Archives for April 2012

Easter Bunny Cake Tutorial

Filed Under: Family, Memories, Recipes5 Comments

This Easter bunny cake is a must-have around our house. My mom has made this every year for as long as I can remember. Each year, as we get older, Mom tries to think that she can get away with not making it anymore… but we always find some way to talk her into it. Of course, it has nothing to do with the true meaning of Easter, but it just wouldn’t be fun to celebrate with our bunny cake. Since this is just SO much fun… Mom said I could share her “secret” design so that you can impress your family and friends.

Start by covering a cookie sheet with foil, or finding some other type of serving platter that will be large enough. You will need to have your round cakes baked and completely cooled… best to bake them the day before.

Spread icing over the bottom, flat side of one round cake and stack them on top of each other so that the round sides are facing out… to give your bunny a round body.

Cut your cakes in half as set one half aside for a moment. Spread icing over the sides of the remaining cake half and position it near the back half of your cookie sheet.

Mom has designed templates to make the perfectly shaped bunny head and legs. Use the second cake half to cut out the shapes for the head and legs. Notice the bottom edge of the head is rounded to better fit against the bunny body.

Attach head to the front of the body and generously add icing to cover cake and fill in any gaps.

Using more of the second cake half, cut out the shapes for the the bunny legs.

The expert suggests using only a slice of the legs to make for a more proportionate bunny. Bonus: the middle part of the leg shapes provides an excellent cake to icing ratio for a little snack for the sculptor!

Once the bunny is assembled, finish icing the entire cake. The entire process of this cake may take close to two cans of icing with all the extra gaps there are to fill in. Some years we have added coconut to the bunny body to make it look like fur, but this near we had some people who were not coconut fans.

Lastly, add all the fun extras that really make the cake come to life! Use a few drops of green food coloring to turn coconut into grass for the bunny to sit on.

The finishing touches for the bunny include ears made with paper and a pink marker taped to tooth picks, extra tooth picks for wiskers, pink jelly beans for nose and eyes and a cotton ball tail. Add extra easter candy as desired for decoration.

Fun, fun, fun! And almost a completely edible craft for kids of every age. I’d love to see a picture of your bunny cake when you decide to make this!

Foster Care Update: Safety Plan

Filed Under: Children2 Comments

Earlier this week we received the great news that our agency had approved our file and had passed it along to county for final approval. We were told it might even be possible that we would be approved by the end of the week! Then on Friday we heard back from the county that they had a problem with the safety plan that was written in our home study.

Our agency called to say that the county wanted us to fence in our yard to ensure safety from the retention pond behind our home. The only problem is that since we live in a townhome, we don’t actually own any of the yard behind our house. In fact, the area behind our house is designated as a wildlife preserve and no one should ever be able to build anything back there. That’s actually one of the reasons we liked this property so much was that we were guaranteed to have that open space and not have to look into the back of another house.

pond

The county said that we needed proof that we were not allowed to build a fence. Our first thought was to get some type of letter from our homeowner’s association. The only problem with that idea was that it would take up to thirty days to get an answer and we had only a few hours otherwise the county would reject our file and send it back. The best I could do with that time frame was to print our property value off of the county website, which shows that we have a zero lot line.

We were able to get that submitted in time, and we hope that will be sufficient evidence. We’re not sure what options we would have if they insist on a fence… since we can’t have one. Our agent also elaborated on all the locks we already have in place to prevent a child from getting to the pond. Our sliding doors have a double lock which both have to be turned to open the door, plus we have flip latches at the top and bottom of each of the doors, plus the alarm system chimes whenever any door of the house is opened, plus there is a lock on the screen door of the patio. We would have to seriously not be watching the child for them to get through all of that without us noticing.

Patio locks

The other suggestions by our agency was to take out the screen door leading off of the patio to the yard, which would mean there would be no exit out of that side of our house. Or they suggested some type of key lock attached to the top of the sliding doors leading to the patio. We are trying to insist that either of these options would compromise our fire safety plan that they made us draw up which required two emergency exits from our house. I think that side of the house is as locked as it can be to still be a reasonable exit in the case of a fire.

Needless to say, Friday was a rather stressful day. We got everything turned in the best that we could do under the time frame, and didn’t hear anything back for the rest of the day. So we have had to sit all weekend with not knowing how it will turn out. Hopefully, we will hear some good news in the next day or so.

Easter Sunday Recap

Filed Under: Cystic Fibrosis, FamilyLeave a Comment

We had a fabulous Easter filled with family and friends. Our family enjoyed our Sunday morning church celebration of our risen King! Later we enjoyed the company of some out of town friends who are visiting Tampa on spring break! We had a great, relaxing day of hanging out together.

He is risen

Since we usually spend most holidays at my parents house, they offered that our friends would be more than welcome to join us. Mom and I spent time on Saturday preparing food for everyone. We may have gone just a little overboard on the dessert table, but we couldn’t help it… they were just so much fun to make!

Dessert table

Of course, we had Mom’s famous bunny cake! I took pictures of her making it, so there will be directions to come. It’s just not Easter without bunny cake.

Easter bunny cakeEaster bunny

Mom make a lemon meringue pie as her dessert of choice. I really wish it didn’t have so many ingredients I was allergic to… yum!

Lemon pie

We made lots of cupcakes! We decorated them with Easter grass, nests, and eggs. And we made mini cupcakes… because they are cute, with multi-colored icing.

CupcakesMini cupcakes

There was tons of candy. Mom got creative on how to serve it all.

Jelly beans

And I made my allergy-safe brownies for myself.

Brownies

We had plenty of real food too, but somehow sandwiches and veggies don’t photograph as cute as cupcakes.

Real foodSandwichesFruits and veggies

We visited with Rhonda in the beautiful weather while the kids made good use of the swimming pool. The pool kept their interest the entire day and they only stopped swimming long enough to eat. I’m so glad they had a good time.

Madi floatingShelbyShelby splashingIan and MadiIan jumpingIan in splashMadisonMadison

Tonight Rhonda and I are heading out to dinner with the rest of the Tampa CF wives (her husband also has CF)! She’s taking her older kids to the movies and Jesse agreed to watch Madison while we are gone. Rhonda says trying to keep up with her will be good practice for him. Madison is just as CUTE as can be and Jesse is looking forward to the challenge.