This one's for you, Shelly

Wow. I don't post a cake picture for SLIGHTLY over a week and I start feeling guilty because people (I won't mention names) aren't getting their usual fix of pics my edible art. I SO hate to be old and boring. And I SO love having such awesome fans.

So here you go. THIS delicious little treat of a cake was crafted for one of the birthday girl's co-workers. He's a wonderful man who's been very good to her. He was turning 61 last week and his wife was going to be out of town on his birthday, so daughter asked if I'd make him a little birthday cake that she could take in to work on his day. Although he toils daily in the field of photography, he truly loves his farm and his garden, and especially his tomatoes.

So I made him a little 6-inch two-layer chocolate fudge cake, smothered in fudge frosting and decorated with a white fondant picket fence which supported 12 buttercream tomato plants bearing 5 fondant tomatoes, each. The 61st tomato is found just to the right of the "y" in "Birthday."

I hear that the cake was devoured without proper forks, plates or napkins, but with proper reckless abandon and nearly endless licking of fingers. Chocolate can do that to a person. Or so I hear.

I have no orders for the week ahead, but stay tuned during the week after -- I'll be crafting an incredibly chic cake for my mother-in-law's birthday. And I have to ship it overnight to NYC. Keep either your fingers crossed or me in your prayers, whichever works for you, that this cake makes it there in one piece. Or I shall surely be daughter-in-law non-grata.

Luv Birds close-up

I totally forgot to put shoes on the groom. But the bride was happy that I made her chest area so generous.

Birthday Cake for the Bride-to-Be

What a challenge this one was! The birthday girl has been saving ideas for what she wants her wedding cake to look like for several months now. This one incorporates several different concepts, to see how we like each one. The top layer features "LuvBirds" that she saw on Kate Sullivan's awesome website. I did my best to re-create them. The next layer features the lace-up detail from her wedding gown. The third layer features my attempts at fondant ruffles and more practice with the gold luster dust. I still need lots more practice! I love it, but it gets all over your fingers like crazy, then everything you even think of touching takes on a golden sheen. I now fully understand the angst of King Midas. The bottom layer is practice with the harlequin look so popular in topsy-turvy cakes. You'd be surprised how difficult it is to cut free-hand diamond shapes in appropriately graduated sizes. That is champagne-colored luster dust, mixed with vodka, and hand-painted on the diamonds. They really should call that color pink champagne. It's quite pink.

The Wedding Cake

Ta da! A simple wedding cake, created for a small in-home wedding (20 people) this afternoon. The bride is wearing a darling two-piece white suit that features covered buttons down the front -- thus, the fondant buttons on the cake. The groom wanted a soft pink rose with a pale green stem on top, so I took it a few steps further and came up with this design.

The bottom tier is a 9" two-layer, White Almond Bridal cake with strawberry filling, iced in buttercream and covered in fondant. Top tier is a 6" version of the same, and they will save that (well wrapped in plastic wrap and foil) in their freezer to be enjoyed on their first anniversary.

The Groom's Cake

This was a surprise gift from the bride to the groom. He won't see it until after the wedding later today, so let's hope he's not peeking in at the blog this morning. A groom's cake, if you're unfamiliar with the concept (I understand it's way more popular in the south than above the Mason-Dixon line), is smaller than the wedding cake, typically chocolate, and designed to reflect the groom's interests.

The bride told me he's a huge UT fan, and he loves to garden. So this is what I came up with. A 9" two-layer chocolate fudge cake with mocha filling and icing, trimmed out in a burnt orange fondant rope, with a glorious sunflower on top. The sunflower petals are shaped from 3 shades of fondant and the seeds are tiny bits of the mocha icing.

Happy Anniversary

Youngest daughter babysat this week for a couple celebrating their 5th wedding anniversary. She thought it would be fun for me to make them a little cake to honor the occasion. I thought so, too.

This is a tiny little 6" two-layer cake, same as what typically would be the top layer of the wedding cake that the couple saves for their first anniversary. It's my White Almond Bridal Cake, iced with buttercream, then covered/decorated with fondant. The ribbon, roses, pearls and leaves are shaped from fondant, then brushed with an edible glitter called "luster dust." I love that stuff!

No pictures to post right now ...

... but stay tuned. I'm working on a precious little wedding cake (and corresponding groom's cake) this week. Pictures will be up by next weekend.


Also ... a friend of youngest daughter proposed marriage to me the other day after I fixed him a nice big bowl of my cake-scraps-with-icing. I had to turn him down, of course ... but darling hubby (of 25 years!) simply asked him, "How big is your dowry, dude?" Yeesh.