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!

Last night's cake was for a baby shower for someone at work.  The person who ordered it didn't really give me any requirements other than it needed to feed 25-30 people and both chocolate and white cake would be appreciated.  I thought about it for awhile-- I hate to do typical cakes so I am always interested when someone gives me creative license!

I looked through the baby registry at walmart.com but the mom hadn't registered for any baby bedding I could mimic. However, she did register for a diaper stacker that really caught my eye.  The pattern had stripes on some parts and polka dots on others and I really liked the colors so I went with that.  I am posting a picture of the cake and the diaper stacker for your comparison.

Just Another Tuesday Night for Me!

I have an odd version of insomnia.  I sleep but only when I have the time.  I can sleep anywhere, anytime!  However, some nights I may sleep 6 hours and some I may not sleep at all... it doesn't really matter because I function well on 6 hours OR 2 hours.  People at work are always shocked when I bring in any of my creations because they can't figure out how I have the time-- I just often choose to bake rather than sleep!  Last night was one of those 4 hour nights!

First I made a cake for my friend Kathryn.  She and her husband own the beautiful Jackson House (www.bentonvillejacksonhouse.com)in downtown Bentonville.  Her husband asked me to make her a birthday cake today and their family choice is traditionally German chocolate cake.  I made a 3 layer of milk chocolate cake with pecan coconut frosting between each layer.  I iced the sides in milk chocolate icing, poured chocolate ganache on the edges so it dripped down the sides and topped it with toasted whole pecans.

Then I made two additional cakes, both with strawberry cake layers, sliced fresh strawberries between the layers and cream cheese frosting.  I made one with three layers for work and one with two layers for my Bunco group.  The one I took to work was wildly successful-- I'm not sure that it lasted more than 30 minutes after I cut the first slice!  We did not cut the second cake at Bunco-- we were all too full after a yummy dinner so we'll eat it at work.

Wedding Cakes

I have no cakes I must make today so I thought I would post some of my wedding cakes.  I usually name my cakes after the bride who chooses it but I am going to have to come up with a better plan because I am starting to duplicate a few of my cakes quite frequently!

I think my favorite cake might be one I call Rustic Dawn.  The cake was modeled after a Martha Stewart cake and it turned out so well.  There were four tiers of cake iced with chocolate butter cream icing and was decorated with sugared chestnuts, lady apples and lemon leaves.  The cake looked so perfect-- the reception was held in an old remodeled barn in Maryland and the wedding itself was very rustic.

The second cake shown here was a three-tier red velvet cake iced with cream cheese icing called Melisa.  I work with the groom and his bride brought me a picture from a magazine she liked.  I ended up making an identical mini cake for them to share at or after the wedding as well as the groom's cake which I will post in another entry.  This has become one of my most popular cakes and I love to make it.

Next up is the Whitney cake-- I think the best part of this cake is the stand I displayed it on!  My sister and her husband are iron artists and they crafted the stand from polished steel.  There are five individual stands that go with the set and the pieces are all interchangeable so I can put a big cake on a tall or a short stand, plus I can use 1 or 5 at a time.  They are easy to dress up with tulle or ribbons but I like them best plain and simple!  The Whitney cake was chocolate, white, and strawberry cake iced with butter cream topped with silk flower arrangements I made myself.

The fourth cake is another nice cake made better by the accessories and the surroundings!  It holds a special place in my heart because it is the Rebecca-- it's my wedding cake!  Yes, I actually made my own wedding cake! It was so much fun to do-- it was supposed to be four tiers but as I was icing the top tier, it started to fall apart because it was carrot cake!  I wasn't stressed in the slightest, I just added more of the beautiful flowers featured throughout the wedding.  They were an amazing combination of colors-- a parchment colored center with an old terra cotta patina on the edges called Leonidas.

The last cake is a recently made one called Jill.  Jill got married last year on Memorial Day weekend!  Jill is a good friend so this cake was a labor of love-- but frankly, the concept of this cake came nowhere close to the final creation.  This cake was so beautiful, classic and just amazing!

My weekend's work!

My first cake on Saturday was a small cake and 4 
dozen cupcakes for an 8 year old's birthday party.  Since the little girl recently decided that she no longer liked chocolate or vanilla (!!!) she asked for a lemon cake.  I made the cupcakes lemon, strawberry, chocolate and vanilla.  Everything was iced in soft shades of pink, teal, yellow and green.  I topped the cake with curling streamers and the cupcakes were topped with various cutouts sprayed with shimmer spray.

The second cake was a cake for a little boy who loves Star Wars in general but Yoda in particular.  Most Star Wars themed cakes on the internet are either really cheesy or crazy cakes made with pounds of fondant.  Since I seem to have a sort of objection to fondant-- it adds greatly to the cost, has a nasty taste and a strange texture-- I try to do everything I can in buttercream.  My husband found a great Yoda image online and I re-created it using a buttercream transfer method.  I put it on top of the cake with a Yoda-inspired birthday greeting and the cake was a hit!

The final cake of the day was a three-tiered masterpiece!  I really loved the simplicity of this cake-- it was surprisingly dramatic!  This cake was for the wedding of an old friend of my husband's.  Somehow, the bride allowed the groom to make the arrangements for the cake (!!) and he called on Wednesday to ask me to make it.  Luckily, I tend to work well under pressure and the cake was delivered on time and looking beautiful!

Not bad for a day's work!  I was afraid that I might have some difficulties considering my shoulder issues but as long as I didn't try to lift any weight with my left arm, I was fine.  My husband was a huge helping lifting cake pans full of batter and heavy cake boards-- I could not have done it without him!