I have never worked with fondant before but since most of the cakes I saw online with Angry Birds that looked good were decorated with it so I decided to give it a shot.

I made a practice cake that was small just to test out my fondant skills.  It was a disaster.  I didn’t decorate it…I just wanted to see if I could actually roll it out.  They always make it look so easy on TV!

I found a better marshmallow fondant recipe and more supportive cake recipe and decided to try again.  The baked cakes turned out perfect and the icing and filling was a breeze.  I was feeling so confidant.  I made the fondant and kneeded in all the colors I would need to decorate the cake.  I had read a tip to wear gloves during this part and I’m sure glad I did.  What a mess.  Soon I had all my beautiful little balls of wrapped up fondant all ready to go.

I started to decorate the cake and was feeling pretty smug untill I actually had to roll out the fondant.  Sadly my fondant ended up being a bit dry but at least now I know and can fix it before hand next time…. if I ever decided there is a next time.  Lucky for me most of the cake would end up covered with decorations anyway.  After 4 hours of decorating and making a complete disaster in my kitchen I finished Deeds birthday cake.  It is now sitting in a box so he can’t see it before his party.  I realize now I forgot to give all the poor pigs eyebrows but hey, they laugh all mean when you don’t get them in the game so maybe this is pay back.

I got inspiration for a lot of the ideas for the cake from one I had seen online but couldn’t trace find out who actually did it and only had one small picture to go by.  I had to add a couple of things that I knew Deeds would ask about.  The helmet piggie is one of his favorite and also the black bird.

Can you tell what it is yet?

All in all I’m so glad it’s all done and ready for his party.  I never thought it would turn out so cute.  Sure was a lot of work especially compared to the easy peezy ninja turtle from last year!  Heaven help me, I think I’ve set the bar too high for future birthdays with this cake.

While making the cake batter for Deeds birthday party I decided to try out a new recipe.  What I should have realized while mixing it and it was filling up the entire bowl is that I was making WAY too much.  Apparently I made the “wedding cake” recipe so we had a ton left over.

We decided to not only make cupcakes but let the kids play with coloring in the batter of each cupcake.  Deeds thought it was the best thing ever.  I would dip a toothpick into the coloring and then he would circle it around the cupcake.  I never thought it would be so much fun.  He tested every sample color I got to make his fondant for the cake.

Gwen mixing the pink. Her favorite color.

Little baking artists

Before baking

After Baking

When all was said and done we made some Nutella butter-cream icing for the top and they were so yummy.  My mistake allowed us to taste the cake before serving it to everyone at his party.  It was fun to bite into them and have the middles be the bright vibrant colors!

Had so much fun!

We have started to make homemade breakfast sandwiches to freeze so that Jeremy can grab them on his way to work.  We had been buying some for him to microwave but they are so expensive so we’ve taken a shot at doing it ourselves.  Deeds helped us this last time around so I thought I would share.  Lining things up, and patterns… not sure why I didn’t think about having him help before.  It was right up his alley.

The first time around we tried it with english muffins and I scrambled all the eggs in a pan then sorted them out onto the muffins.  It took quite a while.  I’ve seen a method to bake the eggs in muffin tins but Jeremy really likes them scrambled so we adapted and scrambled with just a touch of milk them then baked them.

Deeds mixing the eggs.

We used a small measuring cup to add the egg mixture to the pan.  It wasn’t very Deeds friendly but I let him try it a little then he helped me count the rest as I filled them up.

Filling the pan.

I really just eyeballed the measurements in the pan but it worked out to be about one egg per tin.  We beat 12 eggs and it filled one pan.  I wouldn’t put more than that in since they tend to bake up pretty high.

Filled muffin pan

We baked them at 350 degrees for around 20 minutes.  While they were in the ovens Deeds and I got the flat bagels out and set them up.

Deeds putting out the bagel.

We used pre-cooked and frozen sausage patties that I found at Costco.  Deeds placed the sausage on the bottom and the cheese on the top which worked out well since it covered the holes.

Cheese and Sausage

By this point we were ready to get the egg out and start our assembly line to finish them up.

Finished baking

When they cool off they will “deflate” a little so don’t be surprised if they look huge at first.  The one trick we need to figure out is how to get them out of the tins.  I did spray the tins very well before but it was still hard, we’ll have to try something else next time.  I will say the ones I got out after they had cooled off a bit were easier.  I ran a butter knife around the bottom and then dug them out.  I wonder if I bake them in a jellyroll pan and then slice into squares and use a spatula it might work better.

Eggs out of the pan

I sliced each egg in half so that it would cover more of the sandwich.

Finished product

We put each sandwich in a small zip-lock bag and then into the freezer.  Jeremy just popped them wrapped in a paper towel into the microwave for 2-3 minutes in the morning and they were perfect.  He said the bagel held together better than the English muffin.

Deeds thought it was a blast and asked me 3 times yesterday if we could do it again.  Guess I have a new helper in the kitchen!