Wednesday 27 February 2013

Time to Unplug

In January I shared with you about being Connected or Disconnected.  In celebration of this move the Sabbath Manifesto are inviting us to join in with their third National Day of Unplugging.

What is it ?
It's an annual day which has been created to help hyper-connected people from all walks of life appropriate a day of rest.

When is it ?
The National Day of Unplugging this year is scheduled to start Friday evening the 1st of March and continue on Saturday the 2nd of March.

Who hosts it?
It's hosted by the Sabbath Manifesto and in their words :

"The Sabbath Manifesto is a creative project designed to slow down lives in an increasingly hectic world."

Will you join me this friday and become UNplugged ?

Blessings
Chareen 

Tuesday 26 February 2013

TT - In The BEGINNING

This week ...
I would like to share about a DVD we watched recently. This year we have started on our chronological history adventure and as part of this we started with creation.  A friend of mine knows we enjoy stage productions so she loaned me: In the BEGINNING from Sight & Sound Theaters. We loved it from the opening scene to the closing scene every single minute captured our imaginations and our hearts. This DVD was a visual and auditory feast and Sir N enjoyed it so much we watched it three times in one week.

In the BEGINNING


  • Format: DVD filmed before a live audience
  • Number of Pages: Nil
  • Vendor: Sight & Sound Theatres
  • Publication Date: 2007
  • ISBN: DVD 
  • Author   Sight & Sound
  • Illustrator: N/A
  • Duration: 115 min
  • Format: Stage production
  • Languages: English, Spanish and French
  • Special Features: yes
You can find Sight & Sound Theatres on Facebook and YouTube.


Some other DVDs in the series that we have enjoyed
  • Joseph  this rendition of Joseph inspired us to walk in integrity.(YouTube Trailer)
  • Psalms of David is not a story it's a summary and overview of Psalms in song.
  • Ruth was a delightful journey of God's story of redemption.
  • and we are looking forward to watching Noah

Blessings

 Welcome to Tuesdays Treasures.  I started these posts as a way of sharing great books in honour of my friend in New Zealand who would arrive with the treasures she had unearthed at her weekly trip to the library!

There are so many wonderful books out there hiding on shelves so I invite you to blog about a book on your shelf, one you're reading or one you found at the library.



Monday 25 February 2013

Angry Bird Cake Tutorial


This weekend was my Mom's birthday and she asked for an Angry Birds cake.  We chose Stella (Pink Bird) as our inspiration. My sister has been making Angry Birds cakes for a while and agreed to let me photograph and share the process with you.  It was not as hard as I had imagined and all you need is time and patience.

Making the Angry Bird cake Beak and Tail 


The process starts a week before (longer if you live in a humid climate) with the making of the beak and tail.
  • You need to use a powdered hardener (Cake Art Tylose Powder) in the fondant. Mix it in well before you add in the coloured powder. 
  • Use fondant to form a trapezoid shape out of yellow coloured fondant. Once you have your desired shape use a rolling pin to flatten/neaten all the sides.  Use a pair of kitchen scissors to snip 3/4 way down the beak.  Bend the beak open. We used two cooking essence bottles to support the beak until it was dry.  The completed beak is 2.5" (6.5cm) tall, a base of around 2" and a tip of about 1".  The base of the beak is square.
  • Use fondant and colour it black then form a tail (this is where all those years of playing with play dough come in handy!)  After two hours push a bamboo skewer into the tail and two into the beak.  Leave in a dry area to dry and harden.  Do not place in a sealed container as it will 'sweat' and not harden. It needs good air circulation to harden off.

Making the Angry Bird cake body


  • We used an 8 inch (20cm) round cake tin. You will need enough round cakes that when stacked are about 8" high.  
  • Place two cakes bottom side together on the base, cut the mound off the top one then added the next cake and finally finish with the fourth. 
  • Leave the 'mound' in tact to form the crown of the head.  
  • Using a bread knife sculpt your cake to form the head of your Angry Bird.


  • Make some butter icing  the same colour as the cake you are making add in a little more milk to make it a runny consistency.  Use some of this icing or jam to glue your layers together.  
  • Place your sculpted cake on a cake board of your choice. Do a light coating of the mix over the outside of  the cake to seal the sculpted cake in preparation to ice. 
  • Make a thicker butter icing (YouTube).
  • We used a star tip and pink icing and started at the top of the cake and worked our way to the bottom in a circular pattern around the cake.  To make it easier to ice we placed the cake board onto a container on top of my Lazy Susan
  • We used a grass tip to ice the grass. (YouTube)


Finishing Touches for the Angry Bird Cake


  • Fix the beak and tail onto the cake using the skewers. Using the pink icing ice around the edges to finish off.
  • Roll out white fondant icing and using a round wavy 2.5" circular cookie/scone cutter cut out two eyes and place on cake.  
  • Mix some black butter icing and using a thin round icing nozzle pipe in face detail. Pipe on the eye and eyelashes. 
  • Change to a thicker nozzle pipe on the eye brow.
  • For the hair we used a party table center piece which we purchased from the local grocery store in the party section. Using a pencil wrap the wire around to form curls. Remove from it's case and wrap the ends in clingfilm before tying on the ribbon.
  • We used two different types of 1" wide ribbon to make the bow. A light pink and a thicker white ribbon. These were layered one on top of the other and tied around the hair. This was then inserted in the top of the cake. Once in the cake the ribbon was cut to the desired length.
  • We used pre-purchased royal icing roses and placed these on the lawn around the cake.
Completed product



Enjoy the finished product.
Blessings
Chareen

A little inspiration for you.  Here are three other Angry Birds Cakes my sister made last year.


This post is part of The Schoolhouse Review Crew Blog Cruise : Recipe Share. Take some time and pop on over and be inspired.. and Try a New Recipe Tuesday.