cups in, it should start to look like this.

Once it begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl and hold together in a more dough-like substance, you’re ready for the next step.  Take off any rings, grab the crisco again, and cover your hands in it. Use lots. You won’t be sorry. :) Now pour the mixture out onto that greased spot that you prepared, and start kneading. Slowly add another cup of icing sugar on top and knead it in.

I used a total of 6 cups, but just keep kneading until it’s smooth, and no longer sticky.

 

It should be able to stretch without tearing. If it tears, it may be too dry, which can easily fixed by adding a few drops of water.

Lastly, you’ll want to roll it into a smooth ball, cover the outside of it with crisco, and have your helper hold open a plastic bag while you drop it in. (cling wrap works too!)

Twist it up air tight, and leave it in the fridge for a few hours. Or overnight, which is what I prefer to do. I always prepare the fondant the night before I make the cake.

My least favourite part: cleaning up…

    

__________________________________________________________________________

Now here are just a few tips on decorating with it.

 

You’ll need cornstarch and food colouring.

Pick a spot on the counter, and spread out some cornstarch. Don’t be afraid to use quite a bit. The more the better in my opinion…

When you take out the fondant, it may be a little bit hard to work with. You can pop it in the microwave for 10-20 seconds. Try 10 first, and then another 10 if needed. You’ll be back to a sticky, messy, mush if you leave it in too long!

To colour it, start kneading and get it pliable and then add a few drop of food colouring on top. Keep kneading until the colour starts to mix in.

Not quite….

Getting there.

It should resemble play-doh, when you’re finished. Probably why the kids love this stuff so much!

There we go.

So once you have your colours ready, pick which one you’d like to use for the base of your cake.

I have my cake already iced, and I set it in the freezer for 20 minutes or so prior to adding the fondant.

(On top of my frozen pizza works just fine!)

This way the icing hardens a bit, you can smooth down any sharp spots with your hand, and you won’t leave finger prints when smoothing down the fondant.

While it’s in there, roll out your fondant into a large circle. You can measure, or play it dangerous and just go by eye. That’s what I do…

 

This is where the cornstarch is important. If you don’t use enough, you’ll go to lift it up and it will be stuck to your countertop. Lots of cornstarch is the key here. Don’t worry about it showing on the fondant, you can brush that off later.

Carefully lift your circle and drop it over the center of your cake.

Smooth it down gently with your hands, pressing out any air bubbles and smoothing out and lumps and bumps.

Here is where my lazy susan, and love of pizza come in handy.

Trim off the excess.

Now you have your base, and the real fun begins!

Here I did a simple polka dot theme. Where I rolled out several different colours, and cut out different sized dots.

Again: lots of cornstarch is key! :)

To apply them, simply brush one side with a little bit of water, and the sugar will act as a glue. Once they’re stuck, they’re stuck!

I used my pizza cutter to cut out some stripes, and here we have the finished product!

My favourite part: Cut, serve, and enjoy!

       

 

   Here are a few other things cakes I’ve made using marshmallow fondant.

Click here for more dessert recipes!

This is Why…

I couldn’t keep my sister’s cake in my fridge overnight.

I just knew that it wouldn’t be safe here.

Poor Mario… poor, poor, Mario…

 

Before:

After:

That is what I found in my fridge this morning when I came downstairs.

Jeddy started crying when I asked who did it, but Elijah had red smears on his cheek.

 

Who was the culprit???

Hmmm….

More about the cake that my sister and I made for Adam later on…

 

This week, I decided that it had been too long since I attempted a photo of all 7 kids together. So here’s what we got…

Ella pouted the entire time, except for this one picture, where she jumped up to try and run away.

I’ve accepted the fact that I will probably never have a photo of all 7 of them looking at the camera, smiling, with open eyes…

They’ve taught me to treasure the pictures of these real moments- frozen in time. Life with kids, is never really picture perfect anyhow.

 

Fun, busy, a little bit crazy and unpredictable… yep, that’s more like it.

Pictures I accidentally deleted and then paid $50 for a program to recover….

Errr… I mean….

“Elijah’s 6th Birthday Party!!!”

Yeah, that’s it! :)

 

For real…. I, in my utmost stupidity, formatted my memory card thinking that I had taken all of the pictures off of it, only to realize that I had missed the most important ones! I sat there and fumed when I realized what I had done. Only to shout out, “I can’t believe I was SO STUPID!” every 5 minutes… and then sit there and fume some more. I have photos from EVERY birthday party! Scott told the kids to “leave Mom alone” while I (and I am seriously this nuts) contemplated making another R2D2 cake and inviting Elijah’s buddy Keaton over again, to re-do the party and pictures! ha… Thankfully, my facebook friends came to the rescue in telling me that I could get a program to recover the pictures.

 

A few tears, 2 hours of recovering, and fifty dollars later… Here they are!

 

Elijah only had two requests for his party.

 

1. His best buddy Keaton, to come over

 

2. An R2-D2 cake

 

So the fun began…

 

The body. Two 6” inch spring-form cakes and an oven safe bowl mould.

  Oh, and blue icing flavoured with “berry-blue JELLO” (my Grandma’s trick) 

A marshmallow fondant R2 knob. Painted with silver pearl dust. (LOVE that stuff!)

 

Now it’s getting fun! Fondant covered head, also painted with the pearl dust… Yay!

This is the point where I was planning to insert working flashlights and voice mechanisms… but it was midnight, the couch was calling my name, and I figured they were just going to eat the thing anyhow!

 

So, this is what he got…

 

My “Arnold Schwarzenegger” R2-D2 cake. – in Scott’s words…. Of course!

What was Elijah most impressed with?

 

The little red button….

Elijah and Keaton both requested a leg.

  They ate all of the gum paste decorations and then asked to go play Wii...

 

 

Next year, he wants a C-3PO…