Bunny Cake 2014

I know these posts are very belated, but I thought last Easter's bunny cake was especially cute so I'm posting it. Ditto for the future July 4th flag cake post.

Pat the Bunny

A few weeks ago, this guy was in my backyard. You can tell it's May because of the beautiful purple and white wildflowers that bloom around my house during that month.

More recently, I've seen two or three munching on the lawn at one time. This pair didn't seem to care that I was walking through their breakfast spot and just kept eating the grass as I passed them.

Bug Party

My littlest nephew's 4th birthday had a bug theme. It gave me a chance to wear my sparkly spider t-shirt, ladybug ankle bracelet, and scorpion necklace and ring. It also gave my sisters and me a chance to make fun creepy crawly desserts.

Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes with "The Best Frosting I've Ever Had" and topped with giant plastic bugs.

The frosting was dyed light green, which is a little hard to see in the pictures.

Beautiful butterfly cookies (Grandma Kookoo's Swedish Sugar Cookies.) 

The birthday boy's brother helped decorate these.

Oh, it's a caterpillar! How clever! So cute!

Ladybugs. She don't know I'm a boy.

Bunny Cake

Back when I was a kid, we made this cake a lot.  At least it seems like we did.  I don't know if we actually did.  But every year when Easter rolls around and I don't make it, my tia asks me why; like it's a tradition that I'm not upholding.

The cake is made from 2 8-inch round cakes.  One is left intact and the other forms the ears and bow tie.  The cake is Special Birthday (yellow) cake and the frosting is whipped cream.  The face is sprinkled with coconut, but the ears and tie are left plain.  My nephew and tia helped me decorate with silver dragees, jellybeans and a candy carrot.

Lake Erie Island

I visited some friends on Kelleys Island this summer and saw new things that I didn't see a few years ago like Inscription Rock and the Glacial Grooves.

Hey look! Glacial Grooves!

One of the scenic photo ops while walking around the Glacial Grooves.

Interesting rock formation in the lake.

View from the Jet Express.

Jet Express dock.

Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station.

Boats. Probably boat drinks.

View of Cedar Point from Lake Erie.

Hotel and rides.

Coasters, etc.

This is an awesome restaurant in Huron, Ohio.

LEMmy!

LEMmy's is named after the Lake Erie Monster. I like how there is a specific look to the monster. He's a friendly lake monster. Next time I'm in the area I am definitely stopping for a bite.

Up a Tree

This squirrel cracked me up the other day since he was running all around with an apple in his mouth. He ran up the tree in my front yard and then part of the way down. He was posed long enough for me to find my camera, turn it on and snap a few shots. Eventually, he ran down and onto the street and sidewalks. Lucky for me, he didn't try to get into my house.

What Are Little Boys Made Of?

I made cupcakes for a birthday party for a boy who turned one. The mom of the birthday boy thought it would be fun to decorate them with the theme of the party, which was, "what are little boys made of?" I guess the modern version of the classic poem is frogs and snails and puppy dog tails so that's how we decorated them.

This one shows off my new cupcake stand, which was a birthday present. It's shiny!

Frogs and dogs

Snails, which were my design. Believe it or don't!

Three for the show.

The cupcake baking cups (liners, papers, whatever) were primary colors, which were a great find. The cupcakes were pumpkin with cream cheese frosting. I accidentally made too much frosting, so I made a second batch of cupcakes the next day (cutting down the sugars to 2/3 cup each). Those got decorated with mellowcreme pumpkins.

Kelleys Island

I spent about a day on Kelleys Island. I took just a few pictures at first because it was cloudy. The next morning it was bright and sunny so I took some from the ferry as I left.

Boat dock

Kelley Mansion

Sun-kissed lake

White cranes

It was a very relaxing time. We didn't really do anything, but that was the point. It's that kind of island.

Tiger Party

Here's the cake for a baby's first birthday party. The ears are made of cupcakes so the little guy could dig in and make a mess without destroying the main cake. The cake was yellow Special Birthday Cake. The orange and white frosting was Won't Melt Whipped Creme Frosting and the brown was Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Frosting. I frosted the cake white and handed over the decorating duties to the baby's mom. I think she did a great job.

I don't know why I thought we needed cookies in addition to the cake, but these are Swedish Sugar Cookies cut-out in the shape of no. 1 with orange frosting and chocolate sprinkles or "jimmies" to give them a tiger look. You can never have too many sweets at a party!

Critter Control

A few weeks ago I had a wasp in my house. I killed the poor bastard and felt bad about it. Then, last week I saw this: That's the light on my front porch with a wasp nest very close to it. It's gone now, and I feel bad about killing the bugs that called it home.

I don't have a picture of it, but I also had to knock down a robin's nest that was built over the motion sensor light on my garage. The leaves or whatever the bird used to build it kept blowing in front of the sensor and turning on the light. I hope it built another nest somewhere safe.

What is THIS?

About an hour ago I noticed this weird bug on window. Is this a cicada?


Here's a close up from inside the house with a AA battery for size reference.

It took off with a loud click. I hope it stays gone because it grossed me out. Why do animals like my house?

Top of the World, Ma!

This squirrel thought it would be cool to run around inside the walls of my house. Yesterday, it got trapped and "relocated" for its actions. The guy who "took care" of it promised to do the same thing to any of its furry little friends.

Let's hope the other one that got caught today is its only friend in the world.

CUTE!

Looky Here!