"Anyone that doesn't agree with leggings as pants can physically fight me.
And I'm going to win because I have a full range of motion due to the fact that I am wearing leggings as pants."

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Gumpaste Frogs- A Tutorial by Kam

Recently, Jaden's favorite movie to watch is The Triplets of Belleville. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it as a kids' movie, though. It's really dark and weird and well, yah, you'll have to watch it yourself (plenty of it on youtube). But, what can I say. All of our kids love it too.

So, of course, she chose that as the theme for her birthday. For the cake, Aurora decided to cover a sheet cake with frog pieces. Once again, hard to explain if you haven't seen the movie. (Though if you watch from about 4:05 on this link, you'll get the gist.)

We all sat down to sculpt them out of gumpaste, but Jenny was the only one who was able to make anything presentable. My frogs were so ugly that I squashed all of them and made tadpoles instead. And even those managed to look more like sperm than tadpoles. Aurora's attempts were a bit better, but still, Jenny kicked our butts on the frog sculpting front. Then again, she's awesome like that (in a very 'perfectionist, keep going til it works' way, while my personal style is more along the lines of 'meh, good enough').

And guess what, I've got a Don't Do What Donnie Don't Does for you. Don't leave a bunch of gumpaste figures out in the garage during a rainstorm without first double, no, triple checking that your roof doesn't leak. Because ours leaks. And I had no idea that it did. And I actually cried when I saw this.

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(And for those of you who are wondering why I would put these in the garage... here's my reasoning. We have a naughty cat and I didn't trust her to not eat these. I thought of putting them in the oven for safe keeping, but I was sure that someone would turn it on without realizing they were in there. Most likely me. No one goes in the garage, so I figured they'd be safe out there.)

So my wonderful sister came over the next day and re-sculpted a cake full of frogs. Isn't she sweet? And I think the second batch turned out even better than the first.

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And while she was re-making them, Kam was nice enough to give a tutorial for just how to make this frog. We used cocoa to keep them from sticking and also to give them a nice "fresh from the swamp" color. It totally worked.



Aurora whipped up a sheet cake with some brown/pink cream cheese frosting and we just plunked the frogs down on it.

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And this last picture... technically that is one leg and one arm, but I stuck them in there like they were a pair of legs.

Don't tell Jenny.

12 comments:

OWL MOMMA said...

I'm not sure if I find the frogs super cool or super disturbing (having not ever HEARD of this movie, I am just not sure (and I am kinda afraid to watch to the link, lol)) :) Either way, they're very creative! Hope Jaden had a happy birthday!

heather jane said...

So cute! I love all the random parts swamping about.

Stacy (mama-om) said...

Love the froggies, and what a sister you have!!

P.S. I am continually perplexed by Blogger in that regard too... I wish I could reply directly to people more often... so, you know "Be the change you wish to see," I will leave you my email address: is mamaomblog -at- gmail -dot- com

FinnyKnits said...

I haven't seen this movie, but I declare this my favorite birthday cake of all time.

Frog parts sticking out all over the cake? COME ON! That is awesome.

patrice said...

Awesome cake!

Sarah Bonn said...

I'm all about doing what you can at home for your kids birthday cakes! I've not been able to watch the movie yet. One day.

Alice said...

I absolutely love Kam's tutorial --do dis and then moosh it, den dis, more pees. What a ham!!

gardenmama said...

Oh, that is such a GREAT movie! Love the music! Excellent cake : )

Melissa said...

That is seriously the funniest project I have ever seen! love it!!

therese said...

that is truly awesome. we love that movie at our house, all of us, and yes, the music is excellent. i'm sorry about your garage accident, but hey, they do look really dead in that photo.

SnoWhite said...

that is quite the cake there -- what fun!

thanks for stopping by and trying the pasta and zucchini recipe -- I'm glad that you enjoyed it!

Anonymous said...

Triplets of Belleville is a favorite here, too! (My son hasn't seen it yet, but my husband and I love it.) Your cake turned out wonderfully!