Happy Birthday,Dougie!

A topsy-turvy cake for hubby's birthday today. Bottom layer is a carrot cake in the shape of a tool box, middle layer is a chocolate tipping-over paint can, top layer is a while almond sour cream flower pot. Wish you could see the silver clasp on the tool box better -- it's my favorite part of the cake. And that's spilled dirt from the flower pot on top (aka crushed Oreos) around the bottom border

If you know Doug, you know why the girls and I chose these 3 themes for his cake.

Almost party time!

Well hello, Charlie!

These cookies are on their way to Michigan to welcome our new great-nephew onto the planet. Since he can't eat the cookies, I'm hoping his big sister (whose first initial is also a "C") will get to eat them all. Eventually.

Baby cookies. SO much fun.

Aaron's Birthday STRIKES again!

A cute little birthday cake for one of mid-kid's co-workers. He's been with the company 12 years and absolutely LOVES to bowl. He's a bit freaked out about turning the Big 4-0, so the managers thought it would be nice to get him a cake that might brighten his mood about it all. I hope he loves it! Giant orange and yellow "4" and "0" candles will sit on top.

Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows ...

... anyone else old enough to remember Leslie Gore? Now I can't get that song out of my head. Anyway ... this was for a 13-year-old who loves blue skies and puffy clouds and rainbows and flowers. Not a bad batch of things for a 13-year-old to love, these days. Banana spice cake with buttercream icing and fondant. Mr. Sol is all gumpaste.

Prima Ballerina

For a cute little six-year-old who wanted a Ballerina Cake for her birthday. This ballerina is taking her bow in her buttercream frosted tutu. White almond sour cream/chocolate chocolate chip marble cake. Yum.

26 years ago today ...

... we were married. This is just a small carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and fondant fall leaves to commemorate the occasion. Can you imagine -- our girls and son-in-law actually WANT to come over and help us celebrate the anniversary! Or maybe it's just that I'm fixing dinner and providing dessert and champagne. Hmmmmmm...

Elisa loves Elmo

Little kids' cakes are so much fun to make. I don't think cakes this fun and festive even existed back when I turned two. Must be why I always seem to go a little overboard with them. Elisa gets a shortbread number two cookie on top, and a necklace of fondant pearls around the base of the top tier. White almond sour cream cake, covered and decorated with fondant.

Jackson loves bugs

This little guy-turning-three loves bugs and creepy-crawlers of all kinds, and his favorite colors are blue and green. His mom brought me the plastic bugs, and this is the design I came up with. That #3 on top is a shortbread cookie that's all for the birthday boy. This cake was half chocolate, half white almond sour cream, iced in buttercream and decorated with fondant and plastic bugs galore. I hope he loves it.

More Cookies

This time for our friend whose birthday is today. Shoes and purses and birthday cakes, oh my!

Well ... I was named after one, after all ...

I love this business. I never know what I'm going to be asked to create next with these delicious tools of cake, icing and sugar. In this case, I had no idea what the phrase meant. A bit of Googling later had me suspecting this is referencing a British comedy film, "Nuns on the Run," starring Eric Idle and Robbie Coltrane. I may be totally wrong. But that's what I took as my creative inspiration -- hope I was right. This cake was a whole lotta fun to make.

College Basketball

Oh my. I've spent all day on this. It's a gift for youngest daughter's friend, who's on their college BBall team. This is supposed to be representative of Hofheinz Pavilion where they play. I probably should have made the actual building LOOK like the actual building ... but I thought I was being clever enough with the elevated stands, the stadium look, and the "people" represented by M&M's. Yes, I applied every single one of those M&M's with a tiny bit of royal icing this afternoon. While watching endless episodes of "Design on a Dime."

Those giant red letters on the front of the cake spell out "GO COOGS!" (Their mascot is a Cougar.)

If you look closely at the top of the picture, you'll see the top basketball on a pile of several fondant basketballs that are stacked up on the backside of the cake.

The team birthday party is tonight. Let's hope the guys appreciate the idea of "Cake! Frosting! M&M's! Eat!" more than a perfect rendering of Hofheinz Pavilion.

Happy Birthday, Al.

Mother in Law

What do you get for the woman who either already has, or can buy, anything? It's an annual struggle for us. Typically we end up with fairly pitiful offerings, but this year, I lucked out. Found a fabulous black umbrella edged with red silk roses (her name is Rose) in the "Signals" catalog. The darn thing looks fabulous whether it's fully opened or cinched closed. Then I sent her some cookies along the theme of ... "since we can't be with you at your house on your birthday with coffee and cake ... thought we'd send the party to you." Decorated with roses, cream and gilt.

No, no guilt. Just gilt.

Teacher Retirement

This cake was made for my Comadre ... our daughter's mother-in-law. She is retiring after 28 years of teaching the above subjects. The kids are throwing her a surprise retirement party today. The Spanish 101 book is chocolate, the French 2 book is lemon poppyseed with key lime curd filling, and the ESL book is White Almond Sour Cream. All iced in buttercream, covered with fondant book covers, and accented with chocolate-ganache-dipped strawberries.

The cake isn't really leaning -- it's my camera angle. I'd already loaded it into the sturdy cardboard transport box and didn't want the ugly cardboard to show in the pictures ... so this is my version of creative photography.

Yes, I know ... I should leave the photography to eldest daughter.

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.