Flower Garden Birthday Cake

We just celebrated my sweet Tatum's 4th birthday.

This was the Flower Garden cake to top off her Fancy Four Affair.

Each birthday I try to make a special cake for my kids.  Though I love baking, cake decorating is not  my forte!

I found this fun idea in one of my favorite books, What's New, Cupcake? by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson.  I love this book because the ideas are fairly simple and the results are so impressive.  Here is how I made it, following the instruction from the book.

Supplies:
Yeah, this one had TONS of items on ingredient list.  However, that is mostly due to the fact that I chose to make a variety of flowers for my flower garden.  Here is basically what you'd need...
- Cupcakes (I'd go with homemade for a firmer cake to stick the flowers into, though not necessary.)
- Green Cupcake Liners (though again, not necessary)
- Tray, for your Flower Garden to sit in
- Pretzels, sticks
- Cookies (sturdy, flat and round work best), one for each flower
- White Chocolate Chips, about 1 cup
- Frosting
- Green Food Coloring
- Assorted Candies for Flowers, I used M&Ms, Mike & Ikes, Jelly Bellies, Gummy Lifesavers
- Assorted Green Candies for Leaves
- Assorted Green Candies to fill in around the cupcakes (optional)
- Marshmallows (for flower petals), I used mini and a medium-sized variety in mine
- Sugar Sprinkles (assorted colors), for the marshmallow flowers

... I added some cute butterfly picks that I found at Hobby Lobby, that I thought were a nice touch.

Directions:
1) Make your marshmallow petals.
Do this by cutting them on the diagonal as shown below.  Set them aside so they can regain their shape.

Choose some colored sugar sprinkles, and place them in a small dish.

Take each of your cut marshmallow petals, and press the cut side into the colored sprinkles until it is nicely coated.  I used two different sizes of marshmallows, and opted to use colored sprinkles to match the color of the marshmallow.  I really liked how the medium-sized marshmallows looked on the finished flowers.

2)  Create your flowers!

Line your cookies up on a try.  I had 20 cupcakes to decorate, so I chose 20 cookies.  I also found it helpful to pre-sort my candies by color so I could quickly grab what I needed before my chocolate had set.  Once I had everything ready....

... I put 1/2 cup of white chocolate chips in a ziplock bag.  Place THE OPEN BAG in the microwave for 10 second intervals, mushing the chocolate in between each, until it is completely melted (may take about a minute).  Remove the air from the bag, and seal it.

Snip about 1/4" from the corner of your bag, and you are ready to pipe your chocolate!

See what I'm doing here?  Not a good idea.  I thought the chocolate would take longer to set than it did.  My recommendation would be to work on 2 or 3 AT THE MOST at a time.  One at a time might be a little too runny to easily decorate without your candies slipping out of place.

Pipe chocolate onto your cookie, and decorate it to your liking with your assorted candies and prepared marshmallow petals.  After a bit my chocolate was getting too "cool" and hard to work with.  I just popped it back in the microwave for 10 seconds, and we were back in business.

Here are my finished flowers.  Perhaps you can select some favorites from mine and copy them rather than experiment until you find one you like.

Note: I made the flowers the night before the party.  Cover them and hide them from the kids... :)

4) Prepare your cupcakes.
I know... I cheated.  I used store-bought frosting and added green food coloring to make it a nice, grassy green.

I frosted each cupcake, added some green sugar sprinkles to the top, and placed them on the tray.

Next, I filled in the gaps with all of the green candies I had stolen from my flower candy supply.

5)  Add your stems to the flowers.
The original instructions didn't call for this, but I happened to have some green candy melts on hand.  I chose to dip my pretzel sticks in the green candy melts.  I did this for two reasons.... 1, because I thought they would look nicer... and 2, because sticking a pretzel in a moist cupcake will cause the pretzel to get all soggy. Ick!

I melted my candy melts as directed on the package, rolled each pretzel stick in each, and let them set on a piece of wax paper.

Next, I melted another 1/2 cup of white chocolate chips in a small glass dish, as directed on the package (in the microwave for 30 second intervals).  I found that it worked best to lay the flowers upside-down, roll the end of the pretzel in the white chocolate, and rest it in place on the back of the flowers.  I then added white chocolate over top of that to make sure it was nice and "glued" into place.  You may have to hold the pretzel in place for a bit to allow it to set... or find a crafty way to rest it in place while you work on the next.

I transferred these to the fridge to allow them to completely set, about 5 minutes.  Set these aside, and add to your cupcakes right before you are ready to display your cake.

6) Arrange your flower garden.
I used green fruit slice candies for the leaves.  They were a little thick, so I cut them in half.  They were a perfect shape, I thought.

Place a flower into each cupcake.  Add a leaf or two to the base.  I rested my leaves in the frosting at an angle on most.  I also added some cute little butterfly picks.  Isn't it pretty?

We added flowers directly onto our extra cupcakes.  Charlotte had fun designing some of these.

And the finished display...

I thought it looked so pretty on the table!

A couple of thoughts...

*   The candy flowers were very heavy.  Little, if any, of the pretzel stem was left showing, as I had to insert them fairly deep to support the weight of the flowers.  I am not sure if there would be a better option.... perhaps a thicker pretzel?

*   Next time I may use green food coloring in the cake as well....

Happy Birthday Tater-Bug!!

Bite Into Summer Vacation!

Ok.. this is it.  Seriously!

You make this... your kids will think that you are the absolute

COOLEST!

Other moms will be talking about you...

and it is certain you will be asked to bring this along to the next get-together.

  

Are you ready for it?

And the best part is, it is SO SIMPLE to make!

Seriously!

My Inspiration...

From the National Watermelon Promotion Board

Shark Snack Attack

Ingredients:
-  1 Watermelon (try to find one with more of an oval shape if you can)
-  Blue Jell-O (2 large, 8-serving pkgs)
-  Fish-Shaped Candies
-  Blueberries (x2 for the eyes)
-  Toothpicks (3 or 4)

Other Supplies I used, though all optional:

-  Tray (I used a pizza pan)

-  Foil

-  Saran Wrap

-  Blue & Green Markers

-  Melon Ball Tool

Directions:

1)  Prepare Your Ocean Water

I followed the recipe for Jell-O Jigglers, found HERE, ahead of time.  I thought that having blue, Jell-O Jigglers would not only make a fun snack, but looks much more like water than the watermelon used in the original photo.  Don't you think?

2)  Prepare Your Tray
I covered a pizza pan with aluminum foil and had my children color the foil with blue and green markers.  We then covered the colored foil tray with Saran Wrap so that the color would be protected.  Remember that your shark will cover a good portion of your tray, so you don't have to completely color it.

And here is the finished tray...

3)  Cut the Watermelon
Wait... first, let me recommend you wash your watermelon.
Now, lay your watermelon as shown in the first image and decide which end would make a better shark head.  I opted for the left side with the less rounded curve to it.  Slice off the other end at a slight angle (not too much).

Next, rest your watermelon on it's cut side, and decided where you would like the shark mouth.  Make sure here that you are adding about an inch or so for the teeth you will be cutting out of the rind.  Here, I have cut my shark mouth wedge.  (Make sure to save your wedge for the shark fin!)

Next, with a small knife, carefully score around your shark mouth, only about 2-3 millimeters deep.  This will help you to peal off the rind down to your cut so you can begin to form the teeth.

Can you see my score lines above?

Again, with a small knife, carefully cut away the green rind down to your score lines around the mouth.

4)  Remove the Good Stuff
... and SET IT ASIDE!  We'll be using that in a bit.
I chose to use a melon baller here, but you may choose to take a knife and cut away all of the watermelon.  The melon baller obviously takes more time, but the little balls look so nice I think.

And here we are, with a pile of watermelon, quite a mess I have to say, but a clean shark.  I used a spoon to help scrap the extra melon from around the mouth opening.  It worked nicely.

5)  Cut the Teeth
But before you do that... I rinsed my shark once to get all the sticky off, and set it on some paper towels to help absorb the extra moisture.

Ok... Now this is where it starts to get fun!  Grab a small, sharp knife and cut your jaws as you see me doing below, on the top and bottom of your shark mouth.

6)  Add Gills & Eyes

I used a small knife to cut into the rind (careful not to cut all the way through) to make an eye and the lines for the gills behind the mouth.

Who's mouth is bigger?  Wesley's or the sharks?

I broke a toothpick in half and used that to attach a blueberry to the center of each eye.

And we have an eye!

7)  Add a Fin
Take the wedge you cut to form the shark mouth to make your fin.  Below you will see how I cut my wedge to get a nice triangle fin.

Then I removed the watermelon from the other side.  I placed the fin up to the shark and realized I needed to cut a bit of a curve on the bottom side to have it fit nicely.  You may need to do the same.

To attach the fin, I placed a couple of toothpicks into the shark and pushed the fin into place.

8)  Finishing Your Shark Attack Snack

Transfer your shark to your tray, if you haven't already.

Fill your shark mouth with your reserved watermelon chunks or melon balls.

Next, cut your Jell-O Jigglers into bit-sized pieces, and arrange them around your shark on the tray.

Finish it off by adding some candy fish to the shark's mouth and the ocean water around him.  I didn't do this, but thought some whip cream would even be a fun touch.  Messy, but fun.  :)

And here's your finished snack.

Sure you get a scream at social gatherings this summer!

Watch out for the teeth!

Summer Scholar Sunday #4

Each week, I will feature an activity found in the Sun Scholars Summer Program and share some highlights from our Summer Scholar Families.  We'd love to have you follow along.  If you like what you see, and would like to learn more about my Sun Scholar Summer Program, click HERE.

Beach Bucket Cake

Subjects:    Life Skills & Math

Time:         15+ mins

Supplies:       Yellow Cake, Plastic Bucket (that holds 8-9 cups), Vanilla Pudding, Graham Crackers (1 cup crushed), Chocolate Shells, Plastic Shovel

this is from Week 6 - Beach Party of the Sun Scholar Summer Program

What a fun way to celebrate summer with your children!  This cake in a bucket is SO easy to prepare, you can practically leave the kitchen to your child.  This is sure to be a crowd pleaser!

Directions

      1.       Give your bucket and shovel a good wash before use.

      2.       Tear (or cut) the cake into 2” chunks.  Place a layer of cake chunks in the bottom of the bucket.

      3.       Spread a layer of pudding over the cake chunks.

      4.       Repeat steps 2 and 3 until all the cake has been used, ending with a layer of pudding.

      5.       Sprinkle the crushed graham crackers over top to create the ‘sand’.

      6.       Add some chocolate shells (and perhaps a plastic crab?), your shovel, and dig in!

Tip:  To crush your graham crackers, place them in a Ziploc bag and gently roll over them with a rolling pin until they look like sand.

What have the Summer Scholar Families been up to?

Amy

This week we chose Mice, Cookies & More. We love the Laura Numeroff books and read them over and over. So I knew the kids would really enjoy this week's activities.

The activities we did this week were:

Story Time: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

Chocolate Chip Math

My Family Portrait Retell the Story

Crazy Crayons

Homemade Cookies & Milk

Chocolate Chip Hunt

Story Time: If You Give a Pig a Pancake, If You Give a Moose a Muffin & If You Take a Mouse to the Movies

Mouse Scavenger Hunt

Write Your Own Story

Color Changing Milk

  

This was such a fun week for us. The kids loved all the activites, especially those involving chocolate chips. The Crazy Crayons were a great way to use up all our broken crayons, which we always seem to have plenty of. We are going to use the rest to make the Colorful Crayon Sun Catchers today. A great rainy Sunday afternoon activity.

Hopefully the sun will come out to shine through them when we are done.  Princess is a budding artist/author/teacher/doctor, it depends on the day, so she really enjoyed the Family Portrait and Write Your Own Story activities. The Scavenger Hunt and Homemade Cookies & Milk were a big hit with my younger boys. Smash & Dash easily found the items they were looking for thanks to the pictures on the cards.

Handsome thought the Color Changing Milk was amazing and they all did this project over and over. Good thing I had extra milk on hand!

I had a great time this week, all the activities were fun, but I loved the Retell the Story activities. My older two are advanced on their reading levels but really need to work on their comprehension. So, this will be a great activity to use year round. Thanks for the fun week!! We're hoping the weather cooperates for outdoors or beach week next time!!

Melissa

This week for our Summer Sun Scholar Program we used the Unit called Animal Fun!

Story time: We read a story called GORILLAS. It was a non-fiction book that gave us A LOT of details we did not know about these amazing primates!  It surprised the children to know that Gorillas have thumbs and fingers just like we do.  One exercise that I had them do was try to pick up a pencil and write without using their thumbs. It was FUN, hard, but FUN!  They also banged on their chest like Gorilla's do to ward off other animals.    They knew that they could never have a gorilla as a pet.

Lost Pet Poster: For this assignment they had to pick any animal that they imagined as their pet and create a poster to hang up as if the pet was lost.  Molly picked a Cow and called it Molly.  Zachary picked a Cat (our cat) and called him Jobbie (long O sound - our cat).  They created the posters using large sheets of paper, although there are templates in the program to use.  They came out cute!  I put all the "info" on them once they did their animal pictures.

Learning about Animals: This week we studied Ants. While Ants are technically Insects, we used them for this exercise because they already had knowledge of the Ant.  The described the ant by labeling the parts of the ant on a worksheet.  We talked about Fire Ants also and they drew pictures of the fire ants and their nests.

Movie Party Planning: This was a fun activity especially since I had already planned on showing an outdoor movie on our big screen for Memorial Weekend.  I gave the kids a few movies to pick from as our "Now Showing" movie. They picked Toy Story.   We talked about how many children will be inviited and how many bags of popcorn we should make up for them. Zachary suggested we also have juice boxes available.  We made a shopping list of what is needed and we will go on Saturday morning to get all our supplies. (look for pictures to come on this Sunday Morning on our blog)

Additional Story Times:  In addition to the Gorillas we read inthe beginning of the week, I pulled out some simple readers by Scholastic for Zachary to read TO US and show us the pictures. He read several books on animals to us.

This unit was fun and I can see us doing the Movie Party Time assignment over and over several times this Summer!

Heather

Can you believe, I get a note from Heather telling me she had her baby girl last Tuesday, got home Friday, and was hoping to have something to send to us this week?  Oh my goodness..... ha ha.  Heather, I just want to say CONGRATULATIONS to you and your family on your new addition!  Every mom out there will completely understand if you are dedicating your time to your new baby and your family's needs before sending us updates.  We hope you and baby are happy and healthy!

Emily

Homemade Cookies & Milk.  We started the week out by my daughter and son making cookies for the family.  It was a so sweet to see them work together and it was the first time they had cooked all by themselves, I was in the kitchen cooking dinner.  I was able to help out a little, like what a tsp was.

Chocolate Chip Math.  The kids had fun counting the chocolate chips and eating them.  We got a bunch of different kinds, so the kids could add the dark and milk together.  We did this a couple of times this week.  When the kids were getting bored and needed a treat we would count again.

My Family Portrait.  It was fun to see how the kids see our family.  Each picture was so different and loved how they named all the people.  In one picture, I was the smallest person.  I guess size is in the eye of the beholder. 

Learning about Mice.  I really enjoyed the fact sheet that was included in the printables.  I learned stuff I never knew and my sister and kids thought I made it up.

Chocolate Chip Hunt.  This was an afternoon treat, and it was super fun.  When my kids had made the cookies they got to choose what to put in them.  So they choose three different flavors.  It made fun tasting cookies, but the hunt was more exciting then it would have been if I had made the cookies. :)

Color Changing Milk.  My kids really loved this and they asked to do it again.  I was surprised by the reaction of the soup and colors but it was really fun.

This week was fun. We read “If you Give a Mouse a Cookie” and also “If you give a Moose a Muffin.”  We love the moose one more and then the kids wanted to do some of the activities that were in the book.  So we had to have a puppet show.

Thanks to the Summer Scholar Families for sharing with us.

We'll see you back next Sunday for more Summer Scholar fun!