Wedding Cake Entirely Made of Fruit

This has been an insane few weeks, but as of Saturday evening my baby sister is married!

The wedding was stunning and genuine and full of love.  My mom and I made all the food (for 120 guests!) and we worked our butts off, but it was so worth it and came out so well.  We had many willing helpers - my sister and her new husband have a wonderful, sweet group of friends - and even with some last minute snafus it all came together beautifully.

The bride and groom during their first dance.  Isn't my sister gorgeous?

But I do have to say that of everything we made I was the most proud of the cake.  My sister has multiple food allergies that include (among many other things) most grains and sugar. So Mom and I created - using her cutting skills and my design - a wedding cake entirely made out of fresh fruit.
 

The Aiken Wedding "Cake"!

 
A cake the bride could actually eat! The base is 4 watermelons shaped very carefully. (Two on the bottom layer and one on each other layer.)  It is covered in blueberries, pineapple rings, and strawberries and topped with a pile of raspberries. We surrounded it with a bed of grapes.  I had a picture in my head as soon as they announced their engagement and it happily came out just as I envisioned.  It was a labor of love and my sister is so worth it!

All in all, it was a wonderful day and I know their marriage will be even better.  Congratulations you two!  

Food Trip Aftermath

Last week we made one of bi-annual trips to Atlanta to stock up our cupboards with food that are difficult to find (or extremely expensive) in our little mountain town.  This time it was just my mom, Fiona and I.  So much fun!  Fiona was much admired and Claire and Chandler had a fun filled day with Daddy!  When we left Claire requested we bring her back octopus and dragonfruit - I love that kid!  We quickly decided on a sushi night for the next day. 

Baby Octopus!

Bok Choy

Yummies

They were so excited.

Yum.

My awesome Claire

Silly kiddos

Our spread for make your own sushi night!

 And I couldn't leave out our awesome lunch later in the week!  Soba noodles topped with tempura fried yummies!  Otherwise known as Bowl of Awesomeness.

Making soap!

On Thursday my BFF, my mom and my kids met at my grandmother's house to make soap! My grandmother has made homemade soap for the family for years and it's starting to get a little tired of doing it so it's time for someone else i.e. me to take over the reins. We all met to make a bunch of batches and go over how to make it. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera. :( But, when I went back over the next day I brought it and got a few pics. First off, the recipe for everyone:

Grandma's Basic Lye Soap

1 Cup Lye Flakes (Sodium Hydroxide)
3 Cups COLD water
8 Cups Fats (lard, vegetable shortening, etc)

Mix Lye Flakes with cold water outdoors (due to fumes). Melt fats. Let both cool. (Lye to 90-95 and lard to close to the same, can be slightly more). Mix in large bowl (not metal. Glass is best, the lye can ruin a plastic bowl) and stir with a wooden or plastic spoon until thick enough that it "traces", the soap should lay on the top for a moment before sinking back in. When soap is consistency of pudding you can add any essential oils, colors, etc. Line soap molds with plastic wrap and pour into molds. Leave soap in molds 24 hours. Turn out onto towels and cut into blocks. Leave in an out of the way place for 2 weeks, turning occasionally. Then ready to use!

Some quick tips:
#1 Wear Gloves!!! Lye burns if it touches your skin, keep vinegar on hand if it does.

#2 Instead of using a spoon to mix it (which feels like forever) pick up a cheap hand held blender. Makes it MUCH quicker!

#3 You can get the lye at Lowe's or any hardware store but make sure it's Sodium Hydroxide. If you get Potassium Hydroxide the soap ends up too soft. My grandmother says she usually orders it online from a chemical company.

#4 Drawer organizers make great soap molds.
We had a lot of fun! Pictures of ingredients:

The Hand Blender we used. It really helped!

Ready to take out and cut.

Doesn't that look pretty?

Nice even pieces ...

The fruits of our labor! We made a lot!

The Girl and Little Man were so good playing at Grandma's house and not being in the middle of everything. And it was fun to have bonding time with my Mom and Grandma! It was so great that Anna (my BFF) was able to make it. We plan on trying to make a batch or two at her house together so we're both more comfortable at it. I really am turning into a hippie! ;)

Laundry Detergent Update

It works GREAT! My clothes have been very clean and fresh and smell great. The biggest test was in this last load. The Girl had gotten taco meat on her pale purple dress and I forgot to put stain remover on it. It then sat in the laundry room for several days. I just threw it in the washing machine and used the homemade detergent and 90% of the stains came out! There is one still there, but it is very faint and I think I only see it because I know it was there and searched. I am very impressed and will definitely plan on continuing making it!

My next batch with be with a bar of homemade soap and I will see how it is. I may decide to continue using Fels Naptha since it's so great at stain removing.

Look how crunchy I'm getting! Or is it cheap?

Well, I decided to try to make my own laundry detergent. For several reasons, it's better for the environment and it's cheaper! Not to mention it sounds cool! :)

A friend gave me the recipe and at first I was having a hard time finding all the ingredients. I looked on Amazon.com and everything would have come to $20. :( I was about to move on when I decided to check in our local Ace Hardware. I don't know about the Ace Hardware near you, but our Ace always seems to have all the weird, kooky things you can't find anywhere else. So I asked the lady at the counter and she pointed to the end of the aisle where all three ingredients were all standing right next to each other! It only came to $10.37! So here I go ...

Dry Laundry Detergent

1 Bar of soap (Fels Naptha is recommended and that's what I used for my first batch. I've been told Ivory works well too. Next time I plan on trying our family's homemade soap.)

1 Cup Borax

1 Cup Arm and Hammer Washing Soda (NOT baking soda) This was the hardest one to find.

I decided to go with the dry kind because it seemed simpler to make then the liquid, easier to store and I've always preferred powder detergent.



First I chopped the bar of soap into chunks and put it in the food processor. Luckily my mother was about to get rid of a food processor that was finicky, but that worked for me! Then I didn't have to get my regular food processor all soapy.



Then since I'm a little lazy and it seemed simpler I put the borax and the washing soda straight into the food processor.



Then I was done! I threw it in a quart size ziploc bag for now. It looks like a small amount, but it's concentrated so I am told you only need 1 tablespoon per load, 2 tablespoons if it's an extra dirty or big load. I should add that a friend told me she bought $12 worth of supplies the first time and it took her nearly a year to run out of one of the ingredients! $12 for a year's worth of detergent? Heck, yeah!



I'm excited and can't wait to see how it washes our clothes!