Detroit Tiger Birthday Cake

For this cake, I made two 10 x 10 inch cakes and put one on top of the other. (I colored the white cake blue and orange for an added feature.) I rolled out a large piece of blue marshmallow fondant. Then I added a strip of white around the bottom of the cake. I put a smaller strip of orange in the middle of the blue and white. 

Then I twisted orange and blue fondant and made that the border around the cake. I just freehand drew an Old English D and placed that on the cake. The trick was to cut it on my fondant mat and place a piece of wax paper over top of it. The D feel on top of the wax paper. Then I was able to transfer the D by turning the wax paper over on top of the cake. 

The finishing touch was making four baseballs out of leftover fondant. I placed them on the corners of the cake. 

Teacher Birthday Cake

David's teacher always makes the kids feel so special on their birthday, so we thought it was fitting to surprise her with a little treat on her birthday. 

I started by making a batch of marshmallow fondant. 

I split up the fondant and colored equal amounts of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. I pulled a little bit of the fondant and colored it light brown (to be used as part of the colored pencil). 

I cut strips of each color of fondant and made them into a loop. I put a little rolled up piece of paper towel in each loop and placed it on its side so it could harden in the loop shape. I let the bow sit overnight. I also made some twisted pieces for the bow, but I only ended up using a couple of them.  

I made two 8 inch cakes for the bottom layer and two 6 inch cakes for the top. I covered them in regular white cake decorating frosting. It would have looked neater with fondant, but I figured it would be easier for the kids to eat with the regular frosting. 

With the remaining fondant, I rolled out each color of fondant and cut the color part of the colored pencil. Then I added a little of the brown fondant on the top of each pencil. I cut a little triangle for the tip of the pencil. The finishing touch was to add each kid's name on the pencils. I added the pencils to the cake and put a little ball of rolled fondant between each pencil. Then we added a row of colored fondant balls to the top layer of the cake. We wrote "Happy Birthday Miss Davis" on the top layer. 

Then we placed the bow on top of the cake. 

Detroit Tiger Rice Krispie Treats

Today was snack day for David, so we thought it would be fitting to take in something to fit our Detroit Tiger theme for April. 

We made these snacks earlier in the year for the Superbowl and they were a big hit, so we just changed the jersey color and the numbers. 

I started by making a double batch of Rice Krispie treats. I pressed them into a greased sheet cake pan. Then I cut them into 25 treats. I spread on white melted chocolate to represent the jersey. Then I wrote on an Old English D and the number of all the players on the active roster. I put a little bit of melted chocolate on the back of a vanilla wafer and attached it to the top of each treat. Using a food marker, I drew on a face. (Because of lack of time, I didn't add all the features to the shirt that I could have, but the kids still liked them!) 

Detroit Tiger's "Kids' Opening Day" Essay Contest

“Mumma…This was the best day of my life.” These nine words spoken by my six-year-old son, David, tonight bring tears to my eyes as I reflect on what an incredible experience we had today.  Thanks to the Detroit Tigers and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, today became a memory my family will have for the rest of our lives.

About a month ago, I came across an essay contest asking children and their parents to take a pledge to be healthier. Together, David and I wrote an essay and submitted it. You see, David is such a huge sports fan. He can tell you the stats of countless players, all of the teams they have played for, and even where they attended college. Instead of watching cartoons, David has been watching Sports Center since he was about three years old. He asks Siri the scores of games as soon as he wakes up in the morning. He turns down the TV and pretends he is doing the play-by-play. Instead of asking for toys for Christmas and birthdays, he asks for sports memorabilia. He is so invested in his teams and his players. So, when we received a call from the Detroit Tigers the Saturday before Easter, I knew this was going to mean the world to him. Furthermore, when he found out he was going to be representing first base, the excitement grew even more.

Today, Sunday, April 19^th, we gathered about 20 family members and friends and loaded up on a small party bus (Thanks, Midnight Madness!), and headed to the game. The amount of people that gave up their day to support David just further justifies how blessed we truly are. The day could not have gone more perfectly.

While this may have seemed like such a small act to the Detroit Tiger players and staff, I will never be able to thank them enough for granting this opportunity to my son. Thank you Detroit Tigers for providing Kids’ Day festivities. Thank you Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan for sponsoring this event and for encouraging healthy lifestyles. Thank you, Miguel Cabrera for making a dream come true and for making David feel like he was the only person in that stadium today! Thank you family and friends for all of your support, not just today, but every day of our lives! Thank you all, from the bottom of my heart, for giving David “the best day of his life”.

Here is our essay and our pledge to be healthier:

After asking my six-year-old son how we could live a healthy lifestyle this summer, he quickly responded with, “Drink more water and play baseball!” He then added, “Well, we could eat healthier too and do some running.”

Our summers are definitely dedicated to baseball, swimming, going for walks, and working in my parents’ garden to eventually can the produce into various salsas and sauces. As a teacher, I am incredibly grateful to be able to spend valuable time with my children over the summer break. We make the most of every single moment. However, we have made it our pledge to do an activity together every day of the year (not just the summer). Being healthy is so much more than physical health. For us, being together and living in every moment brings the mental health we all need.

Children grow up so quickly and many adults are left wishing they had done more with their children when they were younger. I don’t want to be the same way.   I want to give my children every experience I can. So, doing small things like going on a nature scavenger hunt, baking a new recipe together, painting a picture, or going for a walk to the library fill our daily lives.

We pledge to not only continue this “healthy” lifestyle this summer, but to inspire others to find happiness through these activities. We blog our activities together at www.workingmomwonders.blogspot.com

Detroit Tigers Painting for Kids

We started by finding a stencil to use. (I just google searched Old English D.) We cut it out and used masking tape to secure the D to the canvas. The boys took different approaches to putting on the blue background. One used a foam circle brush to dot on the blue. The other just painted the entire background blue. 

We pulled the stencil off the canvas. This one has a dark and lighter color blue. 

Then the boys used a smaller brush to fill in the D with orange paint. 

Here are the finished products.

Detroit Tigers Opening Day Cake

We have our own "Opening Day" party every year for the start of the Detroit Tiger baseball season. Our party is complete with hot dogs, peanuts, turning our refrigerator into Paws ( http://workingmomwonders.blogspot.com/2014/03/detroit-tigers-paws-refrigerator.html), and cake!

Here is the cake we came up with this year...

The bottom layer is two 10x12in. cakes. The top is two 9 inch round cakes stacked. I covered them with homemade frosting right before I placed the fondant on the the cake (1/2 cup Crisco, 2 cups powdered sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla, 2 Tbsp milk). 

The fondant recipe: Melt one 16 oz bag of mini marshmallows with 2 Tbsp water in a large bowl. Melt on 30 second intervals, stirring after each round of 30 seconds...about 1 1/2 minutes total. 

Add 3 cups of powdered sugar. Stir until smooth. Put Crisco on the counter. Knead in about 3 more cups of powdered sugar. Put Crisco around the ball of dough. Cover with Saran wrap. Place in an air-tight container until ready to work with it.) 

I colored some of the frosting blue by using black and blue food gel. I still have to work on my rolling and smoothing of fondant, but this is as good as it gets for now. 

I colored a little of the fondant orange and covered the circle cakes and made some paw prints. 

Both D's, the baseball, and white strips are from the white fondant. I used red frosting to stitch the baseball and black frosting to write "Opening Day 2015". 

The boys' favorite accessory is the hat. I made some Rice Krispie treats and molded it into the hat shape. The trick is to spray your hands with cooking spray to be able to mold the warm Rice Krispies. I covered the ball part of the hat with blue fondant. I did the bill part of the hat separately. Then I stuck them together. The top of the hat is just a piece of fondant.