Something Blue

Something white, something borrowed, something new and something blue is a tradition that every bride knows about. I can remember when I got married, my something new was my wedding dress. My something borrowed and old were my grandmother's pearl necklace and blue was the garter that had a little blue on it. Yes, I'm boring. I do love to hear about the ideas people have about their something blue and the something olds are usually sentimental and that makes me emotional. Yes, I'm sappy.

Recently I was asked to make a bridal shower cake for a friend's daughter. I asked what she had in mind. She said she wanted a cake in the shape of a cowboy boot. I was confused....a boot for a bridal shower cake. Then she explained. She is wearing blue cowboy boots under her wedding gown for her something blue. How I wish I was young again. So cute and so clever! She showed me a picture of the  boots and my mind went into planning mode. 

When the time came, I went and had the picture blown up to the dimensions of the cake size and used the largest cake pan I could find. It took a long time to bake because it was so big but it came out perfect and moist. I cut the outline of the boot with the picture and then cut the boot down the middle to give it two layers. This was nerve racking as I was praying it wouldn't crack. It didn't and then I put a layer of frosting on the bottom and placed the top layer on. Still no cracking. Yay! After frosting the whole boot, we covered it in fondant and it turned out perfect. We sprayed the boot with a light blue pearl sheen and then when we moved it to the final decorated drum, my heart sank, a tiny crack formed. No! We tried to fix the boot but it was difficult to fix. And of course the crack grew. So what do any cake decorators do with problems? Hide them. The boot had scrollwork so I tried to strategically place it over the crack. It did turn out cute and I was proud of it. The bride loved it and I received a lovely hand written thank you note that made me cry. See I said I was sappy! 

Monster cake

A friend of mine asked me to make her son's first birthday cake and the theme was Monsters. After looking on Pinterest for inspiration. Yes, I love Pinterest! People are so creative and I love seeing the amazing things people come up with on Pinterest. I came up with this cake actually two cakes. One cake for a photo shoot with her son and one for the party. My friend is amazing photographer! It was a busy week! Both cakes were double layer vanilla cakes frosted with buttercream. The eyes were made from three cake pops and fondant for the outside of the eyes. The mouth was fondant as well. The first cake was a 6" for the photo shoot and the second cake was an 8". I decided to do cupcakes for the kids because who doesn't love cupcakes and at the last minute added the eyes and mouths. I think the cupcakes were my favorite! 

1st monster cake for the photo shoot

2nd monster cake and cupcakes

All the little cupcakes. Love them!

Twins!

My husband and I expected that we would have twins because it runs in both of our families. We found out that my brother ended up with that lucky straw this year. The family was ecstatic and couldn't wait to meet these little sweethearts. A couple months before they were due, we threw a baby shower for my sister-in-law. The theme was Little Red Wagon. We found two mini red wagons and filled them with pre-made S'mores for favors. The cake was two tiered with two teddy bears sitting in little red wagons on top, both made of gum paste. The top tier had pinwheels around the outside which were surprisingly very easy to make using a square cutter. The bottom tier we decided to do blue and white stripes with a Twins sign which is also made of gum paste. The twins sign was cut using a Cricut™ cake cutting machine. The party turned out perfect and my sister-in-law loved it!

Teddy bears in their little red wagons

Twins!

Little red wagon with the S'mores favors

Cake Decorating Party!

It's been quite the busy summer so I haven't been able to post on here for a few months. We've had great vacations, gone to a beautiful wedding, thrown a baby shower and hosted a couple of birthday parties too! Things are starting to slow down now so I can catch up and blog the cakes I've made!

My daughter decided for her 7th birthday to have a cake decorating birthday party. She and her sister love sitting at the table and making their own creations whenever I'm making cakes. It was quite the baking week. We made 17 double layer 6" cakes for her and her friends to decorate. We frosted them all in plain vanilla frosting and made bags of different colored frosting for them to use to decorate. We also had bowls of different candies to use as well. It was so much fun and they all made wonderful creations! Then each of the kids took their cakes home in decorated cake boxes. Once again I couldn't have done it without my mom who helped me bake all of these cakes!

That's a lot of cake!

I made an example cake for the girls to use for inspiration.

Ready to decorate!

The birthday girl's creation! 

FaceTime

A friend asked me to make her Grandmother's 80th birthday cake this weekend. I called my partner to see if she was available to help that weekend and she of course said yes. My friend requested a floral cake which was great because I love making flowers. A week before I started to make the flowers. But as I was making them I was thoroughly bored. I was on my own except of course my little sidekicks, my three and six year old daughters. My mom who is my partner in my cake decorating hobby was not here.

My husband being incredible thoughtful got the IPad, called my mom on FaceTime and set it up in front of me so we could chit chat and make the gumpaste flowers together. I love sitting around with family doing crafts, cooking, baking or just catching up. I'm from the Midwest and I think it's ingrained in me. I can remember as a little girl watching my great aunts, my mom and our dear sweet friend Cola drinking their sweet tea, sitting around the table chit chatting. I loved it then and I love it now.

The cake was a two tiered carrot cake covered in a vanilla buttercream, then covered in vanilla fondant with gumpaste flowers. My great aunts and Cola would have loved this one, especially the carrot cake. We just need to make some sweet tea to go with it.

Will You Make Our Wedding Cake?

At one of the birthday parties for my niece, some friends asked who made the cake. My mom and I said we did and the next question was if we do wedding cakes and would we make theirs. I was shocked because this was only a fun hobby for us.

Now let me give you a little background on my wedding cake. Besides obviously marrying my husband, this was the most important part of my wedding. I wanted the cake to be perfect and it was. Our friend Roberta made it and she did an amazing job. It was a five tiered gorgeous fall themed cake. Each layer was a different flavor and filling. It was the wedding cake I had always dreamed of.

So when asked to make someone's wedding cake, I was a nervous wreck. My mom had made one wedding cake before but this would be my first. We planned for months on this cake. It took us 3 full days to make the cake and flowers. We delivered the cake which took at least 45 minutes to get there because I drove about 15 miles below the speed limit. My stomach was in knots! All I could think of was, "Just get it there in one piece!"

Thankfully we did get it there and all went well with the set up. Except maybe when my mom stepped in and said she would put on the flowers because my hand was shaking. Yes, I was nervous. I had a long drive home that day but we waited until after the ceremony to leave because I had to see if the bride liked it. She cried...good tears. That alone made it worth it because that's exactly how I felt when I saw my wedding cake.

That Will Be a Piece of Cake

A friend asked me to make her sister a baby shower cake back in January. I of course said yes not only because she's a good friend but also because I've never made a baby shower cake. We figured out a plan for the cake. The design we chose was very simple but cute so we thought this won't take much time at all.

Famous last words....

Three days before we were supposed to make the cake I started to get a scratchy throat. The next day (two days before the shower) I woke up with chills, fever and a cough. Are you kidding me??? I don't have time for this. My mom arrived that night and started baking the cake. By the next day, I at least felt up to decorating the cake.

The hardest part about this cake were the toy blocks on top. They were made out of cake which we thought would be easy. We couldn't be more wrong. After multiple attempts, we figured out its best to freeze the cake cubes because small pieces of moist cake break apart when trying to ice and cover them in fondant. Also using jam or jelly is good to use instead of icing for small objects like the blocks.

We delivered the cake the next day and I was so grateful for my mom because there is no way I could have done it on my own.

Never ever say it will be easy because you will definitely jinx yourself!