iheartcakegf

Yes, it's that time of year again. Time for the fair. I made an entry for all four decorated cake categories again and I also made a decorated cupcake entry.
I really don't know why I decided to do the cupcake category. I am not a fan of decorating cupcakes. I also waited until the last minute do even think about what to do with them. 

I ended up not at all impressed with my entry. But, it's done. 
If I had done a little more planning, I would have used a dark brown for these and probably something different for the flowers. Oh well, I guess they're not terrible. 

I also wasn't thrilled with my entry for the Holiday Cake. It's beginning to be a recurring theme I guess, I didn't like last year's Holiday cake either. 

I had planned on doing New Year's Cake for this category but decided to switch to this when I was looking over my other entries. I hadn't done any figure work and wanted at least one entry that showed my figure work (although, I will admit, my figure work needs some work). 
I did love the way the top of the cake turned out. 

Santa's chair came out super cute and Santa isn't half bad. That is his big toe sticking out of his sock.
I'm just not in love with the base cake. I wasn't sure where to end the pattern and it didn't go on very smoothly. I'm really not sure how I feel about this cake as a whole. On the other hand I know I like this next cake.

This is the only entry I made that was a duplicate of a cake I've done before. I had made this before for my son's 2nd birthday, though I used a Valentine's theme with that one, this truck is based on Chuck the Dump Truck from Tonka.
I went back and forth about what I wanted to do for the Small World category, this was not even one I was thinking about doing. One night I was looking at some of my old cakes and saw the Chuck pics and had to do it for the fair.
The red and the black are the Duff fondant you can get in stores now and not my usual marshmallow fondant. It was really easy to work with and tasted amazing. The cost will probably keep me working with mmf though, unless I need a lot of red or black because mixing those colors can be kind of a pain. 

This is my Adult entry, I made a birthday cake for a mom, or it could be a Mother's Day cake.
I had a terrible time making the bow for this cake! It fell apart on me three times before I got this one on the cake. I'm not happy with this bow either, the colors are off and it's just kind of funny looking, but I wasn't going to attempt it again.

I cut all of the larger flower petals with a fondant cutter. The smaller petals were all cut from a small daisy cutter, I cut them in half and also cut all the petals down the center to make them small and frilly. It was very, very time consuming but I think the results are worth it.

This last cake is by far my favorite.

It's an engagement cake for the Special Occasion category. I'm in love with the black on white! I used my new Circut Cake for the design on the cake. Getting the cutouts on the cake was a challenge! I'm sure it would be no matter what the cake looked like but putting the black on the white without leaving marks! When I got it all on I breathed a sigh of relief. 
Like Santa's chair the ring box was another chance to work on the mini cakes I am now so in love with. Again, I used gumpaste flowers on an entry, this time anemoes. It took me a while to figure out where to place the flowers but I really liked my arrangement.

My girls also got in on the action. They both decorated cupcakes for judging.
These were decorated by my 6 year old.

And these are my 4 year old's.

I think they both did a pretty good job and I know they are both excited to see their cupcakes on display at the fair.

In the mood to bake over the weekend, I opened myself up to suggestion on my Facebook page. This one came from my husband, Bacon cake.
I looked up several recipes; some sweet, some savory. This one was as sweet one. I actually ended up combining two recipes I found, this one for Bacon Maple cupcakes and one for Brown Sugar cupcakes. The flavor was interesting, I'm going to find a few brave friends to try it out for me. It's iced with Maple icing, which is yummy.
I don't do cupcakes often and suck at icing them. But, this icing job was exceptionally terrible (I'm blaming my bum arm), hence I only took a picture of one cupcake. 
I did end up with several more flavor ideas that looked like fun, hope to try some of them soon.

I'm not a fan of cupcakes. I forget about them in the oven and burn them, and I never know what to do to decorate them. I was hoping not to mention my anti-cupcake sentiments to my friend who asked if I would make some for her daughter's birthday. I was hoping it wouldn't come up, but, of course it did. Another of my friends made sure to comment.
I do have to admit that this project went better than I would have expected. And, just maybe, cupcakes might be growing on me a bit.

I found this adorable cupcake tower, by Bella Cupcakes on flickr, and based mine on it. I built the tower myself, which took some work, but I made sure that it's sturdy and I can totally use it again. The cupcakes and cake are strawberry with vanilla icing. I had a great time making all the little crowns and wands from fondant and gumpaste. I haven't done anything that involved a lot of prep work like this in awhile and I really enjoyed it. 
I also loved that the birthday girl made sure her mom kept her princess.