God Bless Casey

I love happy endings. And happy beginnings. Heck, I love anything happy! A little over a year ago, I made an awesome Incredible Hulk cake for my friend Leanne's son Luke. A few months later, she and her husband announced that after a long time of trying, they were expecting a little girl! I was so happy for her - especially since I would now be able to give her my daughter's baby clothes that I no longer needed. Cecilia was born at the end of December, and Leanne was due at the beginning of January. Perfect! After Casey was born, I brought the clothes over and she told me that she would be in touch for cakes for her baptism and Luke's first communion. Fast forward a couple months and I got an e-mail from Leanne saying that Casey's baptism was a little over a week away and she wanted a cake, but it didn't need to be fancy. Nice and simple, with lots of lavender. I found a design, she approved and I set to work. The cake itself is yellow cake with vanilla buttercream frosting. No filling on this one. I could have filled it but then the layers would have been really thin and there would have been more frosting than cake. I then added some fondant accents and letters, and dusted the cross with some purple luster dust.

A pretty cake for a pretty little girl!

When I dropped off the cake, Leanne was just finishing up giving Casey a bath. I waited patiently for her to dry Casey off and get her dressed, and then offered to hold her while Leanne wrote out the check for me. Casey is such an adorable baby - she took a few moments to warm up to me, but once I started talking to her and telling her that I'm the cake lady, and how I make lots of yummy cakes, her eyes just lit up! Looks like I have another fan!

Happy Baptism Casey and God Bless you and your family!

Cupcakes fit for a princess!

I know I've said it before, but I just love repeat customers. They remind me, in the midst of my doubts, that I must be doing something right because they keep coming back! In this case, it's my friend Rachel. Last year she ordered a La La Loopsy cake for her daughter Luci's birthday. I made a strawberry cake and although she only asked for enough cake to feed the children at her party, she said that the adults ended up wanting some too. She even said that they were happy to have the tiniest sliver, just so they could have some of that cake!

This year, she asked for the same cake, but in cupcake form. Decorations were up to me, but she wanted the colors pink and purple. I had some princess cupcake liners and picks that I had purchased a few years ago, so I used those. I whipped it up, put them in the oven, but when I took them out, something happened that reminded me of a previous experience. The cupcakes... sank. They were completely cooked, but it was because of the moistness of the cake that they did this. Didn't change the taste of the cake, but being a perfectionist, I wanted to make this right. I gave Rachel two options - I could put more frosting on top, or fill the cupcakes in addition to frosting them. I suggested lemon buttercream, which would make the cupcakes taste like strawberry lemonade. She was sold! (I even tasted the combo with an extra small layer I made with extra batter from the cake recipe and it was delicious!

Here they are!

There were only 23 picks in the package, but I figured, this way the 24th cupcake would be perfect to put a candle in for the birthday girl!

Happy Birthday Luci!

Carnations for Stephanie's mom

The beginning of this story goes back... way back. Earlier this year, I joined a book club. The books we have read have been very interesting, many of which are ones I never would have chosen myself but ended up loving. One of our most recent meetings was for the book "The Jefferson Key", and a big part of that book is pirates. Being the cake decorator I am, I made cupcakes - I used a box mix to which I added rum extract and then, I made this amazing spiced rum frosting. No recipe. I just made my usual buttercream and added rum extract, orange zest, baking spice and a touch of allspice. I baked the cupcakes in special pirate liners and put little flags on them.

Stephanie, one of the members of the book club, just fell in love with my spiced rum frosting. In fact, as we were leaving the meeting, she asked me if I could make a birthday cake for her mom at the end of September. She wasn't sure of the decorations yet, but all she knew was that she had to have more of that wonderful spiced rum frosting.

A few weeks later, we touched base again and she told me that she really liked the cake I made with the pink carnations and ribbon curls on it and wanted something similar, but without fondant - just lots of frosting.

I was beyond excited. The last time I made gum paste carnations was two years ago when I made them for my final cake decorating class. They were so much fun to make, but in the past two years, I haven't had any requests for that specific kind of flower. Until now. With this being a 6 inch cake, I made only three flowers, and dusted them with purple luster dust since purple is Stephanie's mom's favorite color. I even brushed the ribbon curls with it too, to give them a bit more sparkle.

And since Stephanie loves the frosting so much, I decided to cut each of my two layers in half to give her four layers of yellow cake and three layers of the yummy spiced rum frosting that she loves so much.

Happy Birthday Stephanie's mom! I hope you loved the frosting as much as your daughter does!