Whirlwind weekend!

Where to start?? I had 2 cakes, 40 cupcakes, 13 cookie favour bags, a babysitting gig, a Twins Club meeting, and a birthday party to do this weekend! Somehow I managed to get it all done, with a lot of help from Mike.

Let's start with the cookie favour bags. These consisted of 2 sugar cookies/bag, one #2 and then either a chick or a bunny. They were put into clear bags and wrapped up with yellow ribbon. Making these types of sugar cookies is at least a 2 day process because the icing has to dry in between steps.

The cupcakes were chocolate with vanilla buttercream and oodles of colourful sprinkles on top. These were super yummy and I baked a few extra to enjoy throughout the day (I have to seriously cut back on the amount of sugar I am ingesting these days!).

The first cake I made was a sugar-free cake, made for a friend from the Twins Club. It was for her mother-in-law, who is diabetic. Being the sugar fiend that I am, this sugar free cake was not the best item I've ever eaten, but it wasn't bad. It was pretty, and the icing, although a little chunky (pudding chunks) tasted pretty good. I was able to tint some of the icing to make it look pretty. I feel as though the end result was a little child-like, for an 84 year old's birthday cake, but it was cute. Feedback from the client - cake was a big hit, demolished and they are going to send me some photos of the cake being enjoyed by all.

The second cake I made was to go with the cupcakes and cookie favours. It was for a friend's son's second birthday, "other Zach" as Maggie put it today. His Mom dropped off a party plate a week or so ago with their theme, kind of a jungle theme with a lion, giraffe, monkey, zebra, lizard, and snake.


We talked about what animals would be preferred on the cake, but this was before I had tested the new edible ink printer. I was able to take a photo of the party plate and print it onto icing paper...then ice on top of the image to make it really 'pop.' Mike helped me figure out how to border the cake, as we didn't want to use the normal star tip...this cake needed something different. Mike wondered if I could make leaves fall over the side of the cake, to bring the jungle theme in completely. I could and I did, although I might look into purchasing a larger leaf tip sometime in the future. I was really happy with how it turned out, and I think that Zach's family was pleased as well. The Birthday party (we were invited to "other Zach's" party) was awesome. Anna, from Music Together Phoenix Song, ran a jam session and Maggie & Zack loved it. Then we sang Happy Birthday, ate cake, and a million other delicious goodies that Angie had prepared...such great ideas for toddler food - crackers, cheese, fruit, ants on a log, meatballs, veggies & dip, bread & dip...we all ate our fill. Thank you Zach & Angie for inviting us to the party!

I just helped set up for Twins Club and baked mini scones for everyone to enjoy with their coffee. The birthday party was at the same time as the meeting so I had some help from the other volunteers with cleanup and running the meeting - what a great team. We have two more meetings until our summer break. I love being a part of this group and getting to see all the new little babies, as well as how fast everyone else is growing up.

Hmmm, did I cover it all here? Oh yeah, babysitting. I got to play and snuggle with a little tiny named Emma. She was a good girl and I was able to check out a few magazines and watch some tv while she slept - a good deal for everyone involved.

The Long gang ventured down to Granville Island at night tonight, we went down after our afternoon nap as our regularly scheduled G.Island adventure was postponed because of the birthday party. It was neat to go there in the afternoon and we had a lot more time to walk around after our meal...something we cannot normally do because we have to get home for nap. We checked out the houseboats, saw a man paddling on a surfboard, ran up and down a huge grassy hill, threw pinecones in the water (a big hit), and played at the park.

Hope you all had as great a weekend as we did! Love to you all