Cake!

So, I don't think it's a big shock that I LOVE cupcakes...and honestly, I am not picky.  I am very happy with the 6 yellow cupcakes with butter cream frosting I can get at the grocery store...especially on Friday when they are offered at the reduced price of $2.22. Now, I do prefer if I can get a mixed pack of 3 yellow and 3 chocolate, but I'll still settle for the 6 yellow.

As much as I love eating cupcakes, I love decorating cakes even more.  I am by no means a professional, but I have been decorating cakes since I was young, learning tricks and techniques from my grandma and my mom.  I decorated a sheet cake to look like a folded western shirt for Father's Day when I was 12.  I carved and decorated cake to look like a giant glazed donut in my 20s.  I made a birthday cake in the shape of a beer mug for my father-in-law a few years ago.  I've even made some, ahem, bachelorette party cakes...  I've made countless bunny-face cakes for Easter, and tons of heart-shaped cakes for Valentines' Day (none from shaped molds). 
About a year and a half ago, my dear friends Lee Ann and Jeremy were expecting a baby for the first time.  While shopping with Lee Ann at one of our favorites stores (JoAnn's), we saw a Wilton Cake Decorating Toolbox (with 101 tools) on sale.  And Lee Ann had a coupon.  And she really thought I should get it so I could start really getting into cake decorating.  Especially since she had a baby shower coming up...I was roped in, and I thank her for that every time I make a great cake.

The first cake I made for public consumption after this purchase was, indeed, the baby shower cake.  I had an idea in my head of a bear on blocks and all kinds of fanciness...then I got nervous and decided to go with something a little simpler for my first attempt at using fondant on a cake...

The base and paci are cake covered in fondant; the paci handle is molded chocolate.

The result was a pacifier cake, and I was very proud of it.  I could see every tiny imperfection, of course, but I was still happy.  Luckily, my mom had made many, many things out of Candy Melts white chocolate while I was growing up, so the handle was easy enough to do.  The round ball was a cake mold and maybe a little more advanced than I should have tried for my first attempt at fondant.  Everyone was happy with it, and it tasted good.  Score!

I have made a few other cakes in the last year, but nothing too exquisite... until yesterday.  I made the birthday cake for our now one-year old Goddaughter - Jeremy and Lee Ann's little girl.  Lee Ann told me "ladybug theme."  I've been looking at photos of cakes online for the last several months.  I found one that fit what I was thinking of doing, and here is what I ended up with.



Ladybug cake!  It's all cake and fondant!



A close up of the topper.

The "smash cake" just for Analee to enjoy (and make into mush and get all over herself.

A ladybug on top of a two-layer cake.  Everything was cake, including the ladybug body and head.  I started with all white fondant and colored it myself.  The green border and grass is butter cream frosting.  The smaller flower "smash cake" was covered in butter cream with a fondant ladybug accent.

I am very proud of this cake.  I only cringed a little when Lee Ann made the first cut...then, we all enjoyed eating the cake, especially Analee:

Analee elbow-deep in her cake!

Sisters

Today's storm has led my brain into one of those train-of-consciousness-type nostalgia sessions...

It begins with my trip to the Wilton Tent Sale with my baby sister Deanna last weekend...we had breakfast with our husbands, her daughter, and our brother's daughter at McDonald's. She and I walked over to the tent sale while the boys took the girls to the park. We had such a great time walking up and down the aisles and picking out things we loved or needed or really, really wanted...It was great to spend time with my sister in that way: as adults, as friends, with such a relaxed agenda.

As we approached checkout, the bottom fell out of the sky. It was pouring, and we had left the car at McDonald's--all the way across the big Wilton parking lot...so, we wrapped up our purchases in the big plastic garbage bags they gave us, and we started out. We didn't run. We didn't scream. We laughed. We laughed HARD. We stomped in a couple of puddles. We smiled so big it hurt our faces. We had a great time walking in the rain, arm in arm, as sisters and friends. We felt like kids again. We both said aloud how lucky we felt to be spending this time together since we are so far apart geographically.

A turn in my memory lane led me to hunkering down in the middle hallway of my parents' home during a heavy storm with my middle sister Teresa when we were teenagers. We were at home alone, and when the storm started we completely freaked out. We thought for sure a tornado was going to come rip the house off the foundation and send us flying. We were holding hands, and we had written a "if you find us" note (I have never claimed to NOT be dramatic...). We can laugh about it now, but it was one of the few times --ever-- that I've spent that kind of quality time with Teresa.

Deanna and I were fast friends as children. She is almost six years younger than me, and she clung onto me with all her might as a kid. We hit a rough patch when I left for college, wide-eyed and ready to meet the world head-on. She felt abandoned, and I had no idea...years later, as she was starting her marriage and I was settling into Chicago as my long-term home, we grew closer again. She's my first best friend. I cherish her, and I am so happy that we can still laugh in the rain together.

Teresa and I were constant competitors. She is almost two years younger than me, and she was always held up to a standard by others that I didn't even know I had set...I ached for her to appreciate the things I did as the older sister. I wanted to be friends with her and be able to hang out with her. She wanted little to nothing to do with me. I tried so hard for so very long to develop a relationship with her. I still put forth an effort, but I know I've given up some hope. I love her dearly, but I feel lost when I try to put into words what our relationship is or should be.

I know other sisters who have long-distance friendships, who have strained relationships, who have come back into the lives of each other, who have not spoken in years... I know of sisters in pain because they cannot be together.

Let me tell you something: Nobody is ever going to know you as well as the sister you grew up with. Nobody else is going to know the perfect thing to say to make it all better and to make it all come crashing down. Nobody else will be able to have an entire conversation with you that nobody else can even begin to comprehend, whether it's facial gestures, nonsensical words, or a specific giggle. Nobody else can make you feel like dirt and just as quickly make you feel like the queen of the universe (or co-queen, anyway).



Love your sisters. If you don't have biological sisters, love your sister-friends.