A special cake for an amazing lady

Several months ago, while talking to my friend Jennie, she told me that she might be seeing more of me in May and June. Her mother has been affected by tremors for years and they had been getting to the point where she needed help to be able to function. She could barely hold a glass of water without her hands shaking. She soon discovered that Froedert hospital here in Milwaukee had one of the best neurosurgery teams in the state and went through an initial consultation. She was accepted as a candidate and the appointments were set for her pre-op appointment and the two surgeries required for her procedure. Both surgeries were scary for Jennie and her parents. After all - it's brain surgery. But she made it through both with flying colors. What an amazing woman. And my friend, being the awesome person she is, shaved her own head when her mother had to have hers shaved for the surgery.

Anyhow, the day of Jennie's mom's second surgery happened to be the same day as her birthday. When Jennie told me that after the first surgery, I said right away that I was going to make a cake for her mom. She may have been in the hospital, but dang it she was going to have her cake and eat it too! I asked Jennie what her mom's favorite color and cake flavor were, and she said yellow to both, and that yellow roses were her favorite. I didn't have any royal icing roses left and didn't have time to make more, so I did the next best thing - I made yellow roses with buttercream! The cake itself didn't even require any baking on my part. I used three cake layers that I had wrapped up and tossed in the freezer a couple of months ago. They were still just as moist as the day I had made them. The outside of the cake is vanilla buttercream and the layers are filled with the same.

Jennie's mom didn't know that a cake was on its way, so when I walked through the door to their hotel room, said, "I hear it's someone's birthday today" and presented the cake, she was so happy I almost started crying. I honestly have so much appreciation for everything she has gone through and her strength through all of it!

Happy Birthday Mrs. Silver. And many, many more!

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!

A Cake for a Friend

A few weeks ago, I was talking to my friend Jennie, asking her if she was ever going to come to visit me in Milwaukee. She lives three hours away and has been busy looking for a job, and most recently, helping out while her parents' house is under construction. All this while recovering from having major hip surgery after a nasty fall almost two years ago. After telling her that Lucas had a week off of school for spring break, and that Brian was taking that week off of work, she said that sounded good and she'd be coming to visit on Thursday and staying through the whole weekend. Needless to say, I was thrilled about having one of my best friends coming to visit me (and my kids were even more excited about getting to see Miss Jennie again), so I began planning. I had some activities planned, as well as the menu of all of the yummy meals I was going to prepare while she was here. Then, I posted pictures of my Easter cake and she made a comment about how I needed some cake testers - you know, for quality control purposes. Well, after seeing that, and knowing everything that she has gone through in the past two years, I just had to make a cake for her. Something simple, but heartfelt and as beautiful as she is.

The cake itself is yellow cake with chocolate buttercream frosting and filling, decorated with some of the royal icing roses that I had made a week before (and was able to use up some of the blue flowers that I had made last year, since blue is her favorite color and all.)

It was great to see you, Jennie, and I look forward to seeing you again soon :)