A Winter Penguin Cake Revisited

It seems that each winter for the last few years, hubs and I are usually busy getting prepared for a big gathering for friends here at home but we've decided that this year, we wouldn't plan anything. I'm hoping that next year, we'll be finished up with a lot of things and that the place is just more presentable for friends. So I thought today that I'd take a look back to one of the parties we had last year for the kids - a winter themed penguin party! It was so much fun to plan for and the party itself was a blast as well. The most fun for me? Making the penguin cake!

I had never worked with fondant or gumpaste before and had only made a handful of cakes, but I really wanted to try my hand at making my own penguin figures. I used The most fun for me? Making the penguin cake! half fondant and half gumpaste and mixed them together (store bought - worked great, edible, but NOT tasty! Truly, just for looks!). My idea was to just make about 5 penguins but the girls wanted 11, the number of kids attending the party. It took me a couple of weeks to make all the penguins and everything, but I'm really pleased with how they turned out! Somehow I ended up with 12...miscounted! I had a little problem with some of the penguins drying and cracking a bit, but not to the point of falling apart. The eyes were tough to paint on, as well, but overall, it was pretty easy - just tedious! I hope you enjoy the photos!

I made several different cake sizes in chocolate and yellow. A LOT more cake than we could actually eat at the party, but a lot was needed to hold all the penguin activity. I had the kids give me ideas as to what they wanted the penguins to be doing and I used all of their ideas except for building an igloo, lol. I gave away a lot of the cake and we eventually finished off the rest.

Please CLICK photos to ENLARGE)


The blocks of "ice" around the perimeter of the cake are just sugar cubes:)


I enjoyed making the snowman. It's hard to tell from this angle, but nose is actually carrot shaped.






Is that sweet little penguin really going to throw a snowball at the other sweet penguin down below?



I loved this penguin family here...mama, daddy, baby with blanket and penguin doll, and the unhatched egg with feet. I think the baby looks excited about the prospect of sliding down the hill, too, and wants to go next! What does mama think about that? Daddy thinks it will be just fine!





Watching all the activity from below while sipping hot chocolate!


"Caught one!" (I could *not* get this poor penguin's eyes to look right, ugh!)


"Nice catch!" The water is just blue jello:)


Uh oh! We have another slider, folks!


Thanks for taking a look back to last year with me. It really puts me in the mood for SNOW though I doubt here we'll get any - just lots of cold weather!


I'm linking up to this weeks Saturday Night Special...check out the other great DIY projects!
{There are just three days left to vote on my projects in the final round of the contest I entered at Repair-Home.com! More information below!}

Twice Remembered is a Finalist - Still Time to Vote! (Repost)

I am over the moon thrilled to share with my blog readers some very exciting news! All of your votes for our projects that we entered into the first round of the Repair-Home contest really paid off! I entered projects in 11 different catagories, and in 10 of those categories, our projects were voted #1! YOU through your votes made that happen and hubs and I can't thank you enough! I have a feeling that 2010 is going to be a great year for Twice Remembered due to this contest because we are finally going to get to complete projects that we've been putting off for a long time!

I have a feeling that 2010 is going to be a great year for Twice Remembered!Not only did your votes help us to place at the top in individual categories, but it put two of our projects into the final round of the contest. {There are only five finalists' projects total.} This final round ends on December 15th. The winning project receives a prize of $1000 {not too shabby, eh?!}.

So once again, I'm asking for your help and vote. {I appreciate your patience with me and my "like-a-child-at-Disneyworld" exuberance, hehe, but I've never done anything like this before and am thrilled that we've reached this final stage.}

The two Twice Remembered projects that made the final round are our Cottage Kitchen Ceiling project and our Kitchen Windows and French Doors project. You can click either photo below to be taken to the main voting page to cast your vote and to see more of the project photos if you haven't seen them already.

Cottage Kitchen Plank Ceiling

Kitchen Windows and Doors

Thank you once again!