Buckingham Fountain

Long story behind this one. Today is Doug (my husband)'s birthday. The pressure is on every year to come up with awesome cakes for hubby and daughters. I happened to notice on my calendar a couple of weeks ago that 9/29 is the day that The Queen's birthday is celebrated this year in Western Australia. So I'm thinking ... Doug's birthday and The Queen's birthday ... same day. Hmmm... how can I combine the two? Then I think Buckingham Palace. Then I think Buckingham Fountain in Chicago. Mainly because our middle daughter was transferred to Chicago with her job this past June, and we enjoyed Buckingham Fountain when we helped move her up there.

Thus, a Buckingham Fountain cake. I labored over those beads (aka, water sprays) for a long time, thus leaving me not enough time to do more detail on the cake itself before I had to have his birthday dinner ready to go yesterday.

So while I would rather this cake have had way more awesome detail, I was at least happy with the fact that it's his favorite carrot cake with cream cheese icing, and it looked halfway decent ... even though way too girly ... and it tasted delicious.

But here's the best part of all ... in a fit of homesickness several weeks ago, middle daughter bought a ticket to Houston to be here for her dad's birthday. Of course, O'Hare being what it is, she is 90 minutes late so far, and we are still waiting for her to arrive ... but by golly she will be back home for her dad's birthday and we will all be so delighted to be together again for a few days ...

... especially since we've JUST NOW fully recovered from that dang Hurricane Ike.

Happy Birthday, Dougie!

Open House Cookies

For a house that was being shown yesterday. A red brick craftsman cottage (which is GORGEOUS!) with a crepe myrtle tree (hot pink flowers) out front. So cute. Hope the house sold.

Snow White

This was one of the cakes scheduled for the day Ike arrived. I was hoping to sculpt Doc, Goofy, Sneezy, et. al. out of gumpaste, but Ike had other ideas for my time. So we settled for Snow White standing on a pretty pink stage surrounded by apples, with a cute little bluebird perched on her outstretched hand. White Princess Sour Creme cake, buttercream and fondant.

Houston, We Have Power

Well, some of us do. What a wild ride this has been. And that's for us lucky ones who sustained hardly any damage and got our power back last week. I'm back in the cake baking business!

No, I Don't Like Ike

For all my beloved cake junkies out there who look to this site for eye candy on a regular basis ... don't expect any pictures until late next week at the earliest.

Ike has decided to make a beeline for downtown Houston tonight, so all party cakes that were ordered for tomorrow are canceled/rescheduled to next weekend and beyond.

With predicted 70-90 mph winds for a period of 8 hours overnight, it will be a true miracle if we have power when we wake up tomorrow. When Alicia hit here in 1983, we were without power for TEN DAYS. Ten days in AUGUST. In HOUSTON. And we had a one-year-old in cloth diapers!

We will be fine, but we may be without power for an extended period of time.

If so, don't worry, be happy. We are fine.

Sponge Bob Square Pants

Never thought I'd get the chance or have a reason to do a Sponge Bob cake. Finally!

Cannot even begin to tell you how much FUN he was to create. Strawberry cake with strawberry frosting per the birthday boy's request. Surprise design for the cake decided on by birthday boy's girlfriend (see below).

Happy Birthday, Al! Everything is edible, save for a few toothpicks holding those shoes onto his legs and the sleeves onto his spongy head.

Big bowl of basketball cookies

For "someone's" boyfriend who turns 21 today. Seems like an awful lot of cookies to me (3 dozen), but I'm betting he'll inhale them within the next 24-36 hours.

Fun cookies. Great for party favors. We (the girlfriend and I) even textured the fondant with a paper towel while hot out of the oven so the basketballs are all pebbly and basketball-looking.