AmaraLand

Awesome baking abilities run in the family and Amara is inheriting them. I remember what a wonderful cook my Grandma was and I like to think that I take after her. My real mother did not cook but my step-Mom Donna has won ribbons at the County Fair for the cakes she has decorated. I can remember Jenna sitting in her high chair holding her finger out hoping that Grandma Donna would squirt frosting on it as she frosted tall, elegant wedding cakes. She always did! I have always loved to cook and bake but Jenna is truly amazing! She even has her own cooking blog. Today she was working on 3 cakes at once for the upcoming Cake Walk at Amara’s school.

Amara was almost 5 when she first tried her hand at cake decorating. Her Aunt Sandy sent her (and me) a Wilton Gingerbread House for Christmas. Amara was so excited and so we planned to spend a Saturday afternoon working on it together. I did the assembly and let me tell you – that was the hardest part! One of the back pieces was cracked and had to be frosting glued back together and trying to get it all to balance was quite a task. She was patient while I glued all the pieces together and like her Mommy frequently held out her finger to be decorated. The over-sized apron she is wearing is one that Grandma Donna made for me. She loves the skirt on it and it almost touches the floor on her.

Once I got it all put together Amara did a great job of covering it all with frosting. I was really impressed! You could tell she had watched Mommy. Then she did all of the decorating herself! She looked at the pictures on the box but she had her own idea about how it should look. This was the first of many decorating projects Amara and I have done and will do over the years ahead.

Our next project came 4 months later when we created an Easter Bunny Hutch. This one was much easier as it came assembled in the box so Amara could get right to the fun part – decorating and licking frosting off her fingers!

Look out Duff Goldman!

Halloween that year meant decorating a Haunted House. It had lots of orange and black frosting – you can see the black frosting on Amara’s lips! She had such a good sugar rush going by the time Mommy and Daddy came to get her.

Next up was another Christmas Gingerbread House. It came assembled but it also came with a Christmas Tree that was not! You had to break the cookies in to 2 pieces and then frost/glue the 4 pieces together and make it all stand up on its little base! I managed to get it put together and our girl had a blast making it all beautiful! So did Grandma.

When Halloween rolled around this year I was keeping my eyes out for something we could do, we hadn’t done one since Christmas! All of the haunted houses I found were un-assembled, you know how I feel about that. I’ve become spoiled! So when I found this Cookie Graveyard it seemed like a great idea. It was a lot of fun but we kept having trouble with the tombstones falling over. I told Amara it was just like in a regular graveyard! I’m not she understood my logic but her Mom did! There was also no way you could write RIP on one of those grave markers unless you put the frosting in a regular decorator’s bag with a very small tip – which of course I did not have! But we made the best of it and we both had a great time!

This Grandma thing sure is a lot of fun!