Fondant Fun?

While you wait anxiously for the 4th of July Pond Party photos, you can enjoy a post about some of our latest arts and crafts endeavors.

In the past couple weeks, Maisie has decided she wants to be a Pastry Chef.  Whether or not that conclusion comes from her obsession with Cupcake Wars on the FoodNetwork, it's definitely possible.

And because we had nothing else going on last Friday, she decided it'd be the perfect time to begin working with fondant. 

Apparently I'm a sucker for punishment.

The goal was chocolate cupcakes from scratch covered with a powdered sugar frosting and topped with a fondant rainbow.

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She nailed the cupcakes.  She's partial to the chocolate cake recipe in my Better Homes and Garden Cookbook that calls for 3 oz of unsweetened chocolate.  She makes the entire thing from scratch and kicks my butt at baking.

Frosting on the other hand, could use a little work and the fondant is a pain.  Plus she realized the texture is a tad chewy.

I'd intended to get a photo of the finished product but by the time the project was over (4  hours later) we were all too crabby, food color-stained and powdered-sugar-coated for the Kodak moment.

In other news, the dog and cat had a 15 minute stand-off in doorway to the garage on Friday morning.  I think they may be getting used to each other or planning a shoot-out.  It's a toss up.