Pikachu and Pokeballs...or Food Blogging Dreams Dashed

I've often said that if I wasn't a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, I'd probably be doing something with food...because I just can't live without it (ba-da, bump).

Recently I had an epiphany that confirmed that as much as I love food (especially all things BAKED), I may never make it into the Blogger Stardom of greats such as Bakerella, Our Best Bites or Pioneer Woman. In fact, my baking is probably not even pinworthy...but after I buried any aspiration to those dreams, I thought I would at least share my attempts, because at least they were appreciated by 18 year old boys.

This is my Braden, a sweet kid who still loves to hug his mom, have birthday parties and play video games like Pokemon:

He celebrate his 18th Birthday at the end of March. Since it was the last "friend" party we would host (we alternate years through age 18: Friends one year, Family the next), I wanted to do something special for him, so I decided to make a Pokeball cake, "How hard can fondant be?" I thought to myself...

Luckily, Denise down at Goodies on Main Street saved me from myself and literally took me by the hand to help me create my masterpiece. THANKS DENISE! She worked magic with the fondant and let me put in a plug to grab her new book "The Cake Whisperer" when it comes out this month...and taught me a LOT about fondant. She was so gracious and helped me to the bitter end. 

Sadly, the Pikachu cake pops didn't fare as well, but I did finish ONE of them to show the boys that this is how he should have looked. I also made him the Pikachu's out of Red Velvet so it looked cool when they bit into them...and despite looking like they spent too long at the gym, they tasted good.

The boys jumped around at Hang Time in Orem until they were all sweaty (Hooray for having the party somewhere else!) and then we stuffed them with sugar and sent them home to bounce off their own walls. There was also pizza and video games in there somewhere, but it's all a blur...

Can you see Braden's "Lucky Shirt" gifted to him by his brother...it explains his sense of humor perfectly. His sister Kiersta earned points for his new Pikachu Game Boy gift and a good time was had by all. Top it off with $$ from his Grandparents and this totally stylin' Zelda/Link-inspired towel his grandma made for him (had to do a separate photo because I wouldn't want to be mixing my video game metaphors in a collage to confuse you, dear reader):

Yea...just imagine that hunk of meat walking around in just a towel and you'll get an appreciation for beef cake! Happy Birthday, Son... I love you. You make our family fun and always make me smile!