Weddings and Smash cakes and Bees - OH MY!

This weekend I have another cake-athon to complete and for whatever reason, I’m not even a little be stressed out over it!  My to-do list consists of a wedding cake for the BEST BRIDE EVER!!! The cutest skull and crossbones smash cake for my friend Pam from October Afternoon Photography and a Bumble Bee cake for my dentist. :D WOOT!

First – the wedding cake. The cake she chose was one like the cake fall cake I did back in 2009. To this day, it’s still one of my faves. Anyway – it’s only for about 65 people but she has been a blast to work with!  My only concern is the weather. :S I just checked the forcast and tomorrow they’re calling for rain-rain-rain!  The fondant gods do not smile upon me when there is humidity.  I’ll make it tonight, though, so that I can be sure that I’m ready.  For the original one, the bride provided the flowers and the florist made the topper. For this one, though, I get to try my hand at it.  I did the arrangements on the last one but making the topper should be lots of fun.  I’ll be sure to take lots of pics along the way.

The 2nd cake is a smash cake. I am soooo stinking excited about this little cake – you have no idea!! My Plan is to have a skull and crossbones on the top, crossbones with little hearts all around the sides and at the base (you’ll love this) a black band of frosting (to look like a leather collar) with little spikes going all around!!! I KNOW!!! I can’t even stand it I’m so excited!!  The challenge with this one is that it’s for a little person so fondant is not an option. I’m going to have to dig out my creative frosting brain and find a fun way to make the sticky-outy’s and the fiddly bits out of butter-cream. (Insert huge squeal of delight here.) The inside of this little gem is lime green and the frosting will be light pink, bright pink and very dark purple (cuz black frosting will look all muddy when kiddo smashes it.) Again – I’ll absolutely post pics as I go. 

Cake #3 is a Bumblebee cake. God love her – she only called me Tuesday (I think) to ask if I could have a cake for Sunday. Normally, this would be short notice but since she’s the same person that helps my dentist drill into my head – I didn’t want to disappoint her.  Plus – I haven’t done a bee cake in ages so I’m looking forward to trying something a little different this time around.  The last one had paper wings…I plan to use fondant this time. Also – there was frosting grass at the base…I want to make big fondant petals so that it looks like she’s on a flower. I also want to use my grass tip so that she looks furry and find a fun way to make the eyes.  Just like last time, though, I’m most excited about the little stinger. ;) This one is for Sunday.

If everything goes as planned, tonight I’ll bake the wedding cake. While that’s in the oven, I’ll make my fondant and frosting and get my piping bags ready and finish the 2 smaller cakes and frost the wedding cake. That way – tomorrow morning- all I have to think about is putting the fondant on, stacking and flowers. The road to hell is paved with good intention…let’s see how I do. 

Octonauts cake - worth every minute!!!

I have been decorating cakes for a very long time and over the last few years, I have tried to finish every cake with the question - would I be content if this were my very last cake ever.  Most of the time, the answer is no.  Not because I'm unhappy with the cake, just because it didn't "challenge" me.  I learn something from every cake I do.  Some, I despise unitl the minute they leave my kitchen.  Some are just another order.  In the middle are those that turn out exactly as I need them to...and then there are those that just kinda happen.  They are so much fun and are such a blast that I lose myself for hours putting it together.  Those are the cakes that I answer yes to.  Yes - I would be completely content if this was my last cake ever.  The Octonauts cake is one of those. :)

I started the cake a few nights ago - the bottom tier is white cake with a teal swirl.  That didn't seem like enough, though, so I made 2 more tiers with teal, purple, green and blue batter.  The colors were amazing!  I wasn't sure if I would use all 3 tiers though because I had too many ideas in my head.  Last night it was time to decorate.  I made a double batch of fondant and a double batch of buttercream.  From that point on, everything just sortof came together!  I worked on it until midnight last night and knew that I had to stop until morning.  I'm still creative when I'm sleepy...but I make dumb mistakes - soooo...off to bed I went.  (right after we ate the top tier that I had decided not to use - Yum!!!) 

My alarm went off at 8am and I was back in the kitchen working away. :)  I colored more fonant today than I have in the last year I'm sure! lol  I made anemone's, starfish, coral, sponge, little clams with pearls (my fave) and then I got started on the charachters.  I was cruising along and having a ball!  Afterall, I had until 2:00 to finish.  Life was good...except that I was having so much fun I completly lost track of time and at 2:00. I still had 3 more characters to finish!!!  Thankfully, the Birthday Mom was a dream to work with and was kind enough to give me more time (the party is tomorrow). 

At 5:30pm I had over 10 decorating hours into the cake and was finally finished.  What I didn't know was that the best part was yet to come. :)  I met the Birthday Mom at our meeting place and she thoughtfully brought along the Birthday Boy - What a cutie!!! :)  I pop'd the trunk and he was crouched down to peek inside before I even opened it! lol  When I finally opened the trunk, he was so excited that my heart melted on the spot. :) The Birthday Boy and I checked out his cake together - I pointed out the vegimals and all the other little doo-dads that were piled around. I have to say, I couldn't have asked for a better customer...Little guys like him - seeing him so excited over something I made is the exact reason why I love this so much. :)  Even after 10 hours and aching hands from all the fondant - I'd do it all over again in a heart beat if I knew I could have another reaction like his. :) 

Happy Birthday Samuel :)  I'm really glad you like your cake. :)

Cake update and other stuff

It seems that most of my posts lately have started with apologies for neglecting my blog.  I really do miss having a computer of my very own.  Blogging from my tablet is soooo not an option. :( 

Anyway, along with my apologies, I will add some pics that I recently discovered and was reminded that I never did post them on here.  (Or at least...I hope I didn't...no - I mean - Yay if I did...I hope this isn't a duplicate. :S  Oy!)  Ok - enough already...

Brads Birthday cake!

I made this one for my Bestest gal-pal's hubby.  It was kindof a whim...or rather, a last minute fun thing.  she gave me creative freedom to do whatever I chose and this is what I came up with.  Originally I was going to have an upright bike...but the black fondant did not cooperate and I was left with limpy black circles - soooo...the fondant Brad wiped out instead and bike parts were flung randomly accross the cake. :)

My fave part...his thumb fell off. ;)  See the little bloody thumb waaaaay in the background??  lol  Nevemind!  It's a thumb I tell ya!!

February Cupcakes

Back in February...err - I think it was February, I made a ton of Sunflower cupcakes for a work meeting in Halifax.  I knew it was one of those meetings where conversations could become challenging and a) had zero funds for anything food related b) I know that nobody can be cranky with a giant cupcake in their hand soooo...I brought these bad boys along.  Worked like a charm!!  I can't take credit for the design though - I got the idea from this  youtube tutorial.  I heart allllll her cupcakes! :)

Crosby cake

This one was for the same Mom that requested the lego cake:)  and I just realized I didn't post the lego cake either - eek! sorry!

Sponge Bob cake

I can't believe I forgot to post this one!!  What a hoot to make! :)  It was for Megan - what a doll!! :)  The coral bits are made out of salt water taffy! :)  Spongebob is a candle though. 

Ok...enough of that.  I have 2 more cakes to post but these 2 need a post of their very own!! :)  Thanks for looking! :) 



Finally!!

What a crazy weekend!!  I had 3 orders in total.  1 for a Mickey Mouse cake, 1 for 50 Graduation cake-pops and 1 for a "Mama-Mia inspired cake".  Normally, that would have been hectic enough - but...I hurt my hip on Wednesday and coudln't even walk Wednesday night. :(  Anyone who says that bursitis is not painful, has never had it before because -Dang!!  Anyway - I had tried to plan the orders well enough that I wouldn't have ot work on anything today - but - the loss of Wednesday and most of thursday - really threw me for a loop. 

The Mickey Mouse cake was due on Friday morning, and was delivered on schedule.  I'm told, though, that his hand fell off when he got to Miramichi. :(  Ugh.  The other "ugh" is that I totally forgot to get pictures of it. :(  Hopefully the birthday momma will send me one. :) (*Update - Thanks Birthday Momma for sending me a pic...now if only I could figure out how to rotate it :(  *)

The Cake pops (all 50 of them) were due today at noon.  they came together pretty well and we still have enough of the filling for kiddo to make them for her class. :)  I was up, though, until after 1am working on all of it.  I had all the baking done - it was just a matter of pulling it all together.

The Mama-Mia inspired cake was the last on the list for delivery and I just got home from dropping it off.  The birthday girl was happy with it - so it was a success. :)  I'm happy with how it turned out.  I wish, though, that the shell mold that I bought for it - actually worked.  What a waste!  I made the church out of rice krispie squares and really like how it turned out. 

I think the flipflops are super cute too.  Overall - I really like this one. :)  Oh - the sand is graham crumbs and brown sugar. :)



After all that, I'm tired and sore and reely need a shower...but first I have to clean the kitchen, then mow the lawn and then - if I'm really lucky - I'll get to go for my walk for the first time since Wednesday!! YAY! :)

More Cake-ventures

Anyone who follows my blog knows that the absence of posting doesn't mean the absence of chaos, happenings or cake-ing.  I'm behind on my posting for a couple of reasons.  1 - hubby has taken over my computer by hooking it up to the television - yay netflix!  But...when you add the PC/TV connection to his most recent hobby (remote control airplanes) it means that its always in use for the purpose of watching RC airplane videos (insert face of disgust here) 

*note to hubby - sorry shmoopy if you read this -you know I love you madly and deeply...it's your hobby that needs its own place - hehe*

2nd is the introduction of a tablet.  I got one for Christmas and have a love/hate relationship with it.  It's Android - which I'm stll learning.  And although my typing speed is close to 90wpm...on a tablet - with a touch screen - and 1 finger typing...I'm much much slower. :(  I also lack a USB port on the silly thing - so zero options to upload pics - it's a drag!  Anyway - in order for me to post, I need a PC.  Posting form work is a bit of a career-limiting-move...so I'm reduced to using the kids computer.  If you have ever tried to convince a 9 year old that blogging is more important than the hourly activity on Webkinz world, you know exactly what I'm talking about. :S

3rd - I've just been too darn busy!  lol  Time has been wizzing by and I just now realized that I haven't posted in over a month! :( 

So - Here's what's been going on...

I've made a few cakes which I still need to post.  (I'll do that soon.)  and have more coming up.  I'm trying to find a way to add a cake calendar to my blog so that I can keep track of the orders comign up and link them to posts. :)  I can't wait for you to see the Spa cake I did for Kate! :)  I've also done a lego cake, a Penguins Jersey - Crosby 87 cake, and in the next couple weeks I have to do a Mickey mouse cake, 50 grad cake pops, 3 dozen sunflower cupcakes for the school + a Mama Mia cake and at the end of the month...a soooper cool Grooms cake which I still need to sketch out -Oy!  And...in July i have a WICKED space cake taht I'm crazy excited about. :)

Ok - that's my cake rant.  I'll catch up on the pics eventually and fill you in on the other happenings in my next post. :)

Hollee (the soon-to-be skinny Baker ;)  

Lisa Frank inspired Unicorn cake

 This morning, I finished the cake - Yay!  Thankfully, the local unicorn horn maker was at the office and was able to give me a hand. :)  She was tickled pink to be able to too. :)  I also had her shimmer-ize for me. 

Didn't she do a great job??! :) She took her work very seriously!!

Once the shimmering and horn was done, it was time to add teh rainbow mane.  1 hour and 63lbs of rainbow frosting later...she was all done :)   YAY for Rainbos Unicorns!!  :) 

The life of a Lisa Frank cake

(Friday - 7:30pm) 
I'm sooooper crazy excited about this cake!!  Aside from it being an exercise in creative frosting - it's for the most adorable-est - squeezy-est cutie pattootie on the planet!! :D  Her name is Ava and she's so stinking adorable it's crazy!! :D 

A couple of months ago, her Mom asked me if I could do a Lisa Frank cake for Ava's 5th birthday.  Ummm...HECK YEAH!!  I'd LOVE to!!  Lisa Frank Rocks!!  I've been trying to come up with a plan for this cake for a few weeks now, but I knew my inspiration would come from the Birthday Girl. :)

I spoke with Miss Ava last weekend when I dropped off her little sisters cupcake cake.  I asked Miss Ava what she would like to have on her cake and she was extreeeemely polite when she gave me the list; peace signs, hearts, stars and rainbows.  I asked her if it was ok if I put a Unicorn on the cake too.  She smiled reeeeely big and nodded yes.  YAY! Unicorns are my favorite!! :D 

I baked her cake earlier in the week and froze it so that it would be ready to decorate today.  It's easier to decorate a frozen cake - so I pulled it out of the freezer tonight and started to make all the colors...red, orange, yellow, green, blue, pink, lavender and purple...Done!!  I printed a picture of a "Lisa Frank Unicorn" as a reference too.  My plan is to make a Unicorn face on the top of the cake with Hair spilling down the sides...then I can sneak hearts and peace signs and stars etc. in the Unicorns hair!  Eeek!  I'm soo excited. :)  (*note...since I printed the picture of the "unicorn" I have realized that it is - in fact - a horse!!  lol oops! *)  When it is done...It will be a Unicorn. ;)  I can't quite decide, though, if I should use fondant on the cake or not...fondant gets soo mushy under frosting so I might just use white fondant for the unicorn face and cut it out etc...Or I could flat frost in white as a base and go from there.  I'm not sure yet but I'll figure it out as I go.  :)  I'll post more later with progress. :)

(10:45pm)

I opted for a fondant face...and I wasn't entirely sure how I was going to do the shading but I figured I'd take it 1 step at a time :) I started by cutting out the horse outline from white fondant...like this - 

and carving the face outline into it...like this! :)

Then I was stuck trying to figure out the shading...do I use frosting?  Nah - that would be awful and lumpy and not how I wanted her to look...I'M A GENIUS!!  I decided to use food coloring and paint it on!!...like this!!  

  :)  So far, I'm happy with how it's working out. :)  It's taking a little bit longer than I had planned...but since I really didn't have a plan...I guess I should be pleased with my progress. :) Anyway - the cakes that I have to figure out as I go are the ones I enjoy the most anyway. :)  I think I might put the face on the cake and finish it up in the morning though.  I'll post more later as I go. :) 

Partridge and Purple and Pancakes - Oh MY!

What a busy weekend!!  My first activity was Partridge watching!! lol  Ok - Partridge waiting to be more specific. :)  My bird feeders have been super busy over the last week.  We are definately keeping the Grackle population very well fed.  Most days, it's like a Hitchcock movie - watching them storm in and out - scaring all the desirabel birds away.  I thought that Grackles were supposed to be territorial and that we'd only get stuck with about 20 - but nope!!  Not my yard - we're well over 100 I'm sure!  In the middle of all of this, though, Hubby has seen a few Partridge at the feeders.  They're too big and too dumb to figure out what to do with them, though, and I imagine it's kinda like the seagulls from Finding Nemo with the "MINE-MINE-MINE" IQ.  They flutter and bounce about with zombie intelligence and then fluster off in a flurry of feathers.  Hubby promised to try and get me some pics so my fingers are crossed.

Pancakes - We have learned that we don't like Costco pancake mix - it's pretty gross!!  But - we have a ton of it (as most costco items go) and have to use it up.  So far this week, we've had Berry, strawberry, apple and orange pancakes and have discovered that with enough maple syrup and brown sugar - it's not half bad! lol  I really do miss Aunt Jemima though. :(

Now for the Purple part of my weekend...I had a little bit of cake and frosting left over, so I was thrilled to make a smash cake for my friend Pam.  She asked for a cupcake smash cake in purple but let me have creative freedom.  Because it's for a photo-shoot, though, it had to be rainbow inside so rainbows they got!!  :D  I LOVE rainbow cake!!!

I had to slice the top off of the half round - but this is what's inside (I love peeking anyway so I didn' mind. :) )  I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. :)  Here's the final product. :)

When I was done, though, it still needed somthing.  a little "pop" of color.  It needed a cherry!  Trouble is...it's a smash cake for a 1 year old...and for a photo shoot - so - getting a pic of a choking baby is not the goal or purpose of this cake.  I had to find a way to make a cherry out of buttercream frosting and dang-flabbit - I did!!!  Aint it cute!!!? :D  I made a little glob of red buttercream frosting and put it in the freezer.  After a few minutes - I rolled it into a ball with my hands (and made a heckuva mess too) but it still wasn't smooth.  So - back in the freezer it went to harden up a little more.  Then I took it out - put a little mound of plain white sugar in my hand - and rolled it again with the sugar and voila!!  a perfect little cherry!  I couldn't think of a way to make a stand up stem with buttercream (and it was pretty late by the time I thought of the cherry) so I added a tiny leave and voila!  I can be pretty creative when I put my mind to it.  And now - the suspense is killing me cuz I'm DYING to see what Pam comes up with for pics!! :D

Crazy cake weekend...

I was reading over my blog from last year and it looks like it's an annual thing for me to be cake crazy on the week of hubbies birthday.  This year - I made 4 cakes - countem - 4!!  Next year, though, I will not take any cakes besides Hubbies and B's - that's it!  2 is my limit!  lol

A couple months ago, I asked B what kind of cake she wanted for her birthday.  She asked for a round cake - "Aww come on kid!  Challenge me!!"  she laughed and said - "Ok...how about a LIVER cake!!!"  A cake made out of Liver, I asked??  "NO!  A cake that looks like a liver!"  "DONE!"  She looked a little worried, but forgot about it quickly until this weekend when she was surprised with THIS beauty!!  lol  I'm a little proud of myself on this one...the gallbladder is my favorite ;)

After the Liver cake - I had to wrap up 2 baby shower cakes for the same person! lol  Only 1 baby but she couldn't decide which cake so she got both! :)  I LOVED the colors and am really happy with how they turned out. :)

My 4th cake of the weekend was for hubby.  A chocolate fudge cake with chocolate frosting and ganash sauce poured over top.  I don't have a picture cuz...well...it's not really all that exciting. :)  But there you have it.  4 cakes in 1 weekend. 

Cottage at the lake - cake

A friend called me on Tuesday to ask if I'd make a cake for a mutual friend and I jumped at the chance!!!  I love her to bitts and haven't had the opportunity to make a cake for her before so YAY!  :)  She has a cottage at the lake so I decided to make a Cottage at the lake-cake. :)  She showed me a picture and I was ready to go....until about 9pm last night when I realized that everythign was closed...and I was out of red food coloring AND cocoa!!!  ugh!  The roof is supposed to be red...or rather burgundy - but instead - she got purple.  The main color is pretty close and the windows and door was just fun.  Louanne suggested a tree with a little owl - but instead - she got a purple peep with a sinister grin. ;)  It seemed more fitting...plus - I was out of cocoa so...no brown. Anyway - I delivered it this morning and the birthday gal really liked it.  Oh - and I got to meet her poochie who is the most adorable poochie ever!!  I was totally smitten. :)

Happy Birthday Mariet!  And Louanne - in case you're blog stalking me - here's the cake. :D

Cupcakes

The road to hell is paved with good intention...I recently got an order for cupcakes.  If anyone remembers…cupcakes have literally kicked my butt lately.  I haven’t had good luck with them at all!  In fact – I recently burned over 6 dozen while trying to get ready for a work meeting.  The order I received was simple.  Chocolate cupcakes with a girlie design.  Because they were for a work friend – I decided to cover my bases (just to be safe)  I picked up 12 chocolate cupcakes from the grocery store (in case I burned another 6 dozen) and then went home to make cupcakes with my youngest punk.  I let her do all the adding and mixing and we used some very girlie foil lined cupcake cups that I picked up on the way home.  I have to say – weather it was the plantes aligning – or the mad baking skills of a 9 year old…or maybe the divinity of the foil cups…they turned out awesome!!!  And so – I set off to decorate MY 12 fresh baked cupcakes and let kiddo decorate the 12 store bought cupcakes.  (Actually – in hind sight…we baked 24 so I think my punk got to decorate 24 while I decorated 12! Lol) 

Anyway – we were up until midnight and we both had a ball. J 

My fave by far is the 1 boy-ish cupcake reserved for Jonah.  (I found out after the fact that Johan does not like frosting! Lol)   

I also got to make some super cute marshmallow flowers!!  I took mini's and cut them diagonally (from corner to corner) to make each pettle.  Dipped it in coarse sugar (for sparkle) and put a pearl in the center with a glob of frosting.  They were much cuter in person cuz the pic doesn't show the sparklee bits. :)

So that's it for the cupcakes...oh - and I was reeeely glad that they turned out cuz the grocery store cupcakes were crazy dry!! :(  And because my element finally went in my stove (and hubby picked up a new one today) I'm hoping ot make more cupcakes very soon! :)

A cake with intent but no plan...

This morning I started a cake for mom....ok - a few weeks ago I started a cake for my Mother...but life got in the way and I have neglected by blog ever since...so here's the final product.  I had the chance to work on my basket weave and even got to try out some new frosting flowers that I had never been able to figure out before. :)  YAY FROSTING!

It's kindof a messy mess of frosted goodness...but it's for my Grams Church Minister.  The entire congregation is quite elderly and the most exciting cake that any of them have ever seen is when the local sobeys got a new frosting stencil. :)  It was a huge hit!.  :)  (and I had a ton of fun with it.)

not so super-store cake

I offered to put a logo on a cake for a friend - super simple.  All I had to do is pick up the half slab from the Super-store.  White cake - white frosting - white trim...they clearly misunderstood my order!!!.     

When I arrived at the bakery counter to pick up the cake…it didn’t even have any trim!  Without warning I blurted out “That’s the ugliest thing I have ever seen!!!”  The 12 year old who was working behind the counter looked afraid and offered to put a border on it.  For a brief second I was impressed that a 12 year old could put a shell border on an ugly arsed cake and left to wander while she completed the task.  10 minutes later, I came back to find her attacking it violently with frosting!!!  I told her to stop – give me a big discount and I’d take it home and fix it myself.  At the same time – I asked her why it was 3 inches deeper on 1 side than on the other.  Her reply??  “Uhhh – that’s how they come in.  The other ones in the cooler are like that too”..  Ooooo baby-gurl…no they don’t sweety!  When I got home, I removed all frosting from the cake and discovered that the 3” height difference from 1 end to the other was allllll frosting!!  And let’s not over look the chewed corners on the cake board.  Honest to goodness…I learned very quickly that a) I don’t charge nearly enough and I’m way better at this cake thing than I give myself credit for.  When everything was scraped off of the hydious mess and a crumb coat was applied, I had no less than 4 heaping cups of frosting left over to re-frost the cake with.  4 CUPS!!! ARE YOU FREAKIN KIDDING??!!!  What can I expect, though, from a cake that looks like it was frosted with a paint roller??  The finished product worked out for the best and she was happy with it all the same.  Thankfully – it all ended well….but I will never buy a superstore cake again.

What if I"ve lost it??!

I love baking - I do!  I can't help it.  It's my "happy pill".  I have dubbed myself a stress baker, simply because when my world is going insane around me, all I have to do is bake something and "POOF!" everything is better! :)  I'm a junkie for the smile.  You know what Im' talking about...Have you ever passed anybody an adorably decorated cupcake and not had them smile?? That's what it's all about for me! The smile!  Ironically enough, I don't even eat it!  I mean - I do...but I don't inhale it just cuz it's there.  I'd rather let somebody else enjoy it. I'm more of a boredom eater...which is probably why I bake. :)

Lately, I've wanted to try something different.  I've been noticing tons of cupcake ideas around and thought I'd give it a whirl!  After all - it's like cake decorating on a smaller scale and I can easily pull off pretty much any design - YAY!  Plus - it's much closer to the instant gratification category that I'm also a junkie for. :)  Anyhoo - I have a work meeting coming up next month and figued I'd bake for the group.  Cupcakes!  Pretty sunflower cupcakes with oreo centers - yeah!  That's what I'll do! :)  But I have to test them first - oh darn!  I hate it when I have to eat the test subjects. NOT!! So - I start my search for a good reliable recipe.  I found a pretty good chocolate one and everything went' great.  The batter even tasted good.  Trouble is...I burnt the bottoms. :(  Ok - Next dozen...lower the temp by 25 and raise the rack...burnt!!  AUGH...Ok - so chocolate cupcakes - even with burnt bottoms will get eaten.  I decorated them anyway and they turned out pretty good.  Super cute actually :)  But too burnt to share with anyone beyond immediate family. :(

Tonight I tried a vanilla cupcake recipe that rawked!!!  They turned out beautifully...except that I burnt the bottoms AGAIN!!! 4 DOZEN CUPCAKES BURNT!!!

I have lowered the temperature, raised my rack, replaced my pans, reduced cooking time...and I'm still burning them!!  :(  What if I have lost my baking super power??!  What do I do then??  This has never happenned before and I don't like it - not at all! :(  And so...There won't be any cupcakes for work tomorrow...and consequently...there is no baking therapy for me. :(

If I would have been born rich instead of beautiful, I could buy myself a new stove...but what if it's not the stove? :(   Oh lord! I'll let you know how the 5th and 6th dozen make out. :(

Birthday and Spooky cakes all around!

I'm in another cake marathon!  My Cake-ee to do list is as follows...

1. A 3 tier white cake for a friends birthday - done and delivered!  Check!
2.  An extra chocolate (smallish) Jack-o-lantern cake - done and delievered!  Check!
3.  A Hamburger cake for kiddos' class for her 9th birthday...tuesday...ugh - did I say 9??  Really??  My baby is going to be 9??!!  Ok - back on track.  this cake will be done between today and tomorrow - but...
4.  A ?? cake for kiddo's birthday with family on tuesday night - Oy!
5.  A birthday cake for kiddo's party!  (In hind sight - I shoudl have sream lined this a little.
6.  My boss's birthday is on the 10th.  I made him a Canadian's cake last year so I feel compelled to do it again. :)  He's actually a pretty great boss and besides - he shares. :) 

So - this is the 3 tier birthday cake.  It's a white almond sour cream cake with vanilla butter cream frosting.  I used pearl accents around each tier and wrapped it with irredescent sheer ribbon at the base of each tier.  The Gerber daisies were an added fall touch to bring color to the cake.  I'm very pleased with how it turned out and the birthday girl was happy with it too - YAY!  Mission accomplished. :)

This little gem is a small chocolate jack-o-lantern cake (obviously :)  with chocolate fudge frosting between the layers and iced with a vanilla buttercream.  I wanted to do a little something extra for the details.  It didn't seem right to use frosting for the face, leaves and stem - soooo...I decided to try my hand at modeling chocoalte! :)  It's a nice change for sure and really fun to work with.  I'm not a pro at it by any means...but it was fun to try something new. 

 I especially like the swirly vine parts!  I would never be able to do that with fondant!  And - most kids don't like fondant anyway - but chocolate!!  Hollah!  Everyone loves chocolate!!  :)  I almost didn't wanna give him up, but kiddo smiled pretty big when she saw it so that (as they say) was that!

So - that's my cake marathon...Clearly I lied when I said I was giving up cakes. :S