Cassie & Mario's candy-themed wedding

Remember that wedding I was planning...and designing...and crafting...and coordinating...and baking cupcakes for...and making floral bouquets for...and decorating...and standing up as a bridesmaid for...and (you get the idea)

Well it happened.  And it was awesome :)

Here are the photos from the Wedding that was held at the Byron Colby Barn in Grayslake, IL

My beautiful family <3

We collected jars from friends and family for 4 months prior to the wedding.  Some jars were decorated with lace, or burlap and twine.  All 250 jars were filled with candles or flowers and they were clustered on the tables as the center pieces.

Once the sun set, the entire barn glowed so beautifully, from all of the candles

Every Guest received an empty Ball jar to fill with candy from the candy table.  The tags read "Love is Sweet, fill your jar and Enjoy a Treat"

Here are some other detail shots of the other projects I worked on for the wedding

And here's the best photo from the entire event:

It was a lot of work, and there were nights that I stressed so much about it that I lost sleep -- but it was extremely rewarding and I gained a ton of experience from it.

And after all was said and done, I connected with the lady that runs the Barn, and she is recommending me to her Bride's as a wedding consultant / coordinator!  Super exciting opportunity :)

A crafty 1st birthday party

I'll preface the borage of photos with this:  A touch of love went into every element of this special  day; from the party favours, to the food, to the activities and the fun.  I always want the best for my kids, and I hope that one day, Xander can look back at this and appreciate the effort that I put into making his day as special for him, as it was for his guests:

Loot 'items' for the kids (will post more on these, later):

My homemade photobooth for the kids to enjoy:

We rented a bouncy castle for the kids to jump around in...it was a hit:

 My little Xanderman, 'enjoying' his smash cake (way less enthused than expected):

The party doubled as a mini-baby shower for my expecting sister.  I made up a separate dessert table in honour of the baby girl in her belly:

I baked spice cupcakes and displayed them on two cake stands that I stacked on top of each other.  Made for a pretty cute presentation, no?

There's Jaxon, before the party -- I think this was his way of calling dibs on that seat...little did he know, he would be spending his entire night in the basement :(

At the end of the day, all of my party planning paid off -- the guests seemed to enjoy themselves, and best of all, my little 1 year old was surrounded by people who love him dearly.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, XANDER KANE!

xoxo

Cheeseburger Cake!

A few weeks ago, my daughter came home with a newsletter regarding their school BBQ.  It was going to be filled with activities, such as a petting zoo, carnival games, a giant bouncer aaaand a 'spin to win cake walk'.  I had no clue what the cake walk was all about, but when the form came home asking parents if they would be willing to donate a cake, guess who signed up?

I had a few weeks to think about what I was going to do, but of course, I left it till the night before to actually come up with an idea.  At first I thought about doing a hot dog -- since it was a bbq after all.

But then I remembered how it has been a mission of mine to make a HAMBURGER CAKE, and this was finally my opportunity to do it!

And before I get into how I made it, I'm going mention that I did NOT make cake batter from scratch for this project (boxed caked mix).  Nor did I make buttercream icing from scratch (thank you Bulk Barn!).  This cake was being DONATED...not SOLD.  And so I wasn't necessarily concerned about taste, or quality for that matter... for me, this was all about being creative.  

What I used:

1 box of white cake (plus eggs and oil)

1 box of chocolate cake (plus eggs and oil)

1 large container of white buttercream frosting (from Bulk Barn)

1 medium container of chocolate buttercream frosting (from Bulk Barn)

40-50 mini white chocolate chips

rolled fondant (approximately 1/4 cup)

food colour gels: green, red, yellow, orange, brown

various piping tips / bag

misc: cardboard cake base and box if transporting

How it was made:

I'll start with the cheese, as this is what I got the most questions about...

I used fondant.  I had received a 'skin tone' variety pack of fondant as a gift.  I rummaged through to find the most neutral color -- 'pink flesh tone' I think it was called.  I added bits of sunshine yellow and orange colour gel to the fondant until I reached the hue closest to a Kraft cheese slice:

I then rolled out the fondant onto wax paper, as large as I could go with the amount of fondant I had: 

I cut it into four triangles, and set it aside

I prepared the cake mix and split the mixture into two 8" round pans.  While they baked, I started tinting the buttercream for my BUNS:

 I started with a skin-toned colour and continued to add brown, orange and yellow colouring gels until I reached my desired bun colour.

 When the cakes were done baking, I cooled them completely (put them in the fridge to speed up the process).  When cool, I used a serrated knife to cut the bulgy top off of ONE of the 8" cakes:

This was going to be my bottom bun

 I frosted the bottom bun and placed it on the cardboard cake base and put it in the fridge

 I did the same thing to the top bun

 I placed mini white chocolate chips on the top bun, to mimic sesame seeds and placed it in the fridge as well

 I mixed the chocolate cake mix and baked two 8" rounds.  Apparently I buttered the pan too much, which made the edges come out all wonky.  It's alright though because I used a knife to trim the edges anyway, to round each 'patty' out to look more like...well...a PATTY!

 Then the fun began!  It was time to layer everything together - starting with the bun base, and then one chocolate patty.  I slathered on some chocolate buttercream:

 ...and how about those fondant cheese slices:

 Next patty and another layer of chocolate buttercream:

 And finally, the top bun!...whoa, that's BIG! (approximately 10" high)

Using the left over buttercream, I tinted batches of green, red and yellow.  

 Using varying piping tips, I randomly added lettuce, ketchup and mustard to the burger cake: 

 AND THERE YOU HAVE IT!  

A 4-layered cheeseburger cake!

Too tall for the box!...Oh well.  We managed.