Dots and Daisies Cake

It's finished! I wouldn't call it a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm okay with it. I have worked with rolled fondant a little bit in the past. Mostly, I've used it like play-dough to create objects. On Lane's hunting cake, I made the hunter and deer out of fondant and rolled the fondant out to cut the "blobs" that made the camouflage. I also used it on Cohen's construction cake to make the banner that said "Happy Birthday, Cohen."

Today, I decided that I would try to create a "Dots & Daisies" cake. I envisioned it being covered in the rolled fondant. This was a completely new skill for me. I've heard that covering a cake in fondant can be quite difficult although those "Cake Divas" and "Ace of Cakes" folks make it look like no sweat. Being the overachiever that I am, I just couldn't imagine that I couldn't handle it --- for some reason I tend to think I can do a little of everything.

Covering the cake in the fondant wasn't the most difficult thing I've ever done, but I certainly didn't get it perfect by any stretch of the imagination. Of course, had my cake been perfect, I think it would have come out a little smoother. I would imagine that if I'd applied fondant 400 times I'd be a little better at it too! I knew I was going to be layering a lot over the fondant, so I shrugged it off and rocked on. Photo 1 is the cake after being covered with fondant.

Next stop, polka dots. Since my daisy was pink with some yellow accents around the center, I settled on yellow and pink dots. The fondant I purchased was white (you can buy it already colored, but primary colors are all I saw), so I chose to tint my own. I used the excess fondant that I trimmed off of the cake to tint for the yellow dots. I have both regular food coloring and gel icing color. I've heard it said that the gel is supposed to be preferable because it doesn't dilute the icing, but I don't notice much difference when coloring the fondant. In fact, since fondant dries and hardens quite quickly, the regular food coloring seems to give me a little more time to work with it. After I had the desired tint to my fondant, I rolled it out to make my polka dots.

Oh, I failed to mention earlier that I couldn't locate my rolling pin for this adventure. Covering the cake with fondant might have been a bit easier if I had been able to roll it out with a rolling pin rather than with a glass! Laugh, if you must, but as my friend Christina knows, I don't even own a mixer and once made a meringue with only a whisk!! Where there's a will, there's a way!

With the yellow fondant rolled out, I used a variety of round kitchen items to cut my circles (lids, cups, a straw -- stuff like that). I brushed each dot with water on the back side before applying to the white fondant so that they would adhere. Photo 2 is the cake after applying the yellow polka dots.

The only thing left to do was to repeat the whole tinting and dot-making process for the pink polkas. I finished out the cake with a border of yellow icing. Ta-da. There she is. Pictures 3 and 4 are the finished product. Hope she likes it!

My Littlest Swimmer

I am amazed at how comfortable Cohen is in the water. I'm not at all surprised that he can swim alone, but he is totally unafraid. He doesn't think twice about jumping in to the "deep end" over and over and over again and he loves every minute of it. Can you tell?

Cohen Can Swim Alone!

No doubt, you can tell from this pic that Cohen loves the pool. He is one bronze baby! Both he and Lane have been water babies since birth and learned to swim alone at age 3. Cohen is 3yrs 2months old and can swim alone. Thanks, boys, for saving me money on swim lessons! Now, if we could just get a break in this strange onslaught of rain in July/Aug...

I really recommend what I call those "floaty suits" to give your little ones confidence in the water. My boys swam in these from age 2-3. I favor the suits that have multiple pieces of floatation material in the front and back rather than just one or two. The suits with multiple pieces are more expensive, but seem to allow more freedom of movement and the suits fit better so that they don't just float up around their neck. If you purchase one of these suits, don't dismiss it if your child struggles the first time or two he/she wears it. Even though they provide flotation, your little one has to learn how to position himself in the water and transfer their weight so that they aren't "floating" face down in the water. The more relaxed they are in the water, the faster they'll master this skill. Let them take things at their own pace with a lot of encouragement and you'll be having pool fun in no time!