Let them eat Cakes

My darling grandson recently turned 7 (heavens - seven!  where did those years go!!) his current fad is Star Wars ... so I said I would make him a Star Wars cake for his birthday.  Now this was one of those spur-of-the-moment things that instantly caused me some consternation as I am NOT into cake decorating ... not into fancy food making at all really.

But I hit the Googly-Web and found lots of photos and some instructions for an R2D2 cake - it seemed possible and looked the part so a bit of shopping later and into the kitchen ...


R2D2 is tall with a domed 'head' so obviously the cake would be in tiers - this is a basic butter cake recipe made in double quantities and divided into 3 parts.  Plain vanilla for the bottom layer is just out of the oven & still in the 6" tin, pink (because my grandson has a sister!) is flavoured with rose flovouring and will be the middle part and the chocolate flavour will be the 'head' and there is less of that.

I had found pair of cake tins designed to make a giant cupcake ... used the top half tin for the 'head' of R2D2 but it was too conical.

Joined the 3 cakes with strawberry jam and added R2D2's 'arms' on the side - these were a commercial brownie cake sliced in half as I really didn't feel like baking another cake!  One tip I picked up from my www research was to do a 'crumb coat'.  A layer of thinned out icing to even out the shapes (such as those swirly ridges from the giant cup-cake tin) and to stop the crumbs getting into the final coating of icing.

Really wish I'd known about crumb coats years ago!!

Once that was set I slathered the top coat of icing on.  Icing is really unhealthy stuff, being basically just butter + icing sugar!!!  On the shopping trip I had bought some black food colouring, it was very strong and the grey for R2D2's head was perhaps a little dark. 

Then I needed a 'fondant' or 'royal icing' for all the decorations - one that could be rolled and cut out in shapes.  Didn't want to use a commercial one as those often taste very strong (like marzipan) and children don't like that.   The same www site as above has a recipe for fondant icing that started with marshmallows ... Ok - that seemed possible and my hubby could eat all the pink ones but the recipes said to zap the marshmallows in a microwave oven and I don't have one of those.  So, I chopped up the 'mallows put them in a little saucepan with a very small amount of hot water, put the pan over gentle heat and lots of stirring until the 'mallows melted and kinda frothed up.  Then added the icing sugar and stirred like crazy ... it worked !! :-)  I had a fondant icing that I could roll out & cut into shapes - though you do need to oil or grease all the surfaces or it will stick.

Here is the finished R2D2 cake - I was very proud of it even though it has plenty of flaws and the children loved it.

 The children helped with the decorations, the red dot is a Smartie, the black details are that food colouring applied with a clean small paint-brush, the 'cameras' are a sour licorice lolly cut to size.

Back view - very plain there

from the top - not very accurate but fun!

Well - then I had lots of grey coloured icing left over and with Halloween coming up I decided to make some suitably Icky cup-cakes ...

Put lots of Banana Flavouring and Orange Colouring in the mixture  

Once cooked, I put some strawberry jam 'blood & guts' in the middle





Then grey icing and some choc sprinkles ... the decoration wasn't very imaginative but I was running out of time ...

Meanwhile, the Blythe Dolls were meant to be helping me by filling the lolly-bags for visiting Trick-or-Treaters.   Ruby & Lillian were working hard - but Audrey was up to tricks of her own!

Ruby is my new girl - she is a Rosie Red BL and came to me with a wonky hair-do - I've given her a partial re-root (more in my next post) ... Ruby can do a marvelous Morticia Addams impersonation (imdollation?) now. 

Halloween - with Blythe Dolls

Group Photo - everyone is dressed up and ready for Halloween -

even the little ones ...

Bunny, Audrey and Violetta are going to go Trick-or-Treat-ing

Violetta:  Audrey, where are you going with the suitcases?

Audrey:  I'm going on the trick-or-treat ... the cases are for all the chocolates and lollies that people are going to give me.

Here, you had best take this bag.

Lillian:  Oh dear, Audrey that does look a little bit greedy you know.

Still Here - just been very busy

Oh my poor neglected Blogs ... I have been really busy.  Well - perhaps I'll show you some of the things that have kept me busy of late.  

Been making lots of things my Blythe dolls' Etsy shop Blythe Star.  First there were some handkerchief dresses.

Tried to make the most of the hankies with their wonderful scalloped borders -


The shorter dresses have built-in petticoats - and here is Audrey being a bit saucy!

Then I got out the jewelry making gear

 

 and put together lots of Blythe Bling .... necklaces. 

Most of the charms are food related, I've used magnetic clasps because I find them really easy to use (regular clasps are fiddly on a doll and the hair gets caught).

  And most sit about mid-chest on a Blythe.

Let Them Eat Cake !

There are some necklaces that would be great for Halloween

or Pumpkin perhaps

 With Halloween at the end of the month I thought I would make some big black dramatic dolly capes ... they've been quite a success  :-)   I've 2 left in the shop now - one with purple lining

And one with Orange.   Both capes are a circle plus - with almost 'Watteau pleats' at the back so they hang in nice theatrical folds.  Black sheeny fabric (a good quality Rayon lining fabric) - capes & hoods fully lined.  I'm proud of this hood pattern - it is full enough to accommodate doll's hair and has that 'romantic' flattering loose fit around the face ... and it has a Pixie Point!   Both these capes have cotton fringing on the edge of the hood - all rather witchy don't you think?

Well - enough of the cross-promotion ... this little green dress is not for sale.   Made this for my Granddaughter's faux Blythe doll.   Here is Audrey doing the modelling - the dress is another made from my 'recipe'    see the link at the top of the blog for the pattern - is free.

 Talking of fake - last weekend I started on this project and now there are little tufts of fake fur all over the house!

They are backpacks / soft-toys ...  the zips go behind the heads.  The pattern is about 10yrs old and much used!  There is a puppy, a teddy and a bunny - though I've also made a tiger and a kitten with just a change to the ear shape  :-)     This time I'm making a brown puppy for my grandson and 2 mauve bunnies - 1 for granddaughter, one for me!   and that is a tummy and hind legs you can see in the photo.  All fabrics from my stash and my bunny will have grey ears because I ran out of the mauve ... even with lots of clever cutting!

 One last project - and don't tell Audrey because this is for her; because she has been such a good little model and because she loves all things red!   A red satin cape with black lining - organza frills about the face. 

 Well, more soon - promise   :-)

Halloween

The Blythe dolls are having a great Halloween with lots of dressing up.  

I organised a Halloween / Back-to-School (USA)) swap with fellow Blythe doll people on Ravelry - love doing swaps of clothing for Blythes, it is really inspirational seeing what everyone creates.

Goodness Gwacious!

My swap partner was extremely generous 

- sending a box full of spooky lollies and fun stuff.  

The Dolls were quite overwhelmed.

Audrey 'claimed' this cute Sheep outfit (love those textured stitches)

Lillian always looks rather elegant in black - a lovely dress and hat and 




YEA!   bat-wings!

I made my partner only 1 costume and that does make me feel a bit mean but it was elaborate and took quite a bit of making.

This outfit is based on a couple of costumes from the Emerald City scene of the musical Wicked.  I missed out on sewing costumes for Wicked and took this swap as an opportunity to make something (in small scale) that otherwise I might never get the to sew. 

 

Bought the glasses and shoes - made the dress, hat, tights & gloves.  Lots of ribbons & loads of fun.  Audrey is doing the modelling here but the doll who is now wearing the outfit is a CanCan Cat and she has bright blue hair - which looks perfect with this costume.

I did make the doll's person a mini lion ... just because.  

From a Mochimochi pattern.
 
 

I think I caught some sort of must-make-dolly-costumes virus. The WPWD's people had a photo competition, and the theme was Orange.  

So I got busy ...

And made a pumpkin costume - mostly felt fabric with some green ribbon left over from the other costume.

Audrey got a little worried when I asked her to pose in front of the cook-book open at ...


Pumpkin Soup !!!

You can see all the fantastic entries for this competition here.

Meanwhile I'd been busy knitting a Morticia Adams style dress for Lillian.  The girdle and under-flounce are actually purple (my camera doesn't like purple) and the dress is adapted from my "recipe" (available for free at the top of the page).

Lillian asked for a nice dramatic cape to go with her dress.  Full circle with purple lining and a nice big hood ... so she can be romantic & mysterious.








Little Bird wanted an costume too ... just like Lillian's

Bird likes her long black dress - it makes her feel quite Grown'd Up.

"It has a long bus out the back"  {I think she means the train!}

Wait for Us Lillian

Well the dolls got to show off their outfits at the WPWDs Halloween meet.  This was just wonderful fun - I got to meet some people who are just as crazy about their dolls as I am!  And there were so many gorgeous dolls!!

 Some of the wonderfully costumed dollies ....   I loved the I Dream of Genie outfit

Isn't she gorgeous!

Audrey met another Simply Chocolate - Evie was wearing a lovely witch costume and she had brought her cat.  Audrey and Evie had a lovely time.

 

The meeting was on the Central Coast, past the Hawkesbury River - I took the train there and took some photos out of the window on the way.  The train-line goes really close to the river.

The Hawkesbury is quite shallow in many places and there are oyster leases.

Bird enjoyed looking out the window!

The colours of the Australian bush  -  those olive greens.  The very green tree in the bottom RH corner is a non-native, such a contrast!

Happy Halloween Everyone