Yo Gabba Gabba

So I got a call to do a Muno cake.................yes I asked myself who and what is that? Well I soon found out that I was clearly the only person who did not know what Yo Gabba Gabba was. My neighbor's little boy was turning 2 and he loves Muno. I did his body in layers of vanilla and chocolate and each leg was its own flavor. I covered Muno (whom I am now good friends with) in modelling chocolate and I made his party hat out of a sugar cone that was covered in yellow modelling chocolate and painted with blue luster dust.

My neighbor's son absolutely loved his cake and kept saying "see Muno cake". Its always so rewarding to see the look on the birthday boy or girls face when they see the cake. Its also fun to chat with the guests and see their reactions to the creativity on a board! The Q&A session that follows the reveal of a cake like this is always rewarding, because only then do people appreciate and respect the time and effort that goes into a cake like this! Had loads of fun meeting and making Muno. Happy Birthday Colin............I look forward to see what we will be making next year!!

Homemade Fudge!!!

Whenever the kids are in the mood for something homemade and sweet and really quick, I always go to this recipe, its easy and I always have the ingredients on hand and something homemade always beats something store bought! I know your family will love it as much as mine does! I was not going to post this recipe because everyone has a fudge recipe, but this one goes out to my very dear friend in Australia...........Natalie!


INGREDIENTS:
2 Cups of sugar
5 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp syrup
4 Tbsp butter
1 Can Condensed Milk
1 tsp Vanilla essence

Grease a 20x28cm dish.
In a heavy pot mix together the sugar and water and stir over a low heat until the sugar is completely dissolved.
Add the syrup and butter and stir until the butter has melted.
Add the Condensed Milk and stir until the mixture comes to a boil.
Boil slowly and keep stirring constantly, for about 20 min to make sure that the fudge is ready drop a drop of fudge into a glass of water and if it hardens its ready.
Remove the pot from the heat and add the vanilla essence and pour out into your greased dish, I use a 20 X 28 cm dish.
Cut into squares when its almost cold.

The best part about this is you can make different variations of it with anything you have in the cupboard.

Make peanut fudge by adding a cup of peanuts to it before you pour it into your dish or add about 100g of chocolate chips to it to make chocolate fudge or for kids parties you can even add in jelly beans or m&m's. Whatever your fancy is add it to this fudge and sit back and watch everyone enjoy!

I would love to hear some of your ideas and how you changed up your batch of homemade fudge!

It will be SWEET to hear from you (pardon the pun)
Jacki

How to make modelling chocolate!

When you are at a birthday party and you see the cake with all of its embellishments you just want to dig in............yeah not so much when its covered in FONDANT!

Fondant is a wonderful medium to work with and that's how I covered cakes when I started cake decorating but then I discovered this wonderful little baking miracle called Modelling Chocolate. Not only is it great to cover cakes with but to sculpt and make decorations for cakes it magic and tastes wonderful! Modelling Chocolate is so so easy to make and real fun when cake decorating with the kids!

Here is how its done:

10 oz chocolate discs/chips (any color)
1/3 cup light corn syrup

In a double boiler melt chocolate, when nice and smooth remove from heat and add the corn syrup, mix with a spatula until it reaches the ball stage. Spread it out onto a piece of wax paper that is placed on a table and smooth it out to form a sheet. Leave it open and untouched for 2-3 hours. It will be pliable and can be stored at room temperature in an air tight container for about a month.

If you are covering a cake with it, you simply roll it out just like you would fondant, using powdered sugar to cover the surface so it does not stick.
Modelling chocolate is great to use when you want to add just a small embellishment on a cupcake or fill your cupcake with your favorite filling, turn it out of its cup and cover it like a little cake. The options are limitless with modelling chocolate. So don't be scared, try it, I promise you will love it!

Happy melting, covering and sculpting
Jacki

Rev it Up!

My youngest son's best buddy had his 7th birthday party at Slingshot speedway, pretty cool place the boys got to race slot cars for an hour and then we headed over to the food court and had lunch and cake! This was such a super idea, the boys had a ball and the cake was well received!
Avery (birthday boy) asked for real cars on his cake, pretty bright you man, because when the cake is all done he gets to keep the cars!

The cake was vanilla with a traditional buttercream icing and covered in modelling chocolate with the checkered flag also done in black and white modelling chocolate and all of the decorations were done in modelling chocolate to. This cake was easy but for the tires that were handmade and the checkered flag that had to be punched out square by square! It was worth every little groove and square when I saw how much Avery loved his cake!

Well this is just awful

Can someone be that busy that you are unable to blog for a month, 1 month, One whole month? Well it seems that way! I have been to busy to even page to my blog at all the past 4 weeks. Well I am here now and I will make sure that this will NOT happen again. For my previous blog I wanted to try out some $1 recipes from the dollar diva and have not even tackled that yet! Where do the hours go to in the day?

I am the first one awake in the morning so you would think that I get a head start on everyone else right? Wrong, I am so busy tending to everyone else's needs that I don't think I sit down until lunch time, when my stomach folds me in two and refuses to let go of the hold until I feed it. I know you all know what I am talking about.

Then the kids come home from school and its snacks and homework and all kinds of things and when I realise it I need to get dinner going and before I wipe the sleep out of my eyes my husband is home and I am serving dinner and then its dishes and getting the kids in the bath and then into bed and reading and finally I get to have a shower and bruise my bed! Oops only once I have checked that all the doors are locked and light are turned off!

I am happy to do it, and now that I have written it all down I know where my day goes to! The infinite pro's and cons of being a stay at home mom.

Well I am back now and hopefully am able to keep up with my blog and put some recipes on here.

Take care all

Could we all just be Divas?

A simple little book I picked up in a Dollar Store for one simple little dollar and six cents tax, has really got my mind spinning!

The book is called "Dining with the Dollar Diva" by Elizabeth J. Fisher. Now the title of this book grabbed my attention right away, as I am sure it would have grabbed any one's attention who is on a budget! I didn't page through the book while in the store, it was only $1 what did I have to lose. I came home and packed all the unnecessary stuff I had bought at the Dollar Store away and put the book on the table, and thought "Well I will get around to reading it soon". We happened to be snowed in for a week, and when cabin fever set in, I certainly needed a distraction.

I picked up the "Dollar Diva" and proceeded to take a long hot bath while reading it. The titles to the recipes sounded great, however, upon reading the ingredients I kept finding myself replacing them with goods bought at a Kroger or Walmart or Publix, which as you may have guessed would not be "Dinning with the Dollar Diva" anymore. This got me thinking, was it that I didn't trust the goods sold by Dollar Stores? Not at all, I have bought many many things from Dollar Stores.......but have I ever consumed anything that I had bought at a Dollar Store? Right there was my answer.....NO! Why not? Dollar Stores sell name brand items, and what if my situation was one where I could not afford the name brand item! Oh the HORROR!

I saw a movie called "Julie and Julia" and was pretty impressed by Julie who took on the task of preparing every single one of Julia Child's recipes! So I have set this task out for myself with the "Dollar Diva". I am going to make every single one of these recipes using ingredients from the Dollar stores or 10 for 10 deals at other stores but I will make sure that none of the ingredients cost more than a good old American Dollar! Just to see how much of a Food Diva I really am!

This is not going to be easy for me, as I am extremely picky about what I eat and feed my family. With my youngest son being allergic to all Poultry and my husband being allergic to any and all Shell Fish, you can imagine the menu that this household is accustomed to!

I hope you will all take this journey with me, I will blog after every recipe, adding the cooking experience and the taste and the reviews from my family. I truly hope that this will transform me from a $10 Diva to a $1 Diva.

Penny for your thoughts
Jacki

Funky at 40

I had to laugh when I got the call to do this cake! The person this cake was for is a Lacrosse coach at Georgia Tech, who apparently likes to wear eccentric pants and socks! I thought his wife was kidding when she said his choice in Pants is "out there" well while making this cake I could not wait to meet him.

I am happy to say that he was blown away by his cake and he was even more impressed with his pink pants! What a nice couple. It was such a pleasure to make this cake for them. Happy 40th birthday Ken!

Movie themed cupcakes

My youngest son Jarreds school always shows a christmas themed movie on the last day of school before the winter break.....this year it was Polar Express. It is also his birthday on Sunday and he will be 7. Every year I either take a cake or some kind of snack to school for his birthday. This year because the last day of school fell on the Friday before his birthday and it was the last day before winter break I thought that I would tie the theme of the cupcakes in with the day and so I made popcorn (marshmallow) cupcakes.



I made a vanilla sponge cake for the cupcakes you could use boxed cake aswell and all I did was add a little frosting to the top of the cupcake and I cut a cross into each and every mini marshmallow and placed them ontop. I cut the wrappers out of lined christmas scrapbooking paper and printed the popcorn signs and pasted them on there.

So the next time there is a movie night this would be a special little treat thats easy and fun for all.

See you at the movies
Jacki

Saltine cracker candy

I have to thank my very good friend Christie for introducing this wonderful little tidbit of heaven to me. Anything that is simple, cost effective and delicious works for me. This is a really cool little surprise to arrive at a christmas party with or even a cookie swap or just simply to enjoy infront of the traditional christmas movie night with the family. You could make this in a variety of flavors you could even add nuts or raisins or m&m's there really is no limit to how interesting this candy can be!

what you'll need:
Saltine crackers
1 cup of butter (2 sticks)
1 cup of brown sugar
1 bag of chocolate morsels

Line a cookie sheet with either parchment paper or aluminum foil and then line it with the saltine crackers. In a saucepan on low heat melt butter and then add sugar boiling for about 3 min or until the sugar has dissolved and its a nice brown syrup. Pour the sugar and butter mixture of the saltine crackers and spread with a spatula so that all of the crackers are covered pour your chocolate morsels on top of that and leave it to stand for about 4-5min so that the heat can melt the chocolate. Spread the chocolate over the top of the crackers and butter mixture and once its at room temp, place it in the refrigerator for about 1 hour. When its cold and the chocolate is set and hard, break it up just like you would chocolate bark. Enjoy I know we do!

Merry Eating
Jacki

Hoping Santa doesn't get stuck in my chimney!

I had a call from a guy on Thursday night around 9.45pm to order on of my cakes! I almost felt a little giddy at the thought of someone calling me that late willing to pay any price in order to have one of my cakes at his party.

I had no idea what I was going to do and he gave me carte blanche on the cake so this is what I came up with. I must say I had so much fun with this cake and while busy with it some friends arrived for a visit and I happily went about my business even having my friend paint some stuff (she was quite excited to get a little involved). Truthfully this cake was alot easier that I had expected it to be. I will certainly be making this a Christmas regular! the only piece of Fondant I used was the white for the snow, otherwise the rest is modelling chocolate. This is one of my favorite cakes I have done so far!

Can't wait to hear what you guys think of it!

Stay warm
Jacki



The Best Eggnog Pound Cake ever!!!!



Oh my goodness this has to be the easiest pound cake with a twist I have ever tried!!!! The recipe is simple and easy and the results are super!!! Just a little something for the table on Thanksgiving or even if you are having friends over for Christmas or Christmas eve as it does have eggnog in it!!!

Here are the simple steps to this delicious pound cake:

1 Classic Yellow Cake mix (easy enough)

1 pkg instant vanilla pudding mix (yip I said easy)

3\4 cup egg nog (any flavor)

3\4 cup vegetable oil

4 large eggs

1\2 tsp ground nutmeg

Pre-heat the oven on 350°F. Mix together the cake mix, pudding, eggnog and oil in a large mixing bowl until nice and moist. Add the eggs and nutmeg and beat with a mixer for about 3-4min..Spray your fluted pan with non-stick spray with flour or just butter it and flour it the old fashioned way!! Bake in the oven for 40-50min or until you insert a stick and its ready. Cool for about ten minutes on a rack and then turn out. Now I painted mine with a little RUM (yumm yumm) to give it just a little zing in the tasted and you can either dust it with powdered sugar or you can make a drizzle for it. 1tbsp butter (melted) adding 1 cup of powdered sugar and a tblsp of milk, mix together and drizzle of pound cake. If the mixture is a little thick add milk in 1\2tsp only.

Enjoy, I look forward to your feedback.

Jacki



The Sweet Sights and Sounds of Fall

I love Fall.............. there I said it. Its just sounds so cliche right?

Not at all, I read an article once about how powerful the senses are and just a smell or taste or sound can take you back to a distinct moment or memory in your life, like it happened yesterday! That's what fall is to me!

When I go outside and I see all of the leaves lying on the ground and the wondrous colors of the different leaves and trees, I think about the mornings I would walk to school thinking I was never going to make it through the cold. Well fifteen or sixteen years later, here I am just lavishing in the sights that take me back to that time!

I must admit what is a little weird for me is that it rains in the fall and winter, but, in South Africa where I grew up the only time it rained was maybe a little in the Spring time and most of the Summer afternoons were blessed with dark sky's and wonderfully playful lightning storms! So the wet seasons are a little topsy-turvy for me but I love them either way.

I have come to love the tradition of celebrating Hair Raising Halloween (which my family gets into pretty seriously) and then a month later Thoughtful Thanksgiving (which my family also gets into pretty seriously) and then a month later the wonder of Charming Christmas (which is bigger for the kids than the grown ups in my house). Memories and relationships are built on traditions and sometimes held together by those very same traditions so easily mocked by others.

Fall means all of that to me, time well spent with my family putting up decorations, planning meals to satisfy everyones taste buds, posing for pictures to laugh at later and the general warmth of the laughter, joy and love that Fall brings to ease the little chill outside!

So all I have to say is Welcome Fall its good to see you again!

Keep warm
Jacki

Becareful what you wish for you might just love it!

I remember being a little girl and lining up my dolls infront of my little chalkboard walking around with a Chinese dinner chopstick in one hand and a piece of white chalk in the other, pretending to be a teacher.....yip my life long dream was to educate. I moved on from that phase pretty quickly when I discovered what Malls were and what it meant to be fashion forward, I would spend days not hours at the mall, window shopping and saving money for boots or a bag or jeans or something or the other. All of my fashionista-ness took a quick back seat to car insurance, gas money and other typical teenager responsibilities, it was then that I had my first real desire of what and where I wanted to be in life!

My mind was made up I wanted to be someone you would have to make an appointment to see! I somehow built a notion in my head that these were people with power and I wanted to be on of them. Simple right? This is where it gets interesting......I got my first job and the plan was, that it would be a stepping stone for studies and travel and all the wonderful things (according to me) that the world had to offer!

I met my wonderful husband and still had in mind that I would someday be in a position where people would have to make an appointment to see me!
We had our first son a year and a half after we were married and then the REAL responsibilities started, so I swiftly moved on to my next job and STILL was determined that one day people would have to make an appointment to see me!

Well six years went by and we were getting ready to have our second son, we were happy parents with a wonderful little boy who was excited for his brother so much so that he also decided to move into our room and after the first night of sharing the space with his brand new baby brother and all of his crying decided to pack up and go live with grandma for a few days stating, and I quote "I cant take this kid and his crying!".  He soon returned home when we explained that he really didn't have to stay in our room and could go back to the comfort of his own room and toys and joys!

Somewhere in the back of my mind I still held onto a twisted little desire of being important enough that one day people would have to make an appointment to see me!

Well my youngest is 6 now and I have slowly come to realise that I am all of my dreams rolled up in one person they call me "MOMMY" and "BABE".

The Educator:
I educate my children everyday on morals, good manners, respect, better choices, hygiene, homework and the list goes on and on but most of all I educate them on what it means to be loved unconditionally by someone.

The Fashionista:
Every morning I dress my 6 year old and make sure that everything matches and I very subtly make sure my husband doesn't wear purple with orange and a polka dotted pair of socks. My teenager well that's another story all together, I will say stuff like "that's cool" and he will look at me and smile, and utter softly "I don't think so".

The Appointment Person (for a lack of Title)
Staying at home and doing laundry and cooking dinner and dusting and school projects and homework and football practice, and grocery shopping, and doctors appointments and urgent school supply needs and that sudden need for a dozen cupcakes for school,  I have come to realise that when anybody needs me I have to pencil them in so by right.......there you have it, let me know when you would like me to pencil you in!

Jacki

P.S. I wouldn't have it any other way!

halloween Wreath (indoor)

I saw something similar hanging in a friends house and just thought well I can do that! So I did! I must say that I did change it up a little but here are the supplies and instructions to how I made my halloween wreath.

Supplies:
1 Round Wreath
3 different pieces of halloween themed fabric
Scissors
3-4 plastic ring spiders

Instructions:

- Cut fabric into strips of about 13inches long and 1inch wide
- Fold strips around wreath and tie in a knot
- Alternate different strips of fabric
- When half of the wreath is covered in fabric attach spiders to the top half of the wreath with either hot glue or the little rings that are attached to the spiders. 
- If necessary trim the ends of the fabric so that they are all fluffy.

Voila there you go your Halloween wreath is done and ready to be hung! I must say I had so much fun doing this project and I thought it really turned out well it looks pretty hanging on the door to! It was quick and easy and really didn't require very much skill.....so it suited me just fine! I look forward to hearing what you all think.

till next time
Jacki

Missing in action

Hi all I have missed blogging. I barely started and there is a gap already! I have gotten all of the materials necessary for the Halloween craft and will post instructions with pictures tomorrow. I have been away with the family....camping and fishing! What a blast we had! I do however need a good nights sleep to recover! I look forward to posting tomorrow and can't wait to see what you think. I am also researching some de-cluttering ideas and tips so stay tuned for those, will check them out to see that they work first. I have some really wonderful table centrepiece ideas for Thanksgiving, I also have many ideas tricks for Christmas, I cant wait to share those with you. But, lets not get ahead of ourselves and deal with Halloween first!

Until tomorrow..........

Jacki

What it means for some people turning 40!

I have to say this has to be one of my favorite cakes I have made I had soooo much fun making this cake!

Halloween crafts

Hi Everyone,

I am off the get the supplies I will need to make my Indoor Halloween Wreath. Today has been kind of an crazy day and I have to get the kids to football tonite and still figure something for dinner the joys! Please check out my friends blog http://fullbellies.blogspot.com/ she has some wonderful ideas and recipes! Just last night I tried out her White Castle Sliders they were DELICIOUS and the best part is they were soooo soooo easy!

Look out for the instructions on the indoor wreath in the next couple of days!

Take care everyone.
Jacki

very very new at this

So here I am blogging with no idea of what I am doing but like everything else I bet I could stumble my way through this! I have such knowledgable friends and we are always swopping recipes and tips and crazy remidies for things around and I have just kind of decided that I am going to try everything.....every recipe, every tip, every idea and then let you know how well (or NOT) it truned out! Sounds crazy when I say it out loud!

I am a stay at home mom who bakes cakes and takes care of a teenager and a 6yr old. My life is always filled with crazy stuff and I never find any me time, so by blogging I figured that this would be my me time! Well we will see how well that works out!

I am pretty excited about this, I just dont know how many people would care about what a stay at home mom who fiddles with cakes and crafts would have to say. We will find that out soon enough to.

One of my favorite holidays is just about 27 days away, Halloween, yip I am a big kid at heart, I go all out on the outdoor decorating and well dress up and love to see the kids who come to the door, I am looking into some easy crafts for Halloween and will be sure to share some with you.

I look forward to your feedback

Jacki