Craft Fair!

I haven't posted in ages!! Ack!!

I recently went to a craft fair as a vendor for the first time. What an experience!! I brought an array of cupcakes and pictures of some of my favorite cakes... I think I did well!

Cranberry orange pecan cupcakes with orange marmalade buttercream frosting

White chocolate raspberry with white chocolate buttercream frosting

Gingerbread cupcakes

S'mores cupcakes topped with HOMEMADE marshmallows (!!!!)

Gluten free chocolate and vanilla cupcakes

I was woefully unprepared and had even forgotten to bring a sign. Thankfully a vendor across from me was kind and took pity on me, handing me a marker and some paper. She was great and was selling these little paper purse gift boxes - too cute!! Too bad they were too short to hold a cupcake!

Anyhow, we will see if anyone calls for a cake, but here's a pic

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Apple season!

There's nothing better than a cool, crisp, sunny Autumn afternoon spent gallivanting through an apple orchard gathering up God's bounty. We had to settle for gathering the apple-y goodness under a cold, rainy, cloudy day, but happily picked our honey crisps, blushing golds, and Macintosh apples anyway.

I have a lot of plans for these apples, including an idea for an orange-infused apple pie, but today I kept it simple with caramel apples... Yum!


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Henna Cake

Today's cake was inspired by a henna tattoo design I saw recently. Chocolate cake with milk chocolate frosting, teal accent buttercream...







Second Verse, Same as the First!
I made a cake for another friend the following day and wanted to try the henna tattoo art again.... So I did!!




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Not all cakes...

So we have a lot of birthdays at my day job... I don't always bring in cakes since I'd go broke bringing in 100 cakes over the course of a year, but many people tend to order cakes for folks in their departments or their friends, etc...

This week someone ordered a cake for Susan, but Susan doesn't eat refined sugar or flour. I told this to the guy who ordered the cake, but he insisted on having a cake. I like Susan and genuinely feel people should get treats on their birthdays whenever possible. Preferably treats they will enjoy...

So, in addition to the cake, I made her a cup o' fruit.... Cause honestly, who doesn't like strawberries and apples, etc...? She loved it and was thrilled for the new mug as well....



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Monster Cake

No.... Not a huge cake; a cake that looks like a monster.

It's not often I get much direction for how a cake should be decorated. I usually get "just however you think is best" or some variation thereof. Don't get me wrong - I like that my customers have enough faith in me to come up with something lovely, but that's a lot of pressure! :-)

Every once in a while a customer will have a very clear idea of what they want... Jillian even had a sketch! She wanted her 13th Birthday confection to be strawberry cake with buttercream. I added a strawberry gelee to the layers for some extra zing!

Her sketch even indicated what candies were to be used... I was happy to oblige! See guys? A woman who knows what she wants!!








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Sundry Cakes

I was looking through some old cake photos on my phone and decided to post some of my favorites. Each of them were challenges and so much fun!

First up is a pair of Irish soft step shoes.... Recipient is a contender for World Championship step dancing and she loved these!








Next up is a scale model of a 1949 Caddilac Coupe de Ville that the founder of my day job company had spruced up for the Peking To Paris Road Rally Race last year. This took me eight straight hours of carving and decorating....The wheels need work.








I had never tried constructing a cake using pipes before and gave it a go with this Disney Princess cake...







And here is a rainbow cake I made for a preschool graduation...















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You win some, you lose some

Every year our town Celebrates itself with Old Home Day (in the singular even though it spans five days, but I digress...). This year they brought back the Town Fair, where residents submit cakes, cookies, crafts and artwork for judging. Of course I decided to register...

I decided on making a white chocolate buttermilk cake with raspberry jam and buttercream frosting. I had originally planned on making a three tier orange colored cake with a white henna tattoo-inspired design. Let's just say that didn't work out...

I had unwisely decided against covering in fondant and found I had to put on a border to hide the cake boards. I didn't love this and since I'd been up already until nearly 5am working on sone other cakes, I'd decided to get some sleep and see if I could salvage it after a couple hours' sleep.

I had to make a cake delivery when I woke up and on the way home thought about how to rescue my cake. The cakes had to be in by 10am and I didn't get home til 9:45am. In five minutes I pulled off the top two tiers, scraped off all the orange border I'd had on originally and piped a new border and scrollwork in white. I was out the door and had it delivered by 9:59 to the judging area. Phew!








Oh, and it took third!


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Minnie Mouse Birthday!

So... A coworker approached me about creating a birthday cake for her daughter's first birthday. She'd seen the Minnie Mouse cake I'd made for one of her friends and said she wanted the same thing. I usually don't duplicate cakes if I can help it so I promised a variation. Originally she said it was for 30-40 people... No sweat! This was the first Minnie cake I had made...




After the invites were out and RSVP's in, she said she needed to up the number of servings. 80 people now! I had never heard of a 1st birthday party that big! She says "we're Portuguese".... Ah well, that explains it! LOL....

She ordered two smash cakes (1 to be used in pictures a week prior to the party), a dozen margarita cupcakes (YUM) and a cake to feed 80. She got this two tier chocolate with Oreo cookie filling cake and loved it! The Disney font was easy to mimic and we were in business. I'm a firm believer in the 'Less is more' approach and had to resist the urge to add bows and flowers everywhere. That would have made the cake too 'precious' and my client is more of a trendy forward kind of gal... Glad I could make this for her darling daughter Ava!

Graduation Cake

The lady that ordered this cake requested three stacked books and I was happy to oblige with this vanilla poundcake and chocolate poundcake.  It was my first foray into carving cake...

Because I'm a stickler for detail and a bit of a perfectionist, I went to the bookstore after finding out what subjects the graduate liked best.  I took pictures of actual textbooks in those subjects and attempted to re-create them. 

Despite getting in a minor fender-bender during delivery (rear-ended!), the cake arrived safe and sound and was a huge hit.  It was fun to stretch my cake decorating wings with this one... it literally took me 8 hours to carve, frost, and decorate the books, but I think it turned out well! 


Chris & Johnny's Wedding Cake

Since Chris and Johnny were the impetus for me to go 'pro', it only seems fitting that my first blog is about them and the wedding cake they asked me to make for them...

First of all, Chris and Johnny are the sweetest, most adorable couple I've ever met.  I love my husband fiercely, but we're not that 'cute couple'... Chris and Johnny ARE.  Kind, funny, generous and sweet are but a few adjectives one could use to describe both of them.  No one was surprised when they got engaged and we couldn't wait for the wedding!

Chris just wanted something simple, nothing too ornate or fussy.  The only issue I faced with their cake was that Chris is gluten-intolerant.  We knew that Betty Crocker made a cake mix that was gluten free, but only in Chocolate or Vanilla and Chris had resigned herself to only being able to have chocolate or vanilla cake for her wedding (yum, but kind of boring).  Little did she know I had been tinkering...

I found a good quality gluten-free all purpose flour and began experimenting swapping it out of my tried and true recipes.  When she and Johnny came for their cake tasting, Chris was able to try all the cake flavors as well!  They had left it to me to come up with flavor options so I presented:  Lemon Raspberry, Apple cake with cinnamon frosting, Chocolate with buttercream, Vanilla with strawberry and peach fresh fruit filling, and Dark Chocolate with Raspberry gelee filling and chocolate buttercream.  Chris was thrilled! 

They chose Lemon cake with fresh raspberry filling, the dark chocolate/raspberry combination, and the Vanilla with strawberry/peach filling.  Per their request, I made them a three square tiered cake covered in white fondant and each tier was finished off with a navy blue satin ribbon. 

The best compliment I received after the wedding was that no one could tell the entire cake was gluten-free.  Score!!!