Bridal Shower

I did this cake for my same great friend...this was for a bridal shower. We did the cake to match the dress. Her bridal gown was white and opened in the back to this sage green with embroidery. The dress was beautiful. That day the winds were high and the moment I stepped outside to help deliver the cake the whole flower arrangement flew off. I was able to re-do the flowers and it all turned out fine.

Great things come in small packages!

Sweet baby Olivia is here! With a bunch of excitement...to hear about those details you will have to see the family blog...But back to baking...can you believe it. When the traumatic events unfolded a week ago today, I was decorating a cake for a two year old's birthday. It was going to be the cutest cake ever! I did not get to finish...and so in quite a cathartic way I made the NICU nurses a 1 WEEK OLD BIRTHDAY CAKE for Olivia! It is because of them and her Doctors that she is alive and growing stronger each day, and I am forever indebted to them!

The cake resembles the cake I was going to make the day she was born...just in a smaller package like her! It is a Butter Yellow Cake with Strawberry White Chocolate filling.

Calculator Cake

Last night I made a cake for a friend that is a math teacher. It was a few of her fellow math teachers birthday's so she ordered a cake. She is the most thoughtful person ever. I made a scientific calculator...the first request was a cake combining an ipod, goats and chickens, ac/dc, and Georgia Bulldogs... all of their favorite things....Hummm that would have been tricky. We decided on a math theme instead. Because she wanted to make them each feel special we did sugar cookies also. The cake was a Chocolate Fudge Cake with a cheesecake mousse filling. It was iced mainly in butter-cream with fondant accents.

Holiday Baking

We had a few parties to attend this past weekend, and I needed to bring some treats. I chose to make a Chocolate Peppermint Bundt Cake for one of them. The recipe is quite simple and turns out great every time. To make it look nice and add an extra sass I drizzled the cake with a fine white and a fine dark chocolate. I also added crushed peppermint sprinkles. The snowflake cookies were awesome.... and in the post to come. Here is the recipe for the cake:

Chocolate Pepermint Bundt Cake

1 pkg chocolate cake mix (I used choc. fudge)

1 pkg. instant pudding mix (i used choco. this time)

1 1/4 cups water

4 egg whites

1/2 cup butter melted

1/4 tsp. peppermint extract

Mix all ingredients adding eggs one at a time last. Beat on high for 2 min. Spread in greased Bundt pan and bake at 350 for 35to 40 min.

Let cool for 10 min. and reverse onto plate. Immediately poke holes into cake and drizzle with your favorite caramel topping (I like Richardson's because it is thick). Them drizzle with a combination of white and dark chocolate and crushed peppermint. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.

Happy Birthday Zoo Animals

This number two was to be placed standing up in the middle of the cake before the party...I wish I could have got a picture of it complete...but because fondant does not always like butter-cream and refrigeration I did not want it to get "gooey" overnight.

Okay so this was a great cake to make...time consuming...but great. All the animals are made out of fondant. You can't imagine how long it can take you to make the perfect sized ear, or eye ball...its ridiculous really. Although it could have something to do with the fact that it was 1:00 AM? I loved the combination of the hot pink and the Zebra stripes. I really do think it was much cuter in person than my poor pictures could ever capture. The cake itself was "funfetti white" with a butter-cream filling...she is only turning two, you can not expect anything to exotic.

As far as the animals...I think the Hippo turned out to be my favorite...or maybe the turtle...or the Giraffe? I hope the sweet 2 year old liked it! I know that daughter #2 has decided that this will be her birthday cake next year...minus the animals because, " come on mom, I'm turning 9!"

Shoe's!

I have been working with a shoe theme in mind as I thought of a church theme we are doing, "The Worth of a "Sole" is Great in the Sight of God"...so for refreshment and such I of course had to play around. I made the high heel shoe's out of fondant...as husband watched the election all night, I crafted high heels...not a bad trade-off.They are really very easy and I think they would be so cute on a shoe box cake. This cake however...not so cute. In the essence of time the cake was a Costco cake frosted white....I then proceeded to "dress it up" a bit to fit our theme for the night. I would have loved to make a shoe box cake, but with child # 3's surgery, pregnancy, cake balls, zoo animal cookies, and Wizard of Oz shoe cookies, peanut butter cookies (okay these were not mandatory) and homework all in the same night...I opted for Costco reved-up.

Reptile Birthdays!

The back view of the desert cake

The poor turtle looks scared to death...there is a snake hanging from the cactus behind him, and a Lizard about to eat his eggs... maybe that's why?

The front of the Desert Cake. You can hardly see my other turtle...bottom right corner, he was much happier and cuter!

The back of the Jungle cake.

Close-up view of the alligator and a frog on a lily pad.

You can hardly see the fish in the water...these are daughter #1's favorite part.

These are the cakes that I did for twin boys turning 5 years old. They were having a "Reptile" birthday party. The cakes were so much fun to make...I actually was surprised when I ended up liking the desert cake better than the jungle....I wasn't sure how a desert cake would turn out...but had a great time creating it. The desert cake was butter yellow cake with butter-cream filling, it was covered in butter-cream and then in graham cracker crumbs and sanding sugar ( to look like sand). All decorations were edible...some royal icing and the rest fondant.

The Jungle cake was chocolate fudge with cookies and cream filling, it was also covered in butter-cream with all edible decorations. Now I am working on more sugar cookies, this time "Red Ruby Heels"..think, "click, click, there is no place like home!"

SMU Cake

So tonight I tried the world famous "New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookie"...it lived up to its name. Most likely the best recipe I have tried, but more to come on that later...because I was to busy eating...savoring every morsel.... of them to take a picture, so I will post recipe and picture tomorrow. For tonight I ran across this picture of an SMU Cake I did for a graduation this spring. I loved the finished cake. I used chocolate for the SMU and the Mustang...I played around with a newly acquired clay gun to make the tassels, and the cap was a rice crispy treat. I never heard anything from the client....I hate it when they do not drop me a quick e-mail to let me know if they liked it....But then I wonder how many times I forget to tell people how pleased (or not ...hopefully not) with the things they make/do for me I am ...like the amazing Banana Bread that a friend gave me tonight. I have to remember to thank her and tell her that my daughter....when faced with my "world famous..." cookie or the banana bread, chose the banana bread hands down, and said that it was the best she had ever had!

Camping Cake

I did this cake for a friend this weekend. It was hers husbands birthday and he likes to camp....He is not a sweet-eater (weird I know) so she wanted only a small cake to help the family celebrate. The cake might have been small in size However I hope she thought it tasted awesome. I went to special lengths to make it taste extraordinary...The cake was vanilla, I made homemade sliced strawberry filling, which was layered on top of a homemade cream cheese filling ...and then iced all in buttercream. The decorations are all edible, the "rocks and logs" are fondant and the "sand" is graham cracker crumbs.

Baby Boy

I did this cake on Friday for a little boy baby shower. I loved the way the Teddy Bear turned out. He looked good enough to pick up and hug. I have come up with a new edible sugar glue which has helped my fondant work. The cake was Vanilla White Chocolate, with a filling of White Chocolate Buttercream and a layer of raspberry. The White Chocolate Filling also has a thin layer of pure White Chocolate over the raspberry...to give it a slight crunch. Yum!

With the left over white choc. buttercream and the extra cake from leveling it, we made "Halloween Cake Balls". I wish I would have taken a picture of them. My daughter did a fantastic job and they all said they were very tasty. She did ghost, pumpkins, witches, skeletons,and mummy's. We got the idea off of the "Bakerella" web site. She is the lady that pioneered the cake balls on Martha....hers looked slightly neater than ours! :)

More Cake

So on the days I neglect to bake...or more likely do not take a picture... I will post another cake picture. So today I made wonderful, and rather healthy, peanut butter cookies with dark chocolate...but I ate...and I did not stop to take a picture. I know I will be making them again in the near future, so I will wait and tell you all about them later....Now for the cake, this cake was done for a pre-school graduation celebration. All decorations are edible and made out of fondant. I am pretty sure we stuck with a very neutral palette of vanilla and chocolate layers, iced in buttercream.

Candy Cake

Here is a cake done for a little girl that told her mom..."I love candy and I want a candy cake". This was a really fun cake to make. The "lollipops" are made of fondant. Before she picked it up, I added big rainbow swirled lollipops that stuck out the top and really made for the cake. I covered the cake board with skittles. Can you say sugar rush!

Weekends!

This weekend I did what I have been doing most weekends lately...I made a cake. This time I did Spiderman. It was fun to do something different and that I have not done before. Even the flavors of the cake and filling were different from the norm ....Funfetti marbled cake (the marbling was an extra gesture to make it more "Spiderman" in the middle) and strawberry filling! The cake had BOY written all over it....I hope the birthday liked it. The cake was covered in buttercream, Spiderman was molded in fondant, the buildings were white chocolate, and the details and webs were royal icing. I had a great time making this cake. The picture is not the greatest..I need a new camera. I also added to the cake after I took the picture. I ended up putting buildings on the top of the cake for some more definition and more spider webs.

The Bowling Cake

Here is another cake that I did for a little boys birthday. They were having the party at the bowling center. This was such a fun cake to do. The bowling ball was rice crispy treat. All edible of course. The cake was chocolate fudge with an Oreo cookies and cream filling.

The Purse Cake

I did bake Cinnamon Rolls this weekend...I am on a quiet quest for a good cinnamon roll recipe. So far I have not been thrilled with any that I have tried....it is probably just me. I am not going to post the recipe because they were not anything very impressive. I am however going to post another picture of a cake. This is a "make-up" party cake that I did last spring for a little girl turning 7. I loved the earring backs. The cake is covered in buttercream...(I like to cover all if the cakes in buttercream because they taste so much better) Fondant would be more"perfect" looking but it really is all about the taste right? The accent pieces are in fondant.

Ike

Hurricane Ike had everyone thinking we were in for a rough and wild Saturday. So much that they cancelled all of the girls games, and the kids spent the day indoors. All that we got out of it after all... was a drizzly and uneventful weekend. It was a good thing I had a cake and a cookies order to fill my time.

I made this cake for a friend whose son is leaving on his mission, she wanted 2 dozen cookies and a cake for the open house. He is going to California (which explains the sun cookies). The cake is a rich butter cheesecake flavor with a raspberry white chocolate filling. The white chocolate gives just a slight crunch in the middle when you bite into it...YUM!

She hasn't picked them up yet so I hope that she likes them.

Birthday Firetruck

This is the last cake that I made. The cake was for a little boy turning 4 years old. His mom was taking the party to the fire station on a tour, and she requested a firetruck cake. It was so much fun to make! We added the Dalmatian dogs to match his invitations. Everything was edible.

Daddy had taken the kids to Six Flags...and it was 98 degrees outside...and $65.00 per person....and 98 degrees outside.... so I elected to stay home and yet again use my "alone" time to make a cake. The cake was Chocolate Fudge with a Cookies and Cream filling. I am electing not to post my cake and filling recipes on the site, however if you really desperately want them you can e-mail me. I promise something good to come this weekend though...It's one of the best things about a quiet Sunday afternoon...baking with the kiddo's.

The Cakes

So I have decided that I will start to post the pictures of my cakes. I love to decorate cakes....I crave a creative outlet, and I love to bake so really they go hand in hand. It was hard choosing one to start with. I ended up picking this wedding cake that I did. Each layer was customized in flavor and filling....everything from cheesecake mousse to chocolate toffee ganache. I skipped a family trip to Arkansas to make this cake...I was actually so excited to be home with only one daughter, we were going to have a "girls day out party" but low and behold, as it always does, the cake took over my life and before I could blink the crew was back....