I have said several times in the past week, "I sew, I do not bake and decorate cakes." So please take that into account when you read the following post. If you are a baker or cake decorator stop reading now, go no further, this will bore you, it will make you pity my simple mindedness! I knew exactly what I wanted to serve for Charlotte's birthday party months ahead of time. Of course, I would serve everything short of the green leaf to our party guests. I also knew that I wanted Jay to create placard type things that labeled each one of the foods.
Everything was fairly simple and went together pretty quickly. I did cheat on the ice cream cones and made cupcake ice cream cones and instead of one large cherry pie we had mini cherry pies made in a mini muffin tin. It went together so nicely and took less time than I anticipated. The cakes took longer, but was way easier than I thought they would be.
The week before the party I spent one evening playing and experimenting with store bought fondant and gel coloring. These are the tips and tricks that I have found to be helpful:
After you pull the fondant off of the block and before adding color, work the fondant in your hands and it easily softens.
Only make small amounts of color if you are doing small detailed work. Dipping a toothpick in the gels is a simple way to color the fondant. It was highly suggested to use rubber gloves while coloring the icing, but I found it washed off easily and I did not mind getting a little messy.
To create the exact shape that I needed for every piece of food that needed, I traced shapes that I downloaded off the web that was intended to be a coloring page. The broad shapes and thick lines worked perfectly. Before laying the paper on the fondant I covered the back with powdered sugar to avoid sticking.
Cutting the shapes was easy with a very small and sharp paring knife.
The process was fun and easy. It reminded me of the days of long ago that my sister and I made "food" with play dough for hours at a time. My kitchen might feel a little differently, it was a very messy process. I was able to make the fondant pieces 36 hours in advance to the party and the pieces held up nicely. I simply sealed them in a gallon size baggie, laid flat on a cookie sheet and kept them OUT of the refrigerator to avoid drying or them sweating.
Tomorrow, a very hungry craft round up...banners and bunting! -melissa
