Sleepless nights and sunken treasure!

My sister in-law works for the Welcome Wagon in essex. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's an organization that arranges greetings for people who are undergoing lifestyle changes such as new homes, family member or career changes.On March 27th She held a baby shower for all the pregnant women in the area. She worked so hard to make this event possible. There were a lot of different booths where each mom could go visit and get some ideas and win some awesome prizes.
She asked if I would make some cakes for the even and I said of course!This was a big challenge for me. This is the first time I have baked 2 three tiered cakes and decorated them for one event. There is so much cake batter and icing involved that I thought at one point I was in over my head. But I kept trucking through, and had the help of a good friend. So I started early in the week baking and planning out what these cakes would look like. I wanted to show how diverse I could be. So one I made simple and girly and the other was a little more complicated and playful.It was an exhausting week to say the least and a little stressful. I was able to take off both Friday and Saturday to prepare. On Friday I started cake number one, it was gonna be all white, the top tier I wanted to do so delicate piping, and made some vines and flowers. The second tier I wanted to try my hand at making a large bow. I also just picked up these cool things made by my favorite baker Duff (from Ace of Cakes) they are these plastic embossed pieces that you place and press over fondant and it makes a pattern. So the ribbon and bow would be embossed with a flower pattern. And finally the bottom tier I just wanted it to simply read Congrats. Well everything went well Friday, but come Sunday it was a different story. The cake started to sink!! Are you kidding me?? my first show and this has to happen. I just took a deep breathe and reminded my self it happens to professionals all the time. But still I was fighting the urge not to cry. So I took the tiers off and when I got to the location I had to run out again get some more support dowels and try and lift it up. I ran into a friend who is an amazing cake decorator (She made my wedding cake) and asked her what I can do, she said nothing. :( there was no time to bake another so I just had to make due. So I went back and tried to make the best of it. Because the front was sinking and not the back I was forced to turn it around and make the bottom tier plain white, with some simple white fondant dots. I found I liked that look better.
Cake # 2
This one I wanted to be super cute. So I knew my good friend Mandy would be able to help me that day so I designed the cake with her amazing figure making abilities in mind. I made all three tiers blue, with white spots to look like clouds and then stars around the tops. Mandy then made me four sleeping babies with blankets. Such a tedious and time consuming job but she did great. It just added the sweetest touch to the cake. My favorite so far.
It was a good experience to have a taste of how busy and hectic the cake industry can be. But I can say I thoroughly enjoyed my first show and hope there are many more to come!

19?!?! Look out! ;)

Birthday party number....at this point I don't even remember. But I do know this it's my baby sister's 19th birthday!! Crazy I know! And of course she wanted it to be fantastic, so off to the casino buffet we went. She was pretty proud to be i.d that day.
When I asked her what she wanted for her cake she said she wanted it to be two tiered and really pretty. .... oh ya, anything else princess? (just teasing I enjoyed every minute of it.)
So now faced with a big daunting task I kinda panicked for a bit but then, I got an idea from an Ace of Cakes episode I was watching. I wanted it to be cute but simple. I love simple classic designs. So here it is.

Happy Birthday Lady!

I'm not sure how it started, but at some point mom took on the nickname Lady. Not sure if you remember the show Animaniacs, but there was this little segment called Buttons and Mindy, she was a little girl who always got in trouble and only called her mom lady. Not that interesting I know, but that's where it came from and it sticks. Even though I am the only one who calls her that. :) So the Saturday following my dad's is my mother's birthday. Not sure she wants me to disclose her age, so you can guess instead. Mom is a brilliant florist. She does some pretty amazing things. So for her birthday cake, I want something pretty and elegant. A simple clean and classic design.So i tried my hand at some fondant roses, and piping. I was really excited about this one. The only thing that didn't work out was, I was hoping to have some crystallized rose petals to put on and around the cake but they flopped. I really like that look so I will probably try again at a later date.
What do you think?
Ok I love you bye bye.

52?...53??...it's all the same

February 27th is a big deal for two reasons. One it's my daddy's birthday, a great time to celebrate 52 years of a great man! :)
Also it is the beginning of what will be a ton of birthday party's. Not gonna lie, I can't remember the last time I went to so many in such a short period of time. But we had a blast, and I had an awesome excuse to practice more.So back to daddy. It was his 52 birthday, even though when you asked him he would proudly say 53...I guess it's the old age ;) His birthday fell on a Sunday and unfortunately we were unable to make the birthday party due to a previous commitment that night, so we went the night before and had a nice dinner with him. Even though I wasn't able to be there Sunday I still wanted to bring a special cake for him. I wasn't exactly sure what to make, so I google image search ideas, nothing helpful came up. In fact a lot of really inappropriate cake pictures surfaced, some of which I would be embarrassed to make let alone show people. I asked family their thoughts and ideas and due to my dad's amazing carpentry skills and that he works at Home Hardware I decided to make a red tool box. Had a little difficulty covering this cake because the cake was so moist it was shifting, creating an awkward looking shape. I was able to make it straight eventually but it took some time. I put as many details as possible, including hinges in the back, a screw driver, tape measure and (thanks to my husbands creative thinking,) ground up brown sugar to give the look of sawdust. Since we weren't there when they cut it I don't have a picture of him blowing out the candles unfortunately , but here is the finished product.

What's up cupcake!

When I first lived on my own, one of my favorite things to do was make a batch of cupcakes at the beginning of the week and snack on them all week long, plus share some with my fellow co-workers. I could eat cupcakes everyday, no joke. After while of eating plain boring cupcakes I tried a few different things. Like putting little chocolate bar pieces in them, and even decorating them differently. I was making some cupcakes for a friends shower, it was a daisy and bumble bee theme. So to make some cute and easy Bee's i found an outline for the "Winny the Poo" bee, melted some chocolate in a baggie and then outlined it on some wax paper. I froze them for a little while then stuck them in the icing. They looked so cute.
Just this past February my good friend Mandy had a birthday. She is a Gleek, so I wanted to make something Glee themed. I was looking online and saw that some girls made Big Quench Slushy cupcakes. They were adorable and super simple to make. The only difficult thing was finding and printing the labels, even that wasn't so hard. But you just cut a plastic cup and tape the label around in and drop the cupcake in. The girls online used twizzlers for the straws, but I hate licorice, so I wrapped some skewers in fondant and painted red stripes on them. Ta-da instant straws!
I have included other cupcakes I have done recently as well.