My first stacked/tiered cake!

Ever since I finished my cake decorating classes back in June, I've been looking forward to expanding my horizons with one last bit of cake decorating knowledge - stacked cakes. Not just wedding cakes, although that's what most people think of, but I also saw this as a different way to make a lot of cake without doing a half sheet pan that takes up an entire table. So I signed up for the class, thinking it would be a lot of talking, maybe working with some styrofoam, and that would be it. Nope. I had to bring with me to the class a 6" two-layer cake and a 10" two-layer cake. My first thought was "what the heck am I going to do with all this cake when I'm done?". And then, at church the day after I registered for the class, an announcement was made about the fall festival and a need for baked goods. Yes! So right after church was done, I zipped to the back, talked to the lady in charge of the festival and offered to donate my cake to serve as a dessert for the turkey dinner on Saturday night. She was thrilled, and so then I began on deciding the flavor and design of my cake.

Flavor was easy - I wanted something fall-ish, so I went with applesauce cake for the top tier. Then for the bottom tier I chose pumpkin cake. For the design, I went simple - I had a set of small cookie cutters in the shapes of an apple, a pumpkin and a leaf, so I used them to cut out shapes in gum paste, scored veins in the leaves and then made three gum paste mums for the top. I frosted the cake with cream cheese frosting (and used buttercream to even out some of the bumps - thus the mottled look) and used buttercream again to make grass, leaves and vines. Despite the imperfections, the cake was a hit - it was gone in just over an hour!

Baby block cakes!

When I got the invitation in the mail for my cousin, Jessica's baby shower, of course I got all excited about making a cake for the event. It didn't matter that the shower was only one week after the wedding that I was scheduled to make the groom's cake for - I was doing it!

Of course my Aunt was happy to have me make the cake, and even gave me complete creative license. Her only request was that the cake be chocolate, and no girly colors, since her grandchild-to-be is a boy.

It took a bit of searching - so many ideas and so little time - but I finally decided on a baby block cake. Now I had heard some horror stories about working with smaller cakes, which I believed because working with the little round cakes for my niece's smash cake was very challenging (good thing I was able to just fix it with lots of frosting!).

So, to make things easier on myself, I opted to make 4 inch cubes instead of 3 inch ones. The frosting part was easy, and the fondant part wasn't too hard, except that I had lots of little wrinkles at the bottom of each block. Easy fix though - just covered it up with frosting lines.

 And here's the fun part. All four cakes were chocolate, but each had a different filling. One was vanilla buttercream, one was peppermint buttercream, one was chocolate buttercream, and the last one was peanut butter buttercream.

Congrats and best wishes to my cousin - hope you (and your baby!) loved the cake!

What's black and white and red all over?

Yeah, I know. Old joke. But in this case, it isn't a newspaper. It's a cake!

Six months ago, My hubby's nephew Thomas got engaged. Seeing as I was in the process of taking cake decorating classes, I jokingly told him that I should make the wedding cake for them. Well, he sent his nephew a text, after which I told him to take it back before I got myself into some seriously hot water. He did, but then something happened that surprised me. His nephew asked if I would be interested in making the groom's cake for their wedding instead. After lots of thought (and a little encouragement from my cake decorating instructor, Ann), I decided to go ahead and do it. Then came deciding on a design. When I asked what kind of groom's cake he wanted, he said he'd be interested in something Packer themed, but when I discovered that the wedding cake would be decorated with the color purple, I knew I couldn't make a Packer groom's cake without making the wedding cake look like it was designed by a Vikings fan.
So I asked for other ideas, and he told me that he liked music too, so I googled some images, presented him with a few and he chose one. I was totally excited because it looked really cool, but relatively easy to decorate because of how simple it is. Then came the cake flavor. I started going down my list, and the groom was sold on the idea of red velvet cake. I have to admit, I was a little apprehensive, especially since it would be covered in white fondant. Would the red bleed through? So, I did a practice cake (see my birthday entry) and once I was sure it would work, I prepared for this undertaking.

Now, let me say first of all that this is the biggest cake I have ever covered in fondant. So yeah - I was a little bit nervous. But in the end, it was a lot easier than I thought. And it took a bit longer than I thought, but once I was done, I was so proud of my work, and honestly, I had to keep my head from floating away at the wedding reception, considering all the compliments I got.

Here, a picture of Thomas, the groom, pretending to "play" his piano cake. Oh, and the notes on the side are music from an actual song. One of his favorites - the theme for Star Wars. He recognized it the moment he saw it. :) Congrats, Thomas and Tasheena, I'm so glad I got to be part of your special day!!!

Winnie the Pooh and his little hunny bee!

I was so excited to be able to make the cake for my niece's first birthday, especially since it meant making a smash cake. When she told me the theme - Winnie the Pooh, I thought, well that will be easy. I looked up some designs and none of them really appealed to me. I thought of doing a shaped cake, but couldn't find a pan available that I liked. So I asked my sister if she could send me a picture of some of the decorations she got, and I'd work from that. Thus came my inspiration. I went to the website she gave me, printed a picture of one of the decorations, traced it and then enlarged it so it would be big enough to fit on half of a quarter sheet cake. I used a pinprick transfer technique (I would have used a piping gel transfer, but with all of the small details, I thought this would be easier). It was easier in some ways and more difficult in others, but in the end it came out great.

Then came the smash cake. I was lucky enough to find a set of three 4-inch cake pans when I was shopping at Farm and Fleet (really... who knew?), so I used two of them to make a little two layer smash cake. And since the theme was Winnie the Pooh, I thought, what would be cuter than a little honey bee? For the wings, I could have used gum paste, but I figured I'd use something more edible to a one year old - nilla wafers!

Both cakes were chocolate with raspberry buttercream. Yum!


Happy Birthday little Evelyn!

34 and holding ;^)

Okay... so I am 35 today. Halfway through my 30's and that much closer to 40. Ugh...

Anyhow, so I decided, for my birthday, to make myself a little cake, and in doing so, I was able to practice for another cake that I'll be making a month from now. The one I am scheduled to make later is going to be red velvet with white fondant covering, so I wanted to see if the red coloring would bleed through the fondant after a few days (thus giving me more time to make that cake and not be scrambling at the last minute). So far it's still looking good and I made it two days ago :)

So, Happy Birthday to me, and to anyone else who was blessed to be born on this day as well :)

Happy Birthday to my little man!

Now on to the real reason I started taking cake decorating classes - so I could make really great birthday cakes for my kids. So when my son Lucas decided he wanted a Cars cake, I got all excited and started looking up ideas. Thing is, most of them were much more complicated than I was willing to attempt, and would have made a lot more cake than I needed.


So I opted for a cute little racetrack design. Initially, I had planned on using crushed oreo cookies for the road, with white lines down the middle. And then my son decided he wanted a lemon cake. Fine with me, since I had a box of lemon cake mix in the pantry (maybe that's where he got the idea?). However, chocolate and lemon really don't go together, so I decided on a graham cracker dirt road, complete with "tracks' that I carved out with my fingers, and grass with my favorite decorating tip.

Then, because I had to put some fondant on it, I did some stars on the sides, with inlays. My little guy loved it and he had an awesome birthday.

Happy Birthday Sweetie!!

Flags and Fireworks!

Every year for the 4th of July, my sister-in-law Donna hosts a 4th of July party at her house. Everyone brings their own meat and beverages and a dish to pass. Originally, I was going to make a cake, but then when I got the order for the birthday cake, I decided to make cupcakes instead, and I knew exactly what design I wanted to use.

Happy 4th of July!!!

Super-Why!

After completing my fondant and gum paste class, I posted the pictures of my cake on facebook with a comment stating that now that I was done with cake classes, I was ready to take orders. Less than an hour passed and I had a message from a friend asking me to make a cake for her daughter's 4th birthday. She sent me a picture of the type of cake she wanted and I knew I was in for a challenge. An awesome challenge. Not only did she want a cake covered in fondant, but she wanted a picture on it as well. Now I know, I could have done the picture in buttercream, or royal icing, but being the overacheiver I am, I decided to do it with a fondant/gum paste blend. It took me a bit longer than I originally thought, but I just loved how it turned out. I was actually kind of sad to give the cake up, knowing that in a matter of hours, it would be cut into little peices. But it was all worth it, knowing that the birthday girl absolutely loved her super-why cake.

 Happy Birthday, Olivia!!

Something old, something new, something red and white and blue!

While I was taking my flowers and cake design class, I was asked to make a cake for my cousin Rebecca's wedding shower.
Okay - so I offered. Enthusiastically. Practically begged. And my aunt accepted, of course. When I talked to my cousin to ask what the colors were for her wedding, she said they were red and aqua blue. What luck - those were the colors I was planning to use for my final cake! So I made a ton of extra flowers and decided to make a square cake since a round one wouldn't have been enough to feed everyone. Then I chose a design from my course book, that had apple blossoms on the sides of the cake, with white buttercream vines. Very elegant and very beautiful. It was a chocolate cake with amaretto filling (one of my favorite flavor combos) and everyone loved it. Congrats, Rebecca!

Course Three - Fondant and Gum Paste!

I think this was the class that I was most excited about - ever since I started watching the show "Ace of Cakes", I wanted to be able to make a cake covered with fondant. Little did I know just how frustrating fondant and gum paste could be! Of course, it didn't help that I had to wait until the final class to actually cover a cake with fondant. What a lesson in patience! The remaining classes were devoted to learning how to make a bow, and making gum paste flowers like roses, carnations, calla lilies, daisies and mums.

It took a lot of thinking for me to decide on a design for my final cake, but I think it turned out pretty well. And I went all out for this - I could have made it easier on myself and used a package of store-bought fondant, because it's so much easier to work with, but noooo. I made my own chocolate fondant! It was easier than I thought it would be, but man, did my hands hurt from kneading it! Totally worth it in though - in the end I had a gorgeous cake!

Course Two - Flowers and Cake Design

     This class was a lot of fun - I learned to make flowers with royal icing.I was the most excited about learning to make the Wilton Rose, but little did I know that I'd be making lots of other fun flowers too! In addition to the roses, daisies and apple blossoms that I put on my cake, I also learned how to make daffodils, lilies, violets, rosebuds, primroses, button flowers, and pansies. And then on top of all of that, I learned how to do the basketweave technique and the rope border.

Course One - Decorating Basics!

Here are some pictures of cakes (and cupcakes) that I made in my first series of cake decorating classes.

 My first cake - a St. Patty's Day cake to practice doing a piping gel pattern transfer

 Class 2 - cupcakes!

 Drop flowers

 Pompon flowers - so cute!

 The shaggy mum

 a cute little caterpillar

My final cake for Course 1 - Decorating Basics

A lovely Easter cake decorated with drop flowers, leaves, lots of grass (I have to admit - I love decorating with that tip!) and a white ribbon rose!

Just the beginning...

So, a bit more detail about me  - I am a stay-at-home mom to two crazy kids, who decided, in an effort to obtain a creative outlet, to take some cake decorating classes. I never thought it would become a business and still am trying not to get my hopes up. I sold one cake already, and nothing since then, but am open to whatever possibilities are out there. If you like my cakes and want me to make one for you, please feel free to contact me and I'll do my best to make you the most awesome cake ever!