I had planned to be done with the cake by the time the girls woke up, but that didn't happen. Once the girls were up, the process was much slower...but I finally did get the cake done...and it was only 9:30! Phew!
I had never steamed one of my cakes before, but I'd seen it done on Cake Boss and it makes the cakes so nice and shiny, so I wanted to try it...but first, I took pictures of the finished cake before steaming:
Here's some close-up detail of the water. I wanted to give the fondant a "wave" effect, so what I did was that I didn't knead the color completely in so that it would have a tie-dye effect. It worked perfectly and looked like ripples in the water!
To give the cake added dimension, I wanted the fondant itself to have waves as well, so I cut the fondant with curves on top to mimic the waves:
Here's the cake next to the baby shower banner that was the inspiration for the cake! I tried to replicate the banner with my cake...how did I do? :)
Now for the steaming! When I watch Cake Boss and they use a steamer, the steamer looks so much like a fabric steamer, that I decided to use my fabric steamer for the job! Actually, back when Cameron and I went to a military ball and I'd purchased a ball gown for said occasion, it was a gown that couldn't be ironed, so I also purchased this steamer, with the double-duty task in mind to try it on my cakes at some point...I just hadn't done it yet!
After steaming...oh, so pretty!!!
Unfortunately, as I was steaming the cake, I noticed cracks in the ark...and I started to get concerned! I didn't want the cake to fall over while driving...and I didn't want it to fall over as soon as I delivered it, either...so I had to think of a solution!
However, Odette was fussy at this point...a usual fussy time since she doesn't take a morning nap anymore...but normally it wouldn't be a problem...I would hold her and nurse her and play with her, distracting her to hold her off until a little later when she'd be ready for her long early morning/afternoon nap! But today it was a different story...I really needed to get this cake fixed...and fast! The party was at noon!
I called Sister Morris (who'd ordered the cake and was hosting the baby shower) and she enlisted Sister Tralle to come over and help me...what a lifesaver!
Sister Tralle came over and I handed Odette over to her and got thinking how to fix the cake. After some brainstorming and fast working, I finally got the cake fixed and took some pictures of the "new" cake.
There were a few cracks that I hid with horizontal strips of light brown fondant. It worked out, though, because it looked like regular planks on a ship. Also, if you notice, the wooden planks all have wood-grain detail on them...I used a toothpick to scrape that into the fondant to make it look like wood! I also used a toothpick to add indentations to look like nail holes on the wooden planks! This was another favorite feature of mine on this cake...along with the water detail!
By the way...the little "house" portion of the ark is chocolate frosting-covered graham crackers. I had tried shaping cake to make it into the top portion, but it was too heavy and it was too messy, so I had to figure out an alternative...and graham crakers came to the rescue!
Alegria loved this cake! When she saw the animals, she brought her jungle animals and showed them the cake! She would take the animal and point it towards the cake and say, "See?!" It was so cute! If I hadn't been pressed for time, I would have taken a video!
Boy, it was such a relief to finally pack that cake up into Sister Tralle's mini-van!
Once Sister Tralle was gone, Cameron called and he and I chatted for a little bit. Then I put Odette and Alegria down for naps. Finally, I got to take a shower and then I took a nap myself!
I woke up at 2:45, finished getting ready, got the girls, and we were on our way by 3:25. Lee's 2nd birthday party was at 3:30, but Allie lives near enough that we'd only be 10 minutes late...
Well...
I was jamming out to Elmo along with Alegria as we drove...and I missed the exit! ARG! I'm one who has to take the same exact route every time or else I get lost!!! So I tried to backtrack...but only got myself further away from Allie's place! Finally I texted Kerri and asked for her help and she was able to steer me in the right direction.
We were almost a whole hour late! :(
As soon as we got to Allie's, I told Alegria to go play with the kids. Then I got Odette...only to realize she had a messy diaper. No big deal. I went upstairs to change her...but then I saw that the dirty diaper was a whole wardrobe oh-oh! I had used up Odette's spare clothes the other day, so there was no more clothes for her in her diaper bag! Luckily, I had remembered at the last minute and thrown in another outfit in the car. So I ran back downstairs, handed Odette to Tasha, ran to the car, got a change of clothes and a baggie for the dirty clothes, grabbed Odette again, and went back upstairs. Boy, that was the worst diaper blowup yet!!! She had gotten some all in her belly button!!!
Once Odette was cleaned up, I nursed her while Alegria played with some toys in Lee's room with us.
Then we came back down. Finally, I got to eat something! I hadn't eaten ANYTHING all day yet...with the cake mishap earlier and all...don't worry, I'd fed Alegria, but while she ate, I had things to do!
At pinata time, I think all of the children participated...
Except for Alegria. She was more interested in picking flowers:
The pinata was so tough, though, eventually, Frank had to saw it open and then just dump the candy out for the children to get!
I had to convince Alegria that there was candy on the ground before she actually went over and started grabbing...ALL M&Ms!!! :)
Back inside, the kids played "pin the hat on the firehouse dog" (or something like that!). Alegria was busy eating a sandwich and didn't do as well as I thought she'd do...for a 2 1/2 year old! Oh well!
When we were getting the kids ready for a group photo, Odette did not appreciate having a fireman's hat on!
But we wanted a picture of all of the kids wearing their party-themed hats!
This did NOT amuse Odette!
Alegria was pretty disinterested, too...
Lee's birthday cake:
Allie bringing the cake out to Lee:
The Edmunds Family on Lee's second birthday!
Happy 2nd Birthday, Lee!!!
Alegria asked really nicely to have one of the fondant puppies on the cake...which was surprising that she would want to eat it, since last year she was mortified that her cake was Elmo and she did NOT want to eat Elmo! Granted, half a year has passed since then...she must know better by now...that cake it cake! And you eat it, no matter what shape it's in! :)
Allie and Lee opening up our gift to him, a Toy Story racing car speedway!
Back home, before Odette's bath:
When it was Alegria's turn for a bath, she took the little firetrucks that were in her and Odette's favor bags and played with them in the tub, making "vroom! vroom!" noises while she played! And then she took them to bed with her...so cute! :)
And now at the end of an extremely exhausting, yet very fun day, I bid you all goodnight!
Oh! I almost forgot! It was kind of sad earlier today when I was getting the girls ready for the party...and I told Alegria that we were going to Lee's house for his 2nd birthday party and that there would be games and cake...well, when I mentioned cake, she RAN to the kitchen and said "elphy cake!" obviously wanting some of the cake that I'd made that had the cute animals on it...and I had to explain to her that I had given it away! I had thought of going to the baby shower so that we could partake of the cake (well...not ONLY for the cake!)...especially after seeing how much Alegria liked the cake, but I was so exhausted and I still needed to shower! We'd already committed to going to Lee's birthday party, but the baby shower was very last-minute...I'd found out about it last week, so we didn't go. I'll just have to make Alegria a small elephant out of fondant for her to have just like that...which is probably all she would want to eat anyway...she doesn't care for the cake itself! Haha!
Anyway.
For real now...good night! :)
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