A pretty little birthday cake...

...wrapped up in a bow

Get Well Card

Eldest daughter came up with this idea -- an open Get Well card standing on top of a cake. It's for her future mother-in-law who unfortunately landed in the hospital last week, but she's home and recovering nicely now, thank goodness.

Picture quality is not up to par, sorry. Not sure what was wrong with the camera today. (Or maybe it was the photographer (me) who wasn't up to par?)

Slug Bug

I made this for a friend of ours who turned 40-something ... he drives a dark blue VW beetle.

Showing Support

A last-minute fun cake for a friend of ours ... who's turning ... ahem ... 39 today. For maybe the 9th time? My lettering could use some work -- it says, "Shari's 39 (again). Let's show her some support."

Just Because

Just a pretty little gift cake I put together today for some elderly friends of ours who are going through a tough time right now. I thought it might lift their spirits to have a pretty (and delicious!) cake to enjoy.

Hostess Gift

So ... we're invited to dinner at a dear friend's home tonight, and she won't let me bring anything to contribute to the meal ... so she gets this instead. A tiny "personal cake" just for her and her husband to enjoy, later.

I've been wanting to try the quilting technique and the pillow-cake technique ... what do you think? It looked a lot like a pie with a teal-colored top crust when I started out ... but if you squint your eyes, twirl around three times and click your heels together -- does it kinda sorta look like a pretty little gift pillow, fit for a princess or a queen?

Oh dear. Why do I keep hearing that nursery song, "Four and twenty blackbirds, baked in a pie..." repeating over and over in my head?

Darn. It DOES still look like a pie, doesn't it? Oh well. It's a pretty pie. Especially if you like teal crusts.

Prize Winner!

So ... I entered an on-line baby shower cake contest a while back with the "Just Ducky" cake I made for Baby Kurt (see the post in the June archives) ... and I won second place!

Woo-hoo!

I win a whole $25 and get to call myself a prize-winning, professional, cake artist now!

Here's a link to the results page of the contest:

http://www.baby-shower-guide.com/creative-baby-shower-cakes.html


And stay tuned ... I'm in the process of crafting a tiny little hostess-gift cake and a feel-better-soon cake today. Pictures to come.

Bikinis and Martinis

A cake created for a fun-loving group of gals celebrating the "39th" birthday of one of their own, at a lakeside party. This design was based on the Evite invitation/theme the hostess used. Dark chocolate cake (of course) with buttercream icing. Cake is covered in fondant with fondant waves, bikini, martinis, palm trees, olives and coconuts. The whitecaps on the waves are piped buttercream.




Another view. Oh, and ... real toothpicks skewer the olives into the martini glasses.

Foods 2

This cake was created to celebrate the completion of middle daughter's capstone class for her Hotel/Restaurant Management degree. Ten students ran a small full-service restaurant, all by themselves, two nights/week for six weeks. The tools of their trade are crafted out of fondant -- chef coat and pants, chef's hat, kitchen clogs, saute pan, knife, and apron (hidden behind the hat). There's even a bill for dinner for six (complete with a $40 tip!), and the Daily Specials blackboard says thank you to their professor for all the fun.

Family Reunion

A full sheet cake, half chocolate and half white, iced in buttercream with all-fondant decorations.

Stay tuned for ...

... an upcoming family reunion cake for 50, and a birthday cake for 'a woman of a certain age', with the party theme being "bikinis and martinis".

Fun!

Miss Belle's demise

Just in case you've been thinking that these cakes are too pretty for anyone to eat -- we had no problem devouring her last night. Proof positive, above. She was yummy!

Miss Liberty Belle 2006

Happy 4th of July, everyone!

This was a blast of a cake to do -- right down to Miss Belle's crack. I usually have to work extra hard to not have those darn cracks in my fondant. This time I got to make one on purpose and even paint it with food coloring to enhance it. She holds a single candle/firecracker to celebrate our country's 230th birthday.

Sarah's Cake

This was made for a sweet girly-girl ballerina who's turning nine. It might be hard to tell from this picture, but that's a tiny pair of pink ballet slippers pirouetting on top of the stage. The stage itself is a tiny (chocolate) cake perched on top of the main (chocolate) cake below, and has its mint green curtains drawn back to announce whose birthday it is!

How a cake is made

Thought y'all might want to see what a cake goes through before I'm finished with it. In this case, I'm practicing for eldest daughter's wedding cake next year -- her latest desire is for a "Topsy-Turvy" cake, so I thought I'd better start practicing.

This is a tiny version of the eventual masterpiece, which started out with 2 9x13 cakes that I carved into appropriate-sized circles. Now I have a huge bowl full of cake scraps left over, along with a bunch of icing, so I'll eventually make some festive "cake balls" to foist off on any unsuspecting visitors that might stop by. Later, though. I baked these cakes Friday night and froze them. Thawed them out Saturday morning, then started the process at 2:30 Saturday afternoon. An hour later, I was at this stage: (see below)

Crumb Coating

See all those crumbs? That's what happens when you try to carve a 3-tiered round cake out of two rectangles! You have to glue the crumbs back onto the cake with icing. Still wondering how a topsy-turvy cake gets made out of those two flat slabs of cake? Stay tuned.

This was right before....

I had to go help youngest daughter with the bloody nose of the little boy she was babysitting. Then had to let out-of-town neighbor's dog out, and the poor dear was evidently constipated, so it took her forever to do her business. So I got back to the cake an hour later, washed my hands for the 90th time, and worked 'til 2:30 am on it. Woke up at 6:30 to put on the finishing touches, and ...

Voila!

If any of you are viewing this in Houston today, you can stop by tonight and have a piece. And bring your friends. Please!

And now there's a movie!

Oh my gosh. Check out this review. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13468807/

An entire movie about cakes and their artists!

Can't wait 'til it comes to Houston.

Emily's 21

My most ambitious undertaking to date. Totally edible, fondant (sugar paste) shoe, crafted after one that I grabbed out of her closet. The purse is 3 layers of chocolate cake, iced in buttercream, with fondant applied all around 'til it looked like a purse!