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.

Party at the Natural Science Museum

For a little girl who loves butterflies and ladybugs. Fashioned after the invitations and party plates. The butterflies are printed on rice paper with edible inks ... so everything on this cake is eminently edible. Chocolate cake, buttercream icing, covered in/decorated with fondant.

After we loaded this cake into Dad's car for transport to the party, I wished I could go to the party, too. They had the BEST looking juice pouches from Whole Foods and that cake looked SO glorious ... yum!

Night Blooming Cactus

No-it's-not-a-cake. Just our glorious cactus that bursts forth with these amazing blooms maybe 3-4 nights a year during July and August. Last night was a huge bloomarama. Tonight promises maybe 9-10 more. (If you look closely you can see the little green closed-up buds on the sides of the cacti.)

They bloom after midnight and are closed up again by 8-10 am. Fortunately I was up working on a cake last night, and actually remembered to take the camera out at 1 am to record this magnificence.

Interestingly enough, our neighbor's cactus bloomed last night, also. Such truly magnificent plants.

A couple of matching sheetcakes for the annual bowl-a-thon fund raiser for a local school that serves autistic kids. The design was taken from their darling invitation. Total white princess sour creme cake with total buttercream. The bowling pins are gumpaste, the bowling ball is fondant.

A fabulous mom turns 50

Her cute daughter (and son in law) drove all the way down here from Dallas to pick up this cake today for the mom's birthday party tonight in Houston. How's that for a fabulous daughter!!!

Hope they have fun with it all, and Happy Birthday, Mom!

Erin turns 26

(Don't ask how old that makes me!)

She loves her long-haired chihuahua, Bailey. She also loves pink and purses, and plenty of each. But she was so terribly forlorn the day she realized that little Bailey was growing too tall and big to fit in her purse any more.

So I made her a pink purse cake with a rice-krispie-treat Bailey (head) sticking out of it for her birthday this year.

In retrospect, I made Bailey's eyes too big ... but it's still a pretty good likeness.

Texas Family Reunion

I can hardly take any credit for this one. All I did was bake the layers, ice them, cover them in fondant, and make a fondant license plate to sit atop it all. The customer came up with the (very) clever design, then even came over to pipe all the writing on it -- freehand!

I may have to hire her to do all my piping. She says she'll work for cake. And frosting. And fondant.

Sounds good to me.

Turning a sparkly 12

One of my favorite cakes so far. Small and simple. But I adore it.

This is what happens ...

... when your plan ahead/organizing skills trump your lower brain functions such as remembering what day it is or where you left your car keys.

This cake isn't due 'til 8/16, and here it is -- finished, adorable and ready to go, on 8/2. Oy vey.

I have boatloads of cakes due on the weekend of the 16th, including eldest daughter's birthday cake and party. So I figured I was being SO smart and together and organized to shop for all ingredients last week and start baking ahead for the busy weekend. (I typically bake the cakes a few days ahead of when they're due, wrap them in plastic wrap while still warm and steaming, then send them to the freezer for at least overnight. The trip to the freezer helps keep the cake very moist, and gives it more body to hold up to the stacking and carving process.)

Well, I guess I was just having so much fun baking, icing and decorating that I forgot to put this one in the freezer after baking it, and just started decorating away!

Anyone need a buttercream-iced, fondant covered, chocolate stout topsy turvy cake to serve 30?

Bridal Shower

This one was designed after the shower invitation, which was an adorable multi-layered square invite in black, white and hot pink. White princess sour creme cake with tons of buttercream atop.

A study in pinks

Yes, the birthday girl loves ruffles and flowers and hearts and stars ... and everything pink. Hope she's having a fabulous 21st birthday celebration.

Black and White

A last minute birthday cake for 50 guests. Party theme was black and white. White Princess Sour Creme cake, buttercream icing, and fondant atop it all. That plaque on the front has two "D's" back-to-back -- which was what was on the party invitation.

Wish I'd done some back-lighting on this. Where is photog daughter when I need her!?

A tiny cheerleader turns four!

Designed after the birthday girl's party invitation. Lots of White Princess Sour Creme cake and loads of delicious buttercream icing. Fondant megaphones line the sides of the cake and the little cheerleader herself is crafted from gumpaste.

Youngest daughter was here as I finished the cake, and she had to really fight the urge to dive right in and cut herself a nice large piece of it for herself!

Ariel cake for Amelia

Another fun mermaid cake. With fondant "pearls" and white chocolate-molded sea creatures. Not to mention the green buttercream seaweed and blue buttercream wave-border. The party-goers receive cookie favors in the shape of seashells, sandy footprints and fish.