I had to make a birthday cake for my seventeen year old son. I wanted to do something that would really make him smile. Like many teenagers, he likes the Anime/Japanese comic book subculture and video games. I thought the perfect thing to make was a cake of the musical meme called Nyan Cat. It is a little cartoon of a cat with a pop tart body meowing a happy tune. Confused??? Yeah, so was I but I decided to make the cake regardless. I used pre-colored fondant because it was quick and less messy. I hollowed out the first layer of yellow cake and filled it with rocky road ice cream...of course.
Then I put on some chocolate frosting and another later of chocolate cake. Then threw it in the freezer to harden up.
Finally, I frosted and decorated it . It came out really cute. Going with Japanese theme I made assorted candy sushi with cereal and marshmallow for the first batch. You can use prepackaged rice crispy treats and fruit roll ups and candy, I used sour strip candies in this picture but had to stick it with frosting. The fruit roll ups were so much easier to use because they can bend and stick. As for the birthday dinner, I am just going to order pizzas, and make an antipasto salad. Most teens aren't fans of sushi or tempura, at least not my boys.
I got some lemon filled, lemon cup cakes as well as black forest cupcakes with vanilla frosting. I bought these, I couldn't resist. Isn't that a cute train candle holder? It is very old and there is a little circus animal in each one. I was so happy to find this one intact. I have seen others but they are usually missing the caboose.
I am also, breaking out this adorable vintage birthday table cloth. It is a reprint of the paper ones they used to sell at party stores when I was a child. I remember getting the same table cloth in paper with sweet little paper baskets which we filled with M and M's. I am putting a clear plastic cover over it because I don't want ice cream stains. It was a gift from Chick. She has such great taste.
I love to use these for kids birthday parties. These are one of my prized possessions...really. It is a collection of Flinstones cartoon glasses with cute little scenes and phrases. Who doesn't love little Pebbles and Bam Bam? The great thing about these glasses is, they used to be jelly jars. What a great promotion not to mention a super incentive to eat peanut butter and jelly every day. I am pretty sure they are from the sixties but it might be earlier. How about these fun, bendy straws. I love the colors not to mention the throw back cover art, I had to buy a couple of packs. I am thinking of root beer floats.
Finally, here is the very catchy, very strange but cute Nyan Cat video..............now you can be hip too. Don't blame me if it gets stuck in your head.
Look at these pretty painted bunnies! We have them all over the place here in Dedham painted by local artist. They are to showcase Dedham pride as well as an art awareness campaign. They are really fun.
The harvest has officially begun. Here are a few potatoes and chives from my garden. The potatoes were effortless. I plan on doing up big barrels of spuds for next year. You can use repurposed trash barrels and end up with fifty pounds of spuds. I was skeptical but now I am sold. Besides, who doesn't love the versatile potato?
I had to go to a cookout today so I decided to bring my very easy layered, cake pudding whipped cream dessert and some cone cup cakes. I saw this wonderful new product at the store. It is by Dunkan Hines. It is a can of frosting starter and you then add the coloring and flavoring from a huge variety of packets. You sprinkle it in and mix. I chose mint green. It was fantastic and so easy.
Nex,t I took cones and filled them with cake batter. I added a bulls eye candy but in the future I would use some chocolate chips on the bottom. The carmel was a little too hard to chew in the cake.
Then I frosted them and decorated them with pearls and sprinkles. I love the cone cake idea but know I understand they are difficult to travel with. These look like a mess. The reason is because they are top heavy and tip over. They were a cute basket weave frosting pattern but they got destroyed. Oh well, the kids still loved them.
Finally I made fruit kabobs. I put a candy fruit slice on the end for color. However, I realized after, that they could be dangerous for kids. Someone could run with them and stab themselves. Popsicle sticks would be a much better choice in the future.
This is a real gem!!!! This Good Housekeeping record album was made before they had gyms everywhere for people to work out. It has an exercise for all the trouble spots a girl has to deal with. The best part is the music that accompanies each exercise. They are cheery, lively tunes played on the piano, like "Tea for Two". It made me want to work out but then I just wanted to lie down and listen to the soothing voice of the instructor.
The inside of the album has a calorie chart. It has an exceptionally large Martini, cocktail section. They don't have half the fattening food items we deal with these days. Then, they feature a couple of pages of how the exercise pose should look and how the movement should be executed. There are a lot of tennis, golf and bowling moves. Nothing too embarrassing, no awkward squats or lunges. Maybe, this will be the motivation I need to stay in shape. Unfortunately, It is more likely that you'll find me listening to the pleasant jingles while I eat brownies and drink tea. Perhaps, I just need to find the right leotard.
