Happy Birthday Tiger

"I want a Tiger who is sitting on green and blue." At first that meant (in my head) that he wanted a tiger who was sitting on Blue - you know, from Blue's Clues. And when I tried to help him envision that he giggled and showed me a crayon and we talked about colors. Again still I thought he meant TIGGER.......you know, from Winnie the Pooh. Again......nope, just a tiger.

So this is what we agreed to. He found a picture of a tiger that he liked and I copied it. He was so happy. Roared about it even. Always nice to make the customer happy.



This cake was half Chocolate Chocolate Chip and half Banana Spice. Buttercream was the flavor of icing.....easy to change colors like green and blue.

First Communion Banner Cake

First Communion is a lot of work on the kiddo's part. Memorizing prayers, learning more about their faith, taking part of communion for the first time in their life. Stuff that can certainly make a kiddo nervous. To make it fun they do things that show their faith through venues they better understand - like art. Ben made a banner that reflected what he saw as his understanding of his First Communion. I will admit that we "went around" about it a few times. My vision was slightly different. Of course the banner was not supposed to be my vision. And it was perfectly Ben's.


Once Ben had the banner done it was my turn to create. This was simple. Almost every celebration in our family ends with a cake. First Communions are no different. We copy the communion banner for our design.


The colors were basic (thank you Ben) and so the cake was easy to color. The design was also straight and to the point (thank you Ben) and so the cake was pretty easy to finish. The most time consuming part was coloring the icing. Not a difficulty really.



The cake was half White Vanilla and half Chocolate. Butter cream icing topped the cake. Yummy.....

Off to College

Cake art. Yeah yeah we see them do it on those TV cake shows like there is NOTHING to it. HA!! You know full well that before it airs they have cut out all the parts where the staff are cursing like sailors becaus it is so crazy trying to get that exact right angle for the edge. If they say otherwise they are FIBBING!!

How do I know this?? Well I know this because I am beginning to start working with more detailed cake carving.


This cake was for our niece, Meghan, who was finishing up high school and getting ready to head off to college. I thought - stacked books - too cute. Googled the thought and designed something off of other wonderful cake decorators who have gone before me. No need to reinvent the wheel.


Crumb coated......what is the little round cake? The topper........wait til you see.


Fondant was not my friend this day. Still brand new to doing fondant I will admit that I had to roll this out 3 times before I got the right shape. Think I need one of those rolling mats that details the sizes? Yeah, me too.

In the end it looked okay. This is my first book ever.......so I was fairly impressed with myself. I admit that I did whisper a few curse words to myself, but later I patted myself on the back too.


Another "of course" moment. Not long ago I realized how they painted on stuff - diluted food color and a paint brush. Duh..........and Of Course!! All in the same stream of thought. So I diluted a bit of brown food dye and got ready to paint the books.


However, I did not paint this book red. This is the base book that was covered in red fondant. Then I took the food coloring paint and created the look of some pages.


Layed some lines on the sides of the books with thin strips of fondant - kinda gives it a more "bookey" feel don't you think?

>Stacked the books on top of one another. Do you see what the smaller round cake was now? The base for a Graduation Cap. The top part is a piece of black fondant......the tassle is red fondant. I did those pieces a few days before.
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The final touches were a bit of icing to detail the cakes. And TAH DAH!!

Cake flavors were Chocolate Chocolate Chip and White Vanilla cakes. Icing was Vanilla Butter cream and a Vanilla Fondant.

Baby's First Ribbit

Now this cake was about 3 years ago......in a few months it was 4 YEARS AGO!! Can you believe my BABY BOY is going to be 5 Years Old!! True - so sadly True. Yet at the same time it is so exciting to see him grow up each and every day.

The first year of his life he seemed to be quite a jumper. Sure he was a baby, sure he wasn't really "jumping", but his energy was the same as jumping all the time. Thus a frog seemed the perfect symbol. This was his little 6" baby cake - that he got to mash up and eat all on his own.


Then this cake was a half sheet of goodness. Half Banana cake and half Chocolate Chocolate Chip cake.....covered in Vanilla Buttercream. Yummy!!

And just in case anyone is a Stampin' Up! fan....yes this image is very similar to a stamp they make.

Simple Chocolate

Some days are easier then others. This is true in life and true in cake decorating. Being the mom that I am the kids will often times come in and say, "I really want to do something special for my teacher." This day it was Andersen who wanted to give her teacher a Bday gift. "Oh, make her a lovely card. You are getting so good at making those sweetie!" was my initial thought.

She looked at me......"Yeah, and you can make her a cake too." Something whispered to me that this was her original thought. And so a cake was baked - because I too loved her teacher.

The cake was Chocolate Chocolate Chip cake with a Dark Chocolate Buttercream Icing. Then some crushed Heath Bar sprinkled on top. HB = Happy Birthday - the cake was a 6" double, so not enough space to write a bunch with the crumbly candy up there too. Simple side sweeps for the deco. My favorite way to decorate.

Swinging with Banana's

Monkeys are always fun! This cake was based on a Baby's Room Bed Set. The Mom To Be's sister asked me to match the set they were using for the baby. Easy enough. Wish I had a picture of the set so you could see how easy it was to copy.


The cake was Marble.........although come on now - everyone knows this cake should have been a BANANA cake!! This angle shows more specifically how the banana's were raised up off of the cake to give it a slight 3D effect.


The Monkey Baby is holding a slightly peeled banana. This is basically the beginning of the sculpting that I have learned to do with fondant. And the first time ever that I thought ........... "hmmmm....I can probably paint this with food coloring right? That is edible." Duh!!


So this was a lot of fun and a first to learning a few new things that I could use on future cakes. Again - it was a Marble cake - the icing is Vanilla Buttercream (another usual favorite).

Take Us Out To The Ball Game

When baseball season ends here in Central Illinois it is a signal that it is time for some Celebration Cake at the awards night gathering. Okay okay......so that gathering is at the park next to a playground right after a game. If you get a trophy then it becomes an awards nigth gathering. If you get cake then it is an official celebration - right?


This cake was for our guys baseball team. I believe they were the Cardinals - but that just might have been what Dave kept in his head. Flavors were Chocolate on one side and Yellow on the other - not marble, but still the traditional "Safety" cake flavors. Vanilla Buttercream for the icing. Totally moist and delish!!