More Stripes

Animal print is trendy right now, but for our community it has its own meaning...it is our school mascot.  Yep, we are the ZEBRAS!  This lucky little girl is celebrating in style!

Celebrating 40 Years!

Eric's office coordinator recently celebrated her 40th year with Farm Bureau Insurance!  Wow, that is amazing!  Eric recognized her by presenting her with this cake.

Faux Cake

Wow, I was honored to be asked to make this cake from a friend who owns her own boutique.  The store is celebrating its 5th anniversary and this weekend is also the store's Christmas Open House. 

The cake was my first "faux" cake so I went into the project on a learning curve.  I must say that decorating with foam dummies is actually easier than with real cake.  I enjoyed making this cake and am glad I had the opportunity!

Baby Girl

My chic client did not want a traditional baby shower cake!

May the Force be With You

I made these lightsabers for my son's seventh birthday.  He chose to have a Boston Creme Pie so I made the lightsabers out of Rice Crispy treats. 

More Toy Story

A Little Surprise

Cameron, Cade, and I are working our way around Eric's new offices to meet all of the employees.  While we are there to introduce ourselves, we are leaving behind a little treat for them to enjoy!!  These chocolate truffles are soooo sweet!

Happy Birthday Babe!

My husband just celebrated his birthday and this is the cake Cameron and Cade made for him.  Boston Cream Pie is his favorite!!  The boys enjoyed tricking daddy into thinking they were helping me wash dishes while we were working on the cake.

Happy birthday to my amazing husband!!

Iron Man

Owen is one lucky little boy to have this cake.  I hope he had a great Iron Man birthday party!

Good Luck Boss

This cake is for a going away party we are having for the prinicipal at my school.  We sure are going to miss her...and the Penny Road Pandas are very luck to have her leading their school.

Feliz Cumpleanos!

For My Little Monkey

This cake was made special for the little monkey in my life, Cade.  Cade turned four on April 10th.

Reach for the Sky

This cake was made for a little boy in love with Toy Story!  What a fun birthday theme!

For Beginners

Since I have been making cakes I have had several people ask me questions about making their own cakes.  So I have decided to make a blog entry for anyone who is interested in practicing.  Hopefully these steps and tips will help everyone!

*Bake your cakes in the pan shape of your choice as directed on the cake mix package. 

*Let the cakes cool.  Level the cake layers before stacking.  Each of my layers usually consists of two layers of cake stacked together with icing of your choice between them.

*Store cakes in the refrigerator wrapped well in plastic wrap.

*Make fondant.  Fondant works best when it is softened by the heat of your hands.  There is a fine line between too cool to work with and too warm to work with.  Store fondant you are not working with in the fridge.

*Use icing of your choice (I find whipped easiest to use to achieve a thin coat.) to apply a "crumb coat" to your prepared layered cake.  The crumb coat should be very thin.  The crumb coat should also be very even.  This is your opportunity to fill in any imperfections of your cake and fill in the sides where the two layers come together.  This layer can have crumbs showing, thus the name.  The purpose is to help "glue" the fondant to the cake. 

*Roll the fondant large enough to cover the top and the sides of the cake.  I use a flexible mat and pick up the enire mat folded in half to lay over the cake. 

*When rolling out the fondant I use confectioner's sugar sprinkled on everything. (Much like using flour when rolling out pie dough.)

*I have found an exacto knife to be a helpful tool to cut the fondant precisely. 

*When making most of the top decorations I find it easiest to lay a whole layer of that color on top of my base fondant, lay my stencil on top of that, and use an exacto knife to cut out the pattern.  Then lift the excess fondant off leaving your pattern piece! Otherwise, the fondant is too soft and won't keep its shape while transferring from you work space to your cake. (With small pieces you can cut it out on your work space and then chill it to firm it up before transferring it.) Be careful with red and black fondant because the color can soak into the base layer.

*I store the finished cake in the refrigerator until a couple hours prior to the celebration.

Michigan State Fan

This cake was made for a small Michigan State fan.  This was my first cake infusing square and round cakes.  What do you think?

Luke, I'm Your Father

I had a new adventure with this cake...carving. 

Still More

Notre Dame Birthday Fan

Cakes Galore

This has been a busy cake week for me.  It is such a good feeling to finish a cake and LOVE it.  Here are two more that I just love!

Seeing Spots

Camo Cake

What a fun cake to make!  A camouflage cake was one I have been wanting to try and I got my opportunity today!