Skylander Birthday Party Part 2

Here is the overview of our Skylander Party. I do not take credit for any of the ideas here I copied them all from of web pages I found. Great inspiration out there. Thanks for looking.

 Target Practice.Each hole had a picture of one enemy next to it. The kids had the choice of a FlameSlinger Bow and Arrow or a ShromBoom Slingshot to take aim with.

 I created these simple Chompies with Green Balloons and Construction Paper. The kids used a Air   Missile Gun (Jet VAC?)

 Whats a Skylander Party with out Skylanders.The kids took turns battling it out in Battle Mode on the WII.

 Wrecking Ball is one of Colin's favourite so this game was my first pick when I was researching online. Pick up Trigger Happy Coins with a Wrecking Ball sticky tongue. Lots of fun.

Chocolate Coins (Bulk Barn)

Shark Gummies (Bulk Barn)

 Colin wanted a candy Table after seeing and awesome one oneline. This is our version.

Fizz Candies (Bulk Barn)

Red Gumball (Bulk Barn)

Rockets covered in Red Paper.

Rock Candy ordered online

Coconut covered Marshmellows (Walmart)

Pizza and Veggies to reboot our energy on the porch.

Colin getting ready for present opening.

A quick group shot before cutting up the cake.

Sklander Birthday Party Part 1

The inspiration for this cake came directly from Coolest Cakes. com. In fact I tried to almost replicate a cake I saw there. The little green Chompies are made from Candy melts and jelly beans. This was my first try with melting candy and I found it duper easy so I will defiantly doing this again. The sheep are Clodhoppers (bulk barn) with fondant heads and feet. The Bridge which is partially collapsed in one of these pics I will fix it day of party was chocolate wafer cookies, and licorice.  I iced in buttercream and edged the water with Chocolate rocks and the land with wafers. The characters are store bought. My son has not seen it yet I hope he likes it. 

r

 Colin saw a candy table on one of our inspiration sights and has spent every night for month at bedtime telling new candies we could use. We wended u with Boomers Dynamite (rockets), Whirlwinds Rainbows (rainbow sour strips), Prism Breaks Rock Candy, Sonics Clouds (Marshmallows), Thumpbacks sharks (gummies for Bulk Barn) Trigger Happy Gold Coins, Eruptors Fire Balls (jaw breakers from bulk barn), Pop Fizz's fizz candies.

 Decorations are hard to come by for this theme so I hung a couple banners with Skylander Stickers on them. I also hung Green Table clothes with leaf garland for a picture backdrop well doing presents.
I bought a couple posters to add a little themed items, and placed our Skylander collection on the coffee table for the battle mode competition we will be having.

I will post more about our party games tomorrow.

Another Spring Cake!

 Another cake to add to the collection of cakes I am creating this spring. This one is for a wedding rehearsal dinner for my sisters Mother-in-law Debbie. She is tying the knot this Saturday with her entire family in attendance including her grandchildren who will act as her Ring Bearer and Flower Girl. I hope she enjoys this pre-wedding night treat.
Thanks for looking.

 2 layer Vanilla cake with lemon filling. Iced in Buttercream will an Om bra effect. The invitation was printed on edible paper at Sobey's. The roses were made out of fondant.
 

Not a clean Baker!

So once again I am creating a cake for an event in our busy spring. Tomorrow will be my daughter Madison's First Communion. I had had visions leading up to making this cake of White on White wedding type cake.However when I actually started creating I decided she is 8 years old (today in fact is her birthday) I wanted to go with something more girly and went for pink instead. It was an ever changing work in progress for the better part of 4 hours. Now I am sitting here posting pics and thinking I wish I had a clean-up crew. It does not seem to matter how hard I try I am not a clean baker (as you can see for these pictures). So I will make myself a cup of tea to help wash down the countless taste tests of my oh so sweet butter-cream and tackle this kitchen. I am pleased with how the cake the cake turned out although my rosettes were melting as I put them on the cake. so it looks more like a mishmash of stars or something. Oh well with the exception of a few pics it will be destroyed and eaten in the next 24 hours and no one will care what the rosettes look like only that they taste good!!

Monster High Cake

 To make this Cake first I baked 2 layers of a 9 inch and 2 layers of a 6 inch round cakes (I admit I use box cake mixes and find this saves time and always seems to yield a good cake).
I crumb coated both of these and filled them with a ample amount of butter cream.

 I covered both layers with fondant, the large I covered pink and the small white. Again I used store bought. This time out I tried Kwik brand which is apparently made by Wilton. I found it at Bulk Barn. I bough Pink and White.

Next I rolled out some blue fondant (this I had in my cupboard and is Duff brand, I find it easy to work with although maybe a bit too soft).
I used this handy little tool by Wilton; which I got as part of my course 3 kit when taking the Wilton classes at Micheal's to cut strips to make the patterned on the large layer.  

 Repeat process with black but make your strips a little thinner

 I used gray butter cream and Wilton tip 3 to complete the pattern. I then added the bow and voila bottom layer complete.



At this point I cut 3 dowels to support the top layer and inserted them.

I got a little lazy with the pictures at this point but I will try to explain what I did with the top layer. 

 I had this package by Duff in my cupboard and it just happens to match both my colors and theme so I used the to pick animal print circle on the top of the small layer.

I added a 2.5 inch strip of black fondant, with a 1.5 inch strip of pick over top around the center of the layer.

I then piped with tip 23 a star border attaching the two layer together.
I happened to have small blue scull candies in my cupboard so I added a few just for fun.

 I created the monster high symbol out of fondant and added it to the front of the cake.

My daughter was thrilled with the outcome of this creation. I hope you enjoyed looking as well. 

Event Management 101

So it is spring again and once again we are swamped with events to plan. It was not a well thought out plan by my husband and I when we had both our children's birthdays 10 day apart. Every spring we end up with 2 birthday parties with school friends, at least 1 large family party and the mothers day all inside of 3 weeks. This year we have added my daughters first communion into the mix leaving me feeling slightly overwhelmed. So here are a few tips I have found to make my party planning go more smoothly.

1. Make sure you have a clear timeline of events. I wrote each event on the calendar then counted back 3 weeks to figure out when I needed to send out invites. I always make sure I have made my trips to the Dollar store, and Walmart early enough that I am not scrambling for grab bag goodies, decorations, and cake supplies the week before the event.

2. Regrets only on the invites. This way I don't have to track all the parties just the regrets which results in way less phone traffic at our house.

3. Decorations can be minimal. I find that a colored tablecloth (dollar store) and whatever themed cake I make is enough for decorating. No one really notices balloons and streamers and they cost $$ and just end up in the garbage.

4.Keep the food simple. I always stick to pizza at the kids parties. Pizza is most always a favorite and I pair it with a simple veg tray and fruit tray. I find the kids eat very little of whatever I serve so simple is always best. For the more adult parties I always ask for my close family (mother, sister, M.I.L) to bring a salad or casserole. This cuts down on my cooking time and get me good variety on my buffet.

5. Enjoy! Your kids only turn ? once. The day of whatever event I am holding I try to make sure I take time to enjoy it.

Wish me luck for this event season I will try to post pics of each event.

Restaurant Challenge

Today I spent the day with friends in Toronto.We took in The Wizard of Oz on stage and spent some time wandering the Eaton Center. When it came time to have dinner we travel back to Burlington to eat at the Rude Native. You may ask, Why would we not just eat in T.O.? The answer is that my very close friend is afflicted with severe food allergies. She cannot eat wheat, yeast, msg, sulphites, fermented or aged food including cheese, wine and mushrooms or any raw fruit or vegetables. As you can imagine restaurant dining is complicated. Over a wonderful dinner at the Rude Native our friends proposed a challenge that we take turns finding new restaurants where we can dine together. I have decided I will blog monthly about our choices. I think it is a mark of a good restaurant if my friend can eat there. They must use fresh prepared food that a chef can modify for my friends unique dietary needs.
So to start the Rude Native in Burlington proved to not only be able to provide a wide variety of choices for my friend but the service was excellent and the atmosphere was pleasant. My friend e-mailed ahead and the staff responded in good time with suggestions for her to eat. They had my friends e-mail on file when we arrived and double checked each dish to insure her safety without making us feel as we were a burden. They even went so far as to offer to make a special dessert if we choose to return as there was no options available on their menu. We will defiantly return if I am in the area.