Crafting update
It's been several months since any updates on my activities. Lately I've been on an Asian drama torrenting binge. I'm not really watching, just downloading a ton and then this summer I will have an epic watching spree. :D I'm also trying to download all the old BillaSub releases on torrent so I can reup now that Megaupload is kaput. Having a very difficult time getting most episodes of Easy Fortune, Happy Life and a few of Calling For Love. *sigh* I should just not worry about it but I feel bad that so much effort was put into translating/encoding those.
However, I was very crafty the first part of the year. First was Munchkin's 8th birthday. She had her first real party ever (we don't believe in having a big bash every year - usually it's a family affair) - at a large indoor water park in town. She wanted it Barbie: Fairy Secret themed which was almost impossible - all the stores were either sold out completely on Barbie party supplies or had some shallow Barbie in Shades merchandise which was ugly and boring. I wanted her cake to be special since it was her first party and all so I went insane and bought a Wilton's Doll Cake set and some fondant molds. I even decided to really go extreme and make my own marshmallow fondant.
Well, the fondant turned out really well. Was definitely fondant but I think tasted a bit better than the store-bought variety. I made it, colored it a variety of colors, and let it rest overnight as that's what recipes seemed to recommend. The next night I shaped dozens and dozens of flowers, leafs, flowers, birds, more flowers, etc. and set them in a pan to dry out and get slightly hard. Next night I baked the cake - the instructions with the Wilton pan tells you how many cups of batter to put in the mold. I was using a mix and really didn't want to measure it out cup by cup. So I baked a mix worth and the cake turned out over an inch short in the pan! Was pretty peeved but didn't know who to blame. I decided I was working hard enough as it was and blamed the unclear instructions by Wilton. Grr, grumble, grumble.
So then I baked another cake in a 13x9 pan, inverted my partial doll cake on top of that, and cut around to add a little layer underneath. The instructions suggest laying rolls of fondant around the "skirt" so that a layer of fondant, when draped over the whole cake, would give a nice, wavy skirt effect. Even though I had homemade fondant, I didn't really want to add more fondant to a cake that was already going to be pretty fondanty. So I had the brilliant idea to use rice krispie treats instead. Worked pretty well but it was hard to get the top points to smoothly meet the cake. I guess that's why they recommend fondant.
After adding the skirt of fondant (had to recruit Hubby to help with that - lifting a huge flat circle of fondant is hard!) the top of the skirt looked really wierd so I added another layer of rice krispie and a smaller circle of fondant over that. You can see the skirt isn't perfect - there were some creases in the fondant. But altogether not bad. Especially considering this was only my 2nd time ever working with fondant (though I suspect my polymer clay hobby has given me an edge;).
I tied some string around the doll body so I would have a way to attach the wings later and then covered it all in a little fondant shirt. I left off the head since I didn't want to worry about the hair, and then attached it to the cake body. And I set to work decorating with all my premade fondant flowers, etc. The flowers along the bottom were long, attached ribbons of flowers and they were to hard after drying out to bend around the skirt. So I popped them into the microwave for just a few seconds to soften them slightly and used a small brush and little dish of water to attach. I also had a tub of frosting on hand for the stubborn pieces that wouldn't attach just from water.
Once that was complete, I had to behead a Barbie as the doll that came with the Wilton pan was brunette and Munchkin was quite adamant that she had to be blonde! I hadn't wanted to hollow out the cake to fit an entire Barbie body so I thought it would be easier to just swap the heads. Not so sure that was the correct assumption. Let me tell you beheading a Barbie is hard!! I remember my Barbies growing up - they were easy to pop the heads on & off. Well, not anymore! After my first failed attempt, I researched online and thought I understood what I had to do. I had needle nose pliers for backup. And 30 minutes later I was successful. The plastic knob in her head was an inch long with multiple prongs. What the heck?! It was even more elaborate than the ones my Google search had prepped me for. Munchkin's barbie will probably never be the same again - I don't think the head fits the way it used to. I have pictures but they're a little morbid to share - lol.
Lastly I had to design wings. She really wanted her cake to be specifically based on the Barbie: Fairy Secret movie. And since I made no attempt whatsoever so match the dress, I tried to match the wings. After much Google image searching, I found a decent quality picture with most of one wing unobscured. I then spent an hour in Gimp, deleting, pasting, copying, and finally had a set of wings that was perfect. I printed it, cut it out and attached it to the back of the doll using a cleaned drapery pin. The pin was large enough the wings had a little space from the body so there was room for the head with all the pretty hair (which I brushed and tied up nicely).
A lot of work but it was worth it when I saw the expression on her face when she saw it. Whew! I'm glad we only do parties every few years, though. I get some breathing room before next time. And how am I ever going to top that?!
However, I was very crafty the first part of the year. First was Munchkin's 8th birthday. She had her first real party ever (we don't believe in having a big bash every year - usually it's a family affair) - at a large indoor water park in town. She wanted it Barbie: Fairy Secret themed which was almost impossible - all the stores were either sold out completely on Barbie party supplies or had some shallow Barbie in Shades merchandise which was ugly and boring. I wanted her cake to be special since it was her first party and all so I went insane and bought a Wilton's Doll Cake set and some fondant molds. I even decided to really go extreme and make my own marshmallow fondant.
Well, the fondant turned out really well. Was definitely fondant but I think tasted a bit better than the store-bought variety. I made it, colored it a variety of colors, and let it rest overnight as that's what recipes seemed to recommend. The next night I shaped dozens and dozens of flowers, leafs, flowers, birds, more flowers, etc. and set them in a pan to dry out and get slightly hard. Next night I baked the cake - the instructions with the Wilton pan tells you how many cups of batter to put in the mold. I was using a mix and really didn't want to measure it out cup by cup. So I baked a mix worth and the cake turned out over an inch short in the pan! Was pretty peeved but didn't know who to blame. I decided I was working hard enough as it was and blamed the unclear instructions by Wilton. Grr, grumble, grumble.
So then I baked another cake in a 13x9 pan, inverted my partial doll cake on top of that, and cut around to add a little layer underneath. The instructions suggest laying rolls of fondant around the "skirt" so that a layer of fondant, when draped over the whole cake, would give a nice, wavy skirt effect. Even though I had homemade fondant, I didn't really want to add more fondant to a cake that was already going to be pretty fondanty. So I had the brilliant idea to use rice krispie treats instead. Worked pretty well but it was hard to get the top points to smoothly meet the cake. I guess that's why they recommend fondant.
After adding the skirt of fondant (had to recruit Hubby to help with that - lifting a huge flat circle of fondant is hard!) the top of the skirt looked really wierd so I added another layer of rice krispie and a smaller circle of fondant over that. You can see the skirt isn't perfect - there were some creases in the fondant. But altogether not bad. Especially considering this was only my 2nd time ever working with fondant (though I suspect my polymer clay hobby has given me an edge;).
I tied some string around the doll body so I would have a way to attach the wings later and then covered it all in a little fondant shirt. I left off the head since I didn't want to worry about the hair, and then attached it to the cake body. And I set to work decorating with all my premade fondant flowers, etc. The flowers along the bottom were long, attached ribbons of flowers and they were to hard after drying out to bend around the skirt. So I popped them into the microwave for just a few seconds to soften them slightly and used a small brush and little dish of water to attach. I also had a tub of frosting on hand for the stubborn pieces that wouldn't attach just from water.
Once that was complete, I had to behead a Barbie as the doll that came with the Wilton pan was brunette and Munchkin was quite adamant that she had to be blonde! I hadn't wanted to hollow out the cake to fit an entire Barbie body so I thought it would be easier to just swap the heads. Not so sure that was the correct assumption. Let me tell you beheading a Barbie is hard!! I remember my Barbies growing up - they were easy to pop the heads on & off. Well, not anymore! After my first failed attempt, I researched online and thought I understood what I had to do. I had needle nose pliers for backup. And 30 minutes later I was successful. The plastic knob in her head was an inch long with multiple prongs. What the heck?! It was even more elaborate than the ones my Google search had prepped me for. Munchkin's barbie will probably never be the same again - I don't think the head fits the way it used to. I have pictures but they're a little morbid to share - lol.
Lastly I had to design wings. She really wanted her cake to be specifically based on the Barbie: Fairy Secret movie. And since I made no attempt whatsoever so match the dress, I tried to match the wings. After much Google image searching, I found a decent quality picture with most of one wing unobscured. I then spent an hour in Gimp, deleting, pasting, copying, and finally had a set of wings that was perfect. I printed it, cut it out and attached it to the back of the doll using a cleaned drapery pin. The pin was large enough the wings had a little space from the body so there was room for the head with all the pretty hair (which I brushed and tied up nicely).
A lot of work but it was worth it when I saw the expression on her face when she saw it. Whew! I'm glad we only do parties every few years, though. I get some breathing room before next time. And how am I ever going to top that?!