Gravity killed the Flowers

I had this pin on my To Test board, but Leanne got to it before I did! It looked so simple, I knew I'd mess it up somehow...that seems to be the way it goes with my projects often. It came time for Leanne to paint her chicken coop and she decided that this would look so cute out there on the wall. 

The Original Pin

As far as I can tell, this originated on the site Alpha Mom: 

http://alphamom.com/family-fun/holidays/cherry-blossom-art-from-a-recycled-soda-bottle/

Well...gravity is not our friend when it comes to soda bottle cherry blossoms. 

The Pinstrosity

When the first one ran down the wall, Leanne tried using less paint each time, but it just doesn't quite work. She says, "The only way that this works seems to be to puddle the paint in each blossom, while working on a flat horizontal surface. With only the very bottoms of the bottle wet, there are no blossoms, just marks that need to be washed off."

To fix this Leanne suggests just using a rubber stamp...less stress, less mess, and less for gravity to run with. 

Leanne later sent us a picture of how she saved the project by turning the soda bottle flower attempts into larger cute roses. Cutest chicken coop ever. 

                           

Gimme a Break Kit Kat Cake

Give me a break! Give me a break! Break me off a piece of that Kit Kat Bar...Cake! The Kit Kat Cake...it melts in your mouth, not in your hand. Whoever thought to combine candy and cake was genius and I love them. I don't know who it was, but bless their soul. Check out this awesome cake:

The Original Pin

http://www.madeinmelskitchen.com/2009/09/kit-kat-cake/

Heck yes. I love it. Janelle saw this and decided that she wanted to make it for her daughter's birthday. She says, "While everyone thinks it came out great, the creator (me) sees some flaws." I hadn't seen the Pinstrosity picture yet so I scrolled down and saw this:

The Pinstrosity

Isn't that cute?! I love it. But Janelle had a little trouble getting it to this point and it didn't end up quite like the pin as she had wanted.

"I took a little bit of a different route on this cake by choosing a heart shaped cake pan rather than round. I, once again, did not follow any directions, it was a copy by picture method."

"1. The heart shaped cake pan I used was probably too big causing my double stacked hearts to be significantly shorter than the height of the standing Kit Kats. Therefore I took a knife to each one to shorten them. You can tell my how close the imprinted "Kit Kat" is to the bottom of the candy."

• I went to the original posting on this and read how they created their Kit Kat Cake. They actually do suggest to have the cake be shorter than the standing Kit Kats. If you look at the picture of the original cake you can see how low the M&M's go if you look in the cracks between the Kit Kats. The cake is supposed to be shorter than the Kit Kats to help hold in the candy. 

"2. I have no clue how to make a cake so it's not rounded on top. So while I tried to make the Kit Kats flugh with the height of the cake, the middle of the cake sticks up taller. Again, still a nice looking cake, just my critical eye noticing the flaws."

• Domed tops on the cakes can happen if the heat distribution is not right and the cake bakes unevenly, or if your oven temperature is too high. Here are some ways to help prevent a domed top:
• Lower the temperature of your oven by about 15 degrees. Your cake will take a little longer to bake, but not too much longer.
• Buy the Magic Cake strips that you wrap around the outside of your pan. These help to distribute the heat more evenly and keep the cake from cooking too fast. 
• Buy really nice cake pans. 
• I remember my mother wrapping a wet flour-sack dishtowel around the cake pan (and diaper pinning it on). The did kinda the same thing as the Magic Cake strips. 

"3. I didn't cover my cake with as many M&M's as the original pinner did. I thought that would be way too much candy therefore the frosting is peaking through."

• This one's just a matter of personal preference. More candy will make it look like the original, but you'd probably have to eat them off before you cut into the cake. 

"4. I didn't have any pretty ribbons to wrap around the cake and even if I did, I'm not sure I'm crafty enough to figure out how to make a pretty ribbon fit around a heart shape."

• To make a ribbon "stick" to the heart shape I'd probably first try pinning it in with toothpicks, wood or plastic (read the comments to learn about not using metal pins). A little hole would have to be made in the ribbon before hand, but it could work...maybe. If that didn't work, I'd dab a little bit of Karo syrup on the back of the ribbon so that it'd stick to the heart. Maybe a combination of the two? 

Janell says, "So again, not a horrible looking idea, just not what I thought was not nearly as beautiful as the originally posted cake." I think her cake still was quite cute.