Monkey Cake Tutorial

Hey, are any of you going crazy this week with CRCT testing at school. I feel like I'm back in school. Staying up late studying, waking up early studying, studying, studying, studying. My oldest had testing all week, and today is the last day, FINALLY. 


Sorry I've been completely missing in action, totally unexpected, but I just had no energy to blog, I was exhausted, lol. 


Anyway, I'm going to share a quick tutorial on making a super cute MONKEY cake, with fondant. I hope you enjoy it, and see it is rather simple. I bet ANYONE can do it, after reading this super duper tutorial, lol. Seriously, this should be doable, so give it a try. 

 Start with some fondant. Knead it to make it smooth and soft.

 Roll your fondant out, with plenty of powdered sugar, or cornstarch. I prefer powdered sugar. 

 Magically after rolling it out, THIS happened. Just kidding, I can't believe I didn't take pics of these steps, but basically I just cut out all my shapes. So use your imagination, lol. I had a picture I was looking at, and just eye balled it, however you could actually trace templates out, to be more precise.

 Place the face, and see where you need to cut the overlapping areas.

 Nice clean cut, now the face will fit perfectly.

 Add the detail to the ears.

Roll out some very thin fondant.

 Apply the smile, and nostrils. The fondant will not stick, so after placing it the way you like, then dab some water and attach your pieces. At this point you can also see the fondant is all powdery. Doesn't look to good, right?

All you need to do is paint it with water, and it will be shiny. OR you can use steam, but it is harder to get steam on a flat surface like this, unless you have a handheld steamer. For small pieces, like flowers, or figures, you can hold them on top of a boiling pot of water. 

 The client also wanted some palm trees.

So after rolling out a long log, I cut into the top layer. Can you see, the picture is blurry but I hope you get the idea.

 I also rolled out a green piece of fondant, and free hand cut out different leaf shapes. Again cutting the leafs of the edges. Then I made the vein down the center, using the back of a knife. Don't press to hard.

 There you have it, the monkey and the trees, ready to go on the cake. All these pieces can be made in advance if you choose. Just let it dry, and it will store for a very long time. We used it that afternoon, and placed it on the cake.

 Just a close up of the palm trees.

 Dinod D, keeping himself busy.

 Yes my baby, you are awesome, ohh YEAH!!!

 Totally love it little man, you rock dude.

Now will you please put your tongue back in your mouth, lol.

SO what you do think?
Can you make your very own MONKEY cake now?
I'd love to hear what you think.


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Amaze me August #34 ~ Our Easter Party ~

Welcome to the 34th edition of 

I'm so happy you are here, and I can't wait to see what you have done. So officially Easter is done, what's next people?


I know that whatever it is, I will be amazed like always. 


Keep up all the good work, and don't stop, you are all such an inspiration to me, and many others. I am so lucky you choose to come share your projects at my blog party. 


Thank you so much!!


Before we start the party, I'd love for you to take a quick peak at my Easter Egg post, I did yesterday. Not many of you got a chance to see it, I could tell by my extremely low hits, lol, and I really want to know what you think about my eggs. 


So please take a moment, and check it out. 
CILANTRO, BEETS, PANTYHOSE EASTER EGGS

Now I'd like to show you just a couple pics from out Easter party yesterday. The table was full of delicious food, and we all ate a bit too much. The kids had so much fun looking for all the eggs, and they all teased me about the chex mix, but oh well. It was a beautiful day, and we all had a wonderful time. 


I hope I don't bore you with all the pictures, but I always love the sweet comments you leave, so I hope you enjoy these.

These eggs were actually dyed with the ONION SKINS, and this is how my eggs usually turn out, a beautiful reddish brown.

Some beautiful roses from my aunts garden. Gosh that basket looks insanely awesome. 

I know it's hard to see all the food, but trust me it was good. We had all kinds of ham, lamb, chicken, egg and cheese dishes, vegetables, salads, breads, soup, and much more.

Oh did I mention the dessert, yeah we had a designated table for all that goodness.

YUMMY!

Double YUMMY!!

The kids were busy playing with baby bunnies all day too. Some people were selling them about 5 minutes away, so some of our friends went and bought some.

Princess and the bunny, hehe. 

My boys!!

That darn sun, is giving me massive wrinkles, and it's time to cut my hair again, SHORT, summer is here, and I need it gone. 

My baby girl.

Looking for Easter eggs.

Not bad girl!!

He's on a mission to find more, lol.

They are soooo darn cute. Just saying!!!

It was a beautiful day!!

They were all looking for money, lol, since clearly there was not much candy, hehe. My kids are so awesome, they don't even know what jelly beans, or peeps are. Sorry, I know that's bad, BUT I love it, he he. 

Little man, found 2 dollars, and was trying to give it away, saying I don't want this, lol. 

He was perfectly content eating mamas chex mix, thank you VERY much. I was proud. He actually tried a couple candies, and jelly bean stuff, and gagged a bit, then spit it out. It was awesome. Everyone was shocked, but hey when you try as hard as I do to teach my kids good eating habits, it's the best feeling to see it in action. Woo hoo....


How did you spend your Easter? I'd love for you to share!


If you liked this post, then follow me dude!

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Don't forget to LINK up to my weekly party.
  AMAZE ME AUGUST

P.s. I'm linking up to these awesome parties ---->>

All the blogs I link up to can be found in my blog rolls in my sidebar. Go see what my favorite bloggers are up to :)

P.p.s If you host a party, and don't like the way I link back, kindly let me know, and I will be happy to make it right. I think having all the parties I link up to in my blog roll in my sidebar is a wonderful way for my readers to see whats new with your blogs, as it's always being updated. No need to wonder which party started, now you can see exactly what everyone is up to right away :)

             

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Leaf Print Natural Dye Easter Eggs & Chex Mix Egg Stuffing

Happy Easter!!!
I hope you all have a wonderful day planned. We are spending the day with the family, and I especially feel so lucky on days like this that family is close by, and we are blessed enough to be able to spend it with them. 


Lats night we colored our Easter eggs, and stuffed out plastic ones. Every year I catch myself, debating on wether it's worth the extra effort to color Easter eggs the natural way, or if I should just go easy and get some dye. I've done the dye, and I've done the natural. Of course there is no way you can get those vibrant colors from natural, BUT it is a beautiful egg. I hope you agree. 


I just wanted to show you a quick step by step, even though actually doing this, takes a good couple hours. So be prepared for that, and while the kids can usually participate in the egg dipping with traditional dyes, this is better left for adults, or older children. 

 Gather your supplies. Pantyhose, cilantro leafs (or parsley, or anything that you think will look pretty), and string.

 Place the leaf on the sweaty egg, and it helps it stick, trust me, sweaty eggs are your friend, he he.

 Carefully roll pantyhose like you are trying to put it on your foot, only slip an egg in there instead.

 Twist it a couple times, and wrap string around it.

 Continue until you have a long pantyhose egg filled sausage. It's totally awesome doing it like this, so much fun, trust me.

I know I said no little ones allowed, but he was so determined. He did it perfect but the leaf fell off when he tried dropping the egg in there, lol.

 Oh well, he seems happy with himself regardless. 

 I have never used beets before, but read that they work, so this year I gave them a try. I have only used onion skins before, and those need to be collected way in advance. Every time you go to the store, skin the onions as much as you can, and then when you check out, get ready for stares, it's always funny.

 Drop those eggs in the STAINLESS steel pot of boiling beet juice, and some vinegar. I left the beets in there too, just for extra cushioning, and thinking it would help color the eggs better.

 I also tried a yellow turmeric dye. Again adding a little vinegar, boiling, and dropping the eggs in there to boil.

 In the meantime my mom brought us over the famous Easter sweet bread. It was so delicious, and perfectly sweet, soft, smelled of freshly ground walnuts, mixed with sugar, and the sweet smell of poppyseed filling.

 Oh can you smell that, can you.

 Do you just want to bite into that, DO YOU.

 Oh my goodness, it was good. I had two slices, thanks mom. :)

Then Dino D amazed us with his architectural skills.

 Earlier in the day we filled our plastic eggs with check mix.

Yes the kids thought it was weird.

 Ok, you may think this is weird also, but how much candy does a kid need. What's wrong with having a healthier snack in there.

Just make sure to wrap the chex mix in plastic wrap.


That's about it folks. Now are you ready to see these eggs? I left them in the water, in the fridge over night.

 This morning, I started cutting them out of the pantyhose, and was pretty happy with the result. The turmeric ones didn't turn out as yellow, as I had hoped for. The beet ones hardly created a red, or even a pink, but they were still beautiful.

 Here they are soaking up the morning sun.

So what do you think? Have you ever tried natural egg dyes?
I have to tell you, I really prefer the onion skins. I love the color they produce, and you can't beat FREE. I had to buy canned beets, and then throw out the beets, it just seemed like such a waste, and the color is not what I expected. Onion skins, especially red ones, make the most beautiful eggs. Just make sure you have a TON of onion skins.

Once again HAPPY EASTER, and please share how your day was. I would also love to hear your thoughts on this post.

P.s. I'm linking up to these awesome parties ---->>

All the blogs I link up to can be found in my blog rolls in my sidebar. Go see what my favorite bloggers are up to :)

P.p.s If you host a party, and don't like the way I link back, kindly let me know, and I will be happy to make it right. I think having all the parties I link up to in my blog roll in my sidebar is a wonderful way for my readers to see whats new with your blogs, as it's always being updated. No need to wonder which party started, now you can see exactly what everyone is up to right away :)

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