Sunshine 1st Birthday Cake

I never thought I would say this but I am starting to fall in love with fondant!!! What?! I know.  I have been against it for so long because I love the taste of buttercream better.  But that is even starting to change for me.  When I cover a cake in fondant I use a fondant made out of marshmallows which many people who make cakes refer to it as MMF.  This fondant actually has a decent taste unlike the store-bought fondant that some others use.  The reason I enjoy using it is because as a cake decorator is really helps you to achieve that smooth finish you see in so many pictures.  If you know me I can be a little OCD about how smooth my cakes are and I can never get them completely smooth which drives me crazy.  This is where my love for fondant is growing.

With all that said I did a cake a couple weeks back for a little girl's first birthday.  Her theme was going to be a sunshine theme and they asked for a cake that would look something like the picture they sent me.  I really loved how this cake turned out.  It may even go up there with one of my favorites.

I will have to tell a funny story about this cake.  When the father and mother were emailing me they asked me to do a yellow pineapple cake.   So I made a pineapple cake and decorated it in yellow. The day before the party I was looking at the finished yellow cake a thought hit me which made me panic.  "Did they want a yellow pineapple FLAVORED cake or a cake decorated with a pineapple yellow?"  I was all in a panic and immediately searched for their email to see if I was going to have to completely redo the cake I just did.  But thankfully the email read a "a pineapple flavored yellow cake."  I am so glad they put in that extra word "flavored".  It reassured me that I had done what I was suppose to do.  Oh man!  Sometimes I can be such a stress bucket. ;)

Baby Carriage Baby Shower Cake

You gotta love late night (12:00am) trips to Walmart. (I really had to talk my husband into letting me go.) There are times when I have gotten down to the wire on a cake and it has to be delivered the next day and you realize something isn't right, you have to start over, and/or you need more of something.  Well that happened to me on this cake.  After covering the cake in MMF I realized the color I had done was way to bright.  The woman who contacted me even requested a more lighter green than I first made.  I tried to tell myself it was fine but I couldn't continue without redoing it and it was already almost midnight.  So I made a trip to Walmart to get marshmallows.  People were probably thinking why does one need 2 bags of marshmallows in the middle of the night.  :) I was also surprised how many people (some with kids) were at Walmart shopping this late.

But I got it done in time and was pretty happy how it turned out.  If I had more time I probably would have fixed a few things but I always think that about a cake.  I guess that is my (self-diagnosed) OCD tendencies. :)

 

Teal & Coral Elephant Baby Shower

This cake was made for a woman who I have done a couple cakes for now.  She needed a cake for a baby shower.  The mother-to-be was doing the nursery in gray and white with teal and coral accents. She also was doing elephants.  So at first I had several ideas running around in my head.  With the help of the lady needing the cake we can up with this idea.  I thought this cake would be pretty simple.  It was just strips of fondant.  But my perfectionist tendencies kicked in and I couldn't seem to get the edges straight enough nor the buttercream smooth enough.  I was just thankful the lady emailed me and told me several people loved taste and the look of the cake.  Yet again I am reminded that the little things that I notice other people might not.  This was also the first time at making a marble cake.  It looked pretty neat inside when I was cutting it to level and stack it. :)

NC State Cupcakes - Second Order

After doing NC State Cupcakes for my husband's now former co-worker, he contacted my husband again and asked if I could make him some more.  He ended up needing 24 cupcakes this time.

Many times I have sent leftovers into work with my husband because there are just too many to keep at our house.  On a couple of occasions I have sent in cookie dough cupcakes and my husband says they get rave reviews.  So when I received this order he asked specifically if I could make some of the cupcakes cookie dough which cookie dough frosting.  So I made 12 red velvet with cream cheese frosting again as well as 12 cookie dough cupcakes. I am sure by the picture you can tell which are which. ;)

I would have to now say my favorite is cookie dough with cookie dough frosting.

Hunter's Birthday Cake

So we were going to be home over my dad's birthday so I thought I would make him a cake.  It is always a lot harder to make a cake when you are not in your own house but it turned out ok.  My dad loves to hunt so I thought it would only be fitting to do a camo cake with him and a deer sitting on top.  It also was a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting and peanut butter cups in the middle.  It was really good!!!

Before we left my dad HAD to get my husband out in the field to hunt which would mean my husband would have to get up extra early to go.  My husband is generally not an early person but he thought it might be fun to go.  After a couple of hours my husband, dad, sister, and her boyfriend came back with a deer that my husband had shot!!! I was so proud. :D  But then that meant we had to eat the deer.  I'm not a fan but I have been trying to learn new recipes to take out the gamey taste.  Here's a picture of my husband and his deer.


Here is a warning that the picture you are about to see might be a little gross for some. So I made it so that you would have to scroll down to see it.

 Good job honey!!!

Heart Anniversary Cake

This cake was for a husband who wanted to surprise his wife on their 5 year anniversary.  He asked for a heart shaped cake with roses all over it.  He also wanted his family on top of the cake.  So he sent me some pictures of his wife, his 8 month old daughter and himself.  It's always a fun task trying to make a fondant person resemble an actual person.  He later emailed me and told me his wife was very surprised and very excited by it which always makes me happy to hear back from people.

Bridal Shower Cake

 A friend from our Sunday School class was throwing a bridal shower for one of her friends and wanted a simple cake for the shower.  She told me she would like a design she had seen me do for another friend's birthday cake.  I had done this design many times and love doing it because of the simplicity of it as well as the neat look it has. 

These pictures were taken by her at the party.  She is an AMAZING photographer and if you need someone to take pictures of a special occasion she is someone to contact.  Feel free to contact me and I will get you in touch with her.

New Adventure: Carrot Cake

This cake was for a friend of a friend's surprise birthday.  She really loves carrot cake so that's what they wanted it to be.  I was a little nervous because I had never done carrot cake before.  I found a recipe I felt was one I could trust and went with it.  I did not realize the time involved in making this cake.  The recipe called for shredded carrots.  So I went and bought baby carrots and shredded them.  Boy was that a job.  I probably should have gotten whole size carrots because there were some very close calls. ;) Later I learned that you can buy already shredded carrots.  :/  Oh well.  This adventure is all about living and learning. :)

After the party I got some great feedback on the cake and I was excited to hear it tasted good and they "were sad when it was all gone." :D

NC State Cupcakes

This was the first order from one of Billy's co-workers for NC State cupcakes for his wife.  They are red velvet with cream cheese frosting.  I was so thrilled to hear that he wanted to order more later as well.

First Bridal Shower Cake

About a month or two ago, a friend we play volleyball and also go to our church approached me about making a cake for her sister-in-law's bridal shower.  Thanks to Pinterest (which I am addicted to) she was able to find an idea that she liked.   BTW I no longer Google for ideas I look through Pinterest. :) I really loved the idea she sent me and I thought a lot about what I could do to make it my own.  I spent a lot of time researching other ideas to incorporate into the cake but I just wasn't satisfied with what I was coming up with so I kept the original design the same. 

She did request that she wanted it in purple.  I played it cool when she told me that she wanted it in purple but in my head I was a little (maybe a lot) concerned.  The experience I have had with purple is that the red in the purple fades and the blue color is left.  By the time the party would roll around she would have a blue cake not a purple.  Yikes!  So I researched and read some forums that said that I should not use the purple food color but use a super red and blue to achieve the purple I wanted.  So that is what I did and I was pretty happy with the color.  I think I was trying so hard for it not to fade I may have made it a little darker than I had anticipated but I really did love the purple. 

Here is the picture that she took at the party.  Her picture really showed the purple color.  My IPhone pictures don't always give a great representation of the colors in the cake.

Chevron and Baby Shoes

I would have to say out of the cakes I have done so far this one is one of my favorites.  This cake was ordered for a baby shower by the very first person who ordered a cake from me for her son's 1st birthday party.  (His cake you can see here.) I was so excited to have a repeat customer. 

The instructions for this cake was she wanted gray and white chevron and then accented in black and red because the mother-to-be was a big NC State fan.  So as always I started thinking about what a baby shower cake might have on it and I did a little research online.  I saw where someone did these cute little baby converse shoes and I was hooked.

I actually decided to make all white shoes and then paint on the NC State logo.  After making the white shoes I decided I didn't care for them so I spent the whole next day making another set of shoes which I made red and white. I also decided to not make them look like converse but just regular baby shoes without a logo.  I thought the second pair turned out a whole lot better and I am glad I put in the extra time.  I couldn't quite figure out where I was going to tie in the black until I came up with the idea to make the board it sat on black. 

I thought the chevron pattern would be very simple but once I started cutting the pieces I kept redoing them because I wouldn't like how they looked.  Finally I just gave up, cut them out, didn't worry too much about what they looked like, and put them on the cake.  Standing back looking at the whole picture they turned out looking OK.  Once it all came together I was pretty happy with it.

The shoes really made this cake.  This cake was french vanilla and iced with buttercream.  The shoes were a gumpaste and fondant mixture and the other accent pieces were made out of MMF. (marshmallow fondant)

First of Two

This weekend I ended up having two cake orders.  I thought it would be pretty easy since one of them was just a sheet cake but it ended up that the sheet cake took more time than I had imagined.

This was my first time just doing a traditional "sheet" cake.  Boy did I learn a lot about sheet cakes.  First off when ordering a sheet cake you need to know if they want a traditional sheet cake which is a 1 layer rectangular cake or a layered cake.  My first thought was it would be a single layer.  When the cake came out of the oven it probably was only about 1 1/2 inches high which I thought would be way too short for a single-layer sheet cake.  So I made another layer to go on top.  After doing some more research I found out that now I had a cake to feed 45 people instead of the 20-25 people that was requested.  Oops.  (But who doesn't love more cake.) The cake was also very high for a traditional sheet cake you would get in a store. 

The next thing that happened was when I had the cake all done I noticed some imperfections which I am sure no one else would have noticed but it bothered me so I tried fixing them.  I ended up messing up a corner so bad I had to re-ice that corner the day I was to deliver it. 

So the cake was ready to go or at least I had to go deliver the 2 cakes I had done.  I packaged up the cake in a cake box which I don't normally do but I thought since it was a sheet cake and there weren't any other tall decorations on top I would just go ahead and supply the box.  I placed it on my back seat which has a very little incline in it but I didn't think this large of a cake would move.  Well I didn't get out of my neighbor when I heard a sliding noise coming from the back seat.  Sure enough, I opened the box and it had slid forward and smashed up against the side.  I had to race home (now late to deliver the other cake) and get some tools to fix it.  I then moved it to the floor board where I thought it would have less chances of it sliding.  Luckily it didn't slide again and I was able to fix it after I delivered the other cake.  What I usually do is place the cake on a board that is exactly the same size as the cake and then later move the cake and the cake board to a bigger board.  This just gives your final presentation a better look.  What they usually tell you is to put icing down as a glue to hold the cake to the board and so I used the same concept for a board and a board.  Well the icing isn't that strong of a "glue" to hold 2 boards together without sliding. Now I am going to find a better way to secure the 2 boards together so it won't be prone to slide.

All this to say a simple sheet cake turned into a lot of little learning experiences. 

Here is a picture of what the top looked like.

It was a french vanilla flavored cake iced in buttercream and decorated with MMF (marshmallow fondant).

Husband's Suprise 30th Birthday Party

This year my husband's 30th birthday falls on the weekend of Easter.  Since we will be traveling for Easter to his family I decided to surprise him with a birthday party the weekend before.  Since we enjoys collecting guns I decided to make him a gun cake.  He really wants an AR-15 military rifle but it is not quite in our budget.  So I decided to make an AR-15 out of cake.

The front and back of the gun is made out of Rice Krispie Treats but the middle part is made out of cake.  The flavor was Peanut Butter Crunch and it was iced with buttercream and accented with fondant.

An Audi and A Guitar

A couple of weeks ago a friend of Billy and I's contacted me about making a cake for her best friend's birthday.  We met this friend while playing sand volleyball, something I can't wait to get back to after taking off a few seasons due to being pregnant. 

When we were discussing decorations she told me that her best friend drove an Audi, loved playing the guitar and music and wears a head scarf. So together we came up with a design.  We first talked about having her friend sitting on the Audi playing a guitar but after I constructed her friend and the car out of fondant I thought the cake would be more stable if I put her friend sitting on the cake.  It wasn't what we discussed but I do think it still looked good the way it came out. 

The cake was a yellow cake iced in buttercream and decorated with fondant.  

When our friend came to pick up the cake she brought a gift for our son (who actually wasn't here when she came :/ ).  That was so sweet of her to think of him.  He loved opening it and I plan on saving it for his birthday party so others can play with him. Thanks so much!!

Snow that Leads to Freezing (A Cake)

This past Saturday we saw our biggest accumulation of snow here in and around Raleigh, North Carolina for this winter thus far.   Since snow is not often seen here and many southern people are unaware how to handle it there are many precautions that are taken.   I am sure many people back home in Ohio would have a good laugh to see what happens when we get a light dusting as they would call it.  But if you don't drive in snow very often you probably should take more precautions.

With that said, I also had a baby shower cake to do for a co-worker of my mother-in-law's.  The shower was to be that day.  Once the snow starting falling the mother-to-be's husband thought it would be best to reschedule the baby shower.  Which again if you aren't used to driving in snow (and are very pregnant) then you probably shouldn't risk it.  By the time I got the message, the cake was almost complete.  I had a few last minute touches to do but for the most part it was done.  So now I had this cake done, the shower was cancelled but rescheduled for next Thursday, and they would like to have the cake still.  I knew the cake wouldn't last if I left it out.  I could have remade it but that would mean more time and supplies.  So after some Googling and talking with my mother-in-law, we decided that we would try and freeze the cake.

I researched how to freeze an already iced and decorated cake.  I wrapped it up good and placed it in our freezer.  I am praying that when I unwrap the cake on Thursday that the cake looks as it did when I first made it as well as tastes just as good.  Check out what the cake looked like before placing it in the freezer.  I will post an update with a picture of when we thaw it back out.  I am really hoping this works, but I guess this is how you learn if things work or not, by trial and error.

The cake is iced with buttercream and decorated with marshmallow fondant and some gumpaste pieces.  The mother-to-be also requested Funfetti cake which is her favorite I was told. :)  I also received the baby shower invite and tried to model the cake after the invitation.

The invitation/inspiration

 

The cake before it was frozen...

The cake all wrapped up and ready to be frozen...

UPDATE:  So after I let the cake completely thaw to room temperature I unwrapped it.  It looked exactly as it did before it went in the freezer.  The only slight flaw was that a few fondant pieces on the cake board cracked because they became pretty flimsy and I accidentally bumped them when I was unwrapping it.  I didn't get the chance to taste the cake but the people at the shower told me it tasted great! That was a blessing to hear.  So it is possible to freeze an already-decorated cake.  I just hope I don't have to do that again!

Belated Birthday Cupcakes

A week ago Monday was my brother-in-law's birthday.  My sister had invited us over for dinner to celebrate his birthday.  She also asked if I could make him cupcakes.  Of course I said I would love to.  She had a special request for them.  She had told me that my brother-in-law had set 3 goals for the upcoming year and she would like the cupcakes to represent his goals for the year.  The three goals were to get in shape, bench press a certain amount, and bike a marathon.  I decided I would do 12 cupcakes.  I had planned to do 2 cupcakes per goal, 2 cupcakes to say "Happy Birthday", 1 cupcake to represent my brother-in-law, 1 cupcake to show how old he was turning and that left me with 2 more cupcakes to decorate.  I decided to add a few more things that would happen in the coming year.  One was they are expecting their second girl in March and then in May he will graduate from grad school.  So the last 2 represent those things.

The week before his birthday our whole family got sick with a stomach bug. We decided that it would probably be best if we put it off a week.  So yesterday we were able to get together and celebrate his birthday.  Here are some pictures of the cupcakes.

After later looking at the pictures I took I realized I probably should have taken some pictures of each individual cupcake.  I did get a close up of the little guy I made to represent my brother-in-law from my sister.  The cupcakes were red velvet and were iced with buttercream and then I used gum paste to make the pieces on top.  I probably should have used half gum paste and half fondant.  The gum paste dries very quickly making it hard to sculpt with it.

First Fondant Covered Cake

Back in November my sister-in-law saw someone post on Facebook that they were looking for someone to do their son's 1st birthday cake.  She knew I enjoyed making cakes and I was also trying to start making a little money with it so she so graciously gave her my name. This was the first cake I made for someone I did not know and that made it a little more stressful.  To top it all off she wanted me to cover the cake in fondant which is something I had never done and usually try not to do because I prefer the buttercream taste over the fondant.  (I did use a marshmallow fondant which I have found to taste the best among other fondants.)  So this cake made me nervous.

The mom sent me some pictures of cakes that she would like and said that I could come up with whatever I would like.  The birthday party was going to be a transportation theme as I like to call it.  So I created a cake with a transportation scene and on top I had one big car made of fondant and gumpaste and an one and stars made just out of gumpaste.  There were a lot of things I was able to learn from this cake but the one most frustrating part was the car on top and getting it to be a red instead of a pink.  It takes so much Wilton red coloring to make something red so I took some advice I got from someone and went and got a color called Super Red made by Americolor.  This color gel is the best to use when trying to get a red and you don't have to use as much.  I had to go all the way to Clayton to get it but it was worth it.  Next time I might just order some online.  I made the car on top about 4 times.  I ended up throwing out a lot of fondant/gumpaste.  The first one I did I took a picture of it and sent it to my husband who told me it looked pink (which I agreed).  But after I finished the 4th car and time had run out, I looked back at the first picture I took and realized the first car (even though it was pink) was the best one I did.  Oh well.

After no further adieu, here is the cake I came up with:

New Adventures in Baking

So growing up I have always had a passion for decorating cakes.  Well another one of our friends turned 30 in December while we were still in the hospital with the delivery of our second child which meant we were unable to celebrate with him and our other friends.  When we were home and able to celebrate we invited them over for dinner and cake afterwards.  Since I had planned to make him a cake for his birthday I asked his wife what his favorite kind was and she told me a cookie cake.  My first thought was, "oh no I have never done a cookie cake before" but I thought I would give it a try.  I knew the cookie cake had to be NC State themed because he is a graduate of NC State as well as a  HUGE NC State sports fan.  I ended up piping this whole cookie cake with buttercream.  I actually didn't spend a whole lot of time on this because I thought we would be the only ones seeing it but I was impressed how it came out so I thought I would share it on my blog.

Keeping Up the School Themes

Both my dad and father-in-law have a birthday in November.  In fact my father-in-law's birthday is the day after my dad's.  So this past Thanksgiving I was busy making 2 cakes.  The OSU football cake I made my dad seen here and this Clemson cake I made for my father-in-law.  My father-in-law graduated from Clemson so I thought it was only fitting to make him a school-themed cake as well.

This was the first time I made a pound cake. I also iced it with buttercream and decorated it with fondant.

The Big 3-0

This past weekend the husband of one of our couple friends turned the big 3-0.  For his birthday his wife asked me to make his birthday cake for the party.  Our friend's birthday was on Sunday but his wife threw him a party the Saturday night before.  Since it was the night of the big State vs UNC game and our friend went to NC State, his wife asked me to make a NC State basketball cake.  I was very excited she had asked me to do this because I have had a ball pan that I was really wanting a reason to use.  She told me that it had to feed around 25 people and I knew the ball would not feed 25 people so I also made a NC State jersey.  The number on the jersey was suppose to represent his age.  His wife requested I ice the cake with buttercream but that I could accent it with fondant. So that is what I did.  I did use marshmallow fondant this time because the pieces I used to accent were flat pieces so the softer consistency of marshmallow fondant would work and taste better as well. Here is the cake as well as our friend who was turning 30.