Sew God's Grace

This year, our school did not have an official eighth grade promotion celebration due to COVID-19 restrictions.  However, I wanted to have a small celebration with close family at our house to celebrate my oldest son's eighth grade promotion.  I asked him what kind of cake he wanted, and he requested a chocolate chip cookie dough cake.  My sister-in-law had made one for my nephew's birthday a while back, and it was a hit!  I made the recipe that my sister-in-law used with a few tweaks.  Since some of my other children have already asked me to make it again, I wanted to get everything down in my blog for future reference. The original recipe can be found here , and it uses a boxed cake mix.  I have no problem with that, but I decided to use my friend's homemade chocolate cake recipe.  I think it produces a little denser cake that holds up better to that thick cookie dough layer.  I also used the option to bake two 9 inch round cakes instead ...

We were excited to be done with harvest and able to celebrate Maddie's tenth and Grant's second birthday on July sixth (Maddie's actual birthday!) I say this every year, but I can't believe how quickly time has flown and how much these two have grown!  With Maddie hitting double digits, I am starting to realize anew how important it is to enjoy every moment. Maddie is into horses, so I wanted to make her a horse-themed cake.  I really like cupcakes because they are easy to serve.  For instructions on how to make this cake, see this post. Grant loves Elmo (or "Mo-Mo," as he calls him), and I knew if would be easy to make Elmo cupcakes.  I simply used black decorator gel to make the mouths, then piped red stars on with a #16 Wilton tip to make the fur.  The nose is an orange pretzel M & M, and the eyes are candy eyes bought at Walmart . One note:  I made these ahead of time and froze them.  When they thawed, the black on the eyes ble...

My daughter Maddie just turned 10, and she really likes horses.  So, when I saw a picture of a cake like this on Pinterest, I knew that I wanted to make one for her birthday party.  I couldn't find any tutorials online for how much frosting to make, etc., so I thought I would post how I did it. It was a pretty easy cake.  Maddie and I baked the cupcakes and had it frosted in an afternoon! You will need: 26 cupcakes (see my recipe below or use your favorite!) 2 recipes  this chocolate frosting 1 recipe this buttercream frosting (you will have extra left over) Cake board (I use a piece of cardboard covered with aluminum foil) Wilton 1 M cupcake frosting tip Frosting bags (Use disposable--you will thank me later at clean up time!) Wilton size 3 tip or larger What to do: 1.  Bake your cupcakes.  I used this recipe from pinterest for modifying a white cake mix.  I used a Funfetti cake mix. To a white cake mix add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sug...

In the interest of staying sane, we have started combining some of the kids' birthday parties.  So this year, Anna and Lyla had their party together.  We had a great time celebrating Anna's sixth birthday (coming soon in May) and Lyla's fourth birthday (in April.)  Time has sure flown--I can't believe how big my girls are getting. Anna requested rainbows, and Lyla wanted Hello Kitty again for themes for their cakes.  I decided to make cupcakes.  That way I could decorate half with each girl's theme.  What better way to have a Rainbow Hello Kitty party? We made rainbow cupcakes by dividing the cake batter and using food coloring to make the cupcakes themselves in a rainbow pattern.  My son Evan and I spent quite a while one morning scooping small amounts of colored batter into cupcake pans.  We used two boxes of 15.4 ounce white cake mix, and we made 28 cupcakes.  I think we could have made 30 so that the cupcakes would not have bee...

For Evan's eighth birthday, he wanted a tractor and grain cart cake.  This is what I came up with.  Though I didn't take pictures as I was making it, I think I can describe the steps for it. You will need: 1 Funfetti (or your favorite) cake mix, prepared and baked as directed in a 9 by 13 pan 2 batches  one bowl chocolate cake .  Fill 9 by 13 pan 2/3 - 3/4 full.  You will have a little bit of batter left over. 2 mini donuts--use chocolate covered if you don't want to cover them with modeling chocolate. 4 large donuts.  I could not find large chocolate-covered donuts, so I ended up baking my own. Candy corn 3 batches Wilton Buttercream frosting (or 9 cups of your favorite cake-decorating frosting.) Gel food coloring--leaf green, orange, lemon yellow, and black 1 batch semisweet modeling chocolate , colored black # 3 and #16 decorating tips Frosting bags and couplers--make it easy on yourself and use disposable! 8 inch 2 by 4 board 6 inch 2...

I think I say something like this every time one of my kids has a birthday, but I can't believe my Evan is eight already!  This little guy with a tender heart has grown so much (both physically and spiritually) in the last year, and I am so blessed to be his mom. We celebrated Evan's birthday with family on March 23rd.  It seems like we start brainstorming ideas for birthday cakes right after Christmas, and Evan had decided he wanted a tractor and grain cart for his cake.  (He has a lot of confidence in my cake decorating abilities!)  I looked online and found inspiration for the tractor and decided carve a grain cart to go with it. I didn't take pictures as I was decorating the cake, but I hope to get another post with some details on the cake soon!  Let's just say that this was my first experience with modeling chocolate, and I really had fun with it! Happy birthday, sweet boy!  May the next year be filled with blessings!  Love, Mom

So, my oldest is 9, and my youngest is 1.  I can finally say that without cringing!  I say this all the time, but it sure has gone quickly!  These two have birthdays that are just a week apart, so we decided to do a combined party with family. Maddie wanted a basketball cake, and Grant has always been our little monkey, so we had monkeys and basketballs!  I found the monkey cupcake idea here .  I used candy eyes from Walmart and placed some chocolate sprinkles on the top of the monkeys' heads for hair. Of course, I had to make some cake pops, too!  The monkey idea came from my Cake Pops:  Tips, Tricks, and Recipes for More than 40 Irresistible Mini Treats  by Bakerella .  I used a mini vanilla wafer for the nose instead of a peanut butter candy wafer. When Maddie requested a basketball cake, I decided it was a great opportunity to try fondant.  I mean, I only needed one color!  I used this recipe and tinted it...

I can't believe that Anna is five already!  I know I say it every year, but where does the time go?  Somehow, when they hit five, they seem so much older than four.  I mean, it's going to be time for kindergarten! For this cake, I made the inside to look like zebra stripes.  You can find the tutorial here .  Then I simply frosted it with white buttercream frosting and put zebra-striped sugar paper around the sides.  (You can find sugar paper at Walmart.  I used my rotary cutter and ruler to cut it instead of buying the fancy tools in the cake aisle.  Then I used a glass as a template to cut a circle for the top of the cake.)  I piped on some pink stars and added a happy birthday wish, and I was done.  It only took my an hour to put together that morning!  I had used the extra batter from making to cakes to bake up a few cupcakes, so I iced those with pink frosting and used the leftover sugar paper to decorate them. Best of...

Happy Mother's Day!  Mother's Day is a bittersweet day for me.  I love the homemade cards from my kids and the big hugs and kisses, but there is an emptiness there as well.  My mom passed away a little over 13 years ago after a battle with cancer.  With time, God has healed much of my grief, but I will always miss her.  And Mother's Day is one of the days of the year that I miss her the most. My mom was the sort of lady who could do just about anything.  She could fix a tractor or supper in 30 minutes or less.  She was very pretty, but she never worried much about wearing make-up or having to look "just right."  Most of all, she was the one I went to when I needed help with a problem.  She always seemed to know just what to do.  "What," you may ask, "Does this have to do with decorating cakes?"  Well, my mom would always decorate a cake for my brother and me for our birthdays.  I remember watching her squeeze little fros...

It's been a couple of months since I have last posted anything. I have pictures ready, but I have not had the time to sit down and get anything typed up! With five young kids and homeschooling, I haven't had a lot of extra time. Because of that, I finally decided to combine some of my kids' birthdays to try to reduce some of the busyness. So, my seven year old and three year old got to share a family party. I told Evan that he will get to have a friend over sometime as part of his birthday celebration as well, but we still have to get that on the calendar! Ready for the party!  Evan, my farm boy, wanted a combine cake. I found the tutorial for this one here . It was actually fairly simple to make. However, I ended up needing more that one 9 by 13" cake to get it done. Also, I would recommend putting the bin a little farther back on the cake so that it is not putting pressure on the cab. I was trying to get everything done on Friday so that I c...