Look Whoo's One!

Some of my favorite cakes to make are First Birthday cakes. I love all of the cute birthday themes that are out now. This one was for a little girl and the theme was "Look Whoo's One". Dave and I both agree this is now our favorite. I am going to miss our little owl friend who will soon be smashed by the birthday girl. Yum Yum! The biggest layer is white almond, middle chocolate and the top "smash" cake is white almond as well.

Rubik's Cube Cake

This cake was made for an 80's themed birthday party. I can't believe how heavy it was!! The inside is white almond and I had to make 6 - 10" square cakes to make it a perfect square. It was difficult trying to get everything even. I spend a lot of time with a ruler in hand. Before I began this cake I thought to myself "a big square with cut out squares should be easy." Each time I make a cake , Dave reminds me I shouldn't say that because that never happens! I was super excited about getting this order because my customer found me linked to another blog...how fun :) That means people are reading and I don't even know it!

I love the weekends :)

It's Saturday night and I must say that I am a VERY  blessed wife...my hubby is making dinner tonight. Not Tuna Helper or microwaved chicken breast (like he would make for me when we dated). Yes, I did say microwaved chicken and boy it was chewy!! I happened to be upstairs cleaning the bathroom and came down to find him in my apron and just had to snap a pic so here it is:

He's making manicotti btw :)

Unfortionately, I only have one cake to post about today! I am very sad because last weekend I had three cakes to post pics of and my memory card crashed. For some odd reason I can't get my pictures off of it. If you know of anyway to fix it please let me know! I always look forward to the pictures after making cakes because it is the only tangible thing I have left from my artwork (since they usually get eaten).

Here is a cake I made this weekend for a bachelorette/birthday party. I was able to do whatever I wanted so I went with pink and black and came up with this fun design. I hope the girls enjoyed it!

Hope you have a fabulous weekend!!

Sailboat Cake

Here is another cake I made for Justin and Cassandra's wedding. This was the groom's cake and they also had it at the reception. Justin is a big Miami fan so Cassandra requested that the sail have the Miami logo on it. There were a few other "inside" jokes that she wanted on the cake. The water was a last minute detail! I felt like I was on one of those cake shows with only a few minutes left to finish up. I was going to just used blue buttercream icing, but I didn't like how it looked. I always tell my art students when they paint water to mix lots of different blues and greens together because water isn't just blue. I also remind them their water doesn't need to look "perfect" becuase it is always moving. I love using the lessons I teach my students...I need to learn how to follow my own advice :) Anywho, I painted a few of the waves with white food coloring. I just discovered white food btw.

Cassandra and Justin's Wedding Cake

Congratulations Justin and Cassandra! The Johns' got hitched this past weekend and I had the honor of making their cake. I really enjoyed making this cause because Justin designed the pattern I used (it was also on their invitation, etc.). He is an artist and has his own canvas printing business. I must say that I was a little initmidated because he is very talented and their reception was absolutely gooorrrgeouss! I think Spider Mums are my new favorite flower. I took the topper home with me and they are now on our coffee table :)

I cut out the fondant pattern using an exacto knife and a print-out of the design Justin designed. The night before their wedding I dreamed about this design (since I spent quite a bit of that day cutting it out) :)

Guinness Cake

Wow, it's been a while since I have had a chance to write! I have been super busy with lots and lots of cakes the last few weeks. Here is one that my roomie (from college) ordered for our friends Matt and Jennifer Embry. They recently got married and had a party after the wedding and reception - how fun!

I covered the cake board with fondant and make it look like wood. I love painting with food coloring!

Here is the foamy top close up. Can you guess what I used to make it look foamy?? I love how realistic this turned out!

Julie and Richard's Wedding Cake

This past weekend was not only Richard and Julie's wedding but it was also my birthday! Here is the wedding cake I made for them. I love the look of different designs on each tier. The flavors: 1st tier - pound cake, 2nd tier - chocolate, 3rd tier- lemon, 4th tier - carrot. It was iced with buttercream, covered in fondant and every other tier was "quilted". I did the details with royal icing because it hardens and always looks so smooth.

For my birthday, Dave gave me a brand new PINK camera!! I am super excited because I take so many cake pictures and now it is a lot easier to do so. This past summer, I lost my pink cannon camera on the way to Uganda. I was so sad beacause some of my best friends bought it for me for my birthday a few years back. Anyways, Dave replaced it and is is 12 MP!! Can you tell the difference in the pics? ;)

I often get the question "how do you deliver wedding cakes?" so here are a few pics of the process. It is not an easy task and I always needs a second set of hands (usually Dave). It is easier to transport them in an SUV, but since we don't have one, we have figured out how to do it in "Haley the Honda" (my Honda Accord). Dave used to do the driving, but since he is from NY and drives like a maniac, we have decided it is best for him to sit with the cake and for me to drive :)



top half in the front of floor board of my car





Me putting the cake together and making some last minute touches at the reception site



The bottom half in the back seat of my car (which weighed about 50 pounds!!)



The finished product!!



Happy Birthday Karoline!

This past Monday was my best friend's birthday. We have been best friends for 20 years!! I can't believe it. On Sunday, Dave and I threw her a birthday party. It was a a special treat that she happened to be home for her birthday because she now lives in the big city of Boston. She is attending Boston College and is getting her M.Ed. Educational Administration. I am so proud of her and can't wait to see what an amazing principal she turns out to be!!

I made her a banana cake with buttercream icing and it turned out super yummy. This was the first time I made a banana cake and everyone loved it. I always think of Kar when I see gingham (maybe it's cause we used to call her "Little Debbie"?) so I bought some gingham napkins from Target and made a little table runner with them (got the idea from Better Homes and Gardens). I was going to attempt to make a gingham pattern with fondant,but decided it might look better to use real ribbon so I just did the monogram out of fondant.

Here are all the guests eating Manicotti before digging into the cake! After the party, Karoline, Abby, Susannah and I spent some time flipping through our old highschool yearbook which brought back lots of memories!! I am so thankful for friendships that have lasted so long.

Monday morning (her actual birthday) I surprised her with a trip to the Tea Room in Wake Forest! When Karoline turned 10 she had a tea party for her birthday so I decided to try to "re-create" it for her. This place even had a dress up box. Soooo we got all dressed up with big hats, gloves and of course, PEARLS! It was so much fun...Happy Birthday Karoline with a K!!

Baby Blocks

This cake was made back in March but I wanted to post it because I recently made another set of block cakes. I made this one for my friend Kristen's baby shower (before she had sweet little baby Noah).

And here are the ones I made last week. They were a little more complicated because I had to treat them as a tiered cake. Also, it was raining, pouring, and storming during the whole process! I say this because the weather can really affect cake decorating. The fondant wasn't as firm and the buttercream was all over the place. Although I was a little worried, I received an update email and heard that it was a hit at the baby shower! Whew...what a relief :)

John Deere

Happy 2nd Birthday Ethan! This was a birthday cake for Ethan. He loves tractors so his mom, Leslie, asked me to make a 3-D tractor cake! Everything is edible - from the bales of hay to the big ole tires. It's so funny, I have made quite a few birthday cakes for little boys lately. I say it's funny because I have always thought having a little girl would be more fun because you get to do all the girly themed parties, clothes, etc. I am starting to change my mind and think boy stuff is just as cute!