Can you believe that July is almost over? In just a short amount of time I will have a kiddo in Kindergarten and another starting school for the first time. Our family is also celebrating some new baby cousins that will be making their way to us in the next couple of months. I had the pleasure of being hands on for one of those little nuggets. My cousin Cynthia is having a baby boy and is having a safari themed shower to celebrate. I had met up with her and my aunt at the end of June and they had asked me to help with the dessert table. They wanted cookies, Rice Krispy treats, pretzels and cake pops. Everything was to be made to represent an animal. We chose cheetah, zebra, tiger and giraffe for the Rice Krispy treats. I made homemade treats that were dipped in white, orange, yellow and tan. I melted more chocolate that was put into piping bags. The white and orange treats got black lines to make tigers and zebras, the yellow got brown boxy shapes for a giraffe, and the tan one got some black and dark brown to make spots. I basically did the same thing with the red velvet cake pops only difference was that I only made tiger, zebra and Cheetah animals. The pretzel rods were simple, they were dipped in white with black drizzle to represent a zebra tail. The last treats were the cookies. I made almond vanilla cookies that were iced and then hand painted to look like lions (we couldn’t forget the king of the jungle), monkeys, elephants and giraffes. They were so fun to make.
The shower was Saturday and I will admit I was puttering around taking my time bagging up all the treats. Bad move because as I still had to bag all the treats I get a text from my cousin that there was a cakeastrophe. Her boyfriend was driving with the cake on the passenger side seat when he was cut off and had to brake hard. The cake went forward, causing the top tier to slip, fondant to crack and decorations to crack/break. She texted to ask me if I could fix it, after she sent some pics I told her I would try but couldn’t promise anything. Especially since I was yet to finish with the treats or get ready and we had an hour drive. I went into super mode with the help of the hubby. He bagged the treats while I colored fondant using the picture that was sent to me. I made a bunch of different colored/sized flowers, multiple sized leaves, a new monkey (who was not as cute as I would have liked), and some extra fondant just in case. I tied all the bags closed so that the hubby could curl the ribbon while I showered. He not only curled the ribbons while I showered and got ready but he packed everything up as well. Thank goodness for all his help because by the time my sister got here we were close to the line with time. Of course, once we were on our way we hit traffic getting to north Jersey, we got there 30 mins later then intended. As soon as I got there my sister along with the party planner set up all my goodies, while the hall workers got me the cake. I quickly started pulling everything that was broken, I realigned the tiers, and smoothed out the fondant as much as I could. I then used melted chocolate that the hall was so awesome to melt for me to glue the decorations I had made. I salvaged what I could and by the time the party started I had made the cake presentable if I do say so myself. While fixing it, my aunt was telling me how upset my cousin was when she heard about the cakeastrophe, so I was happy when I was able to fix it up a little for her. All in all, a pretty hectic day but it was fun to see all the family that we donβt get to see often. Hope everyone else had a great weekend!
