Yummy art

One of my favorite things to do is bake. When we were little, my mother would bring my sister and I into the kitchen to make a batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies. It was always so much fun to help measure and mix the dough, and of course we'd get to take little tastes along the way : )

I think our process of mixing may have been the best part. My younger sister mixed first. When it started getting tough, I mixed it. Once it was too hard for me, our mother took over. By the time the chocolate chips were added at the end, it was too thick for any of us so we'd call out father in to help. It's a very fond memory I have of all of us chipping in together to get it done.

We always had homemade birthday cakes too. I can't recall a single birthday party with a cake from the supermarket or some bakery. It was always made in our own kitchen, even if it did come from a box. To this day, my sister and I still make each other birthday cakes and over the years we've gotten more creative with decorating them. I'd love to take a cake decorating class to learn all the techniques, but for now I'm happy to experiment. If only these things didn't always take five times longer than expected. We've developed a habit of getting to parties exceptionally late!

Here is the cake Ki and I made for my sister last year. It was our first attempt to use fondant (handmade) and sugar. The fondant was so sticky that by the end it was covered in powdered sugar. Florida humidity is really rough on bakers. By the time we got to the party (only a few blocks away), the dragonfly's wings were already dropping. Oh well, it was pretty while it lasted.



Dragonfly made entirely by Ki:



And here's the Spongebob cake we made for our niece (technically 2nd cousin, twice removed I believe... Our family is big and confusing). We had originally planned to made it more 3-dimensional with raised eyes and his long nose, but we ran out of time. The frosting was a pain because we didn't have enough so I kept trying to extend it. That's why the frosting for the pants is a totally different consistancy. Well, that and all the die it took to get that color. In the end, that cake used a large can of frosting, two blocks of creamcheese, and a bunch of butter and powdered sugar. It tasted good though!



BTW, making frosting black is a chore and a half! The lines on Spongebob are actually dark purple. For the bees on my sister's cake, I just painted the stripes directly with black food coloring.

I still have a lot to learn, as these are rather sloppy, but we're picking up new techniques and ideas while having fun, and everyone is always happy to eat the results.