~fOr THe lOvE oF CakE~

Have Cake and Eat It Too!!

2011-04-19T12:59:00.000-07:00

My neighbor, who is also a very good friend of mine, recently celebrated her birthday and of course I just HAD to make her a cake...but this was no "normal" cake. You see, my sweet friend is allergic to gluten. Sadly, the main ingredient in cake is flour, which is nothing but a bunch of gluten. Therefore, she had never really had a "real" birthday cake. Her allergy was discovered when she was a baby, her mother would make her a small cake on her birthday while the rest of her friends ate "normal" cake. How could I NOT make her a cake after finding all of this out?? It was a challenge and I stressed more than I probably even needed to over this cake. I packed a bag full of ingredients and headed over to her house, I had her inspect everything I was planning to use. Once my ingredient list passed the gluten free test, I began the baking process. The first cake I made did not rise. In fact, it looked more like a large cookie rather than a cake. Epic Fail. My second attempt went much better. I was prepared for the cake not to rise, so I added more batter to the pan. This worked! I wanted one layer to be chocolate cake and the other to be yellow butter cake. The chocolate cake was the last one I made and it too turned out just perfect.

Before the cakes were made, I put my designing skills to work...threw in a little poetry and came up with the perfect design for her cake.

She loved her cake, as did everyone that celebrated her birthday. It was a success! My first gluten free cake was a success!!

The best part was watching my friends reaction when she saw her cake for the first time.

The writing on the cake:

"Happy Birthday Christie,

Cheers to you!

Now you can have your cake,

and eat it too!!"

Basketball Birthday

2011-04-19T12:42:00.000-07:00

These cupcakes were made for the daughter of a guy I work with. She told her dad all she wanted for her birthday was a basketball.
Well, she got two dozen...cupcake syle!
Basketballs were made out of fondant and hand drawn with an edible food marker.

1st Birthday Monkey Style

2011-04-19T12:38:00.001-07:00

This cake was the smash cake for a friends little boy.
His mommy made cupcakes to match and requested I make the smash cake.
The cake was yellow, frosted in homemade buttercream.
The monkey face was fondant.

A Baby Shower Themed Monkey Cake

2011-04-19T12:36:00.000-07:00

The bottle was sculpted out of RK's and covered in fondant.
Everything else was hand sculpted out of gum paste.
The cake was marble, frosted with homemade buttercream icing.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

2011-03-07T05:55:00.001-08:00

"The Grinch hated Christmas - the whole Christmas season. Now, please don't ask why; no one quite knows the reason. It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight. Or it could be that his head wasn't screwed on just right. But I think that the most likely reason of all may have been that his heart was two sizes too small." or maybe, he knew not how to bake and no one had ever given him his very own cake!!! (yeah, I went there, haha)

I had a blast making this cake. Have I mentioned I love Dr. Seuss? Designing a cake after one of his books is never boring. The cakes are iced in buttercream, all decorations are hand sculpted out of fondant. The features on the Grinch and max (the dog) are hand painted with a food pen.

Forgotten-Forgive Me

2011-02-24T12:34:00.000-08:00

I'm here! I'm here!

I wish I would of thought to post a note here sooner, alas' I decided to take a break from cake decorating back in January and never thought to post an explanation.
I started taking a handful of classes at my local community college (web design and creative writing!!) and trying to juggle life, school and my many hobbies was proving to be a tad difficult.
Forgive me for not providing an update sooner.

I checked my email today, the first time in over a month (I'm horrible! I know!) and realized I had let many fellow cake lovers down. Forgive me!!!!

I do have a few more pictures to update the blog with and I will get to posting those asap.
I am also taking cake orders again and will slowly begin to post here along the way.

Thank you for the sweet emails, comments and words of encouragement along the way. Thank you for continuing to support this crazy hobby of mine!!

GO GAMECOCKS!!!

2010-11-22T12:55:00.000-08:00

This cake was a LOT of fun to make largely because...well, I'm a South Carolina Gamecocks fan!

This cake was actually a birthday cake, made for a guy that loves Gamecocks and Ralph Lauren Polo.
His daughter requested that I find a way to mix the two.
At first I thought it might be a bit of a challenge, but I was actually very pleased with how it turned out!

Here's a little peek into the "before" process of a cake:

Cocky (the Gamecocks mascot) was hand sculpted out of RK's, fondant and gum paste.

Cocky is always holding up the #1 sign! So this mini replica was no exception.

The polo images were actually hand painted on gum paste discs that I cut out and then allowed to air dry before drawing the images on. I actually looked at the image on a polo shirt that I own and just free handed it with edible markers (a very cool tool by the way!).

I used a toothpick to hand carve each of the feathers.

Birthday Bugs!

2010-11-22T12:42:00.000-08:00

The birthday boy that received this cake is a bug fanatic!
He loves his insects (knows them all too).
So what better cake to make than one covered in bugs?
The bottom layer was yellow cake and actually my first attempt at a square cake! (Shocking, I know).
The tree stump layer was chocolate cake.
All of the bugs were made out of fondant.
The "ant hill" was crushed vanilla wafers and the spider web was gum paste.

My Little Pony Birthday Cake

2010-11-22T12:26:00.000-08:00

I do not typically use any plastic toys on any of my cakes, in fact, this was the first time.

However, this cake was for my goddaughter and I wanted her to have the ability to keep the ponies after her cake was gone. Kind of a way to have her cake and her birthday present too.

The cake was chocolate and all decorations were fondant, royal icing and disco dust (besides the ponies of course).

Cake Wreck!!!!

2010-09-22T05:18:00.000-07:00

I'm getting ready to post pictures of the latest cakes that I've made...and was going to just stick to posting the pictures and adding a little briefing about what materials were involved. You know, basically just do what I've been doing.
Then I remembered why I started this whole blog.
It really wasn't to showcase my cakes, nope. It was to showcase what I've learned, the trials and errors, the masterpieces and the epic failures, it was to blog about the journey this messy hobby takes me!
I've got to get back to my blog roots....therefore....
I've got to blog about a cake wreck I had over the weekend.

I took on the challenge of making two cakes and twenty four cupcakes last weekend, mistake number one (please remember, this is my hobby, I also have a full time job, a dog, a husband, and household chores!). I thought I had a pretty good head start come Wednesday. I had the fondant colored and ready. I had the cakes drawn out and designed on paper. I had all of my baking and decorating materials laid out. Thursday was looking good, I got started on the fondant decorations and had all of the cakes baked and in the freezer (one day I'll explain that whole process). Then Friday came around, my plan was to run to the supply store on my lunch break and get the boxes for the cakes and cupcakes, I also needed a color I did not have in disco dust. However, Friday was the day my work decided to treat us to lunch and I was unable to run my errand. This left me rushing to the cake supply story after work, rushing home to start the decorating process and packing my bags to drive over an hour to the upstate. Did I mention the cakes were for individuals that lived over an hour away?

I completed the cakes at...midnight! Packed the car, secured the cakes, and took off up the road. I did NOT pack any emergency cake fixing materials, mistake number two. When we arrived at my in-laws it was close to 2am. I was exhausted. I placed the cakes in a secure spot, high on a shelf, in a cool area, and went to bed.
We woke early Saturday morning to deliver the first cake. As I walked upstairs, groggy and sleep deprived, my sweet husband met me with a smile and then said the words I DREAD hearing "Uhmmm, a huge chunk of your cake fell".

"WHAT!!"
I ran over to survey the damage and he was correct. On one of the cakes, a my little pony cake, I had piped huge, white, fluffy clouds, out of butter cream icing. Apparently the icing, the drive and maybe the temperature were enough to cause the butter cream to actually slide right off of the cake. The cloud and all of the icing it took along with it were in a pile on the bottom of the cake box. I think I cried, I can't remember.
I also DID NOT take pictures...sorry.

We went to deliver the first cake, the whole time my mind was racing on how to fix my cake disaster, and on our way back it hit me. I had my husband run me to Michael's and I made my way to the cake section. I grabbed up a decorating bag, a coupler, and two different kinds of white icing (Wilton butter cream and duff's decorating icing in a bag). We rushed back to the cake and I did what I could to repair and save the cake. Thankfully, the cake that bit the dust was my best friends, little girls, cake. Therefore I was able to admit to my epic fail and then warn her that one cloud was not going to taste exactly like the others...because of course the rest of the clouds were made out of my homemade butter cream icing and the repaired cloud ended up being a mix of both icings I purchased at Michael's.

I learned a few lessons from this and I've actually started supporting my cakes a little differently now. I'll post about my new support structure later...until then, it's back to the kitchen for me! I have a cake due next week. I'll post pictures of both of the cakes I made last weekend asap.

Pink and Purple Dancing Monkey

2010-09-14T12:08:00.000-07:00

The girly monkey was sculpted entirely out of fondant and gum paste. The cake was chocolate with homemade buttercream icing. The #1 was gum paste and disco dust. I also used disco dust on the crown and around the edges of the skirt.

The Cat in The Hat

2010-07-26T05:20:00.000-07:00

I finally got the chance to make a cake that I have been wanting to create for quite some time. The recipient was turning one and her mother was throwing a Dr. Seuss themed birthday party! This cake was so fun. I drew the design on paper and then started sculpting. The top piece of cake and hat were RK's covered in fondant. The piece of cake had disco and luster dust on it to make it sparkle. The cake itself was golden butter with buttercream icing.

I made thing 1 and thing 2 out of gum paste. I rolled the gum paste out and hand drew the design onto it. Then I cut around the edges, I wanted to leave a white boarder so the "things" would appear to have jumped straight out of the pages of "The Cat in The Hat" book. Everything was hand drawn and painted with lemon flavoring and coloring gel.

The candle was fondant/gum paste and disco dust made the flame shine.

I loved every minute of making this cake!

The tea cup and fish were carved from cake, one of my first attempts at cake carving. I iced the entire cake before putting on a layer of fondant. I was fairly happy with how the cup turned out. I tried to keep everything as whimsical as possible. I hope I would have made Dr. Seuss proud =)

***You have no idea how many poems I have come up with to go along with this cake...but I decided to spare you all....after all, I decorate cakes I don't really do poems....but if you can come up with a really good poem to go along with this cake, I would LOVE to hear it!!!!!***

Beach Ball Birthday Bash

2010-06-15T05:55:00.000-07:00

This cake was made for a little guy that turned two this past weekend. He celebrated his birthday with a pool party.
His mom gave me the go ahead to design whatever kind of cake I wanted. We decided on a beach ball themed cake, to match his birthday balloons.
The cake and cupcakes were yellow cake.
The beach ball was RK's, fondant and gum paste.
I used disco dust on the "water" curls, but I still haven't mastered the art of taking pictures that show that small detail.

Baby Bambino's Baby Shower

2010-06-11T07:15:00.000-07:00

My sister in law is expecting her first baby this fall.
She refuses to find out the sex of said baby, therefore, being the good sister in law that I am, I've dubbed the baby "baby bambino".
A baby shower was thrown for baby bambino and not knowing the sex of the baby proved to be difficult for cupcake designing. I pondered the design for awhile and then thought "We may not know the sex, but we know what it is!"

A baby!! (contrary to her brothers popular belief that his sister (my sister in law) herself arrived from another planet) She will, in fact, be having a baby! So that is what I designed the cupcakes around. Ha!

The cupcakes were made to be given as party favors. Each cupcake was placed in a box and tied with a simple ribbon.

Simple and chic, just like the mother-to-be!

I'm one of "those" people now!

2010-06-04T09:04:00.000-07:00

I may be crazy for doing this, but I created a facebook page for "The Love Of Cake".

I'm still going to post cake pictures here. I've just been asked by numerous people if I had a place where you could just see pictures and not have to scroll through pages on a blog. I hope this makes viewing my cake photos easier.

I also wanted a place where people could comment, show support or even give constructive criticism (I can take it, haha). So feel free to "like" my page, become a fan, and let me know what you think!!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/fOr-thE-lOvE-oF-CakE/131674686843718

Thank you for supporting this crazy hobby of mine!!

Dora The Explorer

2010-06-02T11:47:00.000-07:00

I have a confession to make, I'm not too fond of making cartoon/character cakes.
They make me nervous. I can be such a perfectionist and trying to make something look just like someone else's creation...just about drives me mad, lol. However, it's a challenge and for some reason I have a hard time turning any challenge down.
For this reason, I agreed to make a Dora the Explorer cake.
I will say, Dora was probably one of the hardest characters I've had to recreate.
Dora and Boots are made out of fondant.
The cake is yellow butter cake, buttercream icing, fondant stripes and pearls. I sprinkled each pink pearl with some disco dust. It was hard to capture the sparkle with my camera, sorry.

Here are Dora and Boots during the sculpting process:

All in all I was pretty pleased with Boots. I was not as happy with Dora as I would have liked, but I did the best I could and I'm pretty proud of the cake as a whole.

I received word that the birthday girl loved the cake and really, that's all that matters to me!!

Side note: I made this cake for a sweet friend that was stationed in Hawaii while my husband and I were there. She and her husband are now stationed in GA. She drove from GA to SC to get the cake and then drove it to NC where her niece was celebrating her birthday. How honored I was that she wanted to go out of her way just to have a cake of mine!!

1st Birthday-Sports Theme Style

2010-06-02T11:32:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine recently celebrated her baby boys 1st birthday.
I made this cake to match the invitation that was sent out for the little guys 1st birthday.
He had a sports themed party.
The cake was chocolate.
Buttercream icing and fondant decorations.

Brothers Boston Terrier Birthday Cake

2010-05-21T07:18:00.000-07:00

My baby brother turned 25 in April.

What kind of sister would I be if I didn't make my own brother a birthday cake?

He has always had a love for Boston Terriers and he just recently got a new Boston terrier pup that he is madly in love with. It was pretty obvious what his cake design should be.

This cake was a ton of fun to design and make.

The top cake is yellow the bottom is chocolate.

The dog is made out of RK's and Fondant, hand painted with food coloring gel.

The cake is iced in homemade buttercream, the circles are fondant.

Sculpting the dog was probably the hardest part. It was creepy looking until the very end. I wanted to share a picture though, but I put it after the actual cake pictures, because...well look at it! yikes!
I do not usually share pictures of the person I made a cake for...but he's my brother and again I ask... What kind of sister would I be if I didn't harass my brother on occasion?

Plus, I loved the candles and I didn't get a picture of the cake with candles on it before my brother sat down ;-)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY BROTHER!!!

...In John Deere Green

2010-03-26T06:02:00.000-07:00

I live in the South and I knew it was only a matter of time before a request was made for a John Deere cake. It wasn't hard to find inspiration, I only had to open our cabinets and pull out my husbands favorite "John Deere" coffee mug.

I free handed the design onto fondant and carefully cut it out before placing it on the buttercream cake.

Peanuts!!!!

2010-03-23T06:20:00.000-07:00

Ohhh how I LOVED designing and bringing this cake to "life". It was a blast! I love snoopy! I tried to make him as "cartoonish" as possible. He is RK's and fondant. The cake was yellow with buttercream and the stripes were fondant.
This was for a peanuts themed baby shower.

The yellow square guy again...

2010-03-23T06:14:00.000-07:00

This was another birthday cake request for spongebob. Ironically, for another little girl named Haylee (just spelled differently).

Again, spongebob was RK's covered in fondant, seaweed and all other decorations were fondant. Cake was chocolate with buttercream icing.

Fall Birthday

2010-03-23T06:01:00.000-07:00

Trying to get caught up!

This was the cake I made for my mothers surprise birthday party.

She was a fall baby. I thought it was fitting to do a fall themed cake.

The leaves were fondant with gold luster dust.

The cake was carrot cake/creamcheese icing, yellow cake/buttercream, chocolate cake/buttercream.

A Quick Explanation

2010-03-12T10:44:00.000-08:00

I feel the need to give a quick explanation as to why I have not been posting lately.
I have been getting numerous emails asking about my whereabouts? First, thank you! I love that so many people enjoy what I do.
Second, Yes, I'm still making cakes!

My husband and I just sold our house and (if you can imagine) my life has been very hectic over the past couple of months.

I do have, many, photos to upload and I promise I will get those posted asap!

Hang in there with me :) I'll have this blog back up and running in no time!

Again, thank you for your support!!!!

choochoo cake

2009-12-15T10:58:00.000-08:00

I loved making this cake and cupcakes.

The little boy was turning two and I think a train themed birthday party is so adorable!

Can I Play Catch Up Real Quick??

2009-10-21T16:01:00.000-07:00

...because this post is going to be jam packed with pictures.

I have been bad at picture uploading lately!! To be honest, I lost the digital card that held these pictures and (after looking through over 10 cards and 800 pictures) that is why I'm just now getting around to uploading these. Here are some cakes and cupcakes that I've made over the past month (okay maybe longer than that, ha!):

What do you get a guy that loves the Atlanta Falcons and Clemson Tigers??...cupcakes!! I loved making these cupcakes, even if I'm a Gamecocks fan! Is that bad?? ;)

SPONGEBOB!!! I knew I would eventually get a request for the square guy! Everything was edible. Spongebob was made out of rk's and fondant. The sea weed and Gary (the snail) were made out of fondant and gum paste. The cake was vanilla with butter cream frosting.

This cake was made for a Sweet Sixteen!! My first Sweet Sixteen birthday cake!! This young man enjoys many things! So what better cake to make than a cake out of his favorite things...can you see them all?? His first car (a blue jeep), the beach, guitars, rock n roll music, surfing, tie-dye, and texting on a cell phone (but of course! what teenager doesn't love to text??). This cake took a lot of creative juices, with the help of his mom and many pictures, I think we captured the spirit of this sixteen year old!

Two Times the Fun...take two! This was the cake I made for the first set of twin girls. Their favorite colors are purple and pink. They were getting purple and pink Vera Bradley purses for their birthday. I tried my best to hand paint a similar Vera pattern. I also have to say, I LOVE these girls names!!! The purse and gift were made out of rk's and fondant.

Fifty and Fabulous!! I made this cake to help celebrate a surprise birthday party for a obviously fabulous, fifty year old! The cake party colors were black, red and yellow.

Two kids, two cakes, two different ages...one party!! These cakes were made for a brother and sister that share a very close birthday. The little boy turned 3 and the little girl turned 1. The small purple cake was made for the "smash" cake, with cupcakes to match. The 3 year olds cake was a lot of fun to create!

Five and Fun

2009-10-21T15:46:00.000-07:00

This past weekend a little girl turned five and she celebrated her birthday with a fun cake!
I used her favorite colors to design this cake.
The cake and cupcakes were chocolate with butter cream icing. All of the decorations were fondant.

Need for Speed

2009-10-12T16:27:00.001-07:00

What little boy doesn't like cars? Better yet, a car that is just the right size for him to drive!?

This cake was made for a little boy that races go-carts. His birthday was this past weekend and what better way to celebrate than with a "winners circle" go-cart cake!

A Pirate and a Princess have a Party!!

2009-10-05T17:29:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite little girls (my best friends 3-year old) shared a birthday party with her equally adorable cousin this past Saturday. Born three days apart, how could anyone resist the ease and fun of planning a dual party! The theme? Princess' and Pirates of course!
Both the princess and the pirate are made out of fondant. The bottom tier of the cake is yellow while the top is chocolate.
This was a neat cake to make! I only wish my pictures would have turned out better.

Happy Birthday x 2

2009-10-05T17:13:00.000-07:00

Twin girls might share the same birthday, but that doesn't mean they have to share the same interests!! This of course would result in two different birthday cakes!!
This was actually my second time making a cake for twin girls!! It was a lot of fun! For these twin girls, One likes chocolate and one likes Vanilla; One likes Soccer and the other Dancing....this resulted in the two cakes below.

Coming soon!

2009-10-02T10:36:00.000-07:00

A cake update!! I promise!

I have had a number of people ask me when am I going to post more pictures? Have I stopped decorating **gasp** cakes? Do I no longer have a computer? Did my camera break?

I am, NO, computer-check, nope!

I've just been slammed with cakes and work! No complaints though! I just hate not getting my blog updated fast enough. It seems that every time I turn around I'm making another cake or not at a computer where I can download pictures. Please forgive me. I guess all I can say is "life happens" ;-)
My goal this weekend is to have all of my latest cakes uploaded!

Thanks for your patience guys! I honestly love all of the support I've been getting!!

A little Bling for this Birthday Bash

2009-09-01T15:55:00.000-07:00

This cake was designed for one of my close friends. She is fun to be around and one of the most caring people I know. She's also very much a "girly girl" and her personality really makes her shine and stand out in a crowd. I tried to capture that in the design of the cake. The cake was white cake with homemade buttercream icing and chocolate fondant stripes. The flowers and silver strands were non-edible. I really enjoyed making this cake and while, it wasn't my traditional (all edible) cake, it was a lot of fun designing and creating.

I think I'll take my cupcakes Two at a Time Too!

2009-09-01T15:47:00.000-07:00

This Noah's Ark themed cake was a for a baby shower. After making a cake for a fellow blog readers birthday, she contacted me and asked me if I could make a cake for a friend of hers baby shower. I just LOVE Noah's Ark. I think it's one of my favorite Bible stories.

Everything is edible. The boat was carved out of rk's and covered in fondant. The cupcakes were made to match.

I wish I had gotten better pictures. There were a pair of monkey's on the other side of the boat. I'll work on my picture taking skills, I promise!

Pink and Purple Polka Dots

2009-09-01T15:37:00.000-07:00

I have a very faithful cake blog friend and this was for her birthday!! She found and started following this blog when I first started posting. Her only request was that it was purple and pink. She also had cupcakes to match (I forgot to get pictures of those!!). Happy Birthday faithful Blog reading friend ;)

What's better than cake???

2009-09-01T15:25:00.000-07:00

Chic-fil-a AND cake!!! Helllo!

A very sweet friend, from my college days, contacted me about making a Chic-fil-a cake for her husband. This is what I came up with. The cow is made out of fondant/gumpaste. I decided the cow just didn't look festive enough without a birthday hat, so I threw that on for good measure. This cake was a lot of fun to make.

I also have to say, cake is a GOOD way to get your college buddies to stay in touch, ha! It was great getting to catch up with a long lost college friend :)

What 11 year old girl doesn't like pink??

2009-09-01T15:18:00.000-07:00

The young lady I made this cake for told her mom she wanted a pink and green cake with a shoe on top. I added the polka dots and bows. This was another fun cake to make. I'm really starting to love the fondant bows! They take a bit of patience but I think they really add to the cakes "girly girl" theme.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUD

2009-09-01T15:09:00.000-07:00

I've strayed away from putting peoples name on my blog, but she won't mind ;) "She" is my best friend. Autumn Lynn turned 26 on August 19th. This cake was actually a surprise cake that her mom asked me to make. Her mother and I actually met half way between Landrum, SC and Columbia, SC during the middle of the week so that Autumn could have her surprise cake on the night of her birthday dinner. Being one of the first people to support me in my cake

endeavors, I love her dearly and appreciate her support. Hope your 26th year is Great Aud!

4th Birthday Transformer Style

2009-09-01T14:45:00.000-07:00

Made for a little boy that loves transformers. I'll admit, I like the movies too :) Everything on the cake was edible. The figures were 50/50 gumpaste/fondant. My goal was to make a city scene cake with the transformer figures on the side and the top tier the sky. It was tricky working with the tiny figures, but a cool learning experience!!

SORRY

2009-08-31T12:37:00.000-07:00

I hate blogging without pictures. However, I felt I needed to explain my lack of posting lately. It is NOT due to the fact that I haven't had cake pictures to post...oh no...far from that! I actually have quite a few cake pictures to post. It's because I've been so busy and mainly from cake!! NO complaints here!! One happy Cake Lady I am!!
I will post pictures as soon as I get a chance, this week, I promise!!
I've done a little bit of everything from transformers, to sweet little flowers, to Noahs ark and even Chic-fil-a!!!! I'm still loving every minute of cake decorating!! I should also take this post to thank all of my family, friends and fellow cake lovers....you guys seriously rock for all of the support you're giving me!!! Thank you!!!!

I'll post soon, so please forgive me now and don't give up on me :)

Rubber Ducky Cake

2009-08-07T18:15:00.000-07:00

It's very exciting when somebody has a piece of cake or cupcake that I've made and then contacts me to make a cake or cupcakes for them! That's how this cake came to be :) This was for another baby shower, rubber ducky themed! Vanilla cake with buttercream icing. The duck is RK's covered in fondant, the rest of the decorations are fondant (wooden wash tub, bubbles, ribbon and soap). I really enjoyed making this cake. I'm getting more and more practice with stacking cakes!

**you can click on the pictures and they should enlarge**

2 more birthdays!

2009-08-03T17:58:00.000-07:00

From the moment I started this blog I had a faithful and sweet follower. She asked me over a month ago to make two cakes, for two up coming birthdays in her family. One was a spiderman birthday cake and the other was a cross birthday cake. Both cakes were vanilla with buttercream icing. All decorations were edible. It was nice making a cake for someone that found me through this blog and then getting to meet them in person!!
The spiderman was a lot of fun to make! He was made out of fondant and then I used a small cake paintbrush to paint (with edible icing color) the spider web print on his outfit.

Its a Boy!

2009-08-03T17:45:00.000-07:00

I happen to be a VERY big dog lover, so when I was asked to make cupcakes for a puppy dog themed baby shower, I was excited! 3 dozen cupcakes were made. 12 puppy dogs, 12 last name initial "C" and 12 paw prints! I had a lot of fun making these cupcakes. Half were classic yellow and half were chocolate. All decorations were fondant.

And Another Birthday...

2009-08-03T17:31:00.000-07:00

I wanted to try a fully covered fondant cake. Luckily, I have a friend that didn't mind if I tried a new cake skill out on her birthday cake!

I wanted it to be modern, girly girl. Zebra stripes and diamonds. Her first initial is K. The cake is classic yellow, covered in buttercream and then in fondant. The only thing not edible are the diamonds.

As you can see, I still have a bit of practice to go but fondant covered cakes are a fun cake option! They are a lot different to work with than a buttercream cake. I will continue to practice :) and I know I'll eventually get the hang of fondant! I made sure to cover my cake in buttercream so that the fondant could be peeled off and the cake would be like any other cake underneath.

WINNER!!

2009-08-03T10:29:00.000-07:00

So, I cut up little pieces of paper and wrote down the names of everyone that left a comment on my last post. I put the pieces of paper in a cup and picked one!!!

The name on the paper "MOM". Eh' I love her, but my mom will always be my number one fan :) I knew she would not mind if I drew another name. Plus, how rigged would that have looked!? So the winner is:

Monica Crew

YAY, my first blog winner!! Monica, please email me your address.

Thanks for all of the comments guys!! Yesterday was my birthday and while I didn't make a cake for myself, I did make some cakes and 3 dozen cupcakes! I'll post those pictures soon!!

Cake Ideas??

2009-07-29T12:58:00.000-07:00

So I'm trying to come up with some ideas to get my fellow cake lovers and blog readers more involved in my cake decorating process. I've got a few ideas but I think I'll just try one for now. Seeing as how I just started this whole endeavor not that long ago, I'm running on a handful of tried and true recipes. I could really use more cake flavors, filling flavors and even icing flavors. So, here's my attempt at getting everyone that reads this blog to participate in my cake baking journey. Please post a comment that lets me know your FAVORITE cake flavor. I would be even more grateful if you would post a recipe!! I won't even tell anyone if you want to give away "grandmas secret famous cake recipe"!! haha. I'm going to wait until Aug.3rd for all comments and then I'll pick one person (randomly) to send a special surprise to! Don't worry, it's not cake (unless you live close and you want one!) so it can safely be mailed to anywhere in the US. I'll post the chosen poster on the 3rd and get your shipping information then. Remember, you don't have to post a recipe if you don't have one, your favorite flavor cake will be fine too! Thanks dear, faithful readers!!

Pink Ribbon Cake

2009-07-27T15:39:00.000-07:00

A happy birthday cake for the mother/grandmother of one of the sweetest families in Lexington, SC. The cake is strawberry (my first time making this flavor cake) with buttercream icing. The top of the cake is covered in a layer of fondant. All decorations are fondant. I'm really starting to get the hang of fondant ribbons! This cake was fun to work on and I actually really enjoyed covering part of the cake in fondant, I may be ready to try a fully covered fondant cake now!!

Happy 19th Birthday!!

2009-07-24T16:02:00.000-07:00

This birthday cake was so much fun to make!! I was contacted by a very sweet girl, here in Columbia, that requested a "girly girl" 19th birthday cake. Her birthday party colors were black, pink and white. She said she liked shoes and that was all it took to get my imagination flowing! Here is what I designed for her:

White cake with butter cream icing. Decorations are fondant. The only decoration not edible are the white pearl spritz strands on top.

I still have so much more to learn, but I am loving every second of cake decorating!! I really appreciate all of the kind comments people have been sending my way, Thank you!!

Cakes, Cakes and more cakes!

2009-07-20T16:59:00.000-07:00

I've been busy baking cakes! So please forgive me for my lack of posting.
A friend needed a cake for a co-worker of hers. His favorite university football team is Alabama. Here is what I designed:

Al the Elephant is Alabama's mascot. Cake is Vanilla with buttercream frosting. Al is rice krispy treats covered in fondant. All other decorations are fondant.

Its a Girl!! I was thrilled when asked to make cupcakes for a baby shower in Irmo, SC. The hostess wanted pink and green. She also requested the babies initial "E" and a few baby items. Here is what I came up with:

Vanilla cupcakes with buttercream icing. All decorations were fondant.

Pacifiers, teddy bears and bottles.

I loved making the little mini fondant ribbons for the teddy bears.

The latest cake, my Dad's Birthday Cake!!! I LOVED making this cake! I'm a big daddies girl so this cake was also very special to me and I wanted to make it perfect. I designed this cake to match my dads hobbies. He is seriously a big kid. I wanted to put all of his "toys" on his cake. Which would include a boat, a dirt bike, and a remote control airplane.

His favorite, chocolate cake with buttercream frosting. All decorations are edible. The only thing not edible on this cake was the "fishing line".

The remote control airplane is crashing into the side of the cake. This symbolizes my fathers "skills" with remote control airplanes and actually goes way back to when he was a small child, haha.

The large mouth bass!!You can see the dirt bike peeking around the side of the cake.

I scream, You scream...

2009-07-13T07:19:00.000-07:00

We all scream for Ice cream...cake!!

One of the sweetest little boys turned 2 this past Saturday. I was thrilled to make the birthday cake for his ice cream sundae themed birthday party!!

This cake was a blast to make!! Once again, everything is edible. The ice cream sundae is made from rice krispy treats, fondant and gum paste. The other decorations are all fondant. The cake was chocolate with buttercream frosting. The cupcakes were made to match.

Housewarming Cake

2009-06-30T17:08:00.000-07:00

This cake was one of my favorite designs. I'm very pleased with the way it turned out. Many people asked me if the flower pot was real. Nope. The entire cake is edible. This cake was my first for many things; such as making a ribbon out of gum paste, making a mass quantity of flowers, using my leaf tip and lastly a new cake recipe!! I'm happy to say the white almond sour cream cake was a success. I also want to add that all of my cakes are original designs. I do get inspiration from other's creations from time to time, but so far all of my cakes are creations I've thought up and been fortunate enough to bring to life in cake! I originally had the idea to put a simple flower pot on top of the cake...but what fun would that have been? I realized it was more my style to have the flowers falling off of the cake and appear to have scattered about on the cupcakes below.

Another Birthday

2009-06-23T14:47:00.001-07:00

A very dear friend of mine asked me to make a birthday cake for a family member of hers. It was sort of last minute but it was something I really wanted to do, it would be my first fully stacked, 2 tier cake. I really enjoyed designing and creating this cake.

(The cake is white cake with butter cream icing, hand piped buttercream swirls and sugar pearls.)

Happy Fathers Day

2009-06-20T16:52:00.000-07:00

I was contacted by a very sweet lady in Sumter, SC that requested a Fathers Day cake. Her husband is a big Dallas Cowboys fan. She asked me to make something Dallas Cowboys themed for his father's day cake...this was such a FUN cake!!:

(The bottom tier was french vanilla with buttercream "grass", the top tier was chocolate with buttercream icing. The footballs and "Happy Father's Day" circle are fondant with royal icing piped on. The football is fondant covered rice krispy treats!)

**Edited to add: I just got the sweetest email from the lady I made this cake for. THAT is why I LOVE making cakes!!! I love making things that others can really appreciate and enjoy :-)

1 Birthday Girl+2 Digits = 3 parties!!

2009-06-20T14:38:00.001-07:00

Whats better than turning double digits?? Having 3 parties to celebrate!!! I was so excited when asked to make cupcakes and cakes to help celebrate the birthday parties of a sweet, young lady who turned 10 this past week. Her favorite colors are pink and green. Here are the cupcakes and cakes I thought would best suite a freshly turned 10 year old :-):

(chocolate cake with homemade buttercream icing and fondant decorations)

The second cake: (chocolate fudge cake with homemade buttercream frosting and fondant decorations)

French Vanilla Cupcakes with buttercream icing, royal icing flowers and sugar pearls:

Chocolate cupcakes with buttercream icing and fondant, royal icing and sugar pearl decorations:

Homemade Fondant

2009-06-18T05:39:00.000-07:00

I took a few pictures of my homemade fondant experience, forgive me for not posting them just yet. I'm VERY pleased to say that it turned out GREAT!! Almost better than expected.
I am not a big fan of fondant, if you've never tasted it, it's not the greatest tasting stuff. As my brother "kindly" put it "it tastes like sugary play-doh!!". He wasn't kidding, it really did. Now, I don't know about you, but the last thing I want my cake to taste like is "the stuff I used to squish between my fingers and toes when I was a kid" hehe. So from then on out I started using only butter cream, with the occasional fondant decoration that I instructed people not to eat (I will say this, I KNOW that some bakers and cake decorators frost their cakes before putting a fondant covering on, that way the fondant can be peeled off and the cake is iced with the good stuff underneath...but come on, that's just calling for way too much work just to eat a piece of cake, hehe) . Recently I came across a recipe for "Marshmallow Fondant"...I decided to give it a try. What did I have to loose? If I didn't like the taste, I didn't have to cover a whole cake with it, I could just save it and use it for decorations like I had been doing with the store bought fondant. Let me tell you, it was a work-out, kneading and mushing and mixing and squishing that fondant!! However, it was well worth it!! I ended up with over 2lbs of fondant and not yucky tasting fondant at that!
I have yet to cover an entire cake with fondant, I'm still "fondant shy"...but it won't be long and I'll give it a whirl!! From this point on I will only be using my homemade fondant!

I'm in the process of working on 3 cakes and 20 cupcakes and I am loving every second of it!! I'll post pictures soon, so check back!!!

ps....is it weird to have dreams about cake?? At least its calorie free!!

Ladybug Cupcakes and a Quick "Bad Dog" Cupcake

2009-06-15T15:55:00.000-07:00

A co-worker of mine had been asking me for sometime to make his daughters a ladybug cupcake. I finally got around to it last week. I had some left over cake batter and was able to make 3...okay 4 but my husband and I split one.....cupcakes. I made two ladybug cupcakes. With the left over cupcake I made a "bad dog" cupcake, my co-worker ended up taking that home to his girls too. I did them rather quickly, but they were fun and I wanted to share.

The cupcakes are lemon with homemade butter cream icing:

The ladybugs are 50/50 fondant/gumpaste:

The "bad dog" cupcake (this one was done last minute, rather quickly):

Happy Birthday Cake

2009-06-11T18:45:00.000-07:00

I've always thought cupcakes were cute. Small, little, bite sized, mini cakes...whats not to love. I started playing around with decorating cupcakes right around the time I started my current job. I made fast friends with the other girl that works in the office. I soon found out she was a cake decorator...and a good one too!! She started teaching me bits and pieces about the cake decorating world. She fed my desire and ultimately helped lead me to this new addiction. On Wednesday I went to lunch with my boss and he informed me that my co-worker's (friend/cake decorator) birthday was yesterday. He wanted me to make her a cake. Yikes!! That was a tall order, it made me nervous. How do you make a cake for someone that has made cakes for much longer than you have? However, once again, not wanting to back down from a challenge and wanting to help celebrate her birthday...I told him I would, I would make her a cake. I had ONE night! Here is what I turned out:

I sketched my design out onto a piece of paper, colored my fondant/gum paste mix pink, blue and green and then cut out the flower shape I had chosen for my design:

I set my flowers upside down on top of coloring containers (and eventually I ran out of those and used wine bottles). I wanted my flowers to dry in a curved upward way. I glued (with sugar glue) white sugar pearls in the center of the smaller flowers:
I took a snapshot of the finished flowers on parchment paper:

I left my flowers to dry and started making the butter cream frosting:

I spread a layer of frosting between the two cake circles:

I spread a thin layer of frosting over the entire cake. This process is called "crumb coating" it peals up all of the loose crumbs. Then I let the cake sit for a minute or two in the fridge, so the frosting could set:

TaDa, an iced cake!

Added the bottom boarder:

The BEST part!! Decorating the cake:

The Finished Product!!!

This cake was really fun to make!! It's only my third cake...but I'm pretty excited with the way it turned out. The best part of cake decorating, giving the cake to the person it was intended for!!

Baby Shower Cupcake Cake

2009-06-11T13:23:00.000-07:00

I don't know if anyone else would notice, but this next picture bugs me...the way the shadow falls on the cake makes the side look like there is a crease in the cake :( alas, it's only a shadow.

So far this has been my favorite cupcake cake!! (lol, it's only my second) It was so much fun and special for me to make. It was for my cousins baby shower, for her first child, a baby boy. His first initial is H (hence the H on the cake). I knew I wanted to use the colors brown and blue because the invites were brown, blue and white. I decided to do a stuffed animal theme. I ended up with a teddy bear and a stuffed giraffe. The cupcakes were chocolate with buttercream icing swirled on. I added little giraffe and teddy bear cut outs. These were made from a 50/50 mix of fondant and gum paste. The figures on the cake topper were the same mix. The cake was confetti cake with buttercream frosting, the circles were fondant.

Like I said, I LOVED making this cake!!!

The stand the cupcakes are on was handmade...though not very sturdy, so the cake topper ended up on a stand of its own. It was a lesson learned :)

PS. You can click on the pictures and they will enlarge!

Wedding Cupcake Cake

2009-06-11T08:08:00.000-07:00

First off, what makes a cupcake cake?? That's just simply what I call the cupcakes that are placed in a tier and have a small (usually 6") cake topper. Its easier than saying, "cupcakes on a stand, in a tier shape, with a cake on top" lol.

This was my very first cupcake cake. A couple from Florence, SC contacted me and asked me to make their wedding cake. They wanted cupcakes and they had heard I made cupcakes. I have to add a LOL in here, b/c if you had seen the cupcakes I had made prior to this...well, they were just what I call "playing around with" cupcakes...NOTHING worthy of a WEDDING!!! I have to pause and take a minute to recall the first "decorative" cupcakes I made. They were last Thanksgiving, my cousin helped me make "turkey" cupcakes....they were....well....lets just say they didn't appear to be very "turkey like" but our family doted over them and made us feel proud :) So when this couple contacted me, I was a little hesitant. However, it was an offer I couldn't refuse, the chance to be PAID for doing something I was growing very fond of!! After I explained to them that I was NOT professional and had only dabbled in cupcake decorating but would love to rise to the challenge, they offered me the job. They only had a few desires. They wanted ivory and black and a cross topper. They wanted me to come up with the rest! Here is what I created (sorry some of the pics are small, this was before I realized that part of the enjoyment from this hobby is actually taking pictures, to savor your work after the creation is gone):

There were 68 cupcakes. All chocolate with homemade buttercream frosting, just swirled on top. I found black liners online and they turned out just perfect. The cake is chocolate with handmade buttercream frosting. It is a 6" round cake. The cross was handmade and hand cut out of 50/50 fondant/gumpaste. I hand glued sugar pearls around the edges of the cross with sugar glue (made from gumpaste and water). I used silk daisies (FOR SHAME!!! I KNOW!!) to place around the cross (daises were the flowers they were using for the wedding). All in all I was very proud of my very first cake!! While it wasn't very profitable, it was an amazing learning experience and gave me lots of insight for future cupcake cake making!!

Oh I should also add that the stand was also ordered online, however, after I received it I realized it was made out of Styrofoam!!! Eck!!! No worries, I went to the local fabric store and got some ivory silk and black ribbon. I used pearl point pins to tack the clothe and ribbon around the stand. I'm very proud with the way it turned out, my only complaint...the bride got to keep the stand :( boo. She DID technically pay for it and she lived in FLORENCE, even if she offered it, I don't know that I would want to drive that far to pick it up...I can always make another.

Who doesn't love cake??

2009-06-10T06:33:00.000-07:00

Well, maybe my waistline...but other than that, not many people I know dislike cake!! What I have found that I love even more is decorating cakes!! This is a new found hobby and I'm by no means professional. I just started doing what I love: making a mess, using my hands and having fun all at the same time!! This has developed into a yummy and messy hobby that I recently can't get enough of...cupcake/cake decorating!! I had a small amount of ...well, they are called "business cards" but since this is not my business, I'll call them info cards...so I had a small amount of info cards made up and received them in the mail yesterday. They turned out cute and they sparked my interest even farther. This morning, I decided to start a blog about the entire experience. I like to blog and I like to decorate cupcakes...so I thought, "why not put the two together and record my trials and triumphs!!" I'm not trying to get business, I'm trying to get experience. I'm trying to connect with people that have a reason to celebrate with cake and give me a reason to expand my cupcake/cake decorating knowledge. Here I'll record my messes and masterpieces (if you can call them that, remember...I'm just learning!!). So, Welcome to "for the love of cake"!!