Happy Birthday Mom!

My mom's 61st Birthday is tomorrow and she loves pound cake with buttercream icing. It's her all time favorite. I recently found an incredible pound cake recipe that is beyond melt in your mouth good!!! I gave her a taste last week and she decided there was no other cake she'd rather have to celebrate her 61st!

She told me just cake with icing smeared on it would be good. BUT you know me! Even though I started icing this cake at 10:30pm tonight, I had to make it pretty! So... it's a little nicer than just pound cake with icing.

Here's a link to the recipe if you are so inclined to try making it. I made it for company this past weekend with a homemade blueberry topping and garnished with whipped cream. That's MY favorite way to eat it! http://www.recipezaar.com/The-Most-Ultimate-Buttery-Cream-Cheese-Pound-Cake-78552



Gotta love a simple round tip when you want a quick freehand design. Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Congratulations Graduates!!!

During the 2009 school year I've been working as an After School Program Supervisor at a local Private Christian School. Tomorrow the 6th grade graduates and after the ceremony, there will be a celebration for the class, their families, and the staff. I wanted to do something special for them as many of them know I am a cake nut and have been begging me all year to make them a special treat.

This is a double chocolate cake with buttercream icing. The graduate is hand sculpted from sugar clay. The little graduation caps are also edible sugar clay.



Congratulations 6th Grade!!!!!

Graduation from Apollo Career Center. Congratulations Toby!!!

Made this cake for my cousin's graduation from culinary tech school. It was transported 567 miles from our home all the way to Ohio. It was well worth it though. I'm thrilled with how it turned out and I loved making this for Toby.

Yellow cake with bettercream icing. All the decorations were pre-made. The counter and stove are rice krispy treats covered with fondant.

Happy 40th Birthday Bob!

This cake was made for the Surprise 40th Birthday of a good friend. The car is actually a replica of his VW race car. He used to do hill climbs with it. The man on the cake is Bob himself. He's also into target shooting so I had to add a rifle and a target. On the back of the car is the Grateful Deal Logo as he is also a big fan of theirs.

This cake is a butter pound with strawberry filling and buttercream icing. For the most part the details are fondant.

Baby Shower Cupcakes

Here are the baby shower cupcakes I made for a shower this weekend. They were made to match the invitation. 1/2 are chocolate and 1/2 are vanilla. Iced with buttercream and fondant accents.

Steps to a Finished Cake Part 3... It Is Finished!!!

So here is the finished girlie, pink, Mickey Mouse Cake. I'm really pleased with the outcome of this project. Mickey and Minnie ended up standing in front of the cake because I'd have had to cover their feet in icing to get them to stand on top of the cake and it would have made the cake very, very tall. This seemed to give it more balance and now Jessie can keep them as long as she likes.

Sweet Baby Girl...

Okay, here's the baby girl. Isn't she just precious! I think I know 4 or 5 pregnant people right now and every one of them is having a boy. Don't know when I'll ever get to use her, but I do love how she turned out.

Both of these little ones, are made using a silicone mold from First Impressions Molds. They have incredible products and the investment was worth every penny. All the extra details are hand painted or added. The mold only does the naked little baby. But the possibilities are endless.

Don't you just love her little diaper!?!

Precious little one...

Okay... this speaks for itself. I'm ready to do a baby shower cake. Just itching to do a baby shower cake. Is this not the most precious cake topper you ever saw???

This baby is all made of gum paste with a fondant blanket and gum paste bow. I have another little guy drying that I'll show you later. Can't wait to see how that one turns out. Maybe I'll make that one a girl... Stay tuned!

Forget-Me-Knot

The past three Saturday's I've left my home at 8:30am to drive into South Philly's, Italian Market. There's a fantastic kitchen supply/cooking store called Fante's. In the back of the store, there's a little room where a very talented Debbie Lang, teaches Cake Decorating. I decided to sign up for the Advanced Cake Decorating course to brush up on some of my skills and learn some new ones.

Our final class was today and therefore, our final cake was due. All the prep work had to be done ahead. I piped all my flowers ahead, made the monogram, and the arbor, and also baked, torted, and iced the cake.

This cake has alternating vanilla and chocolate layers with Strawberry filling and it is covered in a dark chocolate buttercream. The flowers are made out of royal icing and the butterflies are made from unbreakable gel.

Steps to a finished cake... Part 3

I spent a little more time on Jessie's 2nd Birthday cake today. The little Mickey heads for the side of the cake are done, the #2 for the side of the top tier is done, and Mickey got a tail. Didn't realize till we put a mirror behind him that this mouse was missing an essential element. Ahhhh, the details....

Anyway, Matt was kind enough to take a photo with a mirror behind Minnie to show off the back of her dress with the nice little bow. At this point, I'm pretty much done with this cake until I bake, ice, and assemble.

And you have to love kids... I asked my 6 year old son what he thought of Mickey.

"It doesn't look like him."

"What!?! Why doesn't it look like Mickey?"

"Because Mickey wears red shorts and he's wearing pink shorts!"

"Oh, GOOD GRIEF!"

Steps to a finished cake... Part 2

Okay guys... Here's a completed Minnie. I will probably put a flower in her hands but for now, she's complete. She's got some drying to do. Believe it or not, this little body gave me some trouble. I think it took me 3 tries to get it to where I was happy with it. But hallelujah she is complete!