Domain Change

So ive decided to change the name of my domain ;) Its easier & I think it will just work better in general.

Disaster In Designs was a digital scrapping site,which I still love to do & will still offer,I just got tired of running so many blogs for different things.So to explain the new name .... Manda is what my sisters call me along with my online friends,May is my middle name & I added the d just because I made it,so its 2 words MandaMayd.

The new site will offer:

Digital Scrapping products such as CU/PU/S4H/CU4CU & Freebies.This will include the same for Taggers since that is another thing I like to do ;)

Recipes that either Ive come up with myself or have tried from somewhere,I will let you know where they come from also so you can try it yourself if you want.

Cake Decorating how tos only if Ive figured it out myself,if its a tut from somewhere I will let you know & I am a member of CDWD,I love this site & Donna is a huge help.I love to make things out of fondant/gumpaste but Im still learning alot,I love to work with fondant to cover cakes which sometimes loves me & other times it hates me,lol!

Kid Friendly Stuff I am a mother of 3 & I do have a couple of fav sites so I will share those with you & what we make or come up with.I have a close friend,Cathy, who has 4 children you will also see her cakes & anything she wishes to show you how to do.

Everyday life ....... thats something we can all relate to ;)

So if your following me for scraps please continue & Im glad to have you stay with me,if your new to the site...Welcome & make sure to hit the follow button so you dont miss anything,if you wish to share your site with me just leave it in the comments & i will save & post it.

Thanks Everyone & have a good day.

Manda

Ezequiels B-day & Thomas Cake

This past weekend was Zickels B-day & so with that I thought it would be a good idea to have his party & Halloween on the same day,thinking it would be nice if all the kids could get ready together and all but um never again,lol!We were pretty much dead tired and for the first year I just thought uugghh lets just skip it this year,but of course you cant do that,so I wanted to share a couple pics with you of Zickels cake,he chose Thomas the tank engine this year,very cute,I was going to do a spiral cake but then decided differently.I made some mis calculations,the side of the cake turned out not to be big enought o set the train on,I measured it,the trains were 1in so I gave myself 1 1/2in but did not account for the buttercream & fondant bulk go figure!Anyways here it is.In the end I loved it & Zickel was so happy when he woke up that morning & seen it so thats all that matters.

It is 4 9in rounds for the bottom tier White cake with orange coloring & devils food with Italian meringue buttercream recipe from Cake Journal ,which was super easy & tasted great ;)

Hi everyone ...

I know Ive neglected my blog but Ive been thru alot lately,weve moved recently,weve actually only been in here for a week,the 4th is this weekend of course & I have my daughters 3rd bday coming up,so I am really busy.I had some problems with my programs as well & it really just aggravated me so I got away from the scrapping for a bit,but with anything you love to do you cant stay away for long & always come back to it ;).With saying that I hope to find time to do at least some layouts & get some CU stuff up for you which one of my favorite things to do,so bare with me & ill be around soon.

Hugs,

Manda

Wedding Cake .....

Hi everyone ..... first I have to say sorry,I didnt realize I had the comments turned off,thnak you to everyone who emailed me about that ;)
Second I wasnt going to show these pics cause it really was upsetting..... but we will get over it & move on.Just another lesson learned ;)

Top tier before-it was the lake on which the groom & bride stood

Bottom tier before-a couple touch ups needed but done-now I didnt take anymore cause I figured I would get a bunch at the wedding .........
By the time it was delivered-the boat & dock were made from fondant,it really was a cute cake & i had alot of fun doing it-little stressful but thats ok,lol!
Bride & Groom still loved so thats what matters right?? ......

Ok Im off to work on my links for the blog & need to update the other ones also

TTYL,

Manda

CDWD

Hi again everyone,
I just wanted to take out a couple minutes in the day to tell you about the site I subscribe to , to help me learn more about the cake decorating world & actually get better at what I

really love to do.
The site is called Cake Decorating With Donna ,Donna has just opend this site up and she already has a ton of info tip,tricks.The difference with CDWD & one of the main reasons I keep up with her site is that she offers videos that show her actually doing or making something from start to finish,really breaks it down & for me thats priceless,lol!
I wanted to show you a couple cakes shes done for us in video

I love the purse cakes & with Donna you can learn step by step ..... very nice!

Isnt this cake just beautiful,I love the dress & the technique she used to get the buttercream,yes its buttercream, to look like that was very easy.Never would have thought of it.

This cake is so adorable isnt it,I plan on doing this one after the wedding cake next week,my little girl loves kittys ;)
These are so adorable & easy to make......now that Ive seen itdone that is,lol!

We also have LIVE web classes so its hands on,she will answer your questions as we go,

how cool is that.This weeks LIVE class will be on a Gumpaste High Heel Shoe.

With all of this she also has Giveaways Ive won 2 so far myself ;).

One is a subscription to American Cake Decorating Magazine whoohoo & the other was a book called Hello Cupcake,I just got it yesterday & I cant wait to try some stuff in their its an awesome book.So stop by & have a look,I know you'll love it ;).

Happy Caking

Manda

Hey .....

So how is everyone? Well ive decided to share my disasters with cakes,lol!
I like to look back and think omg what was i doing,what was I thinking or just simplywhat I could have done to make it all better..... So I have about 30+ pics im goingto share and tell you about each one along the way ..... whoohoo ready? And BTW if any of you want to share yours also please do,its nice to see how far weve all come,if you dont have a blog but want to share,ill be happy to post them for you ;).You can just email the pic to me & about it & ill get it up asap ...... I would also like to mention where Ive learned to do some things & why Ive gotten better finally.....Im one of those I have to see it being done to do it kinda people so when I found Donna I knew I was set,she explains everything in detail & has videos to learn from.She also has alot of great tipson icing & sculpting figures,if you dont know who she is or you do but havent seen her subscription site please go here & check it out....... on to the pics!

I will be linking Donna & others to the side later I have some stuff to finish up first.

Hugs,

Manda

Easter 09

So easter comes & goes,I made a cake that I was not happy with,the buttercream did NOT hold up to the heat & it looked baaaad!

Even with that the Bunnies made me happy,I had fun making them & learning a couple new things along the way.With thisbuny I made her ears different & used a little tool that made her ears look like they were stitched on the edges.For her bandana & outfit I used my scrapbooking stamps ;) worked great.

This is the tool I used for her ears ......

These are the stamps I used for her outfit,these are Uber/Really cheap on ebay compared to the stores,but if your not comfy with ebay you can always find them in your local Joanne's or Michael's or a scrapbook shop,even Walmart carries them so they are easy to find.I have found that alot of scrapbooking things are great for fondant ;).
I will add tho,make sure they are new/never been used before .... before you use them on your figures & such.

Heres her outfit before it went on her

This bunny was made using Donna's tut,now I didnt do as good of a job of course ;) but it was easy & fun

Wanted to show you her tail,I again used my little $2 clay gun,you can see my mistake with her ear,theres a nick in it,that came from letting it get to dry & trying to make the ears bend more after it sitting for a bit.

And heres one of the other bunnies made & also showing you the Easter basket you can learn to make at Donna's

Melting MMF

Ok so I dont mean melting MMF in a good way,this was bad very bad,so I have these books from Debbie Brown ...... awesome cakes.That I thought I would try.... hehehe well heres my go at one,I failed miserably,so anyways using MMF that doesnt hold up to the heat at all.As I got it doneI noticed it was drooping ..... kinda melting its way south.So I didnt even bother finishing the cake up.I said ok before it goes any further lets get the party started,lol!

Now because Ezequiels b-day falls very close to Halloween,I get to cheat & mix up his cake a bit,anyways heres my kitty sitting in the pumpkin ......

The Kitty,Pumpkins & McQueen were made from straight gumpaste (which I no longer use)

you can see all the horrible cracks in it.The thing sitting beside the kitty was his witchs hat,haha again size issues.

See he enjoyed it ....... ha ha ha .......... we are bad about craming your face into a cake ;)

St.Pattys/Anniversary Cake

This cake I was happy with from start to finish,It was made for my friends anniversary which falls on St.Pattys Day.I thought it was really cute & she liked it also haha!

It was made with Wilton fondant ....... now I know before you all throw something at me,I just wanted to see what a cake made with staright fondant & not MMF would look like.The little gold pot &rainbow & such wereagain made from Wilton fondant & tylose.

The hump/lump you see was meant to be a hill,in case your wondering,lol!
Shamrocks & grass were made with a clay gun ;)

Mario Cake

This was my first attempt at a topsy turvy cake whoohoo ....... i had fun with this one & again I used MMF,now Mario is actually Wilton Fondant & Tylose yeah for me & it worked GREAT!Doesnt he look cool,I loved it,altho I did leave his overalls off ......oops!

Death to poor Mario after the cake was cut ...... he had a good run dont worry.
And here Mario is sitting on top of his tall cake,This cake was for my oldest,Tyler who turned 11,now Tyler did want Sonic the hedgehog & Mario Mixed,then he decided to save me & said hey mom just do it in Mario ....... whoohoo I was so happy he said that,lol!Cause to be honest I was lost on Shadow & Sonic....
The cake was ok I dont knowif you can see the mistakes but they were definatly there.
In the end it turned out nice & Tyler loved it so all was good.

I will definatly do topsy turvys over & over,I love them & the are just plain fun to make.

Gingi Bread Train

Im sure at some point & time weve all thought about doinga Ginger Bread House for Christmas time,maybe its a regular thing for you & your great at it or maybe it scares you to death .... haha!

For me it was .... well I really dont want to do the "traditional" thing.So again I hit the net ..... the www loves me :p ..... anyways,I seen on a family site the idea for the train & I thought PERFECT!

So all the pieces baked & stacked together in order,heres a look at the train before its put together,now I did make extra little men & wheels in case of "Oh mommy hes eating your cookies" ..... !

So in the next few pics im just going to show you the "cars" after we got them done.We being me & the kids ;)

Andhere it is all together,now the site has it sitting on a track .... but I didntget that far.

Why not to Use The Following ......

So here we have a good example why NOT to use MMF when making figures & why NOT to use regular box cake mixes without proper support.

You can see in this first pic,I LOVE the colors of this cake It looked so much better in my head,lol!This was Alicias (my daughter) 2nd b-day cake.Yes Im skipping over her first because it was at the beach so no party just a beautiful day at the beach.

Again its MMF without all the problems except the fact it was only my 2nd time using it,oh yeah there was a good year/year & 1/2 between the car & this cake.So I got the first tier done and with NO supports (cause I didnt know any better) I put the second one on top,you can also see all the lumps,I did no carving off the top for this cake ....... lordy did I have alot to learn.So anyways as it goes slightly to the side we take a look at another boo-boo ........

This is a MMF sculpted doggie,i just didnt like the color so I added a bit of black & whoohoo choco the dog came to life ...... and got FATTER & FATTER & somehow Shorter.This was straight MMF no Tylose or CMC added ........ again another lesson learned.This one actually sat on top of her cake.
So here you have a look at both my poor MMF Short Fat Doggies.Again Ill have to redeem myself.

Are you learning withme on what not to do ..... ? I hope someone is ;)

Peanut Butter Cookies

Ok its not a cake but its baked & they turned out perfect,well at least I thought they were & they were sooooooo good!I just used a simple traditional recipe because it was the first time I had tried to make them.

Lightning McQueen Gone Wrong

So my little boy LOVES Lightning McQueen so I thought omg I HAVE got to make him a cake in the shape of this character so I again searched the net and I had been reading & finding out about fondant so this is where my adventure really began,so I fread about marshmallow fondant & thought well that sounds cool,lets do that.So this ball of MMF sitting before you looks great & I was so happy for myself for making it ;)

And these are the cakes whoohoo turned out good also

so we started carving & that also wasnt to bad...... on a roll .......

first icing ... I know now the mistakes made,but remember I was a beginner

And heres the start to my downfall .......RED food coloring ..... Ugghh!! Regular food color.You can Im sure guess what I did & what it took to get this red when you dont know that red darkens with TIME!!!!

ok so the cakes covered ......... um this is suppose to be fondant ????

and a buttercream bottom ........ yeah I know my size issues are off,lol!

ok so hes looking a little better .... harder than I thought .....

And this is the end result,he ended up with no wheels,I dont even know how many hours later this was but after the aggrevation of the red fondant I was over it.

But all in all he loved it & knew who it was the minute his eyes went on so that made me happy.... first disaster over......Anyone else try this character before? I would really love to redeem myself,so I may just do another one after the weeding cake next week.