Relief Society Birthday Celebration

At church I am the Relief Society Meeting Coordinator...this means that I get to help plan and decorate for meetings.  I recently got to put together our Birthday Celebration and here's how it turned out:

I did get some of this idea from pinterest...here is my pinspiration:

Pinspiration Picture

The theme for the evening was "Charity Never Faileth," which is the Relief Society's motto.  I loved the wheat idea, so I got some from hobby lobby and made the wheat centerpieces.  I used some burlap ribbon and blue twine to make the wheat stalk centerpieces.  I used 2 frames...one with a picture of Christ in it and another with the Relief Society Purposes Poster.  I also used the book; Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of Relief Society. I decided to do swags with the tablecloths and use a safety pin to make the swag and stick a raffia bow where the tablecloth was gathered.  I thought the swags turned out awesome.  We also had a fundraiser for a couple of local charities and I was so happy to see how many items everyone brought to donate.

Two things I would have done differently with the decorations are:
 I would have place the frames and the wheat stalks closer together and since we did not have enough gold chargers for each of the tables I should have just kept them off instead of doing every other place setting.

Overall everything turned out pretty good though.  I also enjoyed doing the cake and keeping it with the theme by using an edible print of the Relief Society Seal.  I have done a couple of Relief Society Cakes before...here's some pics:

I love the Relief Society and am so happy to be a part of such a great organization.  I love that I get to use my talents to bring such wonderful women together and to have the opportunity to serve.

Super EASY Minecraft Creeper Cupcake Toppers

Want to make some super easy cupcake toppers like these...

Here's what you'll need:

Wilton's Green Edible Sugar Sheets

Wilton's Edible Black Food Writer Marker

Scissors

Directions...so easy the picture explains it all, but I'll tell you how anyway.

1.  Cut the sugar sheets into squares
2.  Use the Food Writer to draw the Creeper's face

I do wish I had taken a little more time on these, but with a group of 8 year old boys around they didn't last long!

Cat in the Hat Cake for Dr. Seuss Week

Here is a cake I made last year for Dr. Seuss week.  Since it is that time of year again I thought I'd share it. 

Here is how I made it(sorry no pictures):

Bake (3) 6" round cakes

Torte and fill each cake(cut each cake into 2 layers and put frosting in the middle of each layer).

Start stacking cakes by putting a 6" cake board under the cakes.

Stack each cake on top of each other and put frosting in the middle of each cake.

Frost the cake with a crumb coat.  I like to put mine in the freezer for a while before the next step.

Sharpen one end of a dowel and find the center of the cake board that is the base board(the blue one) and push the dowel partially through that board.  I used cake boards to make the base board on the bottom(I will do a tutorial for these cake boards/platters soon). Before the next step make sure your dowel is just shorter than the height of your cake.

Remove the dowel and push it through the center of the cake and through the cake board that is on the bottom of the cakes.  Since there is a cake board between my cake and the base board I like to put a little hot glue in the center of the base board(where I made my partial hole) and then set the cake on top of that and push the dowel down just a little more, so I know it went into the hot glue.  Remember there is a board on the bottom of the cake, so the hot glue will not touch the cake.

Next I covered the cake with white fondant and then made the brim of the hat with a strip of fondant.

The last step was to "paint" the cake.  To do this I used paste food coloring and clear vanilla extract.  By mixing some of the two together you get like a water color type paint.  This is what I did with the red and black.  Only use paint brushes that you use specifically for cake.

This was a fun cake to make and my son's class loved it!