Lady Bugs & Fondant

I did it. I made lady bug fondant cupcakes. It took me a while and the fondant was annoying at first because I wasn't used to it. I did a little bit of research on the best tasting fondant and everything I found online said that Duff Goldman's line of butter cream fondant tastes the best. The last thing I wanted was to have disgusting, foul smelling fondant on my cupcakes. I tried a little and it tastes like candy corn! It must have been delicious because Lilly ate the entire lady bug off of her cupcake. This post will be mostly photos of my fondant lady bug cupcakes. So here they are... (I went a little Instagram crazy...)

These are just the fondant toppers before I placed them on the cupcakes

After Assembling the cupcakes

Cupcakes on display st the party

My cupcakes with the professional cake by wedding cake baker/designer Edith Hall in the background

Me posing with my delicious little masterpieces!

So I discovered I do like to work with fondant. This is good because yesterday I was asked to make a two tier pink and black zebra birthday cake for someone in my office. They need it tomorrow. I am freaking out a little bit, but I am also really excited! I hope it turns out OK. I'll post some photos after I finish which will probably be very late tonight...

La-la-lazy

(Above: Lilly just being Lilly= Awesome)

OK, I need to apologize. I haven't written in a while. Things have been crazy busy! Between filling my Etsy orders (business is actually booming believe it or not), showing our film, Marceline, for Disney D23 members, having a film in the T/F film festival, and just pure laziness, I haven't had the time. I often thought about writing, but the writing would have gotten in the way of my laziness time.

It's pretty hot out for March so every day has felt like a lazy summer day. This makes me more lazy.

I've been so lazy the past few days and I seriously need to do laundry. One good thing about not doing the laundry is it forces you to get creative and take fashion risks. Under normal circumstances I'd be too embarrassed to wear a paper bag out of the house, but at this point, I have no choice. I swear I'll do the laundry tonight. I just got tired of looking like a hobo. And by "just" I mean literally, like, three seconds ago was like, "man I am so tired of looking like a dirty hobo". Laundry. Tonight. I SWEAR.

This weekend I am going to be trying my hand at fondant for the first time. I promised to make about 50 cupcakes for Andy's cousin for her daughters first birthday. I am incredibly flattered that she asked me because she is a perfectionist and even though I know she also ordered a cake from a professional wedding cake baker, it is still a big deal that she trusts my baking abilities for Ellie's first birthday. The theme is ladybugs, which is really cute and lucky for me, also pretty simple baking wise. About 30 to 35 of the cupcakes will just be red icing with white sprinkles. But, about 15 to 20 of them will have fondant ladybugs on top. I am very excited and extremely over confident. Especially considering I've never worked with fondant before... The plan is to make everyone believe I do it for a living. I'll let you know how they turn out. Probably amazing (there's that over confident-ness again), but we'll see.

The next few weekends will be really busy. We will be staying one weeked in Marceline at the bed and breakfast, one weekend at the Lake of The Ozarks at the family condo, and one weekend at "Camp EM-A-LIL-EE-EL-EE"...

Let me explain about camp. I couldn't be more excited about it! My family thought it would be nice to take a camping trip altogether since we haven't done that, like ever. But there were too many complaints about tents and peeing in the woods (I complained about that one) and sleeping on the ground. So we looked for campgrounds with cabins and as it turns out you can rent an entire summer camp. A freaking summer camp! Like with 6 cabins, an infirmary, amphitheater, and even a mess hall! So not only is the family coming along, but we also invited several close friends to join in the fun. This is like a dream come true for me. Having our own summer camp! Everyone in the family was given a job. The jobs are mostly a joke, but I am taking mine (activities director or course) very seriously. I've planned arts n crafts, sports, and a talent show. A mandatory talent show. We'll see how that goes. I hope at least three people actually participate. I might have to offer a prize for the talent with the most applause...

Anyways that's all I have for now. Don't forget to become a fan of my Etsy shop on Facebook. Click HERE for that.

Get your copy of our film, Marceline, HERE

These are the cupcakes I plan to make. (I stole this pic from The Crafty Penguin)

Anti-Social Networking

So I’ve been posting tons of things on Facebook. Ya know, cute and funny things that I expected friends and family would comment on or “like” up a freaking storm. I expected to finally say "HOLY CRAP! Alright already with these notifications from all these people that worship me!" But nothing. Nothing for sixteen whole days. Sixteen days! I started thinking that everyone just got tired of me or hates me or something. I wasn’t sure why people wouldn’t care about me anymore though. I’m nice and hilariously funny, and oh so awesome. It just didn’t add up.

Until two days ago when Andy asked to copy and paste a post I told him I had put up about finding a babysitter for Lilly that no one commented on.

“We’ll never find a sitter unless you post something.”  I said “Everyone hates me or something and nobody cares if I need to find Lilly a sitter I guess, but everyone seems to just love you, so you should post something instead.” Andy posted it and got like 10 comments in just about an hour from people wanting to babysit. He first tried to copy the post from me, but he said "No wonder you didn't get any comments, you didn't post anything". Thats weird, but I brushed it off thinking I forgot to hit "post" or something.

So then I posted something that I thought was hilarious (something I copied off a friends status actually, guess I’m not that clever) and told someone to look at it, but she couldn't see it. Upon further investigation we realized that nothing I have posted has been visible to anyone but me since Jan. 20^th. Which was 16 days ago.

How could every little moment of my life have gone un-read by others for so long!? People haven’t gotten to see what I ate for breakfast or how many times I’ve been to the gym this week (none). They won’t know which “Sh*t people say” videos I’ve seen or like enough to “share”…. But more importantly no one has wondered about my strange Facebook absence. I haven't gotten any texts wondering if I am OK, or lying horribly disfigured in a ditch somewhere. What gives, people!? Don't you care about me at all? 

But then I thought about it and this also means that I can post anything I freaking want to and no one can be offended because THEY CAN’T SEE IT. Also I discovered I don’t really even care that much. I pretty much just use Facebook to stalk people I went to high school with (that's right) to make sure they aren’t more successful than me (they are). I also like to look at other people’s weddings. I may not have spoken to you in, like, 13 years, but I WILL tear up while looking at your Facebook wedding album.

For now I am just enjoying making fun of all of you and posting the most offensive videos and updates I can because you can't see them. SO THERE. Eventually Facebook will get this glitch fixed and I’ll have a lot of posts to remove. But until then I am enjoying feeling evil and powerful. Maniacal laugh.

Brand New Year - Brand New Goals

So I didn’t finish all the things I set out to accomplish in 2011. I completed the majority of my goals, which I am proud of. Thanks to my goals I now love sushi, know how to knit, am not scared to sing in front of people, am an award winning filmmaker, hate yoga, am making money selling jewelry via Etsy, and am more adventurous with cooking and baking. I completed a total of 16 of my 25 goals. I’d say that even though I didn’t finish, last year’s goals were successful. I actually still have one more goal coming up that was planned in 2011, but can't be carried out just yet... I'll tell you more about it sometime... Soon I hope! So here is my new list of goals for 2012… and they include some of my goals from last year as well. I omitted a few goals because I sort of just lost interest in them (damn ADHD). First goal on my list: Finish everything on my goal list for 2012.

1.        Finish everything on my goal list for 2012!

2.        Audition for CoMo Cabaret

3.        Go to at least one state I’ve never been to before

4.        Bowl a 200 (not on the Wii)

5.        Make my own sushi with Andy

6.        Build something awesome out of LEGOS

7.        Take a craft or cake decorating class

8.        Take a cooking class

9.        Make a new short film

10.     Bake a rainbow colored cake

11.     Cook a Mediterranean style meal

12.     Sew something. Anything.

13.     Run more

14.     Read a new book 

15.  Finish that dumb kids book (the book is dumb, it's not for dumb kids- the book isn't really dumb and I WILL finish it!)

I think I need some rules this time, so... I reserve the right to add to my list. And this time, I cannot take away from or change goals on my list. They can be changed as long as the goal is basically the same. For instance, run more could be changed to run a mile because the goal still involves running and running a mile would be helluva lot more than I am running currently, so the overall goal remains the same.

I will add one goal to my list that you guys come up with. Please comment here or on the facebook page with ideas and the best one will be added to my list!

So here I go! Wish me luck!

Root Stupid Canal

So I finally went to the dentist yesterday about my tooth pain. I went to a new place, Fairview Dental Care. Everyone was so nice there. I really like it there. (If you need a dentist choose them and let them know I recommended you. Then we both get a $25 credit on our accounts… just FYI…)

It turns out I need two root canals. TWO. Apparently some dental work I had done around 17 years ago just sort of expired and that’s what came out when my tooth “fell out”. I begged them to just pull at least one of the teeth out, but they said they didn't recommend it because I'm so young and apparently that particular tooth is important for chewing or something. The way I see it an extraction cost $159.99 compared to one root canal which cost $1,287.50. Times two is $2,575.00! An extraction is more my budget. Oh, and not only does it cost that much but they said it can't wait. BOO. 

Oh well. I guess I can try to write another letter to Ellen. I'm starting to think she sin't getting them. 

If you would like to help me out with my root canals you can transfer money to me via Paypal using the e-mail address Sara.Leeper@gmail.com. People probably won't give you money unless you ask. They probably won't give it to you either way, but you have a better chance if you ask. I guess.

Above: I wore this necklace that I made to the dentist. Everyone loved it!

Number Three: Bake Petit Fours

I didn’t actually bake petit fours. I made rainbow cookies instead. They are sort of the same thing. When I think of petits fours (which are these French pastry things… Petit four Wiki page) I think of several thin layers of pound or sponge cake with raspberry between the layers cut into teeny, tiny little squares, covered with chocolate and decorated. Rainbow cookies are much the same, just way more awesome.

Rainbow cookies are an Italian-American dessert, mainly New York-Italian-American. For the longest time I thought they were a Jewish thing, but on Long Island, Italian and Jewish are essentially the same thing. Seriously ask any Jew or Italian from Long Island. One and the same.

Anyways, Rainbow cookies are SOOO Italian that they are even made to look like the Italian flag. Each layer is colored either green, red, or white. Well, the white layer is actually yellowish and is not colored, but is just left in its original cake color to represent white. The layers are made from an almond cake and there is a raspberry or apricot jam between each of the layers. And then the whole thing is topped with chocolate. Sometimes people add sprinkles.

I grew up eating these every Saturday after services at our synagogue (which is why I thought they were Jewish). I would go from cookie tray to cookie tray trying to find as many rainbow cookies as I could. There were only a few of them per tray and always cut so small. Then my friends and I would take our cookie finds to the coat closet and share. Another great thing about them is they can be made to be kosher for Passover. Which I love because my birthday usually falls over Passover and I hate not getting to have cake, but I loves me a whole tray of rainbow cookies!

These were easier to make than I thought they would be. However still a little complicated. Well, more time consuming than complicated. I decided not to make mine Italian flag colored. They were supposed to be lime green, orange and purple, but I ran out of purple coloring and tried to mix blue and red, which didn’t work. So they are dark redish purple, green and orange.

I am very happy with the results. They taste is a little extra almondy, because I took the advice of the pastry chef who commented on All-recipes.com saying they always add almond extract. I might skip that step next time. Don’t get me wrong though, I could still eat the whole plate. But I won’t. I promise.

Get the recipe HERE

So one more goal down. 30 days left and 9 more goals to go…

Above: Never used parchment paper before, but it rocks!

Below: Just out of the oven!

Above and Below: At this point in the process it didn't look very promising. I was getting worried. Especially when the entire green layer broke in 3 pieces... but I glued it back together with raspberry jam.

Above: But hey, they turned out great!

Below: And Delicious!

10 Goals & Only 31 Days Left!

So guess what? I DID learn to knit. And I’ve knitted myself a nice, purple, cozy 4”x 7” rectangle! I also opened my Etsy store and begun planning a big surprise for someone (that I cannot discuss on here yet because IT’S A SURPRISE). Also, I got a bike so I am one step closer to riding my bike to work. It’s really cold out though so “Have A Lemonade Stand” and “Ride My Bike To Work” are not going to be fun. And who is going to buy lemonade from me in 32 degree weather?

I have just 10 goals of my 25 left to conquer. Will I really make it to Arkansas? Judging by the busy schedule I have these next 5 weeks, probably not.

I have just felt really unmotivated to write lately. You know how that is, yes? Have you never had anything you just didn’t feel like doing? Something you wanted to do, that no one was forcing you to do, but you just kept putting it off anyway? No? Then that makes you a freak mutant and I want nothing to do with you and your freak mutant ways.

Here are some photos because I said so. They have almost nothing to do with this post, but I worked hard on the descriptions to make them seem like they fit here. Ok, I didn't work that hard.

Above: My parents came to visit a few weeks ago. They are the ones who brought me the bike!

Below: Some new things I'm working on for my Etsy shop. Andy set up this amazing work space for me. He got me a table and little storage drawer things, a drill for screwing holes into LEGOS and other toys, and some other awesome stuff. He's really awesome.