Five

Well... my littlest one has turned 5. Oh what a milestone five feels like to such a little guy. He feels so big now, he even told me he is pretty sure he felt himself grow a little over night.

I have been wanting a make a birthday ring for my children for some time now. As I ventured into my project, it got the interest of my husband. As we looked for birthday rings to make we came across this post that features a star birthday ring made by Grimm.He found that one to be very interesting and so we set off to make a similar one. Ours only has 6 points. I think it turned out quite nice for our first try. Oh, and Nature Daddy also had an idea of something he wanted to add to it. The kids love this hanging candel holder I got for Christmas, so he made a base for our birthday ring and a hanger for the candle holder. I thought it was very nice addition to our centerpeice.

The cake I was making for him was supposed to be a mushroom gnome house. Unfortunatly I didn't wait long enough before putting the icing on. I knew better, really I did. I was just in a hurry and, well, I am sure you've been there before. You realize after the fact, "If I only waited!" The mushroom was made with a recipe I found for black bean cake. It turned out really Yummmy! I decided to make the frosting with coconut oil. (That is why I REALLY should have let the cake completely cool before icing. Cocnut oil melts at something like 76 degrees. Should have should have! Oh well) The frosting tasted amazing! I will post my recipe at the end of this post for you to try. Oh, but I forgot to tell you. Mama got frustated with the cake and walked away. Big 14 yr old brother stepped in and finished it up for me. I was so proud of him! I didn't get a good picture of the cake but you can see it behind the birthday ring. I just may have to turn more of the birthday cakes over to him!

And here is the present I made for him. I made him a gnome's mushroom house playmat. I also cut him a gnome with my scroll saw, somehow he didn't end up in the picture though. I am sure plenty more gnomes will be added before long though. Oh, as promised, here is the recipe for the coconut oil frosting. Coconutty Frosting 1/2 c virgin coconut oil 1 1/2 lb-2lb powder sugar 1 can coconut milk 1t vanilla pinch of salt Make sure the coconut oil is soft. cream it in the mixer. Then add about a pound of the powder sugar. mix it well and add the creamier portion of the can of coconut milk. I never added the watery part. Add vanilla and salt and blend well for a few minutes. If it isn't thick enough add more powder sugar. I also added, only because I had it on hand, a little bit of coconut palm sugar. It gave it just a little more cocnutty flavor. Now, MAKE SURE, your cake is COOLED before using this icing! Enjoy!