My First Fondant Cake: The Pigtrooper

After years of wanting to attempt decorating a cake with rolled fondant, I finally, finally did it. I wanted to make my oldest, who just turned six, a birthday cake in the shape of a Pigtrooper (you know--a storm trooper a la Angry Birds Star Wars). I wanted to show myself that I could improve on my last cake--Orange Bird, who was coated in canned frosting dyed in a shade I'm sure doesn't exist in nature and detailed in black gel icing that literally dripped everywhere--which my little boy loved, but was laughably bad.

The result?  I wouldn't consider my Pigtrooper an Orange Bird-level cake disaster. In fact, I think I did a pretty good job for my fondant debut.

The part of the project I'm most proud of, I think, is that I let the boys work with the extra fondant, even though it was upsetting to know how much sugar, food coloring, and horse hooves (I mean melted marshmallows) they were going to be ingesting. I knew they would have fun with it...and I was touched that they wanted to copy what I had done (i.e., imitation is the sincerest form of flattery).

I'd consider this cake-decorating project an all-around success.

Here's a quick shout-out to blog posts I turned to for help:

• Easy Marshmallow Fondant (Cakeulator.com)
• Photo Tutorial: How to Cover the Cake (Funcheaporfree.com)

Purple "Pizza" Play Dough

This morning I came across Creative Playhouse's new "One Minute Playdough" recipe. I had just thrown out all our current play dough (I usually use this standard salt recipe) because my five-year-old has some sort of compulsion to break it into pea-sized pieces and spread it all over our play dough area. He then walks away for a while to play with something else (which is okay with me), but when he comes back, it's dry and in desperate need of kneading my an adult to get it back to the right consistency.

Last night, for some reason (probably hormones), I just couldn't stand the sight of all those crumbs anymore, or the thought of cleaning them up again. So instead, they were swept straight into the garbage. They could have been reconstituted (which is one thing I like about homemade play dough), but I was too crazed over the mess at that moment to think straight.

So when I came across this new, one-minute dishsoap-and-flour (or cornstarch) recipe, I decided to try it with conditioner (which I had bought three bottles of by mistake, thinking it was shampoo. Ug). It looked like it might have a less-crumbly consistency, and I have also been looking for a play dough that won't exacerbate our dry skin.

It was easy: 2 cups flour, 1 cup conditioner, 1 tablespoon cooking oil, and food coloring. Knead until it starts getting a stretch to it like bread dough (this is the gluten kicking in...so I apologize to the GF crowd).

When I brought it upstairs to the kids, Bug immediately identified it as "pizza dough" and started making a pizza for me (with leftover red play dough "tomatoes"). So far, there has been no pea-pinching of said new play dough, and the boys seem to like it.

So far, so good!

My New Car Potty

A few months ago I saw a dishwasher detergent container upcycle on Pinterest in which the pinner turned it into a trash bin for her car. My first thought: ummmm...have you seen my car? I don't think that's going to be big enough. My second thought: self-contained potty jug! The opening is big, it can be closed, and you can line it with an old, unused diaper to soak up the pee so it doesn't spill (it sure beats holding the diaper in the shape of a urinal in front of your kid and telling him in vain, "aim here").