Breakfast Anyone?

I decided at some point that I had not baked nearly enough today so I made some breakfast cupcakes! I've been wanting to try something like this for a few weeks so today was my opportunity... Yellow cake with a cinnamon batter swirl topped with a cinnamon cream glaze--yummy!

Madison's Castle

This a Disney Princess themed cake for Madison's 5th birthday. You can't see them well in the photo but a different Disney Princess peers from each window in the castle! I think I got them all: Belle, Cinderella, Snow White, Aurora, Jasmine, and (my favorite) Ariel!

Cupcakes!

I made cupcakes this morning... I was trying a new style... a poured icing top rather than a mound of swirled buttercream. It makes for a smoother palette if I plan on decorating the cupcakes some other way. Ava wanted butterflies and flowers in her favorite shades of pink and purple so this seemed to fit the bill!

Aaarrrrgh! Ahoy Mateys!

A pirate's life for me! I missed "Talk Like a Pirate Day" last week but I'm making up for it! One photo is the invitation I was given for inspiration, the other is my creation!

Yummy...

I refuse to compromise flavor for style! A lot of fancy cakes will be absolutely gorgeous but taste like sawdust... sometimes cakes are made a few days (or weeks) in advance and then frozen so they are easier to work with. I never do that-- first, I think it adversely affects the flavors but I'm also a bit of a procrastinator so I never work ahead! :)

That being said, I also like to make simple, yummy cakes with no particular kind of decoration. I made a chocolate peanut butter cake and some decadent cupcakes this week!

The cake was three layers of chocolate fudge cake, filled with peanut butter buttercream and chopped miniature Reese cups, then iced with chocolate buttercream icing, and topped with chocolate ganache and more chopped Reese's.

And since I had some extra batter, I made cupcakes!

I also make a Turtle Cake with three layers of chocolate fudge cake, homemade salted caramel filling, whipped chocolate ganache icing and topped with poured chocolate ganache and toasted pecans!

Wedding, Star Wars and Another Wedding

Busy weekend for me! I had a wedding cake to make for Friday, a birthday cake on Saturday and another wedding cake AND groom's cake on Saturday!

The first wedding cake was for Sarah, a girl I work with. She had chosen the cake and the topper she wanted far in advance so this was an easy cake.

The birthday cake was for 6 year-old Michael's Star Wars themed party. I had every intention of making a light saber out of cake but on Thursday night, I had an epiphany! Fortunately, not only did my idea work but it was amazingly COOL! I made a hollow cylinder of blue-tinted hard candy (trust me-- this was definitely a learning experience) and attached a fondant handle. I put the light saber on a cake, added the wording and then added the "amazing" touch... I put a glow stick underneath the candy and the blade of the light saber GLOWED IN THE DARK!!! Too cool! Michael sent me a thank you note for his cake and I have to admit, it was the sweetest thing I have ever receieved!

Saturday evening I created a wedding cake and a groom's cake. I took no pictures of the groom's cake because it was the ever-popular chocolate-covered strawberry cake I've made before. I loved the fall colors of the wedding cake and the reception site was amazing!

Just Dew it!

I know that most soda cans are 12 ounces but the birthday boy was 19 on this birthday!

West Virginia Wedding

I went home to WV a few weeks ago to make a cake for a friend from high school. Even though we were a few years apart in high school, our moms are now best friends so Natalie and I have spent more time together over the last few years. I promised to make her wedding cake, no matter where she got married so when she chose WV, I knew I would be baking in my mom's kitchen. The wedding was everything it should be and I surprised Nat and her new husband Paul with a groom's cake as well!

Chocolate Strawberry Decadence

This cake was from a few weeks ago. My husband's boss Carmen recently took a promotion within the company so I made a cake for the celebration reception. Carmen's life story is so inspirational... she came to the US at 17 with no knowledge of the English language and is now a successful senior director in the biggest retail company in the world! But most importantly, she is a good person-- always looking out for those around her. Carmen's birthday was right around the same time so I needed to make another cake fore her... I wanted to make her FAVORITE cake which turned out to be chocolate and strawberries! This is a cake I have made so many different times in so many different ways, it was a no-brainer!

Whoooooose Cupcakes?

I made cupcakes a few months ago for my friend Christina's baby shower. She just gave birth to her son Henry on Tuesday so I thought I better get around to posting the picture! i made them again just this past Tuesday night for my friend Katie's daughter Kaia's grade school teacher. The teacher loves owls so I made enough for the whole class! They loved them!

After Surgery Cakes... Not So Much!

I've made 4 cakes since surgery and they were difficult! My doctor says no worries-- I expected too much. Everyone has been a simple sheet cake but the difficulty is in not only the physical parts of moving and lifting things but these simple sheet cakes are STIFLING my creativity! Boring! Oh well-- they are pretty and people like them so I should be happy I can do anything. I only took a photo of one cake so I don't know what that says about my satisfaction with my recent work.

A June Cake

I made this cake several weeks ago for my boss' son-- he had the coolest party! It was a Survivor-themed party with scavenger hunts and fun food. The cake was a volcano that actually exploded! I used Diet Coke and Mentos and it works EXACTLY like they say!

No Words, No Descriptions, Just CAKES!

Wedding Cake

I'm so proud of this cake! With flowers from Sam's Club.com, it turned out beautifully! THere were some difficulties in getting it all set up but in the end, it didn't matter because it was a gorgeous cake.

Post-Surgery-- Get it?

I haven't posted in what feels like a million years! I underwent surgery on July 9 for a torn bicep tendon and to have a bone spur scraped down in my left shoulder. Surgery went well but my recovery time has been much longer than I anticipated... not longer than the doctor or physical therapist have intended however so I am headed in the right direction. In the meantime, I have tons of photos to post!

More Babies

One of the cakes I created this weekend was a ladybug baby shower cake.  The mom-to-be purchased her bed linens at JCPenney.  I don't think it was a perfect match but it turned out well.

Babes and Babies

Two fun cakes this weekend, one for a lingerie shower and one for a baby shower.

For the lingerie shower, I made both a cake and cookies  There was an overall them of hearts but not the cutesy, lovey ones!  I used hearts as the base shape for the cake and the cookies but both we transformed into lingerie as evidenced by the pictures.  I had a fabulous time making these and will do so again in a heartbeat!

The second cake this weekend was for a baby shower. The host was very specific as to what she needed so there was not a lot of room for creativity.  The baby is a boy so green, blue and yellow were used.

Weekend's Work

I only made one cake last week and I didn't have the time to post it until now.  I made a wedding shower cake for friends Liz and Jason.  They are getting married on June 21 and I am making the wedding cake as well.  This was the first time that I had experimented with edible pearls and the cake was pretty good.

This weekend, I had a few different events going on.  The first cake I made was a baby shower cake shaped like a baby bottle.  It was a simple cake but it was cute!  My friend Shawna was hosting a baby shower for her friend of Lea and asked me to make the cake.  I had given her some baby shower favors to use that were shaped like bottles so I think bottles ended up being the theme.

Saturday was also graduation for Bentonville High School and I had two graduation cakes to make.  The first was for my friend Debbie's daughter.  They had pored over some pictures and had some pretty specific ideas of what they wanted in the cake.  I think I did a pretty good job in capturing their "vision". They also ordered 4 dozen chocolate dipped strawberries.

My second graduation cake was very similar, especially considering the fact that each client brought me a different picture!  I was able to incorporate some of the design elements from one into the other so both turned out better than their pictures!  The second cake was for my friend Angela's son Ryan.  He was having a pretty big party so I just added a book to the stack of books topped with a graduation cap.

Believe it or not, at my husband's birthday party on Sunday, there was NO CAKE!  I always make the joke that doctor's wives die young, shoemaker's wives go barefoot and baker's husbands get no treats!  But no cake on his birthday was his choice-- he asked for brownies, apple pie and ice cream.

My final "weekend" cake was a Harley cake for a 2 year old's birthday party.  I iced the cake in orange and then airbrushed flames on the sides of the 10" and 12" stacked tiers.  I then made a butter cream transfer of the Harley logo and put that on top of the cake.  The woman whose son I made it for cried when she saw it so I think it was pretty successful.

Mother's Day

Last week, I had a brilliant idea!  I asked some of my "regular" cake customers if they wanted to order Mother's Day cakes for their wives.  I was going to make the same cake for everyone so I knew it would be an easy thing.  I ended up with orders for 5 cakes.  They were all different sizes but identical flavors.  The cake was a strawberry cake with vanilla bean cream cheese icing and sliced strawberries between the layers.  The whole thing was iced and decorated with more vanilla bean cream cheese and topped with fresh whole strawberries.  They were a HUGE hit!

An Apple a Day

This past week was National Teacher's Week.  My friend Katie's daughter is autistic and has really benefited from the extra attention her teachers have paid her.  Katie has always been good about thanking them on a regular basis but she asked me to put together a special treat for them.  I asked Katie to get some cupcake boxes and she found the hot pink stripes box at Hobby Lobby.  Wednesday night I had to make two other cakes so I found myself making cupcake "apples" at around 2 AM.  They were SO cute! (Sorry if you think they look like cherries, Ranee-- they are definitely apples!)  Katie and Kaia liked them and they are the only ones who really counted!

I forgot to take pics of the other two cakes I made... one was a Steeler's good-bye cake for my friend in Pharmacy.  The other was a chocolate ganache cake with chocolate covered strawberries!

First Communions

It has been a week of communions!  The first was for the son of a friend from work and they were not having a big party-- in fact, Brady doesn't even like cake!  But the parents felt it was a tradition they needed to keep-- plus, they LOVE cake!  It is SO difficult to come up with a design that is NOT feminine but I did the best I could with this small cake.

The second party was for Jonathan, my boss's son and they were planning on a big party.  I'd been thinking of a design for awhile so I had plenty of time (and cake!) to make it unique!  I made a three-tiered stacked cake with borders of variegated blue squares.  It was a mosaic-style design and I topped it with a Wilton cross topper

Truffles, Cupcakes and Electric Guitars!

Once again, I overcommitted myself and somehow agreed to make 3 cakes and 48 cupcakes for Friday pickups!  I continually find myself saying I am going to cut back but I never say no!

The first cake I made was a chocolate strawberry truffle cake-- I was asked to make a cake for a chocoholic so I thought I would combine my homemade bittersweet chocolate truffles rolled in cocoa powder with some dark chocolate dipped strawberries on top of a chocolate layer cake iced with chocolate buttercream icing.  I also promised to make someone else a small truffle cake so I kind of killed two birds with one stone.

My third project was 48 puppy cupcakes.  I got a lot of practice making these last weekend but they are still time consuming!  It took several hours to make them all but they are SO cute!

My last project was a Rock Star cake for Gracen... I made her cake last year and it was a circus theme.  Gracen is anything BUT ordinary so this year she decided on a rock star theme... her mom sent me pictures of a cake they liked and I decided to try to improve on that.  First, I wanted to give it three tiers but they didn't need so much cake so I made them smaller.  I also ordered some candy molds from a website to make the guitars and music notes but the molds had not come in the mail by Thursday so I panicked!  I asked my friend Katie to make some guitars and musical notes while I made a skull out of black fondant... I have to say that it turned out really awesome!  Katie did SUCH a great job-- I might have to make this cake for MY birthday!

Puppies, Kitties, Mario, Birthdays and Engagements!

Moving to more recent cakes...

My first "cake" yesterday was actually 60 cupcakes and a mini individual cake for a 5 year old's party. She is the daughter of a good friend of mine and because of that, I didn't sleep AT ALL Friday night to be able to finish these!  I made 10 schnauzers, 10 terriers and 10 kittens, plus 30 pawprint cupcakes and a shi-tzu mini cake.

My second cake was a Mario cake for a 5 year old boy. His parents had just bought him a Wii and he is very into his Mario game.  Apparently, he is quite the bowler as well-- we might have to think about a challenge!

My last cake of the day was for our very good friend Shawna's 22nd birthday! Shawna is Ryan's girlfriend... now fiance!  Ryan has been a good friend since we met 3 years ago and when he started dating Shawna, we added her to our group seamlessly...  lately, we have started bugging Ryan about when he was going to marry her because they are so perfect together.  We showed up at her birthday party yesterday and the first thing she did after looking at the cake I had made her was to show us her ring!  It is beautiful and we are SO happy for them!  I can't wait to start talking about wedding cakes for them!  Congrats guys- we love you!

Andrea's Wedding

I haven't posted for awhile-- I have alot to catch up on!

A few weekends ago I made a wedding cake and groom's cake for Andrea and Jason.  Their reception was at the Shrimpman's Yacht Club in Bella Vista.  We had never been there so we didn't know what to expect but the place was gorgeous!  I felt bad for Andrea-- the location told the couple they could decorate on Saturday for the Sunday weekend, but then they booked a Saturday event! Jason and Andrea had to START decorating at 10PM on Saturday night!  But no matter-- when we delivered the cake the next morning, it was beautiful!

The wedding cake was a simple all white cake with buttercream icing.  Three tiers were stacked and decorated very simply but at the reception site I sprinkled red rose petals all over the cake and then topped it with a beautiful crystal monogram.

The groom's cake was a chocolate half-sheet decorated like a football field with with a Razorback bride and groom at the 50 yard line.  This is a pretty popular cake-- I make at least 6-8 each year!

Julia's Baby Shower

I helped host a baby shower for my friend Julia a few weeks ago.  We put together a big lunch because we expected a big turn-out... Over 60 people accepted the planner so naturally, we needed a pretty large cake... the cake was three tiers in colors matching the baby's nursery.         

The baby came early!  She was born on March 26-- he name is Natasha Faith and she is just the cutest thing!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Thursday Night

Last night I made a birthday cake for someone else I work with.  We had a big birthday lunch with so many different types of food: steaks, lamb racks, bacon-wrapped pork loin, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables, meatballs, salads, chips and salsa, and on and on and on!  The cake was red velvet with cream cheese icing and fed about 25 people.  The birthday boy is somewhat an expert on useless trivia, very much like the character "Cliff  Clavin" from Cheers.  So I made a stack of books with an open book on top... inscribed with a Clavin-like quote about the birthday boy!  The pictures aren't that great but they're the best ones I had!