Sweetest by far!

Today was a busy but special day.
First it was the second shower for my future sister in law, and second it was the dedication of my sweet niece Norah Jayne!
At our church instead of baby baptism, they dedicate babies to God, where parents promise to lead and guide their child towards a relationship with Jesus Christ. So today was that day for Norah. The service was at 6:30pm, so we had a dinner before hand. My mother in law txted me Friday saying that even though it was last minute, was there anyway I could make a cake for Sunday. I definitely wanted to make something special for her so I said yes. Even though that meant a limitation on what I could create. There was gonna be around 15 people so I was afraid to make a smaller cake just in case it wouldn't be enough, so I just make a 12'' one tiered cake. But I probably could have gotten away with a two tiered 9'' and 6'' cakes. This is the first cake were I would have to fill such a large surface. Again with limited time I tried to think of a few specific things that would make it special.
My husband wrote a beautiful lullaby as a gift for Norah, taken out of the scripture Psalm 121. So I wanted to include part of that on the cake, with also the meaning of her name. The day before I was asked to make the cake I finally got in my edible markers that I ordered, so I thought this would be a perfect time to try them out. So I made a sleeping baby (my first) and then used melted white chocolate to make a design at the top of the cake, and added some small fondant flowers. I then wanted to use the marker to write the scripture on the cake. I was so nervous that I was gonna screw it up that I made it too small, and while it didn't look bad, it wasn't exactly what I was hoping for. So after I had already dropped the cake off I went home and make a book and wrote the scripture on that, and covered up the other scripture the next day. I used the last verse of the passage which reads
"the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore."
And when I researched her name it meant Women of Honor, and shining light. So I just simply wrote Honor and Light.
So this cake was simple, but I tried a couple new things so I was pretty happy how it turned out.

And the fun begins!

In November, my older brother and his girlfriend got engaged! The wedding is July 16th, 2011. When we were discussing their wedding plans, I offered to make their wedding cake and they accepted. Which is kind of why this cake adventure has taken place. I wanted to make sure that when the day arrived that my skills where up to par and that they didn't have a lumpy, sinking cake.

On April 16th, my Mom threw the first of Nancy's showers for our side of the family and friends. My mom asked me to make the shower cake. My mom is one of the most talented florists and decorators. I knew she was going to make the place look amazing, so I wanted a cake that would fit right in. Her wedding colors are bright pink and green. I wanted something simple and pretty.

I made a two tiered cake, the bottom tier was red velvet and the top was lemon almond. The top was originally chocolate, but at 12:30 Am the night before the shower I had to bake another cake! When I went to cover it, it started to crumple and topple. It looked like a lumpy mess. I was not putting that on top of the cake for everyone to see. So I stayed up till 3AM making another cake. It turned out a million times better.

So both tiers were covered in white fondant and had a pink ribbon and bow tied around them. I wanted to do some white piping on it, to give it a more elegant look, but for whatever reason, the buttercream I was using didn't stick to the cake properly. I'm not sure if there is a better icing to use, when piping on fondant but I plan on finding out for next time. So I did some minimal piping on the bottom, and then the top I put some dots. Then when I got to the shower I used the remaining flowers from the decorations to make a topper.

Here is the beautiful bride cutting the cake! ;)