Goal!

So, I don't think I've shared very much about my day job, which is completely different from my baking life. During the day, I work as an attorney for the state. The chief legal counsel of my agency is just an absolute peach. She's got five children ranging in age from 23 years to 18 months, and she doesn't look a day over 30. She's a beautiful little freak of nature. Anyway, her daughter had just turned 10 and it was a pretty big deal to her. She kept telling Rachael, "mom, it's double digits," and informed her she was expecting some type of birthday surprise commensurate with what a big deal this birthday was. 

Well, Rachael's first surprise was the party was a week late! Second, she surprised her with a part at Skyzone, a trampoline park. The surprise also included a cake carefully crafted by me, of course. Maddie absolutely loves soccer.  And, like her momma, is a die-hard chocoholic. 

Naturally, the cake was a soccer ball theme. It was my standard chocolate cake baked in a bowl the same way my pig cake was previously. It was then torted and filled with chocolate buttercream. Once the cake was covered with the fondant patches, it was time to make it shiny like a soccer ball. Anyone know the secret? Vodka. When people see vodka in my decorating kit, I like to joke that cake decorating drives me to drink.  But really, to make fondant shiny all you have to do is paint it with a vodka/water mixture. The alcohol evaporates and leaves a really nice gloss. 

Maddie only had a handful of girls at her party, maybe around 7 or so ten year-olds.  The cake should have fed 20+ people! but these girls worked up an appetite bouncing and finished it. Impressive. 

Under the Sea!

My niece, Lucy, recently turned 5.  My sister had been planning the party for months with a mermaid "under the sea" theme. She wanted something that gave the essence of the mermaid without being too Disney and in your face. 

We both spent a long time on Pinterest trying to find the perfect cake, and ended up merging a couple of ideas together. I had found a few nautical waves cakes I thought would pair perfect with the scales my sister wanted for the bottom tier. 

The pictures didn't capture the subtleties of the cake. The waves, which were a 50/50 modeling chocolate-fondant mix, were rubbed with shortening to give a wet look. 

The scales were also dusted with gold luster dust to give the fishy sheen. 

The sand castle was just cake made in a sand castle mold. It was then covered in piping gel and the edible sand applied. The sand was made with golden Oreos, graham crackers, and a little brown sugar. It smelled incredible!!

The sea shells and sea horses in the sand were simply made with candy molds and Wilton candy melts. Everything was edible!!!!

And Lucy seemed to enjoy... 

Stay Sweet!!

He's cute, he's sweet, and so much fun, the little sweetheart is turning one!

Birthdays are in the air! My old friend Erin contacted me about doing her son's first birthday cake and smash cake. I was so excited when she told me it was a sweetheart theme because Jackson was a little Valentine baby. 

She sent me this invite and wanted to stick to a teal chevron and red heart theme. 

She also wanted a red velvet cake and cream cheese frosting. That complicated the idea of fondant because while cream cheese frosting must be refrigerated, fondant cannot be. 

So I stuck with a clean frosted cake and used a 50/50 mix of marshmallow fondant and modeling chocolate just as the decorations. 

The cake turned out stunning, don't you think?! 

I also made a matching smash cake with chevron sides using the petal method. 

I think someone enjoyed it...

Reviving childhood treats.

Sunday was my dear sister-in-law's birthday. My mother-in-law had told me about this cherry cake they got Rachel every year from a local bakery. That is until things started to go south, and Laurie said the cake began to taste like a boxed mix. So that was the end of Rachel's cherry cake. 

I wanted to revive her childhood cherry tradition-- I also wanted to practice the cherry cake because I had a sneaking suspicion she was going to ask for that for her wedding cake. I get to pull double duty as baker-bridesmaid in May. So I figured it wouldn't hurt to start now. 

Laurie also said Rachel's birthday cakes had traditionally been Valentine themed, considering the close proximity to V-day. With love on the brain, it was only natural to do the cake in her wedding colors-- pink and gray. 

The cake was frosted in a simple vanilla buttercream. It was light and delicate, and seemed to absorb some of the cherry flavor in the cake, which was really delicious.  The gray ruffles were made of modeling chocolate-- it's so much tastier than fondant.

The cake inside was just as pretty pink and so delicious. I am not a fruity cake lover, so honestly I was skeptical of this cake. But it was incredible! And I'm pretty sure it made the list for the nuptials. 

Stay Sweet!

Pretty Peacock

One of my former co-workers sent me a picture on Thursday of a very intricate jumbo peacock cupcake for her mother's birthday.  Admittedly, this thing was so intricate, I thought she was joking for a second.  Regardless, I (of course) told her "no problem! see you Sunday!"

The longer I stared at the photo, the less intimidating it became, and I finally figured out the logistics of this.  Despite wanting to charge punitive damages for the emotional distress {bad lawyer quip}, it actually was far less daunting.  It turned out so beautiful, and Sandy's mom said it was the prettiest cake she had ever seen.  {blushing a little!}

It was just a simple white cake in the jumbo mold. Instead of fondant, the peacock is covered in modeling chocolate for a better taste.  The tail feathers are also made of modeling chocolate.  Although the pictures don't display it, the feathers are painted with a gold luster dust.

Stay Sweet!

Mason's Mustache Bash!

I was fortunate enough to have been given the opportunity to make a two-tiered cake and a smash cake for a sweet little boy's first birthday party today.  The theme was "mommy's little man," complete with mustaches, bowties, and suspenders. 

Mason's mamma gave me a couple of inspiration photos, the invitation, and the colors: navy blue, lime green, and light blue.  She wanted chevron on the bowtie of the party cake and on the sides of the smash cake.

The insides of the cake matched the theme as well.  The top tier was a blue velvet and the bottom tier was a traditional "white cake"... but green!

The smash cake was a-whole-nother animal in itself.  Chevron is a notoriously difficult pattern for cakes.  It's hard to get the clean, crisp lines, and one mistake can ruin the whole thing.  Which is why it is traditionally done in fondant.  But, the whole point of a smash cake is to make a mess.  You can't make a mess with fondant!  So I spent all this time researching how to achieve a crisp chevron...with buttercream...on the sides of a round cake.  There were no answers.  And then, it just hit me... I could just use the petal method and offset the colors.  It was so beautifully simple, and the result was incredible.

 

 and of course, mommy's little man needed his own little buttercream mustache so he could really make a mess of things!

The cakes-- and the party-- were a success!