Number 9

BEE'S B-DAY: Annabelle is 8 no longer. The nice round number is gone, and now she's 9. Just one year away from double digits. Time flies.

We spent all morning and afternoon playing with our food. More specifically, Annabelle's birthday treats.

Annabelle designed her own cake this year. We busted out the Big Top Cupcake mold for the first time. I don't remember when or why be bought it, but I know it's been gathering dust in the basement for a couple of years. We dusted it off before putting it into service.

We baked our go-to chocolate cake recipe in the top and bottom. 

We frosted the bottom in lavender buttercream, to look like a cupcake wrapper.

The middle was 'stuffed' with a marshmallow creme we whipped up. 

For the top, I thought it needed something with a tremendous amount of volume. Standard buttercream would not do. My mind drifted back to something called 'boiled frosting.' I wasn't even sure what it was, to tell you the truth. I just remember my grandma making it when I was a kid.

Thanks to the Internet, I was able to find tons o' recipes for it. However, the first handful I read all called for whipping raw egg whites into stiff peaks. My food safety meter went off, and so I looked for an alternative. I knew I had meringue powder, so I found a recipe using that instead of egg whites on the Wilton Web site.  

I was worried that it might not be fluffy enough.  It was a needless worry.

We iced the top half of the cupcake on steroids and Annabelle applied sprinkles liberally. 

Then we lifted the top onto the base and Annabelle planted Pinkie Pie on top. Done!

Overall, the thing was about a foot tall and bigger than that around. It looked like a cupcake that had eaten too many cupcakes. ;)

We had some cake batter left over, and a super cute owl "cupcake" pan in the cupboard, so on to project number two. ...

Of course, that meant I had to make some fondant. About eight different colors of fondant, to be specific.

We pressed the fondant into the tin to make a full body cover for the mini cakes.

And then we had fun personalizing each owl.

CJ made a brown owl. With eye brows. And when he says eyebrows, he means eye brows. As in brows on the eyes. :)  He eventually got brows above the eyes, as well. 

Annabelle made a total of three owls, each very different.

I liked their unique personalities. 

I made a pair of owls, including a grumpy old one.

I think we're done making cakes for awhile!