Scooby-Doo Birthday cake

As you've guess we're really into Scooby doo! around here right now. After pinning about 10 different Scooby cake ideas we decided on one, just the top and middle tier though- I didn't care much for the blue tier. First we had to buy the toy figures ($10 at ToysRus compared to $16 on Amazon). Which we chalked up to her being a birthday present from us. First thing I did was take the number of tiers down from 3 to 2. I baked  two 6 in and two 8 inch vegan chocolate cakes. I let them cool. After that iced them. Then it was time for fondant fun. I had to make my own this time around because one of the kids is allergic to dairy. No worries... there is a pin for that. Which is my new saying.

http://pinterest.com/pin/195765915022222555/
http://seddy5.typepad.com/blog/2010/05/how-to-make-marshmallow-fondant.html

**Quick note : Make sure you really powder and butter the surface you're working on! and make sure the fondant is tough- not too soft (like melted marshmallow)**

1. Marshmallows - they can be big marshmallows or mini ones, either one works fine.
2. Powder sugar
3. Food coloring
4. Vanilla (or any flavor really)

 Take a handful of marshmallows in a microwave safe bowl. Add a bit of water (and some flavoring) and mix it up a little.  Heat up for 10 second intervals. mixing as you go.

 After that I added a bunch of powdered sugar (the original blogger does not specify). Butter your fork while mixing the two together. You want to have it REALLY stiff or when you try to put the fondant on the cake it will turn out like this:

You can add the food coloring after it's formed in a white ball or before. It didn't seem to matter. Now it's time to decorate! I have my colors (lime green, purple, orange,  neon blue, and pink). While working with the fondant I constantly added powdered sugar to keep it from sticking. It got to a point though that I flipped the fondant mat onto of the cake just to insure it wouldn't rip.

http://pinterest.com/pin/195765915023725172/
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1273760/scooby-doo-wedding

It was apparently a wedding cake originally- I would have put Daphne and Fred on the top for that...buut that's just me. All in all it was a very inspiring cake and I liked it (obviously).

for the strips, I just rolled the fondant out and placed it over the white fondant. The balls are the same- roll them and place them in a pattern.. The flowers are fondant cutters I own

Photo props
Party games

Scooby Doo photo props

http://www.etsy.com/listing/96092375/photobooth-prop-scooby-doo-and-friends?utm_source=Pinterest&utm_medium=PageTools&utm_campaign=Share

http://pinterest.com/pin/195765915023639140

Alright so Hannah is really into Scooby-Doo! right now and I thought for her birthday we would make a photo booth so that I get all the kids pictures. I happened to be searching other props when I found the Scooby-Doo one and just had to make it. Since it's on Etsy, I decided I'd make my own instead. They are actually easier to make than you think.

The first thing I did was find coloring pages of each character, then put it into paint workshop. I cropped out all the things I didn't want (i.e. faces, eyes, bodies) and kept only what I did. When I was satisfied with how they looked, I made sure my print preview that the image was the whole page. I printed it off, cut it out and traced it onto a piece of cardboard (I've been using hot cocoa and cereal boxes).

Once it is on cardboard I pinned it to the color of felt that I needed and cut that out. I turned on my hot glue gun and let that warm up while I snipped the sharp parts of the kabob sticks off. When the glue gun was ready I glued it all down. Half way through my printer died and I had to sketch Daphne's by hand using the size of Velma's as a template. Then it worked for Fred's ascot, then had to fake Scooby's collar and Shaggy's goatee.

The results are great. Are they are precise as the person on etsy? probably not (but at least Fred's ascot is the right color). It was also a heck of a lot cheaper!