Sneaker Cake- A Runaway Success!

First off- thanks to those of you who left me encouraging comments when I posted part-one about making this cake. I appreciate your comments so much!

Although I could imagine the blob of cereal treats turning into something resembling a shoe, imagination and reality are often two very different things. And To be honest, I had my doubts that this cake would really turnout. I felt like there was a real good chance I'd need to put "plan B" (whatever that was) into place.

But I worked slowly and carefully, had some help from my sister, and luckily a really good week with my dizziness. And the cake was finished pretty much exactly as planned.

I could not be happier with the way the sneaker turned out.

The shoe held up just fine once the weather dried out (and funny enough ended up being the same size as my hubby's actual sneaker)!

The shoebox was straightforward and covered with fondant before I knew it.

In fact it went together so fast I ended up putting some extra painted details on it and adding custom label with The Mister's birthday vitals and a "Happy Birthday" message.

It's such a great feeling to step back from something you weren't sure you could do- take a look at it and realize that you've not only met, but actually exceeded your expectations.

Best of all The Mister loved it!

And I have to admit, after not being sure how this cake would turnout, it felt really good to have people say "I thought it was a real shoe". LOL

And just in case there are a few people who still have a hard time with the sneaker being a cereal treat (Auntie Pam). LOL : )

It really is... here's the proof!

Mini Pinatas

These mini pinatas make perfect place settings or party favors for Cinco de Mayo. Plus they open up so you can actually hide candy inside!

But can you guess what I used to make them?

Would you believe they started out as plastic Easter eggs and scrap paper!

I knew I wanted to try and make some individual sized pinatas. But didn't want to have to construct them all from paper mache. I needed a little container to build off of, but had no idea what I could use. While scanning my supplies for possibilities I noticed a package of oversized eggs that we picked up after Easter for 50 cents. The regular plastic eggs would have been a little too small, but these oversized ones seemed just right. And at only 50 for the pack of six I figured why not give it a shot.

I made some small paper cones and taped them to the egg using regular old gift wrap tape.

Then cut half inch strips out of various colors of scrap paper I had laying around.

I applied a roll on permanent adhesive across one edge of the strip. Then used fringing scissors to cut the other edge of the strip to look like the frilly crepe paper edge you think of when you think pinata.

The fringing scissors are a must for this project, it would have been way too tedious to try and do this with regular scissors! (Believe me I tried.) But the pinatas are so small that the scissors were making a fringe that seemed too wide and out of scale. So I decided to double cut the paper. After cutting the fringe I'd slide the scissors over and cut again in between each fringe.

This is what the paper looks like after cutting once with my scissors. This is how it looks after the second cut.

This is how it looks after the second cut.

Once the fringing was done I'd wrap the paper around the pinata base, starting with the cones then covering the egg itself.

When you get to the middle be sure to place the strips on either side of the seam where the egg opens.

If you're making a bunch of these it's also easiest to add the candy to the egg at this point. Then finish covering the eggs. Once you cover over the seam with fringe it's fussy to close it again without closing some of the fringe inside.

I used regular scissors to trim down the length of my strips. And also to miter any edges that I needed to work around the base of the cones.

This isn't a difficult project. The first one was definitely a bit of trial and error. But after that I was surprised at how fast I could whip these up. Once you have the process down this makes a perfect T.V. watching project.