Bloom Fairy Birthday cake for Winx Club Fan

What was I thinking? When I thought that now my older one is out of Princess & Fairies age,  here comes the new favourite The Winx Club....more hi-tech kind of fairies. Yesterday my 4th grader turned 10.....do you notice it's double digit number. Now, for the cake.....last year the picture she drew for me had 6-7 fairies on it, which I totally rejected and we finalised this cake with roses & she loved it. Now, this year she had only planned for one fairy....her fav. one "bloom" matches with the season also we are in right now....spring....but when she showed me the pictures of her I again said "NO". In return she said It's not that difficult "it's just that you have given up on the cake decoration"......do U see she was not even 10(we r talking couple of days before her birthday) at the moment she gave me that push....as my husband says U want to get anything done from her(that's me), challenge her and your work is done....she just did that.

After couple of days of bad cold, thanks to home remedies I woke up feeling 95% good on Sunday morning. now, before starting anything else let me explain you few things so that just in case if you plan to do something like this, you are prepared in advance.

1. Lots of goggling help, but in this case there were only couple of sites out of which first one she totally rejected, because the figurines were not up to her marks. Second one she just didn't liked, except the glitter part of her decoration.

2. I did this on Sunday, means everyone home....so make sure you have a husband capable of making breakfast even when his favourite thing to make poha(flatten rice) & bread both are out of stock in your kitchen. OR better if possible send him with the kids to do breakfast in IHOP or somewhere else. Why?? I'll come to that point later, but just an FYI he did made upma.

3. Make sure you do all the process of making the figurine when everyone is sleeping. OR better if Grandma lives near by plan ahead to leave kids with them for half of the day and send your husband to Best Buy with the punchline "Shop till You Drop". Why ?? explanation coming...

I spent almost 2 hours of my early morning to finalise the picture I'm gonna follow for Ms. Bloom and also had this blog picture open for my moral support. I kneaded & tinted(color) the fondant in desired colors. Made some ribbon roses as a warm up session. Started working on the body and here comes my army, one by one......

he : good morning...& directly to the computer....
me : oh...oh..oh...one sec. what r U thinking honey...some body is working here....
he  : ek minute yaar(one sec dear)......
4th Grader : OOOOOO.....so U r making it....
me : Yes....doing back & forth to the desktop, requesting unwanted guests on my desktop, please open that other window......thanks....

4th Grader : U know actually her skin is not pink(it's not even 5 minutes that she's watching me....& it's just the beg.)
me : it's not pink.....showing her the fondant in natural light....

4th Grader : What ???? from where do U even get  that color....
me : showing her the skin tone wilton gel color bottle.....

4th Grader : r u using that picture, I even don't like that....U know actually her hairs have yellow streaks.........blah...blah....blahhh
me: I'm not doing it, if U gonna instruct me on every single thing....

4th Grader :fine :(, moves to her room....

U get the picture when kids are around U CAN NOT DO THIS KIND OF THING, at least in my house....they will have thousand questions, million suggestions.....so for next hour or so I kept calling her to get her approval and her little sis will also come every time, and every time little one will cry that it's my b'day & not Didi's(big sis) and Didi will not forget to remind her that it's not your but MY b'day.

Finally after standing for almost 4 hours(U can definitely sit & do but in my case my little mouse loves to climb everywhere & put everything in her mouth specially when it's in the sugar form, so I needed some place where I can reach before she reaches there) as the breakfast is served,  the doll is ready as per the 4th grader's suggestion she is in sitting position, exactly the way she wanted.....with the best dress mommy could make after wasting spending half an hour,trying to make frills which looked nothing like the one 4th grader wanted. Now everyone is happy,even me feeling little proud of myself  BUT when I said no wings..........

4th grader : WHAT ????? OMG! what' s the point....she is a fairy....
me : but she was not always...have many pics without wings....

4th grader : but have U noticed...."The dress U have been trying to make" (point to remember I was never able to make that dress) is the fairy one.....means Wings....
me : so what ? I never made that dress....
4th grader : yeah.....but that's what we have been thinking.....
me : alright, but it will be difficult to put them on.....

now, he, who have been listening to all this....feels he should also have his say...

he : just melt some sugar....drizzle it & it will be all shiny & glittery....beautiful....
4th grader...yeah.....in any case wings are like that kind.....transparent, shiny.....
me : hello......
he : what were U planning to make them with otherwise????
me : fondant....
he....no dear,use sugar....

See, this is exactly why, I  told you in the beginning that hubby & kids need to be out of the house while U are working on cake decorations. No, I did not get into the talk, my legs were aching kitchen sink was full of dishes and I had no more patience left for few days at least. If you have no idea how those wings looks like, to get some idea watch this video . This is one another thing on my to-do list.....may be in couple of years when the little one will also go to school full day. I did made the wings they were pretty good but fragile too.......before putting them onto the cake when I was picking them they broke :(  see the crack above....but I did managed to put half of it in the front of the cake. :)

I used store bought fondant,  as my earlier experience with home made fondant is not very good when U have to make figurines, so I decided to go with store bought. Home made or store bought I figured one thing, it's the sugar, if kids like to eat it they gonna finish it before U can even imagine....I had to hide all the decorations from the little one who acts like a sugar monster....she was eying on the little figurine,from the moment I made it....she kept coming & asking me can I eat Didi's cake....for her cake means icing in all forms, actual cake has no importance, it's just a stand to hold all that decorations & icing :)) Hope U guys enjoyed this, as for me it's still not over, this cake was just for us "the Family"......she gonna have a little b'day party after spring break is over but for that I have already planned something...now, only if she doesn't get me into some talking :-).

Candy Clay Roses

Back in April when I shared this cake I made for my daughters birthday, one of the fellow blogger asked me if I can share how I made the roses. Though I made this tutorial that same week but due to many things going on I couldn't post it. Sowmya sorry for the delay, but here it is. I thought the best way to share would be by pictures, so I made a pictorial but still just in case of a doubt I'm writing the simple instructions also.

I've worked with fondant earlier making 3-d butterflies for my daughters last year b'day cake and some decorations for my toddlers b'day(cake not posted)  but I'm working with candy clay for the first time. I read on web that it tastes much better when compared with fondant that was one reason I wanted to try it, it does taste better but I can't eat that much sugar. To know if it really taste better, for that the best person to ask is kids and my toddler can't get enough of it. I've used Wilton recipe from their website, please do read the notes I've given at different levels before trying the recipe :

What I used :

• 14 ounce pkg Candy Melts
• 1/3 cup light corn syrup

Note : I used off-white color candy melts & tinted as much I wanted in different colors.

Many forums I checked says that color candy melts comes in 12 oz. packs also, so make sure U have right weight of melts otherwise U have to reduce the quantity of corn syrup.

What I did :

Melt Candy Melts over the double boiler, turn the heat off add corn syrup and stir. Slowly the chocolate/mixture will start to seize & will come together like dough.

Turn out mixture onto waxed paper, using paper towel dab it to soak extra oils. Let sit at room temperature to dry.

Wrap well in plastic wrap and store at room temperature until needed. Let it hardened overnight atleast.

Notes : On wilton site it doesn't say to dab extra oil from the clay but I've added that step here. I infact used the double layer of paper towel & put the clay in it & kind a squeeze it but still I feel clay had lot of softness to it. Many forums suggested this step as most important & I feel it too. I'll suggest to repeat this step if U feel clay is too oily to touch. As in my case while working with clay I had to take several break b'coz of too soft clay or may be next time I'll try to use better quality candy melts as that can also make the difference. If anyone have any experience with this, please share it in the comment section and I'll add it in the post.

Storing Candy Clay : Wilton says it will stay fresh for several weeks, but no exact number is given, neither could I find on any forums. I made this batch on 1/april  & rest of the clay was wrapped in plastic wrap, further packed in ziploc, kept on kitchen counter away from direct sunlight. I used it on 15/may for some cupcakes, tasted it before putting decorations, it was good, so I believe it stays good for long time and in any case it contains chocolate and sugar so can't go bad easily.

Time for pictorial :

 

Click to enlarge the picture.

Steps :

1. Clay will be hard at first, knead the candy clay & tint it with the color U want.
2. pinch a small ball out of it almost double the size of white chickpea and roll it to make smooth ball.
3. shaping into tear drop : put it on any smooth surface like kitchen counter, now using your pointer finger gently roll it only on one side to get the pointed side.
4. once it's done make it stand on smooth surface.
5. make 4 more balls out of the clay, these one are the size of white chickpeas.
6. each ball will make one petal and depending upon what size of rose you want there will be no. of layers of petals. Usually for roses first layer is of one petal, second is of 3, third layer is of 5 petals & so on.
7. take one ball and using your pointer finger & thumb press it to flatten it.
8. to give you an idea how big is the flattened ball I'm showing both the pieces together.
9. cover around 3/4 length of the teardrop centre/bud we made earlier by starting at one end, covering the teardrop & coming back to the same point slightly overlap the beg. of the petal, I believe picture gives you exact idea here.
10. now the teardrop is actually looking like a bud take a moment to admire it. Repeat step 7. Starting from little before from the point where first layer petal is joined, attach this petal to the bud remember this is second layer of petals so we gonna use 3 petals to cover the bud, each one slightly overlapping the previous one.
11. add 2nd petal.
12. add 3rd petal.
13. a small rose is ready.
14. time to add 3rd layer of petals. Make a ball little bigger then the previous size.I'm using diff. color petals just to make it clear how they are wrapped/overlapped.
15. make 5 of them.
16. following the details given in step 10 add 5 more petals one by one.
17. spend as much time as much you want doing ooh!! & wow!! because you just made a rose which you can eat.....well, if u want to.... 

Important Notes / What I learned :

1. This candy clay recipe makes very soft clay when you work with it and also have lot of oil in it. So, best way to work with it, roll the dough in powder sugar and try to avoid using palm of your hands preferably work with fingers only, as they generate less heat as compared to palm.

2. Whenever clay gets too sticky or soft, leave it for a while. Before starting to work with it again, rub some powder sugar on your hands and on clay.

3. Gently keep rolling the bottom part of the flower between your finger to make it thin as after all the petals it will look little too fat & at the bottom, once U get the right size just in rolling motion only pinch the extra clay from the bottom & reuse it.

4. Give them atleast 2 days to dry to be on safer side, I usually make them a night before & let them sit on counter covered with net to dry. They dry(but still soft) and hold the position by next day but not like rock hard.

5. Do not refrigerate the decorations, once they dry keep them in air tight container till ready to use.

I enjoyed working with it as it brings two of my fav. things together Craft and Baking(well not exactly but it is used to decorate the baked stuff, so I'll count it in baking category).