Cupcakes

These cupcakes were made for a Kindergarten class, to celebrate a baby shower for their beloved teacher. I thought that was a cute idea to include her "other" kids in the baby crazy anticipation! She is expecting a boy, hence the blue. The footprints (feetprints???) were a fondant-gumpaste mixture, dyed blue and painted with silver pearl dust (didn't have any blue on hand). The mini cupcakes were yellow cake or chocolate, both with blue colored buttercream frosting.

Carrot Cake!

So, a dear friend had a birthday last week and I got to make her a carrot cake. This happens to be my son's and niece's favorite cake, yet unbelievably... I had never made one! Joy of Baking seldom lets me down, so I followed their recipe, with a few added secret's from my mom (yeah mom!) and the product... I have to say, was the best carrot cake I ever ate. =) The cream cheese icing was incredible (also form the Joy of Baking recipe for carrot cake)! The carrots and their tops are all marzipan. Also the first time I used this. Fondant and gumpaste are almost easier I have to say, but maybe because that is what I am used to working with.

Happy Birthday, Martha!

Feed back on Mickey Mouse cake

I heard from the Collin's mom today. She had the following to say about the Mickey Mouse cake:

Your cake was a HUGE hit!!!  All of your business cards were gone, so hopefully you will be getting some calls ;)  Collin LOVED it and ate the entire cupake hat on the top.  It was DELICIOUS!!!!  None of it was left....I was hoping for another piece before bed but didn't get it!!! LOL  Probably a good thing as I had already eaten 2 HUGE slices!!!  Everyone was amazed at your talent...GREAT JOB!  I hope that we are back in the area soon and if so we will be using you again.

Thanks so much for a job well done!!!

Thank you, Mimi!!! Glad you all enjoyed it! 

Mickey Mouse!

I got a call for a Mickey Mouse cake to celebrate the 2nd birthday of a little boy who adores Mickey. Mom liked the topsy-turvey cake I had done for Cuttin' Up, which is where she found my card (yeah Courtney for posting them for me!), so we decided to go with that style but use the Mickey elements.

I have to admit, I was intimidated to recreate the Disney icon... and the second mug of coffee I had before painting was not a wise thing (I don't normally drink caffeine so the shakes were strong after that!)... but see for yourself. The birthday boy's family and I were all very pleased with the results. =)

The cake is a standard yellow cake with vanilla buttercream frosting. Royal icing was used to attach Mickey's arms and head and to attach the letters to the cake. Everything was edible - marshmallow fondant, either colored or painted with food coloring.

Cupcake cake

allet Slipper Cupcake-Cake:
So, here is my first attempt at a cupcake cake. The order was for ballet slippers that were PINK and GLITTERY, with a BIG bow on top. I had some images to work with from the little girl's favorite ballet bag, that was in all sequins, so I new the glitter part would be a test. Hmmm. I need to remember that I am in the South. And the South is humid. Glitter doesn't hold up well! And ballet shoes were not easy to create in a 2D format. Don't know how well they translated....

Here are some pictures of the cake and cupcakes that didn't make it into the design... there were dark chocolate cupcakes (a new favorite recipe) and strawberry cupcakes. I used the Sprinkle's published recipe for that one and thought they could have used a lot more strawberries. Here is the link:
http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/candace-nelson-strawberry-cupcakes

The frosting is a whipped cream frosting also flavored with a bit of strawberry puree. The ribbons and bows are all marshmallow fondant painted with pink pearl dust for a shimmery effect. You can see the difference with the before and after shot of the bows. Hope the birthday girl is happy!

Gustafson 70th birthday

What a fun cake! I had an awesome challenge from a new friend, Mark. His dad's 70th birthday party... cake had to travel 2+ hours to Apex, NC and he wanted something unique, that encompassed his father. So, he gave me a list of activities and hobbies (and this man IS ACTIVE!!!) and we went from there. Since Mark had to do the actual on-site construction of the cake, I do not have final pictures yet. Argh! I will post them as soon as he gets them from family members.


Represented in these pictures are a love for the Red Sox (the hat is life sized), softball (he still plays in two leagues!), puzzles, card games, chess, genealogy and his family (I forgot to photograph the poker chips and baseball!). The "W" puzzle represents places he lived, his wedding, his birth, his employment with IBM, his love of math, his life time of involvement with Jaycees and his service in the Army. This cake was a true celebration of the man. I hope he had a splendid weekend with all of his family!

The Red Sox cake was a red velvet cake and the base cake was a light lemon cake with raspberry filling. Buttercream frosting under the marshmallow fondant on both cakes. This cake was a ton of fun and I also learned how to rescue fondant... so a valuable learning experience!

Here are some pictures of the composed cake that made the trip easily to Raleigh. Whew! I am told it was a hit!

Installation cake

This cake was done for friends at the UUF in Wilmington for the installation of the new minister, Rev. Cheryl Walker. Let's be honest. Not every cake is perfect! This cake was definitely not one of my proudest moments. It was too heavy and the middle layers started to bulge more than I would have liked. Lesson learned. The columns that the top two layers were designed to stand on were too tall (i.e. unstable) and lasted about 20 minutes before we decided to lower the middle layer onto the base layer and support the top layer with a clear, square, glass bowl. And the color. Originally I had a beautiful ivory, but when I whipped up a second batch of icing (yes, I managed to not make enough the first time around and yes, it is next to impossible to match a color...), I used the wrong color... added too much... and didn't account for the color to deepen throughout the course of the day. But I went with it and it did taste scrumptious. I think the flowers saved it all. Had I not just told you all these disasters, maybe you would have even thought it was suppose to look like this! Minus the frosting mishaps of course. Long story short, it's no where close to perfect, but it was another lesson learned and people came back for seconds and thirds!

Anyway, here are some shots of the assembly process. It was a lemon cake divided by a sinfully yummy almond-meringue layer that was sandwiched between dams of sweet orange marmalade. The idea is taken directly out of Baking with Julia, and the original concept cake is from Martha Stewart. I didn't make her almond cake though, but stole the meringue and preserve dam idea. I also made a chocolate cake with the same meringue layer, but used raspberry preserve instead of the marmalade. So yummy..... =) No pictures though, sorry!

Lastly, I made 497 rolls for this event! They were the first yeast bread I have ever made (apart from pizza crust)! They were beautiful. I was quite proud of myself. =)

Four more orders rolled in this weekend, so I will have more posts soon!