Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentine's Day

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and a very happy Valentine's Day too! I was busy this week making cupcakes, lots of cupcakes!

Here is what the kids and I made for their teachers at preschool.

They are not rose bouquets, but cupcake bouquets.

Miniature cupcakes that is.

And they each painted their pots for their teachers.

Then I made some yummy ice cream, I mean cupcake treats

for a preschool Valentine party.

Doesn't it look like real soft serve ice cream?

My kids weren't done painting yet...we then painted more flowers pots for the grandparents.

Each bouquet had 16 cupcakes.

Each pot had their handprints painted on them.

What I love is that from a distance everyone thought,

"Oh, how nice, flowers. Wait a sec...those are not flowers....

nope, there cupcakes! Yum!!

Some Day My Prince will come....Cinderella style.

Here is a beautiful Cinderella princess castle I did for a little girls 3rd birthday today. She had her birthday at Sports Connection where she got to bounce to her hearts content in massive bouncy houses with her friends. (Our kids LOVE going there!) For this cake I used Wilton's Romance Castle Cake set and decorated the turrets with blue buttercream and blue and white cake sparkles.

Baby Shower Cake

Here is a pretty baby shower cake for a mom to be who is having twins!

They don't know what they are having,

but their theme was baby birds and their colors were

lime green, hot pink and blue.

I hand made the baby birds nest out of chocolate Satin Ice Fondant and used my new hand held fondant gun that I got for Christmas (Thanks Nanny!) to create the twig branch effect around the nest. I patterned the birds using Wilton's Fondant Bird guide. The flowers were made to look 3D, however, I didn't make them earlier enough in the week so they were not quite as stiff as I had wanted them to be, but they turned out looking pretty good on the cake.

Congratulations!!

Happy Birthday

I made a simple and yummy Birthday cake for a friend. This is 9 inch white almond sour cream cake with almond buttercream, decorated with a mocha colored base and sky blue polka dots.

Happy Birthday!

Where did 2009 go???

ok....I know I promised at the beginning of 2009 that I would get better with my blogging and I did stay with it for the most part. But I hate to admit it, after the first of October, I don't know what happened? One minute it's 2009 and the next it's 2010....but I haven't been sitting doing nothing. I've been a busy, busy baker and decorator the last few months.

To hit a few highlights...

Here is a Triathlon Birthday cake

So it has to happen at some point, one of my beautiful cakes did not make it to it's destination. I can not even say that I left my small town of Matthews before it slid off the platform in the back of the car. To say the least I was a bit distraught over the cake, but thank goodness the person I was delivering it to was a close friend and she understood.

I did make an emergency trip to Costco for a substitute cake.

The before picture

The after picture

I know what went wrong in the trunk, it was my fault. I wasn't even going fast nor did I hit a bump or brake hard, just good old physics played into this disaster!

Even the best I'm sure have days like this.

Then on to a favorite cake of 2009.

Our best friend who I did his wedding cake back in July was turning 30 this year.

So I challenged myself to create an AWESOME cake for him.

He was giving a recital at St. John Neumann Catholic church

and I made him a giant piano cake!

The cake is completely covered in Satin Ice Fondant and I have to admit

I modify the design a bit from Anne Heap at Pink Cake Box, but it turned out really neat!

Baby Shower Cake

Here is my table at the Rock Hill Chocolate Festival.

I set up a table with a few samples and my new banner!

Then I did a few dozen or so cookies and cupcake bites for Matthews Dental Care

Than Turkey Day, I was in charge of my daughters' Thanksgiving party.

Here are the cutest Turkey Cupcakes I've ever seen!

Gobble Gobble!

Then my Birthday in the mix of things!

Happy Birthday Me!

I covered this small cake in Chocolate Satin Ice Fondant

Yummy!

Here is another Birthday Cake

(*singing*)

M I C K E Y M O U S E

Here is an adorable little girls Birthday Cake

I even made a little gumpaste Mickey Mouse hat on top!

Then I entered myself in a cookie & cupcake challenge at the Ballantyne Hotel.

I didn't win, but I enjoyed participating.

I made my favorite Hooty Creek Cranberry Cookies

and a new recipe for S'Mores Cupcakes

Yum!

Another Birthday cake for a mom who was turning 90!

And in all of the Birthdays, I made a graduation cake.

Kajal graduated from University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Now here is my pride and joy of the holiday season!

A close family friend who LOVES my cakes asked me

to create a 3D cupcake bite Christmas tree.

Yes, I said 3D.

So...I made 52 cupcake bites,

and stuck them on a styrofoam cone,

with a few extra flowers and such to fill in the gaps.

Ta Da!

Here is my favorite part.

I made tiny presents and such out of fondant & gumpaste

Oh, yeah...a few cookies too!

Check out the video of the tree!!

My favorite part!

Wilton's Fondant and Gumpaste class

I told you all about me taking Wilton's Fondant and Gumpaste class a few months back. Well...I'm finally getting around to posting the pictures of the class and everything I've done since.

It has been a fun, crazy, and hectic few months. Everything from birthday cakes, baby shower cakes, kids parties, Christmas shopping, cookies and cupcake bites! But I promised myself two weeks off during the holidays and I got them. So now I'm ready to tackle on 2010!

I had a blast in 2009 doing more and more cakes and experimenting with different styles and materials. I got a lot of new cake supplies from Santa and I'm excited to try them out!

I also want to thank a close friend of mine who has updated my blog, thank you Mike! He has given it some flair, and I hope to make it a bit more user friendly.

It is a work in progress so stay with me.

Back to my Wilton Class...in order to prepare for our final class I came across a particular cake that I wanted to challenge myself with. I have to admit, it turned out pretty good!

Here are the pictures of my cake and the rest of our class and their cakes.

Can you guess which one is mine?

Here is my cake!

Didn't it turn out good?

I used Wilton's wonder doll mold and modify the doll's body a bit, covered the cake in Satin Ice ivory fondant and the doll in black and ivory fondant as well. I dusted the bottom of the dress with a mix of dusting powders and a stencil. I quickly added a few roses to the bottom before our class was done. I didn't have time to really get detailed with the cake. But it's a perfect cake for a wedding shower or a wedding brunch. I'm excited about this one!

Here is our class and everyone's cakes.

I took the class at our local Hobby Lobby here in Matthews, NC.

Lots of Cakes...

Over the past several weeks I've worked on several cakes. And I have just started taking Wilton's Fondant and Gumpaste class on Thursday evenings. So when I'm done with my class, I'll post some pictures of what we've done. (I'll keep you in suspense!)

Here is a yummy white almond cake for a clients parents who have birthdays close to each other.

My brother Thomas is sailing on a cruise ship for the next 6 months with a great opportunity to play in a string quartet. He and some of his friends from school have put together a quartet that was picked to play on the Celebrity Cruise Line, Infinity ship. So if anyone wants to book a cruise, check it out!

Bon Voyage Thomas, we'll miss ya!

Then this past weekend I did a beautiful baby shower cake for a friend. This is a 9 inch chocolate and yellow with a 6 inch chocolate and yellow cake accented with marshmallow fondant. The colors on the cake are in the baby's decor in her room.

Some friends of ours are getting married on New Years Eve and we were invited to a couples wedding shower. The theme of the shower was an Appalachian theme, since they met and dated in college. So there were several couples from ASU and several of her co-workers too.

This was a new recipe for a red velvet cake with cream cheese icing accented with marshmallow fondant.

Congratulations Shanti and Pat!

12/31/09