Cookies for The Matriarch

A dozen highly decorated teacup and birthday-cake cookies for a family matriarch who is turning 90. Her granddaughter is gifting her with these, along will 11 more treats and goodies, one each month, for the year ahead. Stay tuned to see what we come up with for the year as she moves toward 91!

Waiting for the Frog Prince

Another little shipper cake, sent to youngest daughter's best friend off at college in Fort Worth. I'm afraid Mr. Frog probably melted a bit during his trip ... but this is what it all looked like when it left here! Pink champagne cake. Buttercream iced, fondant decor.

Back to School

UPDATE: Not a single crumb was left. Not one. And this was a 3-layer, 10" round. Next time I'll go for a 3-layer, 12" round.


Youngest daughter wanted to take a cake to the teachers and staff at the elementary school where she works in the Extended Day program. I hope it made their first Friday back at work a little bit more fun. This turned out to be a Neapolitan cake ... one layer chocolate, one layer white, and one layer pink champagne. Iced with buttercream. The Wise Owl mascot was done with royal icing. Can't wait to hear how many crumbs were left. I love teachers -- they love my cakes!

A Change of Taste (so warn your taste buds before viewing)

I couldn't resist posting this beautiful picture of Mother Nature's Bounty. I grew up in southwestern Michigan where Dad planted tomatoes in our summer garden every year. I took those luscious beauties SO for granted back then. I can still taste a Michigan tomato BLT in my mind. The tomatoes in Texas, and modern tomatoes in general, don't hold a candle to what we grew up with.

But these gorgeous orbs come darn close. This is a case of organic heirloom tomatoes that we are wildly fortunate to be in possession of. I'm eating tomatoes for breakfast, lunch and dinner as long as this supply holds out.

I hope you warned your taste buds before viewing. Cake and tomatoes don't go so well together.

Flutter by, butterfly

I don't know if you can see those butterflies very well or not, but they're printed on rice paper with edible inks, then cut out and applied to the cake. This young woman ordered her own birthday cake, and wanted realistic-looking butterflies on it. I originally thought I'd do an authentic nature-scape type cake, complete with all the plants that butterflies love ... but as it progressed it turned into more of a Secret Garden type cake. When she came to pick it up, one look at her told me that the cake had turned out perfectly for her personality.

Photo Chick

A last-minute cake for a gal who has a regular day job but is also a freelance photographer. Do you just love that little fondant camera and the filmstrip bottom border or what???

A stitch in time

Another little shipper cake. This time it's going to my other aunt in Michigan. She's been known to sew a mean seam or two in her life. She's also the best sewing machine tune up and repair person I've ever seen. I loved making those buttons.

Quarter of a Century

Hard to believe it's been 25 years since our eldest daughter burst onto the scene and turned our lives (delightfully) upside down. We celebrated last night with this pink and girly party cake. Alternating layers of vanilla bean and pink champagne cakes, swathed in buttercream, decorated with fondant. I think we've got a new favorite in that pink champagne flavor. It was delish!

Once in a Blue Moon

... was the theme for this wedding. A wonderful fairy tale story of true love blossoming at mid-life. Although the real hydrangeas they're selling in all the grocery stores right now are absolutely gorgeous, I'm glad we decided to go with the silk ones back when we were planning the cake. It took nearly 3 hours to place all these flowers on this cake. With our 100+ degree heat and humidity right now, I'm afraid the real blossoms would have perished before the ceremony even started!

The Groom's Cake

As the bride perused my cyber-space cake catalog, she knew what the groom's cake would have to be -- a stack of books cake along the lines of the one I did last year for daughter's high school graduation. The groom is an avid reader, and very active in politics. He chose the book titles and the bride did all the writing on the book spines. I hear there wasn't a single crumb of this lemon poppyseed cake left.

A Game Player

The birthday boy requested cards, dice and dominoes on his cake. The cards are clever little piks from the cake supply store, but the dice and dominoes were hand made with gumpaste. On top of a German Chocolate cake covered with fondant.

Curve Cologne

Another first for me. A cologne bottle cake. That "Curve" word was quite the challenge. A chocolately-chocolate cake, iced in chocolate buttercream, and covered in fondant. This one was shipped to Dallas. Sadly, it arrived looking quite a bit worse-for-wear, but at least we have the picture of what it looked like when it left here -- and word is that it tasted pretty gosh-darned good.