B Sweet Cakes

Wedded Bliss

2011-07-18T21:09:00.000-07:00

This summer I had the chance to finish up my baking year with some beautiful wedding cakes. While it was a challenge while being pregnant (rolling out fondant just isn't the same with a belly in the way:), I really enjoyed the experiences and final results of both of them!

The first was for one of my best and oldest friends' wedding. Not only did Nicole ask me to make her cake, I had the pleasure of standing by her side IN the wedding as well (I was VERY organized with this one!). It was my honor and pleasure to create this beautiful (and surprise!) cake for Nicole & Peter!

Congrats to one of my most special friends- love you Dude!! :)

The second wedding was for friends of my sister and brother-in-law's. Carrie & Paul are one of the sweetest couples and I was super excited to create this classy and beautiful cake for them!!

I tried a few new techniques and was SO happy with the outcome- not to mention the largest cake I have done to date!

Here is a picture of the beautiful couple (and cake:) thanks to the wonderfully talented Felicia Perry...

I truly did enjoy being a part of both these couples' special days and can't wait to be able to create more cakes for other couples... just next year!!

Congratulations and Best Wishes to

Nicole & Peter

and

Carrie & Paul!!!

Latest :)

2011-07-02T14:24:00.000-07:00

Thought I would add the few fun things I've done this year... man it's flown by!!

Blake's 3rd Birthday

'Mod Mickey' Party

Our baby 'Gender Reveal' Party

Went with the "cravings" theme :)

I helped a friend decorate her daughter's Mary Poppins themed cake :)

Beach Bridal Shower cake

Tyler's 7th Birthday cake

Monster Truck theme

End of 2010...

2011-03-04T09:11:00.000-08:00

I haven't updated in a while... so here's the last of my orders from 2010!!

"Apple" cupcakes for a friend from work's daughter's 1st birthday. So cute!!

This cake was SO much fun!! For a friend from work's son's 1st birthday. I LOVED it!!

Christmas cupcakes

Fun "Hollywood" cake for my daughter's teacher

Fall... and some I forgot...

2010-11-13T22:50:00.000-08:00

Maddie's 4th Birthday

Dessert table done by my good friend Stacey

iPhone cake and cupcakes for Will's 40th


Will's iPhone (with images printed by Riva:)

My baby girl's 8th Birthday Dessert bar

Tiffany's box cake

Halloween cupcakes (aren't those the cutest little pumpkins you've ever seen?!?!)

Tiffany and Gabe's Wedding

Cake pop seating arrangement (cute idea!)

Monogram cupcakes

Dessert Table

Monogram cake

Teaser....

2010-10-11T21:34:00.001-07:00

Here's just a few things I've done over the past couple blog-less months...

Most recently, I had the chance to create my 16 year-old niece Mikayla's birthday spread.
It was super fun, and she said she loved it... So proud of this beautiful girl!!!

HAPPY 16th BIRTHDAY MIKAYLA!!!
I LOVE YOU TO PIECES!!!

This Hello Kitty was for one of my favorite repeat customers, Monica.
The colors were per her request, and I think it turned out SO cute!!

Matching Hello Kitty cookies

This mini dessert bar was for a dear friend of mine, Kristine. She held a bridal shower for her future sister-in-law at The Walker House in San Dimas. What a beautiful place!!
Kristine sent these great pics (I forgot my camera!!!) to me, I just wish I could show the whole room- it was fabulous!!

Butterfly Birthday

2010-07-30T16:58:00.000-07:00

I had the privilege of creating a wonderful dessert bar this week for a 15 year old girl's birthday party (lucky girl!:). The theme was black and white with Monarch butterflies. I had so much fun putting this all together!! I have to thank all of the people who helped me out this week- not only with the baking and dipping and decorating and setting up, but also for helping with my kiddos since Matt was working those days! So THANK YOU to Amy and Amy (my two right-hand girls:), Mom, Grandma Nana, Linda, and Robin!!! On to the details...

The spread included a 3-tiered cake, cake pops, caramel apples,
brownies, whoopie pies, and chocolate covered pretzels.

The birthday girl Krysten's cake was inspired by another
one of my previous cakes. ;)

Cake pops and brownies

Caramel apples

...from another angle.

Cupcake and cookie favors

Tables with favors

And now for a nap!!!!!!!!

June Boom!!

2010-06-28T12:03:00.001-07:00

These last couple of weekends have definitely kicked off my summer! Thankfully, June is (almost) over, so my vacation starts NOW!! I had the privelege of making sweets for a couple of weddings, anniversaries, goodbyes, and birthdays this month. A fun month, for sure, but ready to see what the summer holds for my family and I. This will be my last post for a while... enjoy the sunshine!!!

Bernie & Danny's wedding
(My first 4 tiered cake!!!)

My Goddaughter Gillian's friend Daphne was moving...

... so we made her a cake!!

(and cupcakes:)

Father's Day sweets
(Credit to Bakerella's wonderful idea!:)

Bob & Francis's 60th (WOW!)
wedding anniversary

Amanda & Matt's wedding

My nephew's 16th!!!
Time flies....

Ty-man's 6th!!

2010-06-11T23:59:00.000-07:00

My little Ty-man turned 6 this past week! I can't believe it, but had a great time with his Dinosaur party!!!

Happy Birthday Buddy!!!
We love you!!!!

Oreo cupcakes for his class
YUM-O!!

The dinosaur dessert bar!!

Picture Post

2010-06-11T23:50:00.000-07:00

As most of you have already told me, I am SUPER behind on blogging. So in an effort to try and catch up (we'll see...) here's some shots of what I've been up to...

This was a "team effort" by my cake partner-in-crime, Amy and I (well, mostly Amy:).
Happy "50th" Jackie! ;)

Meghan & Andrew's wedding cake!
I had a BLAST with this one!

Taylor's Graduation Dessert Bar
Another super fun one!!

Mother's Day Tea

2010-06-11T23:37:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm far too behind so let's just start with Mother's Day. This super fun affair deserves a post all it's own....

The Dessert Bar

Us & the Grandmas

It was a beautiful day- I had tons of fun with all (well, most:) of my favorite women!!
Here's to next year.....

Anniversaries & Art

2010-04-18T20:14:00.000-07:00

Can you believe it?? It's Sunday night and I am actually posting from THIS weekend!! Amazing!! It was a fun weekend, and I guess I didn't have too much on my plate... ;) The first cake I had was for a friend for work, Rhonda. It was her parents' 40th wedding anniversary so she wanted something "wedding-ish". Letting me have a little creative reign with this one was fun. I just love simple, classy elegance for wedding cakes. It was a white on ivory combination, which I've been wanting to do for a while. I was overall happy with it, and I think Rhonda was too!!

The next was for our friends, the Humes' little girl Jenna. Her mom, Jessica asked me to do a cake reflecting her "art" themed party. I immediately thought of a painter's pallette in my head and Jessica loved the idea! She also got some cake pops for the kids (which she told me worked out perfectly!). She sent a picture of the set-up too... so fun to see the final product!!!

Busy Bee...

2010-04-11T21:49:00.000-07:00

I've been a super busy bee lately, so here's a quick peek at some of my latest sweets...

And thanks to my wonderful friend Riva for helping me into the wee hours of a Friday night with these cookies!!! You're a lifesaver!!!

Fun & Funky Wedding!!

2010-03-31T21:15:00.000-07:00

One of the most fun people I know got married last weekend. Needless to say, when Morgan & Tim asked me to do their wedding cake, I was immediately SO excited!!! So many ideas were running through my head, knowing that Morgan is funky, fun, modern, and SO non-traditional! Right away I thought of doing a dessert bar, especially with the 225 on the guest list! They were totally up for it, and well, you can see I had a little fun with it... ;)

Fun, yet simple cake- "peeps" included!!

Cake pops- Red Velvet & Carrot Cake

Whoopie Pies

Brownies

Cupcakes- Vanilla Bean, Coconut and Chocolate & PB

The banners behind the dessert table were also handmade with their coordinating colors. And for those who are wondering, yes, I made ALL of these desserts!!! ;)

CONGRATS TO MORGAN & TIM!!!!
Thanks for letting me be a part of your wedding- I had a BLAST!!! ;)

Feliz Cumpleanos!!

2010-03-31T21:06:00.000-07:00

It was my goddaughter, Gillian's, 12th birthday (yikes!!) and she decided to have a "fiesta" bash this year. She is so super cute and volunteered to help with her own cake. We had SO much fun coming up with this one!! She did ALL of the confetti on the bottom tier all on her own!! We had a great time together and had an even greater time at her FIESTA!!!

(It was also her daddy George's b-day too, so we gave him a "shout-out" too!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GILLIAN ROSE!!!
YOU ARE GETTING MORE AND MORE BEAUTIFUL &
I AM SO PROUD OF YOU!!!! LOVE YOU! :)

This was for our friends Sean & Amy's little guy Ethan's 1st birthday. It was the most adorable birthday theme ever!!! This was definitely a fun one, and I'm bummed I didn't get a shot of his smash cake... ;( Oh well, Happy 1st Ethan!!

St Patty's Day

2010-03-31T20:57:00.000-07:00

After getting a fun St Patty's themed cake for a friend from high school's kids, I decided it would be a fun project to take on for our festivities at home too!! Here's the cake for Josiah & Abby's 2nd and 1st birthdays...

...and here's what the cake looked like on the inside:

My beautiful goddaughter, Gillian with our creation!

How cool is that!?!?!

HAPPY ST PATRICK'S DAY TO ALL!!! :)

Cakes & Cakes

2010-03-11T09:30:00.000-08:00

I've been super busy, so here's a quickie post on some of the cakes I've done the past few weeks....

Cake CRAZINESS!!!

2010-02-18T13:52:00.000-08:00

Insane, dumb, naive, ambitious- whatever you want to call me, I will confess to it!! My friend Amy and I worked our booties off this past weekend!! We ended up with 32 cake orders for Valentine's Day and after all said and done, it was worth it. We worked hard, and learned a lot. Had fun talking, eating, and whipping out some super cute cakes. After 16 hours of straight cake decorating, I can honestly say I would totally do it again! Here are some shots of just part of our weekend....

And being the over-committing person that I am, I had a few more..... ;)

Taking Orders!!

2010-02-03T23:18:00.001-08:00

Valentine's Day Cakes!!!!
Do you have someone you're wild about?

Place your order now for
pick up on Saturday, February 13

Double Chocolate Cake
Covered in Vanilla buttercream & fondant
Serves 4-5 people

$25

Contact Aly for details
bsweetcakes@gmail.com

**Please place orders by Wed., Feb. 10**
*Pick-up time between 9-11 am*

Bugs & Babies

2010-01-31T21:21:00.000-08:00

This week was a change for me... I started my new job and cake decorating became therapeutic for me! I thought it would be challenging to be working AND doing cakes, but it turns out it has been a blessing. Although still adding a bit of stress to my week, my sweets brought me more joy than I expected!

These cupcakes I GLADLY made for my friend Erin's baby shower. She is such a special and wonderful person, and am so excited for little Michael to come!

Here's a close up- they were chocolate w/ peanut butter frosting and chocolate chip w/ vanilla buttercream. You could smell the peanut butter from a mile away... yummy!!

This was for my friend April's little neice, Laila. She has lots of allergies, so April asked if I could decorate a cake & cupcakes that her mommy made especially for her. I was glad to help out and LOVED doing this cake!!

And, lastly, a cake for Emily- an amazing MOPS leader and home-schooling mommy, that I admire!! Little Micah is due any day and we all can't wait to meet him! I had lots of fun with this one, too! :)

Blake's Cowboy Bash!

2010-01-20T22:44:00.001-08:00

My baby boy turned 2!!!! We had a full-blown Cowboy Bash for him a couple weeks ago, and it was SO much fun!!!

Here's my little Cowboy on his horse...

...and his Cowboy Sweets display!! I had a blast with this one! (Not to mention TONS of help from my party-planner friend, Amy, from My Sweet Celebrations!!)

The "shirt & jeans" cake

I also helped my girlfriend, Gina, out with her littlest guy, Grady's 1st birthday. She did a farm theme the day before Blake's, so I was able to use some of the cowboy decor for his too!
Happy Birthday Grady!!

Birthday Beauties

2010-01-20T22:36:00.000-08:00

It's been a while, but I've been a busy bee around here lately!! I started a new job this month, so I probably won't be having too many posts. :(

This one was from December. Two of my favorite girls had birthdays and I wanted to do something special. Jazz requested butterflies, so I went with a more modern look...

Here's my girls.... my sis, Amy, and my cuz, Jasmine.
I love you guys!!!!!

Fun & Festive

2009-12-29T22:27:00.000-08:00

This past week was very fun with the Christmas season here!! I got to do a few fun treats (which I forgot to take pictures of...), some festive cupcakes, and one super fun birthday cake!!

The first was for a friend of ours, Candee, who was celebrating her 40th! She LOVES wine, so it was only fitting to make her her own bottled version...

It came out so much better than I ever imagined, thanks to the amazing creativity of my beautiful friend Riva. She did the custom label (and with all of one day's notice!!) for Candee's special wine bottle. If you can't read it, it said, "Candace Vineyards, 1969, Aged 40 Years to Perfection, Bottled in Temple City, Ca, 40% alcohol by volume" So perfect!!!

This next order was for a Christmas celebration for my cousin's extended family. His mom ordered a cake to celebrate all of the December birthdays (cute idea!) and some festive Christmas-y cupcakes to go along. These were cute, and super fun to make!

Happy/Merry Birthday/Christmas!!!

2009-12-14T22:36:00.000-08:00

A long while back, a friend of mine, DeAnne, from work asked me to do her baby girl Avah's first birthday cake. Little did I know this was the same weekend as my daughter's Nutcracker ballet performances! I was excited to create her little cake, so I told her I would still do it. Avah had a 'little cupcake' party, so I was super excited to make something cute for her!!!

Avah's mommy loves elephants, so we had to incorporate one somewhere!!

Here's some cupcakes I "threw" together for our Becoming One Sunday School class Christmas party. It was fun coming up with holiday themed desserts!!

Happy Birthday Ava!

2009-12-08T15:19:00.000-08:00

Last month I had the priveledge of making cupcakes and cake for a childhood friend of mine, Sarah. Her little girl, Ava, turned ONE! When Sarah told me the colors were orange and fuschia I was so excited!

Here's Ava digging into her smash cake

And Sarah's set-up

Thanks for letting me be a part of your special day, Sarah!!

Fall Treats

2009-12-08T15:13:00.000-08:00

Fall is one of my favorite seasons, so of course I had to do a little baking...

Marshmallow pops for the kids classmates

Pumpkin cookies...

...and leaves...

for Thanksgiving!!!

Catchup

2009-11-20T21:29:00.000-08:00

So.... It's been a while!! Since I've posted anyways... Slacker!!! I have so much going on these days, but anywhooo- here's a few from the past couple weeks.....

Jen's Baby Shower
This is probably one of my favorite cakes!! So simple, so cute! I made the baby shoes from fondant and the cake was chocolate chip with chocolate fudge filling and chocolate cake w/ raspberry filling.

Jen also asked for some cookies as favors, so here's what I came up with. Same style- simple & cute!! Jen said she almost cried when she saw them! So glad I could help make your day a happy one, Jen!

A friend of my sister's, Yvette, asked if I could do a cake for her mom's 50th birthday. This was a fun one! She said she wanted leopard and brown, and red, with a red bow on top.
I think it came out just like that!! The cake was black & white cake, all three layers.
So glad you liked it Yvette!!

Here's just a little one I whipped up for a Halloween cake walk at a church event we went to. I used my friend's beehive pan for this one. Cute & fun!!

Cake & Cars

2009-10-23T09:28:00.000-07:00

I almost forgot to include this one!! This cake was for my sweet friend Riva's son, Tyler. He turned 4 last week and loves all things 'Cars'. This cake was super fun to create!! It was great to see Tyler's face when I dropped it off.

Happy Birthday Tyler!!!!

Bear-y Birthday!!

2009-10-19T21:06:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was my daughter's 7th birthday, so of course there's always pressure to do something grand... She decided to do a Build-A-Bear Party, so I went along with the theme and invitation. She loved it, so that's all that mattered! It was cookies & cream cake with buttercream and chocolate fillings, and lemon with buttercream and lemon curd fillings. (Both requested by her, of course!)

I also did a cupcake order for a friend of mine who wanted some jungle-themed baby shower cupcakes. I borrowed some ideas from my friend Amy (thanks!), and came up with these cuties.
Thanks, Erin, and your baby shower's next!! :)

Birthdays, Babies & Brides

2009-10-11T22:26:00.000-07:00

As you can tell from the lack of posts I've been pretty busy (still) so here's to catch up from the last few weekends...

Our niece Mikayla turned 15 last weekend, and I HAD to whip up something cute for her! She said her favorite colors were purple and green, so here's what I came up with!

Kristin's baby shower cake, made mostly by my sis Amy!! She did the turtles and spots for me- what a lifesaver!! Cake was chocolate chip flavor with chocolate ganache and bavarian cream fillings.

From last weekend- Dylan's birthday cake. Anybody tell they're Cowboy fans???

Valerie & Darryl's wedding cake!!
This was a super fun (and stressful) cake for me... After getting all of the kinks worked out (and the LONG, bumpy drive to Palos Verdes) this cake turned out beautifully. Flavors were white cake with raspberry and bavarian cream fillings, my "black & white" cake (chocolate and white cakes alternated with chocolate ganache and bavarian cream fillings), and lemon cake with lemon curd and vanilla buttercream filling. Val actually called me today to thank me for her cake. That was SO rewarding!! Congrats to the happy couple!!

Sponge Bob cupcakes for Isabelle's birthday. I had a blast with these too! Took a bit to get him just right, but turned out great!!

Isabelle's special cupcake :)

...a closer look :)

Farm Fun

2009-09-26T17:27:00.000-07:00

This cake was for Lisa (a co-worker of my bro-in-law Vince) and her son's 1st birthday. When she told me it was a farm theme I was SO excited! I've been wanting to do a "farm" cake for a while now... After finding many inspirations on line, I think my little figures came out cute. I had a blast and am thinking of using my farm ideas for my little one too... :)

Sweet & Saucy

2009-09-26T17:09:00.001-07:00

We just so happened to be in the area of Sweet & Saucy Shop the other day, so we HAD to stop by to take a peek (and taste)! Melody Brandon is the owner of this fabulous dessert studio (who's blog I LOVE to follow), and so I got to meet her and chat cakes! I was really excited because I love Melody's work and think she is super talented. It was fun to see the place that I've visited online so many times come to life!

Here's her super cute front counter...

Ty enjoying one of her cake lollipops. YUM!!

Cam went with the red velvet. (YUM, again!)

She had a whole rack of cake stands (my fav)!

And she even put up with my crazy kiddos...

Thanks Melody for the fun tour of your awesome place!

Had to take some home (but it never made it home)!!

Birthdays Galore!

2009-09-22T20:52:00.001-07:00

This past weekend was cake craziness! I had fun doing them all, but boy was I wiped afterwards!!

This was for one of my good friends, Gina. It was her birthday so, of course, I wanted to make her a super cute cake! It was white chocolate cake with raspberry preserves and vanilla buttercream filling, covered in fondant with fondant accents.
Happy Birthday Gina!!!

This was for a friend from work, Julie. She is due in Nov. with her 2nd baby boy, so this was for her shower. I loved this cake!
It was white vanilla cake and chocolate cake, both filled with raspberry preserves, and covered in fondant. All fondant accents as well. Congrats Julie!!

This little lady was for my friend Stacey's little girl Maddie. It was Maddie's 4th birthday and she LOVES all things 'princess'. Maddie is very near and dear to my heart because she reminds me so much of my daughter, Camryn! They are like long lost sisters! So cute!!
Hope you had a wonderful birthday Maddie!

This butterfly cake and cupcakes were for a girl Tina, who was referred from a friend. It was her daughter's 8th birthday & she wanted flowers & butterflies. Nicole helped me with this one- it came out so cute!! Hope she liked them Tina!!

And last, but not least, this cake was for our babysitter Jenna. She turned 18 on Monday, so I told her I wanted to make her a cake. This one was super fun, and by the end of all that I whipped it out in like an hour!! I am really grateful for Jenna- it's so nice to have someone (besides family) that the kids adore, and that loves my kids SO much!!
Happy 18th Jenna!!!!

(Btw, I forgot to take a picture of this one, so Jenna had to send me one... :)

BSWEETCAKES NEWS

2009-09-21T08:09:00.000-07:00

So, after many talks with my husband and friends and debates in my head, I have decided to cut down on the number of cake orders I will be taking. The stress of trying to juggle 3 kids, a part-time career as a nurse (as little as it it right now), and working at home in between, has really started to take a toll on me. I pretty much "hit the wall", as my friend likes to say, this past weekend. And for those of you who are thinking "I knew she wouldn't be able to keep up", I just want to thank you for your support. I really love making cakes, but when my kids beg me not to, it's hard not to look at their little faces and tell them no. So for now, the posts will be getting fewer (not gone though), and please don't be upset if I have to tell you "no" for a cake order. My sanity will thank you!! I appreciate all of your support and encouragement, and maybe in a few years I'll be ready for more....

The BIG One

2009-09-13T22:08:00.000-07:00

So here it is- the largest cake I have done to date!! I was so excited and relieved to pull this off (with help of course!) this past weekend. It was for a 50th birthday party and the birthday lady asked for a cake "exactly" like one she had seen from Pink Cake Box. I absolutely love and admire their work, so I was excited to try to recreate one of their masterpieces. I think I pulled it off pretty well, I must say, but not without the help of my assistant (I think I can officially call her that now:) Nicole. She did ALL of the zebra stripes on the cake, and a darn great job she did! I could not have done it without her! The cake sizes were 8, 12, and 16 inches and were white and chocolate flavors filled with bavarian cream. I heard it went over very well at the party, so that was worth all the hard work!

One 'Sweet' Girl!

2009-09-09T22:22:00.000-07:00

I had a fun time just practicing on a cake last weekend! I decided to prepare for the large topsy-turvy cake I'm doing next week by doing a 'mini' version. And considering we were going to be seeing our family for Labor Day, I thought I would see if our niece Mikayla would want to help me decorate it. She has been asking me to teach her some cake stuff (and has gladly volunteered to be my assistant a few times:) so I new she would be excited. Truth be told, I was excited to teach her!! Mikayla started high school this year and doesn't live too close to us, so I wanted to take this opportunity to spend some time with her. She's growing up too fast for me!!

Here's Mikayla with her cake. She did an awesome job with the zebra stripes!!

The finished product :)

Mikayla and her pround Auntie!!
Good job Mik, you're AWESOME!!

'Diva' Cakes

2009-09-01T22:50:00.000-07:00

These are the cupcakes I did for my daughter's little 'Diva Dance' performance. I used zebra print liners with purple and white frosting. The stars are made of fondant, and I bought some Hannah Montana picks for others as well. Flavors were chocolate and Funfetti, all with vanilla buttercream and sprinkled with glitter, of course! These were super fun, and all the girls loved them!!

Dots and Dirt

2009-08-30T22:56:00.000-07:00

I'm a little behind on blogging (as usual), so here's a few from the last couple of weeks...

This was for our friends Mike & Charity's baby girl Alanna.
She had a "Little Polka Dot Bikini" party :)

Matching cupcakes

Sweet little Smash cake

This was for Monica's daughter's 2nd birthday. It was a Princess theme, and I did apples and cookies to match. Turns out caramel apples are hard to keep from melting when it's 110 degrees outside!! :(

I did this cake for a friend from work. It was Faozat's friend's son's 2nd birthday. I had a blast with this cake!! (And my boys LOVED it too!)

Thanks everyone for your orders! :)

Welcome Baby Jacob!

2009-08-13T23:31:00.000-07:00

I was in Arizona last weekend for my cousin Andrea's baby shower, which I helped plan with my aunt Sandy. Of course I had to let some creativity flow.....

Here's my beaming cousin, Andrea!
(Yes, Anj- you ARE beaming! :)

And here's the fun candy/dessert buffet I put together!

The cupcakes were red velvet with cream cheese frosting and chocolate with peanut butter frosting. Amazing!!!

The take-out boxes for candy :)

So, I had a little mishap with my original PB frosting...
but I couldn't let it go to waste!! I decided it would make perfect PB balls dipped in chocolate. All I have to say is I think we all died and went to heaven...

Rice krispie treats

And since I wasn't making a REAL cake, I decided to make a diaper one!

Thanks Aunt Sandy and Andrea- for letting me butt in and do all the froo froo stuff! You know I love it, and was so happy I could do it for you!! :) Can't wait to meet little Jake!!

Pretty Polka Dots

2009-07-23T21:14:00.000-07:00

Here's my one and only cake for a while... sad, but kinda nice!! It was for Monica from my mom's work. She said she LOVES polka dots, and asked for a cute blue and brown polka dot cake. This one was really fun for me- super simple and cute. It was nice for a change! I wish I could've gone to her party because it tasted SO good as I was making it! (Of course I try the scraps!!!) She asked for orange flavored cake with chocolate ganache filling, covered in chocolate fondant. YUM!!!! (I still have some scraps in the fridge if anyone wants to come over....:) So, Happy Birthday Monica- I hope you liked it!!

I'm also going to be blogless for a bit- I am actually going on vacation!! So see you back the middle of August!

How It's Done

2009-07-19T15:43:00.001-07:00

I had a couple of fun requests this weekend, the first being some fun cupcakes for Becky's daughter's birthday. She wanted something fun to go along with her "pink cowgirl" theme, so I decided to use a cowboy hat cutter I found. I made them out of pink and white fondant, and added some flowers and sprinkles to finish it up. I also tried a new strawberry buttercream recipe that was to die for!

Next was a cake for Shannon's friend's bridal shower. She had contacted me a while back to see if I could make a teapot for their tea party they were having. While I had never done one before, I was excited to try something new. I agreed, so here's some of the process for a change:

The bare cake- carved and shaped, and ready to be frosted. There was a board and dowels three layers up.

Some of the flowers as they were drying a bit...

The frosted cake ready for it's fondant layer (which I didn't get a pic of).

The finished product! I had a VERY hard time with the spout... I was NOT happy at all with the way it came out. As I was attaching it to the cake, the fondant started cracking with the pressure. Unfortunately I didn't have time to make another one, so I just had to leave it as a "lesson learned". Better luck next time, I guess, but the rest of the cake came out great!!
Hope it turned out like you hoped, Shannon!

July Birthdays & Babies

2009-07-14T14:40:00.000-07:00

The past few weekends have been pretty relaxed, so I have no excuse for not blogging except being lazy (must be the heat)! The 4th of July weekend I had two birthdays- my mom and Jennifer, cousin George's sis. We decided it would be easier to make two of the same cakes, since they sounded SO yummy! I decided to go more with flavor over cuteness this time, and boy were they YUMMY! Jen's cake was chocolate chip cake with chocolate ganash and fresh strawberry filling, covered in whipped cream icing. It was then topped with handmade chocolate covered strawberries, and finally, finished off with Pirouette cookies around the sides. Mmmmmm... My mom's was the same, but with white cake and cream cheese frosting. I heard it was a toss up which one was better. Here's some pics...

Last weekend I had Elissa's baby shower cake. Vicki asked for a "jungle themed" cake and I thought I would do my little fondant guys again. I changed them up a little this time and made them a little more "boyish". It was chocoalte chip cake with chocolate mousse filling, covered in whipped cream icing. I actually got to sample this one- it was pretty good... :)

Cupcakes... and more Cupcakes!

2009-06-29T10:12:00.000-07:00

This weekend was nothing but CUPCAKES! 300 of them to be exact... The first were for my good friend Gina. It was her super cute sister-in-law, Stephanie's baby shower and she wanted some cute cupcakes to go along with the decor. Earlier in the week Gina and I had put together some tags and chinese take-out boxes for the candy buffet they were doing. I will have to get some pictures of those later... I have to say, these are my favorite cupcakes I have ever done. So simple, but cute! Gina said all the decor looked really cute- I only wish I was there to see it all! Anyways, I had fun helping Gina, and can't wait to see the pictures. I will definitely post some!!

Next came my first non-family related wedding! It was for Courtney, who contacted me a few weeks back in need for a cake quick! We came up with cupcakes, and I think they came out really nice. Half of the 215 cupcakes were chocolate and the other half were rainbow chip flavors. They had handmade fondant flowers and round fondant "T" chips for decoration, as well as clear sprinkles. The top cake was chocolate with vanilla buttercream, covered in fondant. The flowers on the top were fresh tulips. They were all placed on my custom black stand. I hope they were everything you wanted, Courtney! :)

And last, but not least, were the fun cupcakes I made for a long lost friend of mine, Sarah. We had just recently come in contact again (thanks Facebook!) and she asked if I could make these for her baby girl's Baptism. I gladly said yes, of course!! They were chocolate and white cake with fondant and cream cheese frostings. I need to use cream cheese frosting more often, btw... they were so yummy!! (Of course I tried one ;) It was so great to see her and her mom, Linda. It brought back so many sweet memories... :) Thanks, Sarah, for letting me create these for you and Ava!

Here is the gorgeous set-up, thanks to Sarah's creativity...

I also have to say a serious "Thank You" to my "assistant" and friend, Nicole. She helped me with most of the cupcakes this weekend, and more importantly, went with me to deliver and set up the wedding cupcakes. I was more nervous than I thought I would be, and thank God she was there to chill me out! So THANKS, Dude- I couldn't have done it without you!!! :)

Happy Grads

2009-06-29T09:52:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago (sorry for the lack of posts..) I had the pleasure of making desserts for my brother-in-law Vince's graduation party. He graduated with his Master's degree, YAY!! My sister had asked me to do a really cool cake a while back, so I was excited to try it.

We started with cupcakes, chocolate and vanilla with BC icing, because I knew the cake wouldn't feed the 150 people they were expecting.

The cake came out just as I (and my sister) wanted! The top layer was white chocolate cake with strawberry preserves filling, and the bottom layer was Oreo cake with fudge filling. Both were covered in fondant, as well as the cap and diploma.

Here's the whole table set-up, cute!!

Earlier in the week, my sister decided they wanted cookie favors also... 150 of them!!
Thank God for her help, and my friend Nicole, or I would have lost it... It definitely was tedious!! They were well worth it though, they looked really cute on the tables. :)

I had also done a small order of cookies for a friend of a friend for some baby shower cookies. She gave me the design, and I think they came out cute! I will definitely use this idea again!

Birthdays, Baseball and Babies

2009-06-09T22:36:00.001-07:00

I had a busy week (as usual) last week, it being my son Tyler's 5th birthday and all! The first project I had was for his preschool class. They celebrate in class with all his friends, so of course I had to do special cupcakes! We decided on chocolate cupcakes with oreo cream frosting (YUM!). I found these little Star Wars rings that went perfect (or at least I thought they would until the fighting started....). They went over very well with the kiddos.:)

Next up was for Ty's season-ending T-Ball pizza & trophy party for the 'Yankees'. I made these super cute baseball cupcakes (with help and inspiration from a couple of friends) for the party and the kids loved them! The mitts & balls are made of fondant, as well as the 'Yankee' balls. The cupcakes were chocolate chip flavor (one of my favs).
For Ty's birthday party I did a Star Wars themed cake with a few cupcakes. I did a swirling/marbling technique with the fondant to make it look space-y and was really happy with it. The light sabers are made of fondant, and I found the Darth Vader and Luke fugurines at a cake supply store. The cake and cc were oreo flavor with fudge and crushed oreo filling. It was a first for this flavor, and it was a thimbs up for sure!

My big 5 year old!!!

Lastly was a cake I did for my friend Stacey's baby shower. I created a fondant baby on top and used the colors mainly from the invitation for inspiration. I was really happy with it, and she said she loved it. The flavors were white chocolate with raspberry filling, and again, oreo with fudge and crushed oreo filling. Double YUM!!!
My great friend Jill (to some) Nicole (to others) came over and helped me out A LOT this week!! Thank God for her and her creativity, too!!! Here's us after a long day of partyin' and workin'...

Sweetness

2009-06-01T01:35:00.000-07:00

This weekend was relaxing... just some cookies and one cake. The cookies were for a friend of mine, Charity, who wanted just a little something to take with her to a girl's bachelorette night at the Gondolas in Long Beach. A sweet treat to go along with some wine! They came out really cute, just like I had envisioned (that's always a plus!). I had seen some cookie cutters that I think were meant for a bathing suit, so I had the idea of doing lingerie, instead. Nothing too crazy, just girlie and cute. :)

The cake was for a friend Lisa's grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. She planned a big surprise party, with family from out of town and everything! She told me she wanted a big, wedding-type cake. After all, 60 years is BIG! We had talked about a few designs, and this is what the final product looked like:

We were going for a vintage, antique look, and I think it turned out pretty well. She was extemely excited when she saw it, so that's all that mattered. She told me later that her Grandmother cried when she saw it, and said she didn't get to have a cake at her wedding 60 years ago. How special is that?!? Thanks, Lis, for giving me creative reign and the pleasure of designing and creating my first wedding-type cake. It was definitely made with love... :)

Congrats Gena & Kyle!!

2009-05-28T17:41:00.000-07:00

So my first wedding went without a hitch! And I even managed to be IN the wedding, along with my kids and hubby, too! Gena decided on cupcakes (easier for me!) so I was definitely relieved. I wanted it to look super nice for my new sis, so after some quick brainstorming (after getting a rickety cardboard poor-excuse for a stand in the mail), Matt and my MIL built a custom cupcake stand! Thank God for her awesome tools and their great teamwork! It all looked beautiful (not as beautiful as Gena, of course) and I was very happy with it. I did chocolate and "funfetti" flavors (as per the bride's request:) both with vanilla buttercream. I was so glad I could do this for them, I had so much fun and can't wait for the next wedding....

The beautiful cupcake display...

My bro & new sis-in-law!
Aren't they beauties??

CONGRATULATIONS GENA & KYLE!!!
LOVE YOU GUYS!

Lots of birthdays....

2009-05-19T21:02:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been so long... as you will see it's been very busy around my house! Last week was my hubby's birthday and,well I couldn't skimp on his cake! I decided to go with a Ford Mustang theme (since he LOVES his '65). I kept it simple and just did the Mustang logo on top of a marble/fudge-filled cake. He loved it, and the kids couldn't wait to dig in (as you can see on the cake board...).

Then were some Mickey Mouse cupcakes and smash cakes for a friend's twin nieces. I decided to do coordinating (not matching exactly:) girly smash cakes for the birthday girls and she wanted some 'girl' and 'boy' cupcakes. These were definitely fun to do and hope the birthday was great, Stephanie!!

My friend, Stacey asked me to do a 'PlayStation' themed cake for her husband David this past weekend too. I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to accomplish it, but after some research I decided to go with a controller made out of rice krispie treats. I definitely had to play around with it to get it how I wanted, but it came out pretty well. And I even heard it was a hit at the Hard Rock Cafe!! Stacey said all the waiters were stopping by to see the cake. Glad he liked it Stacey! :)

Happy Mom's Day!

2009-05-18T17:30:00.000-07:00

This Mother's Day was full of fun cakes and parties! My
first cake was for a friend of my bro-in-law. Pretty simple birthday cake, with a specific color palette.. so cute! The cake was chocolate with bavarian cream and fresh banana. I had actually never tried fresh fruit before, and unfortunately, this cake ended up having a mishap on it's 1 hour drive home in the heat and traffic!! So sorry Lisa... :( But hope it still tasted good...

The next was an itty bitty one I threw together for the impromptu Mother's Day tea I decided to throw on Saturday. It was a white cake with raspberry filling, covered in vanilla buttercream- very light and perfect with our tea menu! I topped it of with some fresh flowers, and sat it on my twisted pedestal.

Last, but not least was this Mother's Day cake for our lovely realtor, Marti. She is so sweet and has helped us out so much, so I was excited to put together this cake for her. It was also white cake with raspberry filling. After seeing my blog, she liked Bekah's birthday cake design, so I changed the colors up a little and it came out super cute!

Cakes, cookies & more...

2009-05-04T16:35:00.000-07:00

I decided to only do a few things this week, due to
the fact that I was going out of town for the weekend, but I just couldn't say no!

The first cake I did was for my cousin's Pirate-themed work meeting. They said I could do whatever I wanted (hee hee :), but they were on a budget. I came up with this....
It's too bad I put the black background behind it, so you can't really see the palm trees, but it came out pretty cute. I'd be happy to do another one for them... maybe I can be the official meeting cake-maker for T.F.G.???

These are some of the 45 cookies I did for a bridal shower. I did similar to what I made for my SIL's shower, just changed out the colors to brown and pink. They came out pretty cute, I think. These cutters are so fun to work with, and the rolled fondant is perfect for them! I tend to get carried away with the royal icing detail, but this time it came to me pretty quickly. I hope DeAnn liked them as much as I liked making them. :)

I did a few cupcakes for a girl at work, too. Her daughter was turning 8 and she wanted some girly cupcakes for her softball team. I thought it was funny when I asked Laura what her team colors were, she said green and yellow- not too girly!! I wasn't going to be using those colors for sure... so here's what I came up with: pink and purple frosted cupcakes with daisies that had little softballs in the centers. They came out so cute & I hope the team loved them!!

The last one I did today for one of Camryn's teacher's birthday. She loves, and lives at the beach, so we decided to do a beach theme. I was excited because I hadn't done a beach cake yet! She loved it and couldn't wait to take it home... It went really cute with her gift that was wrapped up in a pink sand pail! :)

April Showers

2009-04-27T22:20:00.000-07:00

So as you can see, this has been a very busy time for me, cake-wise! My lovely sis-in-law (to-be) had her bridal showers these past few weeks, and of course I was a busy baker! For her first shower I wanted to do something dramatic and that I had never done before. So I decided on trying out some cake stencils I've been eyeing for a while. It was definitely the most structurally challenging cake I've done to date, but after a few mishaps and tears I finally got it done. Her favorite color is pink and since she's not using it for the wedding, we decided to take it on for the shower. This particular shower was the larger of the two, mostly just family. It was such a special cake to do for me, and I was just so relieved I pulled it off...

I also did cookie favors to go along with the theme. They came out perfectly and there weren't any to spare at the end!

For Gena's second shower we had a cherry blossom/ pink & brown theme. This cake was fun to do!! I've tried a cherry blossom cake in the past, but wasn't too happy with it so I got to do a "better" version this time. The shower came out SO cute, and the cake just added that little extra touch. Now if I can pull off the wedding cake, AND be in the wedding! Ehh, I can do it! :)

Spring Sweets

2009-04-13T21:45:00.000-07:00

This weekend was a busy, but fun one for me.. I had two orders and some 'just for fun' stuff I decided to do. The first was an Easter cake for a co-worker of mine, Karen. She knew exactly what she wanted, which was nice for a change. I truly love being creative, but sometimes it's nice to have some direction! She asked for a small cake with a cross on top, made out of roses. I did my own twist and added the rolled roses, which are more my 'style', I think. I added a couple of butterflies and a banner and it finished it off perfectly! It was white cake with lemon curd filling (which was my first time using-YUM!) and covered in fondant. I apologize for the bad lighting- one of my children lost my SD card for my nice camera, and I haven't had time to replace it yet... So for now I'm just thankful we still have the back-up!

The second cake I did was for a co-worker of my brother-in-law, Vince. Lisa is apparently a dispatcher for his department and called me up to do her 28th birthday cake. I was pretty excited when she told me the theme was 'Little Black Dress'! It sounded SO cute to me. She loved the leopard cake I had done before, and wanted to add some pink to brighten it up a little. I added the black dresses along the side to give at an extra touch, and the feathers for just a little more... I think she liked it, and I had fun doing it! It was a chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream filling, all covered in fondant. I actually started playing with gum paste recently, so I did the bow and banner out of 50/50 fondant/gumpaste. I really like the texture of gumpaste and can't wait to start experimenting with it more.

And last, but not least, I volunteered to bring cupcakes for our Easter festivities at my in-laws'. As you know I can't do anything simple, so I had fun with some techniques I've been wanting to try! Half of the cupcakes I covered with fondant that I had hand-stamped with a flower stamp. I topped them with pastel fondant bows. The others I topped with a new version of my buttercream. I am super excited about this new recipe, so after some experimenting, I finally got it right! I won't be giving this one away this time... :) I also tried another new technique with these cupcakes- filling! I made white cupcakes and filled some with raspberry preserves and some with lemon curd. The others were just plain chocolate. I definitely liked them, and I think mostly everyone else did too! I love when I actually get to try my creations... Keep posted, I've got a VERY busy week ahead! :)

Super Hero cake

2009-04-07T22:39:00.000-07:00

This weekend I had a couple of cakes, one of which was a super hero cake for my friend Julianne's son Ethan. Ty & Ethan have fun playing at MOPS together, too! He wanted a Spiderman, Superman and Batman cake so this is what I came up with:

Chocolate cake with bavarian cream filling
Covered in vanilla buttercream
with fondant accents

I also made caramel apples, but forgot to take a picture... :(

Happy 1st Birthday Sophie!

2009-03-30T12:40:00.000-07:00

I did this cake for a friend from work, a friend's little girl was turning one. She gave me a napkin from the party and I just went off those colors & designs. It was a 1/2 sheet cake. I gave the 'color flow' technique another shot, and was overall very pleased with the Pooh.

Marble cake w/ chocolate buttercream filling
Covered in vanilla buttercream & decorated with fondant

I also did a little 'smash cake' so she could get her little hands dirty!

Thanks for the order April- hope everyone liked it!

Golf cake

2009-03-26T11:31:00.000-07:00

This cake was for a friend's father-in-law who is an avid golfer. When she first told me the idea I was so excited! It was definitely a fun one... Hope he enjoyed it Nancy!

Chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream,
covered and decorated in fondant

Girls' Weekend

2009-03-22T18:54:00.000-07:00

I had a nice weekend, with only a couple of "girly" cakes. The first was another purse cake for a friend of mine from MOPS/work for her mom's birthday. This was only my second attempt at a purse, and it was definitely easier this time around. I wanted to try some stenciling on the side of the cake, but after some trial and error I decided to forgo the stenciling. :( I will have to break down and just buy the special "cake stencils" after all.

Chocolate cake with bavarian cream filling

Covered in fondant with hand made fondant flower

The second was for my Goddaughter, Gillian's 11th birthday. She requested a marble cake and said her favorite colors were "light blue, light green and yellow". I wanted to make it cute, spunky and fun but not too froo-froo (ha ha). Here's what I came up with:

I think she liked it after all! :)

Festive & Fun

2009-03-15T19:43:00.000-07:00

This weekend was kind of laid back- only two small and simpler cakes. The first one I did was for my friend Riva's daughter. She wanted a pony cake with flowers and butterflies, so this is what I came up with:

Strawberry cake with buttercream frosting

Then a friend Nicole wanted a St. Patrick's Day cake for her family's yearly dinner. I had seen this idea online and was excited to try it!

Bailey's Irish Cream cake with Bailey's buttercream frosting
(Per Nicole's request- I hope it came out ok! The trimmings tasted FAB...)

Welcome Baby MYA!

2009-03-07T22:15:00.000-08:00

I had Jen's baby shower this weekend & the theme was a jungle baby cake. I was really excited to try the fondant animals and I think they came out really cute. I had checked out a lot of different types of animal figures, so they were kind of a mix of all the different ideas I found. I was really happy with them!

Top layer: white w/ raspberry filling
Bottom layer: marble w/ choc. buttercream filling
All covered in fondant with fondant accents
Animal print hand painted

Baby zoo animals

And one little note- I spelled poor little baby Mya's name wrong... darnit!! They still liked the cake though... Sorry Jen!! :)

End of a crazy week...

2009-03-03T00:41:00.000-08:00

I did it! 7 (actually 8, as of today) cake orders done! I have to say, I'm pretty proud of myself for making it through this week. And now for the final products...

Bekah's 5th birthday cake
Rainbow chip cake covered in vanilla buttercream
Flowers & accents made of fondant

Christina's bridal shower cake :)

Chocolate chip cake with chocolate buttercream filling
Covered in fondant with fondant flowers & dots

Amy's baby shower cake & cupcakes
Chocolate cake w/ bavarian cream filling, and white and choc. cupcakes
Covered in fondant w/ fondant accents. (Baby is made out of fondant, too)

Set up at the church. These are my cupcake stands a friend of mine found for me at Target!

Sherann's baby shower cake
Top: choc. chip cake w/ choc. buttercream filling
Bottom: white cake w/ rasp. filling

Nancy's leopard cake (similar to one I've done before)
Chocolate cake with mocha buttercream filling
Covered in fondant w/ fondant bow

Start of a Crazy Week

2009-02-25T13:44:00.000-08:00

So here are the first of, count them, SEVEN orders I have this week. I know, there is definitely something to be learned from this. And for those of you who are looking at this who have ordered one of these cakes, PLEASE don't think I'm complaining! I absolutely LOVE to do this and am excited for each and every one of your orders! That being said, here are numbers 1, 2 and 3 (in no particular order):

Birthday cake for the principal at my mom's work.
White cake with raspberry filling covered in buttercream

Cub scout cake for my nephew's ceremony. Thanks to my wonderful sister for her help that day! You're the best, Amy!
Chocolate chip cake (my new favorite!) with chocolate buttercream filling, covered in vanilla buttercream.
The "patch" is made of fondant and I hand-piped the white detail on the wolf (thanks to much encouragement from my sis). I was very happy with it, minus the 'Pack 553'. Oh well...

Cupcakes for girl's birthday party for a friend from MOPS (Thanks Nancy!)
Chocolate chip with vanilla buttercream
Flowers are fondant

Happy Birthday Princess Kara

2009-02-23T22:17:00.000-08:00

I had a Princess cake last weekend for a friend of mine from work/MOPS. It was for her daughter's 1st birthday and it came out so cute! For the design I went from her invitation she sent me. The top layer was white cake with raspberry filling and the bottom layer was chocolate with bavarian cream filling. Both were covered in buttercream, and decorated with fondant accents. She also wanted caramel apples for favors, like I did for Blake's birthday. I was very happy with the way it turned out, and she called me later that night to tell me she was too!

Happy Valentine's Day

2009-02-15T07:46:00.000-08:00

I had just a few projects this weekend, mostly just fun experimental stuff. I decided to make up some cupcakes to take to the fire station and for some sample giveaways. :)

Red velvet with cream cheese frosting.
(They came out yummy!)

Chocolate with vanilla buttercream frosting.
(For the station)

This cake was for Camryn's teacher. Their mascot is the leopards,
so on the back I wrote, "Love, Your Little Leopards".
Chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream, covered in fondant.
Spots are hand painted with food coloring.

Pirates & Poker

2009-02-09T21:42:00.001-08:00

This was a fun weekend of cakes! I was really looking forward to this pirate cake I did for a friend's son's birthday. I think it came out so cute! The top layer (the face) was chocolate cake covered in fondant and the bottom layer was marble cake filled with bavarian cream, and covered in buttercream icing. It was definitely a fun cake to do!

This was a poker cake I did for someone, and although it came out cute I was told later that the cake itself (red velvet) was not that great. What a blow... I'm really bummed about it but what can you do? As someone told me, you live and you learn I guess. Definitely going to try a different recipe!
The decor came out cute- the cards were made using the color flow technique I learned. I was overall happy with it, just bummed about the cake part. Gotta keep trying that darn red velvet!!

Happy Birthday Vicki

2009-02-09T21:39:00.000-08:00

I did this cake last weekend for my sis-in-law's mom. It was lemon cake with raspberry filling, covered in buttercream. It was the first fondant bow I've done like this. It came out cute after a little tweaking.

Color Flow

2009-02-09T21:35:00.000-08:00

My friend Amy and I took a really neat class the other day. We found this little cake supply store near our house that offered Color Flow classes, so we signed up. For those of you who are saying, "Wha?" color flow is when you water down royal icing and use it to fill in an image so it will harden. You can use it on cakes, cookies, or whatever else. It was really fun and I can't wait to use it! Here's my Elmo I made:

Farewell cake class...

2009-01-27T22:05:00.000-08:00

This was my last and final cake class, which was somewhat bittersweet... Thank goodness it's over, but will miss my "cake friends"! I was extremely excited when I got there and our teacher had this super cute Cherry Blossom design for us to do! I've been wanting to try it... This was kind of a "quickie" cake, so I just did top layer lemon and bottom spice. Both were just filled with buttercream and covered in fondant. It came out cute, but would love to work on more realistic looking flowers.

Happy Birthday Kyle!

2009-01-25T20:49:00.000-08:00

This weekend I doubled up and had 2 cakes to do! The first was for my bro-in-law's 25th birthday. He just finished mechanic school for BMW so I just had to do something related. This is what I came up with:
For those of you who don't recognize, it's a stand up tool chest complete with fondant tools and BMW symbol on top. I made the cake chocolate with peanut butter filling (Kyle's fav). It's covered in fondant with fondant square "tiles" on the board.

Next up was a small cake for a MOPS (Mothers Of Pre Schoolers) get together we had at our mentor mom, Christine's house. She wanted something "Valentine's-ish" just for the 6 of us, so I put together this little diddy. I experimented with homemade white butter cake and filled it with raspberry. It's covered in fondant with fondant bow and flowers. Everyone liked it but I think I still need to toy with the recipe.

Happy 21st Sarah!

2009-01-20T11:23:00.001-08:00

Here's my version of a zebra cake I saw online. I made it for my mom's friend's daughter, Sarah's (ha ha!) 21st birthday on Monday. It was a cake I've been dying to make and I had fun doing it! It took a little longer than I expected, but when it was done I was very pleased.

This is the first cake I have made completely from scratch, white cake with raspberry filling covered in buttercream icing. I found a recipe online for a 'simple' white cake that turned out to be not too sweet. I also used 1/2 butter and 1/2 shortening for the frosting, which turned out yummy. I was a little nervous about what they would think, but was told the cake was "great- not too sweet". That's all that matters, I guess! I think I will still sample out different recipes until I find the 'perfect' one.

Welcome Grady

2009-01-15T00:04:00.001-08:00

I made this cake for my good friend, Gina, who just had a baby boy. The bear and ducks are made of fondant, and the cake is traditional white filled with buttercream and covered in fondant.

Monkey Party

2009-01-15T00:01:00.001-08:00

I did a Monkey Party for my son's 1st birthday...

Chocolate cake with banana buttercream

Cupcakes & "Smash" cake
Banana cake with buttercream icing

Caramel apples dipped in mini chocolate chips
for the kids' party favors

Beautiful Birthdays

2009-01-14T23:58:00.000-08:00

I made two little girls' birthday cakes in one week... Tons of pink, of course!

"Smash" cake

B's purse cake

Fondant Creations

2009-01-14T23:53:00.000-08:00

Christmas present cake
My first attempt at a fondant bow.

My first ever fondant covered cake!
I wasn't too happy with the bow, but you jnow what they say- practice makes perfect!

Baby Shower cake

Yellow cake with chocolate frosting- "Mod Cake"

Cupcake Craze

2009-01-14T23:48:00.000-08:00

Here are a few varieties of cupcakes I've made in the past...

Toadstool cupcakes for my daughter's "Fairy Tea Party"

Butterfly pretzel cupcakes

Red Velvet cupcakes with cream cheese icing.
These looked beautiful for Christmas!

Spice cupcakes with cream cheese icing

Gettin' Started!

2009-01-14T23:15:00.000-08:00

Here are some of the cakes from my first cake decorating class last year. I've made a little bit of improvement since then...