My Voice

I love blogs. I currently subscribe to 176 blogs, and I’m always on the lookout for more. I read them every day, and I love just about everything about them.  This is why I decided to start my own blog last summer.  (See? See that one post I did in August? I’m big time.) 

I told everyone that I was starting a blog, had a plan, everything. Then I posted once. Once.

One other thing about blogs.  No one I know reads blogs like I do. No one.  I can’t believe that everyone  isn’t as obsessed as I am-there are such great stories and ideas out there! I mean, I know there are people out there that read as many, or more, than I do.  They just aren’t among my friends and family.

So I kind of view the blogosphere as “my world”.

Now, the blogs I enjoy are the blogs that have a definite voice.  The kind of blog where you feel like if you met the person writing and didn’t know who they were, you would say, “Hey! You sound just like the person that writes such-and-such blog. Is that you???”  The kind of blog where you can tell there is a real person sitting there, writing, expressing their authentic selves and sharing with all us regular folk.

I think this is the reason I only posted once.  I posted, went back and read it, and didn’t like it.  It didn’t capture my true voice.  So I stopped.  I continued reading blogs.

Recently I found a few new blogs, subscribed, and continued reading.  Then I made a realization. These new blogs-3 to be exact- were following a kind of formula.  I’m not going to go into the details of it, but once I realized what they were doing, all of the authentic-ness that they were supposedly trying to express and establish, flew out the window.  It seemed like they were trying to connect to their audience by following this certain formula, but instead were alienating me.  It seemed like a ploy-
“Here look at me! Read this revealing authentic post!” followed up by, “Oh, and check out all these new items in my etsy shop!! Cuteness!” Blech.

Which made me realize.  I may not have my “blog voice” yet, but I can be a heck of a lot more authentic than that.  I’m not sure where I want this blog to go-if I want it to be just a way to document my life and what’s going on with my family, or if I want to connect with other crafty moms who love to laugh and try new things.  And I guess at this point I don’t have to know.  I’m going to do my best to be authentic, and find my voice, and I’ll find my way from there.  Hope you’ll come along.

Oh, and check out these items in my etsy shop…………..;)

Fondant Cookie Cakes

We are pretty much cookie people here at my house.  Even though one of my weaknesses is birthday cake with TONS of frosting. You know, the corner piece.

Anyway, the whole "cookies and milk" thing is pretty much a regular occurance here, for adults and children alike.  Given this information, you would think that I would have come up with this idea, but no.  My six year old son came up with this one!

You see, every year my kids get to pick their birthday cake.  The flavor of cake and how it is decorated. Then it's my job to make it happen.  We've come up with some pretty bad ass cakes in the past.

So this year I was ready for another big cake job. What would it be? Bakugan? Another wrestling cake? I asked J to decide what he wanted.

"What about a cookie cake this year?"

Um. What?

A cookie cake? Genius! So easy to make, and way easier to decorate. No 3D madness

I did have to go Hobby Lobby and buy a cookie cake pan, but I don't really think you need one. I have a friend who made a cookie cake shaped as Mega Mind. She just shaped it out on a cookie pan, and it turned out great!

At any rate, you just take your favorite cookie recipe and smoosh it into the cookie pan.  When it is finished baking, you just flip it out.  Doesn't it look yum?  I knew I was going to decorate it with fondant, so I flipped it over so the top would be totally flat-the fondant would have showed every yummy bump in the top of the cookie.

After I flipped the giant cookie, I covered it in fondant and decorate it! I should say "them", because I made two of them. My boys birthdays are just two days (and five years) apart, so we always combine the party.  I made one cookie cake a chocolate cookie, and the other a chocolate chip cookie! 

Here is how they turned out:

Not bad, right?  I can make another blog post tutorial on how I make my own fondant, as well as how I made the Spurs logo out of royal icing.  The cookie cakes were a big hit, and way easier to decorate than a 3D cake!! (I'm thinking of contacting MENSA about my 7 year old with the big ideas........)

We loved it so much, that we did the same thing for Father's Day this year.  I just made the cookie, flipped it, then covered it in fondant.  This time I just used plain white fondant and let my kiddos decorate it for their dad.  Easy and personal!

Okay, I'll totally admit here that my boys aren't totally artistic.  The picture on the bottom is pretty much the final product.  I thought they'd love "coloring" on the cake, but not really.  I think Spongebob was on.

Be on the lookout for more cookie cakes to come!!

Happy Birthday to my boys! Love you with all my heart!!