Fall Themed Scarecrow Cake

I made my first detailed cake last year for my son’s 1^st birthday and made a very detailed ocean themed cake in September for his 2^nd birthday (will post this soon). For now, I’ll share a cake I made for my friend’s birthday. Her birthday is in the middle of November and she loves fall, so I decided to make some fondant sunflowers, pumpkins and a scarecrow plus a royal icing fence.

I make my own fondant, using this recipe for Marshmallow Fondant, which a lot of people seem to prefer the taste of compared to store bought fondant. I always plan out my cake design and determine about how much of each color I will need of the fondant, then I mix the colors up using cake paste (USE GLOVES, way easier and less messy) and let them sit for at least a day or two before making the parts for my cake.

I made my life easier and made a boxed pumpkin spice cake in two 9” round pans. For the frosting between layers and on the outside, I colored some store bought cream cheese frosting. 

I used the royal icing mix from Michael’s and mixed brown cake paste into it. I put the royal icing into a piping bag with a basket weave cake tip on it. I piped out fence pieces onto wax paper and let them dry for at least a few days until they are dry. Make sure you make extras as some will surely break.  

I used a sprinkle mix for the little “dirt path” that wrapped around the back of the cake. My scarecrow was a bit too top heavy, but overall he worked out pretty well.

I put the mm fondant sunflowers in mini muffin tins to dry so they had some shape to them. For the black in the sunflowers and the face of the scarecrow, I mixed a little water with black cake paste and painted it on with a fine brush.

Bird and Raccoon Costumes

I think everyone has a creative side. Whether they come up with plans and ideas for things at work, interior decorating, sewing, cooking, photography, construction projects, whatever, we all have unique ideas. I took a ton of art classes in high school and then my creative side was pretty dormant for many years, but now it has recently reemerged. I’m going to post some of my projects (good and bad) to help others get inspired and/or learn from my mistakes.

Since we just finished with Halloween, I’ll go ahead and post my 2 year old son’s costume and my costume. My son loves the movie Rio with all the birds, so I decided to make him Blu, a blue macaw from the movie. I’ve never sewn a costume before, so I wanted something pretty simple. On Pinterest I had seen some poncho type bird costumes, so I used that as a starting point. I used felt so it would be easy to work with and cut out a ton of feathers in two different colors. I added a long piece in the back with tail feathers. I made a slit in the back so it would fit over his head better then added Velcro. I sewed all the feathers on and added Velcro under the arms to help keep the poncho in place better. 

Front (inside of tail is shown)

 Back

 

The hat was a little trickier. I first made a basic cap with two sides and a center part, and then designed the light blue, white and black for the eyes off of the shape of the cap. I added a chin strap with Velcro and a few little blue pieces off the top for the head feathers. I made a pattern for the beak to help me decide on the right size/positioning for it on the hat. 

I saw a raccoon mask and tail on Pinterest and decided to design something like it. I used hot glue to put felt onto a black basic mask and then cut the eye holes out. For the tail I added a belt of felt so I could put it in the belt loops of my jeans and tie it.