New Ink to Celebrate!

My eldest Elfling booked an appointment with her favourite tattoo artist for a combined Mother’s Day/birthday gift for me. We went in yesterday, but I was still undecided on what I wanted done. I had two images I was agonizing vacillating between. The artist looked at the images and said: “I can totally do both of them, they’re so small. No worries!” I could have hugged him! He saved me a crap tonne of grief and agony, and completely made my day. ;0)

This is the first of the images I was torn between, a Baby Cthulhu.

Here is my Baby Cthulhu. He’s so stinking cute! He’s also the cutest tattoo I have, and will likely be the cutest tattoo I will ever have. ;0)

This second image is of the little monster from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” the Black Beast of Caerbannog.

Here is my Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog! Watch out for this beastie, for he is the Legendary Black Beast of Aaaaarrrrrggggghhhhh! He has nasty, big, pointy teeth and a vicious streak a mile wide! I love all the blood, since this little monster is a messy eater. I’m also loving the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch. Fresh ink FTW! ❤

One day at a time…

August was super-busy. In addition to taking my Mama to hospital on August 12th, I found the time to turn 40 on the 14th. My original plan was to cancel my b-day altogether, but that just didn’t seem too possible. Basically, my Elflings refused to not let me celebrate it. Needless to say, I’ve also been terrible at keeping up with my blog and your gorgeous bloggies I follow. I’m on it, and want you to know I think about you often, even if I haven’t stopped by your bloggitty-blogs most recent entries. I’m catching-up one day at a time. ♥

Mosaicake ~ Assembly

It was so much fun making the Mosaicakes, and this is how I did it.

Rainbow Cake – Mosaicake

¾ C butter*

1½ C cane* sugar

2 eggs or replacer

2 tsp vanilla* extract

1¼ C milk*

2½ tsp baking powder (aluminum free)

¼ tsp sea salt

2½ C unbleached flour*

colours 

* = Organic

∴ Preheat oven to 375°F/190°C/Gas mark 5. Mix dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder) together, then set aside. Beat butter until whipped. Add sugar and continue beating to mix. Add eggs or substitute, and blend well. Add the vanilla and milk, and blend well. Slowly add flour mixture, a little at a time, and beat until it’s all incorporated. Distribute batter evenly into as many bowls as you have colours you’d like to make. Combine colours well. Fill greased cake pan(s) about 2/3 full. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until no longer wet when a toothpick is inserted. Too much browning will take away from the colours. Cool completely before icing. Enjoy!

*♥*

Icing

1 C butter* 

6 – 8 C icing sugar

½ C milk*

2 tsp vanilla* extract

* = Organic

 ∴ Whip butter until it’s all light and fluffy. Add vanilla, and continue beating. Alternate adding icing sugar and a little bit of milk until the mixture reaches a stable consistency – no longer slipping off a knife. Ice your cake/cupcakes. Enjoy!

I got all my wet and dry ingredients ready. ♥

After the batter was prepared, I split it all up between 6 dishes for each colour we’d chosen.

Several dollops of colour later, and two cake pans, the Mosaicakes were ready for a 30-35 minute bake in the oven.

Mosaicake 1 – the bottom layer.

Mosaicake 2 – the top layer.

After they’d cooled, the cakes came out of the pans easily.

I sliced off the very top of the bottom layer to make a flat surface. (No crumbs were wasted! My Elflings were happy to help with the cake bits I’d cut off.) Once it was flat, I spread a layer of icing, then popped the top layer on.

I started with the sides, then iced the top last. That way you can fill gaps or fix bits that need it. Now it’s ready to decorate! ♥

At the last minute, I realized I didn’t have any piping bags (/facepalm), so I improvised with sandwich bags and my decorating tips. I will definitely be getting more piping bags at the next opportunity I have. Sandwich bags have a tendency to pop.

Here you can see the mosaic of colour. ♥

For cupcakes, see Mosaicupcakes ♥

Mosaicake ♥

I had to be super-fast to grab this picture! The colours turned out really well. We had such a great party today. Family came over to celebrate with us, eat some food, sing, and enjoy cake. Super-nice and super-fun. We also do an un-birthday for my middle Elfling, because her actual b-day is December 30. We do the same for the twinnigans in December, and we’ve been celebrating this way for 8 years. *happy dancing*

The cake before cutting.

Our spread of food. I made tortillas, black bean mash, guac, salsa, and tofu-quinoa taco filling for wraps. There’s some left-over, so supper is solved for tonight. Woot!