Chocolate Decadence

Ohhhhhhhh my! Just a tiny little simple cake, but loaded with dark chocolatey goodness. Sometimes simple is best.

Star Wars

Silly me. I had no idea 3-year-olds these days are totally into Star Wars. Now I know. I went through dozens of ideas for his cake before finally (thanks to inspiration from my local 8-year-old boy) settling on this (rather short and squatty) R2-D2. After all, who doesn't love R2-D2? Total cake and buttercream body with fondant accents. His arms are rice krispie treats covered in fondant.

Tea Party

For Miss Ellie. Who is turning four today. She's also a bit under the weather with whatever crud is going around Houston right now, so I hope this cheers her up a bit.

Pea in a Pod

Just a tiny little cake -- a personal gift to the mother-to-be on the occasion of her baby shower. She gets to take it home and eat it all herself if she wants!

Cornucopia

I love Thanksgiving. I love the symbology of the cornucopia. And I finally got to do a cornucopia cake. Fondant apple, oranges, squashes and grapes. Delicious cake and buttercream everything-else.

My midwife's youngest son just turned 40

And we met him when I was PG with daughter #2 ... when he was still in high school. Now exactly HOW old does that make ME???? Please don't do the math.

Anyway ... it was his birthday this weekend. He's all growed up now and sells orthopedic braces quite successfully for a living. So I made him a cake.

The words around the cake were: "Brace yourselves ... Chris is 40!"

Harry Potter

Just a small little 6" cake for an adult Harry Potter fan ... but I must say I do rather love it. This was a whole lot of fun to research and craft. Is that quidditch broom cool or what? My golden snitch could probably use some work, but everything else rocks -- as far as I'm concerned.

Flashback!

This cake was requested by a young man turning 12. He wanted a "Psychedelic '60's" cake, three-tiered, and he told me to let my imagination run wild. He and his friends are totally into The Beatles, The Ramones, and All things '60's. How cool is that?

Thank goodness for Google. I was only twelve myself when the Psychedelic '60's were in full swing ... so it's not because of old age that I needed a little help remembering what to put into this cake, right?

Happy faces, love beads, tie-dye, flower power, and peace and love, dude!

Pink Princess

Once again -- can you even IMAGINE having a princess cake like this when YOU were a little girl? (I realize I'm older than most of you reading this by at least 2 decades, but) ... I remember when those little plastic ballerinas stuck on the top of a simple birthday cake were SUCH a thrill for me.

Now I'm infinitely fortunate to be able to take flour, sugar, butter and a few other ingredients, and make so many birthday dreams come true.

I have the best "job" in the world.

Cooking Lessons

Ohmigosh is this the cutest thing ever, or what? This was a birthday party for a darling little girl turning 4, and her birthday party was at a "kitchen table" type place where the little party goers were taught how to make penne pasta and ice cream sundaes. The party invitations featured pink aprons, hot pads, kitchen mitts, etc.

Birthday girl wanted pink cake, inside and out, so that's what she got. She also got a satin-white textured tablecloth on top of the pink cake, all decked out with four sundaes (because that's how old she is), four silver spoons, an apron, a bunch of oven mitts and hot pads, a bowl of penne pasta, and a vase on the table with the "flowers" spelling out her name.

Happy Birthday!

Do the Splits!

This cake was for the cutest little 3-year-old gymnast. It had me stumped for one long sleepless night, trying to figure out something clever to come up with for the gymnastics theme ... but I was finally hit with inspiration about 5 hours before this cake was due. And voila! This proud little gymnast doing the splits on top of her psychedelic gym mat was born. Just wish I'd gotten a better angle on this picture so you could see her little tongue sticking out.

Cake Truffles

These delectable diminutive delights somehow just pop into your mouth and disappear. Again and again and again. A secret blend of cake, icing and whatever other delicious flavors I might feel like adding, rolled into spheres, dipped in chocolate and decorated with (in this case) fondant fall leaves kissed with a bit of gold.

Apologies to my cake groupies

I know some of you have been going through withdrawals since I haven't posted a picture in a couple of weeks. I actually made 4 cakes last week, but was so pushed on my timing (for reasons that will be explained below) that I didn't get any pictures. I did a really cool teacher cake, an amazing martini glass cake that was actually a Cosmo since the party colors were hot pink and black, a simple 'just cake' cake, and an amazing artificial knee cake. Plus a few dozen Halloween cookies.

Reasons why you didn't get pics of those cakes:

Right after completing the Baby Boy Baptism cake that you're now bored with looking at, Doug and I were invited on a last-minute trip to Galveston, to go out on a pontoon boat at sunset to see the Dolphins swim and jump and dive and do everything else that they do, along the Intracoastal Waterway. Then we could spend the night at a friend's friend's beach house, and mosey our way back home sometime late Sunday afternoon. I frantically do a load of laundry, Doug packs our bags and a cooler and loads the car, I clean up from cake-baking and lock down the house, and we call eldest daughter to let her know we're leaving, and to come Sunday morning to check on things.

Well ... we nearly lost our lives on that fateful pontoon boat ride. Think Gilligan's Island/Titanic/Poseidon Adventure. I won't go into detail, but suffice it to say our adventure involved the pontoon boat being beached on a sandbar with 3" of water over it at late dusk, right next to the Intracoastal Waterway (where the dolphins were supposed to be swimming); several ocean-going vessels that were NOT pleased with us and our position/strandedness; a dog (one of 3) on the boat who decided it would be huge fun to go for a swim, and leapt off the deck to do so; big cold winds and water and waves; encroaching darkness; multiple males jumping in the water to push us off the stranding sandbar/save the dog; the blessed relief that the boat's motor actually re-started; a freezing 20-minute ride home against big winds and In The Dark; me clutching a teeny little Chihuahua to my bosom the entire time in order to save his life and prevent him from going for a swim; finally returning to the beach house to change into dry clothes, only to discover that Doug had failed to Put Our Suitcase In The Car.

No problem. We were all actually a bit giddy about surviving it all -- but DARN glad the boat's motor didn't shear a pin when we hit that shoal/shell/sand bar. It seems the Intracoastal Waterway had recently been dredged. Just our luck.

Then the next day ... we find out that the little island nearby that we jokingly said we'd just go hang out on and sleep all night if the motor didn't start and the Coast Guard wouldn't come ---- is named Rattlesnake Island. For good reason. Also -- the area we were in is known as Alligator Alley. Also for good reason. And even more than that -- another friend who fishes there frequently said he goes fishing there because he catches BABY SHARKS in those Intracoastal Waterways

We're all fine, of course, but we feel like 15-year-olds rather than 55-year-olds. I may have foreshadowed it a bit while we were frantically packing the car to leave and I said, "Gosh, it feels like a high school road trip!"

My Aunt now insists that Doug and I can't take another weekend trip unless we pass our itinerary by her, first.


So, yeah. I'm trying to catch up from almost losing my life.

Many more cakes to come. Stay tuned.

Bill Cosby Sweaters

Middle daughter is winging her way to Seattle to visit her old college roommate. They are invited to a party Saturday night -- everyone in attendance has to wear a Bill Cosby Sweater. We thought it would be fun for me to make some BCS Cookies to take along.