Chocolate Curls Christmas Cake

I know I said I would stop with the red and green but apparently I was totally lying.  Sorry.

I made a white cake, tinted some frosting red and green, then melted some chocolate.  Have you ever made chocolate curls?  I had tried once before.  It was a major fail.  I am pretty sure there were even some comments mocking my skills, and if they werent totally right I might have been upset.

Ok, so looks like I still have not mastered this technique.  I could not get one single perfect swirly curl.

I blame the red candy melts I used.  And the warm December weather. And that one boy in 2nd grade who called me 4-eyes. *cough*

Clearly I have issues.

In addition to sharing this sweet little Christmas cake with you, I also wanted to give you a chance to share something with someone you love.  Say that sentence three times fast.  Or dont.  Just remember I am not an English major.  I am not even an English minor.  Words. Good.

 

Would you like to win a brand new Motorola DROID RAZR smartphone?  These things are awesome.

  • 8-megapixel camera and an HD display that makes movies, photos, magazines and websites appear with vibrant clarity
  • are near-field communications(NFC)-enabled
  • battery that allows for up to 32 hours of normal use and double the internal storage to 32 GB
  • run over 4G LTE, combined with Chrome for Android, meaning customers can enjoy blazing fast speeds that make downloading documents or surfing the Web a breeze
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Not only would I love to give an iambaker reader this beautiful phone, but I would love to give you a $50 Verizon Giftcard to be used towards your bill or any phone accessory!  All in all, this gift is worth over $250!

A Beautiful New Smartphone.

A $50 Verizon Giftcard.

A sweet little cake.

Its the recipe for a perfect Christmas folks. ;)

Official Rules

To enter simply follow the instruction through the Rafflecopter widget below!  I gave you LOTS of chances to win! (It can take a moment to load, so please be patient!)
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· 371 Comments

Some Things (Silver Rose Cake)

I hope you will forgive me interrupting your regularly scheduled program, I just need to take care of some business.

First off, the sweet little Silver Bell’s inspired Rose Cake above was seen in an ad in the latest issue of Sweet Paul Magazine!  I am a huge, huge fan of those great guys and hope you will be too.  In addition to the digital version, you can even find a copy of their magazine at Anthropology (and many other stores!)

In other not so fun new, my email was hacked into.

It has been nothing short of a huge problem, as the hackers took over my account and I no longer have access to any of it.  I had used that account since 1999 and also used my email as file storage.  (I dont recommend doing that, its not the best way to store important info!  Dont be like me.)  Contact files, business accounts, personal files, personal emails.  I had stored and filed away every important email I have gotten in the past years, and they are now gone. (Even an email I got from Martha Stewart years ago that I had saved because, hello, it was from Martha Stewart!  Well, maybe it was from her people, but you know.  Practically same thing.)

My email provider was AOL and they basically told me I was out of luck and refused to help regain access to my information.  They were unprofessional, unhelpful, and downright rude.  In addition to all that the hacker also sent out numerous emails “from me” asking for money.

My apologies if you were one of the un-lucky recipients of that.

I will be getting you new and improved email information shortly!  In the mean time you can reach me at manda2177@gmail.com.

Hope you all had wonderful Thanksgiving, and I look forward to sharing the Holiday season with you.  Christmas is definitely my favorite time of year!

*If you want to make a cake like this, here is a good tutorial as well as this video tutorial.

· 33 Comments

The Reason For the Season

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This was us in front of the giant tree in Animal Kingdom, Disney World.  I know I look outrageously huge, but I am going to shamelessly blame it on the baby.  

At least for the next ten years or so.

We had such a fantastic time and I miss it terribly!  I want to share pictures with you, but am trying to ween it down from about 800.  I will be posting picks to my flickr page for awhile… and at the rate I am going its gonna take me all year.  I only have time to edit 5-10 a day!  Oh well.  

Sadly, I was totally unable to get myself organized enough to send out a Christmas card this year.  Am considering doing a baby announcement instead… if you want to be on the list shoot me an email! 

manda2177@aol.com

Since we were so lucky to see both my family and Chad's family while in Florida, we are celebrating Christmas at home alone this year, just the kids and Chad and I.  

We have also chosen to not do gifts this year, and are really hoping to instill in our kids the reason for the season… JESUS!

We hope you have a wonderfully blessed and fruitful Christmas, and are able to truly celebrate being with friends and family!!!

 

 

· 18 Comments

Christmas Tree Cake {Surprise Inside Cake!}

UPDATED: Tutorial HERE

When I first saw this cake on Martha Stewarts webiste, I was smitten.

Beyond smitten.

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Photo courtesy of Martha Stewart.

It was more likeobsessed.

I wanted SO badly to do one myself… but never knew how to add my own twist on it.

I think I found a way.

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I decided to try and put trees in the midst of all those ‘ruffles’.

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But then, I took it a step further.

A Surprise Inside Cake!

The inside of this precious little cake that nearly killed me to cut into I loved it so is a red and green striped ornament!

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A precious little green and red striped ornament… all INSIDE the cake!

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And there you have it… A Christmas Tree Red and Green Ornament Inside Cake! Easy peasy.

I really hope you try making a ruffle cake of your own. Martha gives pretty easy directions and its a really forgiving design andtechnique. The different ways you can make it yours are endless!!!

Here are two verysimilartutorials to give you and idea of how it all comes together!

Faith Cake Tutorial

Heart Cake Tutorial

Hope that helps, and THANK YOU for all the wonderfully supportive and thoughtful kind words!

· 298 Comments