Strawberry Shortcake

October 11, 2009

Natalie turned 3. She had a Strawberry Shortcake party. Now I am a true blue Strawberry Shortcake fan. I'm not diggin the red-head in jeans being passed of for S.S. But I wouldn't let my personal opinions stand in the way of making a cake. :)

Amy found the inspiration picture on the Internet. I use the pictures as a jumping off point to include my own personal touch. The challenge for this cake was the overlay. i had never done one before. The picture just had the overlay cut and hanging over. I wanted to "dress it up" a bit, so I worked on making scalloped edged. I didn't get it perfect, but I thought the scalloped edge made a nice effect.

A Surprise "Operation"

October 10, 2009

I used to play this game as a kid. So when Sheila said she wanted to cake for her daughter's 30th birthday I was excited. I tried to find a way to get the nose to light up, but I didn't have any luck. I had seen on "Ace of Cakes" where they used light up body jewelry to make stars on a cake. I was able to find a tongue ring, but it was blue. the lady at Spencer's thought I was crazy when I said I wanted a tongue ring for a cake instead of my mouth. But nevertheless I am very happy how this cake turned out.

Nurse Karen's birthday

October 1, 2009
I was walking into school one day this week and a parent stopped me and asked, "if I made cakes for other people". I said, "sure". Pretty random way to get a cake order. He said he saw me carrying cakes into school in the mornings when he would drop his son off. The cake was for his wife's birthday. Karen is a nurse, so I added a stethoscope and a nurse's hat. I was told she loves lemon; so I made a lemon cake with lemon butter cream. Of course I didn't get to taste it, but it smelled awfully good.

Yip-e-i Ki-o Birthday Boy!

September 19,2009

Today was Derrick's 3rd birthday party at "the barn". His momma had her hands full chasing after him and Landry while trying to set up for the party. Jackie found a picture online that inspired this cake.

I used a coloring book page to create my chocolate marshmallow fondant cowboy. The sheriff stars and the ropes are white chocolate marshmallow fondant. The cake is butter cream. I used chocolate butter cream as my base before coloring the red. I didn't have to use as much food coloring.

Destination Book Fair 2009

September 11, 2009

Today was the teacher preview for our Fall book fair. Our wonderful media coordinator, Amanda, goes out of her way to make the preview special for teachers. We always have thematic food and games. Since I started decorating cakes, she has made me make a cake to go along with each book fair theme.

This year's theme was destination book fair. So I decided to do a travel cake. The suitcase layer is yellow cake with chocolate butter cream and chocolate marshmallow fondant. The round layer and the world are also yellow with butter cream. The world is covered in white chocolate marshmallow fondant.

I have been experimenting with floral wire and adding "floating" decorations for the cake.

Rubber Ducky Tub

August 29, 2009

The idea for this cake stemmed from the shower location, by a pool. I thought if the party was by water, why not have rubber duckies?

I found pictures of duck cakes online, but my favorite were the ones with a wash tub. Now the cakes online had wooden barrel looking wash tubs, but I decided to go with a number 10 metal tub.

I think my favorite part of the cake is the soap suds.

Keri's Cake

August 28, 2009

Keri turned eight today. This cake was her design. She gave me a picture she had drawn of what she wanted her cake to look like. I used an oval shaped cake and cut it into the number eight using Rubbermaid bowl lids and a pint-sized mason jar. Since there was more than one color on the top of the cake, I piped the colored butter cream sections and smoothed them.

Ruby Anniversary

August 22, 2009

This cake killed two birds with one stone. Connie turned sixty the same weekend she and her husband were celebrating their fortieth wedding anniversary. Since the fortieth is the ruby anniversary, I used red buttercream roses. I used a mixture of powerder and gel food coloring to get this shade of red. The bottom tier is a 2 layer 8 inch heart cake with a top 6 inch round tier. We wanted the tiers to be distinct since it was a dual celebration.

Minnie's 70th Birthday

August 1, 2009

Minnie loves blue and the beach. So for her 70th birthday I decided to use both as my inspiration for her birthday cake. I made sea shells out of white chocolate and coral from royal icing. I love the basic natural beauty of it.

A Cake for the Quilters

July 25, 2009

My great aunt Carolyn and my Mom quilt with some ladies in Hickory. They planned a birthday outing for Saturday night. Tammie, my Mom-Jamie, and Hilda all have July and August birthdays. So my aunt decided to get a cake for all of them. Since they quilt I thought I would use that as the theme.

I found a really cute cake online using Marshmallow fondant. But I chose not to use it this time because I knew my mom didn't like fondant. I made a plain butter cream instead. I still think it turned out really cute.

McKinley's Barbie Cake

July 11, 2009

McKinley turned 4 and was very specific about what she wanted for a birthday cake. She said she wanted pink and blue because they were her favorite colors. She even told me she wanted her Barbie to be blond. I like my cakes to be as personal as possible so I try not to make the "same" cake twice.

Picture to follow soon!

"Little Miss" Heather's Birthday!

July 7, 2009

Heather is a child of the 80's, like me. She was crazy about the "little Miss and Little Mister" books when she was growing up. So at the request of her mother I made her a Little Miss Chatterbox birthday cake. She did get an upgrade to a cell phone. She is covered in marshmallow fondant with a butter cream filling. I am really enjoying making "vintage 80s" cartoon cakes. I'd love to make some of my favorite cartoon cakes so day.

Yo Gabba Gabba!

June 26, 2009
Riley loves Foofa off of Yo Gabba Gabba. So I did a little research on the Internet to figure out what a Foofa was. She kinda looks like a cross between a "who" from whoville and a pink onion. I love having new themes for children's parties. I feel bad for parents when their children want a certain theme for their birthday party and there aren't any decorations to go with it. Who knew trends began as early as age 1?

AJ and Ronald's Birthday Cake

June 26, 2009
This was my first birthday cake for a man and a dog. My friend Angela has a dachshund, AJ, and it was his birthday. They were also celebrating a friend's birthday, Ronald. The joke was that AJ's name had to come first on the cake. The cake was simple, but I think it turned out nice. Had it been for either AJ or Ronald I could have been more creative, but with the two of them together I couldn't come up with anything that would be appropriate for both.

Bra Bonanza!!

June 24, 2009

I never knew that a cake that looks like underwear would be so popular. This is my 3rd bra cake. I made the first one for my friend Maria's 40th birthday because I don't like the whole "over the hill" idea. But it has been my most requested cake. I tried to make each one distinctive from the next, improving my technique all the while.

I used a combination of butter cream, white chocolate, and marshmallow fondant to cover the cake.The cake is covered in butter cream. The bra cups are white chocolate. The bra straps, stripes and flower border is made of marshmallow fondant. I did use tan colored fondant to cover the top of the bra. Since it is vertical it is hard to get the butter cream smooth without messing up the base cake. I try to write the name on the cake before I put the bra on top. When I write the name last I am worried I bump into them and mess them up.

Anthony's Baptism

June 20, 2009

Baby Blocks Blunder

June 15, 2009

My husband's coworker, Tara, is having a baby. She isn't finding out the sex of the child until delivery. So for her baby shower at work, I decided to use baby pastels. I saw some pictures of baby blocks cakes that I thought were really cute; so I thought I'd give it a try. I ran into a few problems while making the cake. 1. I only had 1 6inch square cake pan, so I had to back all 6 eight layers one at a time. 2. I didn't think to "size up" the blocks before adding my letters. After I had the letters on I realized the two bottom blocks were not the same size. 3. Since the finished cakes needed to be stacked, I wasn't sure how to finish it and send it to work with Jason. We tried to transport it stacked and the top block fell off. Luckily it fell backwards and only squished the front. We ended up separating the top from the bottom and Jason stacked it when it got it to work. This is just one of those live and learn lessons. Some cake designs will have to have "on site" set-up. So if I am not able to deliver the cake myself, I need to make sure that I pick a design that can be transported without setup. I just hope that Tara was not disappointed with her cake. My intentions were to make her shower special.

Hats Off to Graduates!

June 13, 2009

My great aunt, Carolyn, asked me to make a graduation cake for my cousin, Aaron. I ran into the conflict of trying to find a way to use the graduation hat cake pan, but have enough cake for everyone. I ended up using my 14 inch square and only filling half-full. I think that it turned out to be just the right amount of cake. Carolyn said she had just enough left over to take with her to work. It is a hard hard to find a balance between running out of cake and having cake coming out your ears. It is one of those things that just takes experience and practice.

ESL Super Star Cake

June 9, 2009
I try to encourage my students to work hard throughout the year. One of the ways I do it is have a ESL Super Star of the month. I look for students who show great improvement. At the end of the year, I invite them in my room for refreshments. I wanted the cake to be bright and I used marshmallow fondant to make the stars.

Polka Dots and Baby Booties

June 7, 2009

Most baby showers are pink or blue but there are still a few people who want to be surprised when their new little one arrives. Green has always been the color for neutrality but it has been updated when paired with brown. Baby apparel, bedding, and accessories are going for more trendy looks with brown/green, brown/pink, and brown/blue combos. The inspiration for this cake came from a picture of the table cloth that was going to be used at the shower.



The cake and baby booties are covered in butter cream icing. The polka dots are made of marshmallow fondant.

Christina and Chris' Wedding Cake

June 6, 2009


Chris and Christina are our next door neighbors who were brave enough to hire me to do thier wedding cake. I did a 50th wedding anniversary cake last July, but I hadn't yet had the opportunity to do a wedding cake. Christina and I designed the cake together, marshmallow fondant and edible pearls. We had initially thought of doing a three tier cake with an additional sheet to the side. But I decided instead to make it a four tier cake.

The 14 inch and 8 inch tiers were covered in Cornelli lace made out of royal icing. I also used royal icing to attach the edible pearls. Since royal icing dries hard, I knew that it would travel and hold up better than had I used butter cream. Ribbon was used around the bottom of the cake to incorporate the wedding colors.

I used a plain square for the base, the 14 inch was too large to fit on a round cake stand. I hope to one day have a square silver cake stand to add to the display of my wedding cakes.

80th Birthday Celebration

June 6, 2009

Heather's Granddaddy turned 80! I used the invitation as an inspiration. I thought it turned out very elegant but at the same time still masculine. I made the stripes out of marshmallow fondant with a butter cream base. The funny thing about this weekend is "when it rains, it pours". I started out with one cake and ended up with three. Not only did I have the birthday cake, but I had my first wedding cake. Luckily, I starting prepping for the cakes on Tuesday so I wasn't too stressed out.

VW Van!!

May 30, 2009

My principal, Chris, asked me to make a cake for his wife for their anniversary. What type of cakes do you consider when you think of anniversary? Flowers? Hearts? What about a VW van? Yeah, it was a first for me too.

Apparently, his wife has always wanted a VW van, so he thought he would get her one for their anniversary. I just hope she enjoyed her surprise.

I had a hard time carving the cake. I try my best now to waste cake when I carve it into shapes. I used two 9X13 cakes to make the van. I think I needed to use three. I had to trip the edges to add another level of height. But once I got the butter cream icing on the cake, the shape began to take hold. I make marshmallow fondant daisies to help "authenticate" the van.

I am very please with the way it turned out. The more I work with marshmallow fondant, the more comfortable I feel about it.

Strawberry Fever

May 30, 2009

I was asked to make a strawberry cake for a bridal shower. Heather's sister, Jackie, is getting married. Heather wasn't too picky about the design of the cake. She was only concerned with the taste. She wanted it to be strawberry with Strawberry icing. So I made strawberry cream cheese icing with strawberry cake, which happens to be my personal favorite. I used fresh strawberries as flower garnishes, mint leaves, and sliced kiwi around the border.