Farmer Cake - I am becoming Queen of the Tractors

Oh My Gosh - totally forgot about this cake!! It was so easy and cute to do. Well not totally easy, these tractors are a bit of a challenge, but since I am becoming a Tractor Queen I am not so daunted by them when asked anymore.

This cake was for a Dad/GrandDad of one of my friends. Her mom phoned and asked if I could make a model of a CASE tractor that her dad used to plow the fields with when they were all farming. So we looked up antique tractors and the ladies gave me an idea of what they remember their Dad/GrandDad having and I went from there. Everything was done in gumpaste.

The tractor looked kinda lonely just sitting on a green cake - so I put a few rows of veggies growing and some ears of corn and tomatoes sitting around. It turned out really nice I thought. The ladies seemed excited about it too when I dropped it off.

This cake was Red Velvet with a Vanilla buttercream icing. Very fun to make!

Jenna Rose & Rose's roses

Here is a little secret.............I have never taken a decorators class. Here is another secret.............no matter how hard I try I have never been able to figure out icing roses. Oh I try and try and try. I watch the YouTube video's people post to teach them.......check out books at the library.....buy the right tips.....make the right icing.....make the OTHER right icing.....but I can't make an icing rose to save my life. So I have been experimenting with fondant and gumpaste. This is as far as I have gotten.

While the roses are pretty cute - I think that the stems look a little like Asparagus. So maybe I need to shift my focus from worrying about how well I can do roses and take a class on making stems not look like Asparagus?

This cake was asked for by a friend who works at Western Ave. - a local community center that works to keep kids and families connected with the things they need to be successful. She wanted to bring a nice cake for a hard working volunteer. I had the honor of meeting Rose later on a delivery there and she is a VERY sweet woman. Now I suppose I should look into decorator classes.........or at least trying the more difficult roses I have seen in videos??

This cake was half Chocolate and half White with a Chocolate Buttercream icing. Vanilla fondant was used for the flowers (like you didn't already know that).

Pig Cake

THIS is why I love to do cakes for friends who are really past the "getting to know you" stage. They are so 100% comfortable that they will ask for just about anything that pops into their heads..........like my kids.

A friend bid at a school silent auction for a cake that I put in the hat for sale. When she called she had been thinking about what she wanted. It went something like, "I would like to get a cake that has a pig on it in a farm scene." My response was, "Okay no problem" and then she added, "But the pig HAS TO HAVE RED LIPSTICK on."............my response was "What shade?" - because I totally admire anyone who wants more then Happy Birthday written really pretty.

I could include pictures of this cake from different angles.........but let's be honest - this cake is all about the pig (although I really love the sheep).

The cake was a half and half - Chocolate and Yellow. Vanilla Buttercream Icing. And lots of fun and giggles for ladies who work together and often say, "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig." to each other.

Family Fun Cakes

I want to start this post by saying.............Sometimes I worry that I am passing my need to make sure that I have done things 100% perfect onto my kids - well maybe not the boys - but Andersen. Okay in some cases the boys too.....but with Andersen lately it is mostly her.

Here is a perfect example. We were having two of our grands over for a celebration of Andersen - she was being baptized at our church. However, it was also the Grands birthdays........so we thought it would be fun to celebrate them with a few cute cakes. I asked the kids "what" said Grandpa O to them and they said - Diet Coke!! I swear to goodness that I did NOT plant this idea in their heads, but I have been wanting to try to make a soda can. So we went with their idea and I carved the cake to look like a soda can - fondant over the top - and a tab to open it up........Tah Dah.....

I got it right? The only thing left to do was paint the fondant.........Now I wasn't sure how to make the fondant silver - and foolishly I hadn't searched it on any cake blogs - and even more foolishly I asked Dave's advise (who has totally said he is NOT the person who knows about cakes) and he said go with White Fondant and then paint it.............

Well just in case anyone follows this blog for TIPS - here is a TIP - make your fondant a light Grey if you are trying to create a silver color - THEN paint over it with some Silver luster dust or tint to make it look shiny silver. We made do though and in the end it was still doable. You learn by doing right? So totally cool right? Andersen painted this!!! Personally I think this is AWESOME!! Andersen however kept complaining that it didn't look great. That the word was crooked - that the swoop was wrong - that the circle around the register mark wasn't round - so many little things that were cool in my eyes. And I realized ....... I think I do that when I am creating a cake too.

I wish she could have seen it in the rest of our eyes - because what we saw was a giant edible Coke can done fabulously.......especially for an 11 year old!! Besides - the slightly wonky looking silver part of the cake was all my fault anyway for listening to Dave - who gave the wrong adivse so really it was his fault.........(this is how I divert responsibility in my head).

This cake was Lemon cake with Vanilla buttercream icing and a Vanilla fondant - total Yumminess - tastes like a lemon bar with icing..........yummo!!

Meow - Fushia Kitty Print

Here is another cake that is from last year - or at least January - which kinda seems like last year at this point. Having raised a daughter that has made a personal pact NEVER to like pink (although I think at 11 she may be changing a smidge)........when this person asked me to do a leopard cake and then said in Fushia my head went into a clicking mode. Leopard print I could totally envision - and I thought SUPER COOL - but when I had to switch gears and envision the print in a shade of pink.......all those years of thinking "No Can't Get Her Anything With Pink" "No Pink" "Shun Pink" came crashing in and it was almost like my brain could not even fathom pink.
Even the beginning process of painting the print in pink was overwhelming, but that may be because the first step was to paint a bunch of pink blotches/circles/odd shapes all over the white fondant - and those shapes were VERY bright without the black outline. VERY PINK.

But I trudged on and eventualy had the whole cake finished. Made some fushia balls to place around the edge and called it done.

Then my Anti-Pink daughter came into the room and said, "Wow that looks really cool!" I mentioned the pink being not her color and she said, "It isn't my cake, but you did a really good job!" Yea - even an Anti-Pink person thought the cake was nice - which was good to hear because my retina's were burning from pink shock and I couldn't tell if it was nice.

Happy Memorial Day!! Did you know Texas Had a Birthday!!

What I tend to do is make a cake and then TRY to find time to post it on my blog. However, there are the 3 children and the husband - 2 cakes and 2 hamsters living here and the fact that in the spring and early summer I am at war with the ANT army. Keeps a girl busy and blog passages start to pile up. Pile Up you ask? What do you mean by Pile Up? Well - I generally do get as far as being able to upload them onto the computer - but where the process slows down is that I don't get the time to write the story that goes with it. And so they sit in Blog World Limbo waiting for a story and to be released to the world in my head that they go to. If you are reading this........congrats..........you are now part of the world in my head.

Disturbing right?

Anyway..........this particular cake came about when a friend that I met at a craft show and through Catherine (obviously) asked if I could do some Birthday cakes for her. 2. 1 for her hubby to take to work and 1 for her to take to work. I said sure - when? She said - well, ah ...tomorrow. OH. Well Birthdays are a big deal to our family so I wasn't going to not do her birthday celebration - so I agreed if it was a simplish cake.....which to me means buttercream decorations. She said sure - and I asked whose birthday it was......she said Texas's Birthday.

Really. I did not realize that my friend was a transplant from Texas. Everyone here in our area of the world is a transplant so I just don't ask so much "where from"........I am almost MORE amazed when the person has family who live nearby so I am more often asking - "Wait, you grew up here?"

Anyway - this friend explained to me just how SERIOUS Texas Independance day is - that it is the Birthday of Texas and that really Texas should be its own country - well she didn't offer that last part up.........I just hear things and asked her if she thought it should be its own country and she agreed - she said every true Texan believes it is anyway. I hear that too. They are making their own academic books to be used in the classroom which will be much different from the rest of the country. But we won't go into that.
Anyway - the funny thing about this cake that was supposed to be so EASY...........well did you read above where I spelled Independance? Do you see how I spelled it here on this cake?

Pop Quiz - Which is right? Independance or Independence?

Remember I had 2 cakes - a His cake for work and a Her cake for work. I did them both with the state flag as requested and then did the message on the sides. The other side said Happy 175th Birthday (they are old!)
I had finished the first cake and then moved onto the second cake. While looking at the second cake I realized that of all words I spelt Birthday wrong!! Birthday - Geez O I spell Birthday a million times a week it seems and I messed it up. Can't even blame distraction by a child on this.........all alone - maybe it was the radio - ever sing to the radio while writing and then find out that you have typed the words to the song out? No? That's just me? Huh.

So anyhoo - I corrected Birthday on the cake and thought to myself - "well worse things could happen. that was an easy fix and it was only 1 letter and I hadn't finished the word completely" - but just to make certain I double checked the first cake..........and guess what I found.......

Yep - a spelling error on a COMPLETED word - and the letter was close to the center - and that meant scrapping a few letters off and correcting the white and PRAYING that the blue didn't leave any so that it would not bleed on the white as I corrected it. It all worked out. But for the love of cupcakes these were the Quick & Easy cakes!
So......did you search the word yet? Which is correct? Is this picture BEFORE or AFTER I made the correction?

Independence or Independance?

Oh and since we are being Patriotic - kinda - I mean they aren't their own country yet so we are talking about a US state..........Happy Memorial Day!! Hug a Vet today!

I can't even remember what flavor cake these were - I mean I could look in my log - but that would mean actually getting up and walking over and I know this woman well enough to know her favorite and his favorite..........so I will guess..........These cakes were half and half - half Chocolate Chocolate Chip and half White cake with a Vanilla Buttercream icing. Yum!!

A Cake for Catherine

If you have followed this blog since I decided to switch from hand crafted cards and move into posting my cake hobby.......then you know that my friend Catherine has had a lot to do with my getting over being nervous about doing cakes for friends and friends of friends. See to date EVERY cake that I have on this blog is made for either a family member, friend or someone in a committee I volunteer in (which broadens the scope of possibilty for knowing people by a trillion!) I know directly ........ or ........ a friend of a friend or family member. Someone recently said, "There is no way you know that many people." to which I responded in my childrens fashion, "Way."

So Catherine has helped me get over my fear of cake making failure and just embrace the fun that is creating. Catherine and her family (and other friends close by) often are also the guinea pigs that taste the flavor combo's I put together. One of the cupcakes became Catherine's always hoping I have extra for favorite - white cake - chocolate ganache filling - peanut butter buttercream icing. So for her birthday she asked for 2 dozen. I asked if she was taking them to work to share. She said "no", but that she thought asking for only 1 dozen was not enough to make it worth my making. I suggested we grow the cupcake up and turn it into a cake - she giggle with glee. And so it was.

Only she didn't give me deco instructions and I knew she did not want her cake covered in fondant. So I looked at the cake and decided to go another route. Just swirlies. But as I made the swirlies Andersen came by and started turning the swirlies into "objects" like you would a passing cloud. Which gave me the idea to incorporate a few things that are nearest and dearest to Catherine's heart - her family.

See the C and the T? Catherine + Tim =

See the N? Nicholas.

See the M? Muriel.

All the things that Catherine loves most about her life.........course there are parents and sisters and neices and nephews and all those grands and such - but I didn't have their initials........although that is a cute idea for a future cake.

Happy Birthday Miss Catherine!!

This cake was as mentioned - White cake - Chocolate Ganache filling - Peanut Butter icing. Yummy!

Henna Thank You Cake

This was another quickie cake that I did. I know - you probably look at this and think "Quickie? Is she nuts?" Really though it did not take NEARLY as long as the cakes that need all the little pieces cut out and dried and delicately placed. It was truly a Quick Cake in comparison!

The way it came about was not expected so it had to be Quick. My friend, Julie's, mom, Waiva, used to make wedding cakes. Lately as I have been asked by friends to do fun cakes for their kids she has noticed some of my things - and Julie, who is a photographer, had asked me to do some cute bride & groom cupcakes for booth at a wedding show. Her mom ate a few and then decided to give me her cake baking pans. Just because she is sweet - well and she wasn't using them anymore. Having those pans cuts my baking time in half when I am doing something with 2 layers. I soo soo soo appreciated it.

While I was using them for the first time - and it was a super busy week with tons of stuff the kids were doing and a few too many cakes to fit into that frame - I thought - these pans are AWESOMELY helpful - when it is her birthday I want to make her a cool cake. So I called Julie and said, "Hey when it is your moms birthday let me know so I can make her cake." She responded with, "Really? Because her birthday is the day after tomorrow." I responded with, "Really? Great."

So an easy cake was needed. Julie has a LOVE LOVE LOVE for fondant - I knew her moms favorite color was purple..........so the cake would be purple. In trying to figure out what easy design I could put on the fondant I remembered a cake that I saw in a Charm City Cakes book I read. So I searched it and while it wasn't easy to find I did find Henna Art - which is what was done to the cake. Another search for Henna Art Cake brought a picture up that kinda displayed the cake I was looking for - at least enough to give me a green light in my head on the idea.

So I whipped up some Royal Icing and start piping it on the cake in a Henna design. It turned out pretty cute I thought. The kids came home from school and were all in awe about the cake. Even Dave thought it was super cool. That made me realize it was a hit.

I even got to deliver it to her mom that night while they were preparing for her birthday dinner - so I thanked her personally for her gift to me by gifting her a cake. A Cake for a Cake Maker. Sweet right?

This cake was Chocolate on the bottom and and small White cake on the top. All covered in a Vanilla buttercream icing and Vanilla fondant with Vanilla Royal Icing.

Is it Legal for Thomas to have Beer?

This was a cake I did quite some time ago. I posted it to Facebook, but never on the blog here. Thought I would upload these pictures for anyone who might wander in here and look for a train cake.

Now - this is really cool looking........this is Pre- TheMat (Ihaven't posted about TheMat yet have I?), but my fondant overlay isn't terrible.

My friend asked for Thomas drinking a Beer. Thomas was her son's favorite character when he was a little kiddo. And of course the big milestone for turning 21 is to have a legal drink. I wasn't quite sure how I could make Thomas look like he was drinking a beer since he doesn't have arms. While my imagination is GREAT - my sculpting skills are still developing. So it seemed to make sense to have Thomas carrying a beer.

Also - I googled Thomas Train Cakes and found a lot of clever ideas - the best (in my opinion) I included. What a clever way to show a tunnel.......boulders....tree's......add a few birds for color.

Since the focal point was going to be on the Thomas image and the Beer - the side images were just Icing On The Cake so to speak - and Pun TOTALLY intended.

It was a lot of fun to make. The most fun piece to create was the beer.

This cake was White Cake with Vanilla Buttercream and Vanilla Fondant. No Magic Dust - because 21 years ago there was no Lady and no Magic Dust. A bit of Trivia for you - this cake was Old School Thomas.

Kiss Me I'm Cute

In going through all the cakes that I have uploaded pictures for to create blogs on I have realized.........uh I need to step my game up. There are lots of blog potentials that are sitting there, but you have seen some of the pictures on Facebook already. Ooops. You see in the Blog World in my head I have ALL DAY LONG to do whatever I want and type until my fingers drop off. In the Real World.......well I have 3 kids, a wonderful hubby, 2 cats, 2 hammies, a house and I am a confessed Volunteer-A-Holic. I don't know how to say "No" to a good cause - my kids, my committees or a person who is asking for a cake for someone they really love and want to surprise. Case in point - this cake. So week before this cake my wonderful sister, Bronwen, calls and says she wants to come visit. No thought needed - What Day? was my only response - well not only..... I might have said "Yea!". See we don't get much family up here visiting - so when someone offers I am so excited to have it. If we go visit them we have to visit ALL OF THEM - we have lots of family and very close friends so while it is fun to visit - it is not relaxing. If they come here we are just HERE - not off to the next spot. Although in this case Bronwen, baby and my step-mom, Janice, we in tow as we did the normal routine.....and it was ISAT week at school......and GS cookie pickup from the hub......which we then organized in my garage......and troop parent cookie pickup from my garage all night....and I knew ALL OF THIS was going to be happening when I got a call from a friend of a friend who wanted a simple Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cake with Chocolate Icing birthday cake for their daughter a few days before it was all to happen. Smart thing to do - just say no. But it was for her daughter. And she was very excited. And how hard is a chocolate cake with basic icing? You see where this is going right? Now everyone in unison - what did I say to the friend of a friend? Yes..........very good - you all are really getting to know me well!!

The phone conversation was easy enough - "we would love a chocolate chocolate chip cake with chocolate icing" ..... "nothing big deal"......"but it will have chocolate chips in it right?" "she loves chocolate chips so please include them"......and then the purple icing too.....that is when my radar went off......"purple icing? I am not sure I can make the chocolate icing purple" I was missing something. "oh the purple icing is for the lettering - no problem". "What you want it decorated like Sex and the City?" Dang. I walked right into that didn't I?

Paying more attention I was also thinking it through - she wanted just a few baubles that would be Girly and Sex in the City like. Easy enough - I had Saturday and Sunday to create things that I could pop on a cake. And the thought of making a lipstick case and a purse peaked my interest. So I did it.

Flash forward to the actual day. Train depot to pick up guests, home, sort thousands of boxes of cookies with my co and another mom and hubbies, school to make popcorn for 300, home to help parents count down and load up cookies to take home, bake dinner, bake a cake.........which went flawless.........until I realized I forgot those dang chocolate chips!! How could I forget the chocolate chips? She mentioned them about 7 times during the phone conversation and I have them written down and circled on the paper!! Perfect cake - not a single chocolate chip! Ugh. I had used up a few ingredients (ain't it the way?). Called Dave the Wonderful to pick them up at the store. After dinner I baked a second cake.......WITH chocolate chips.

So it took longer into the evening then expected - but a fun bonus was my sister and step-mom got to watch me ice and decorate the cake. A few of the steps I take - like leveling - were new to them and they seemed to genuinely enjoy it. The extra batter I had turned into cupcakes and it was fun to watch my step-mom teach herself to make an icing rose with a 1M tip. Honestly once the cake was baked and iced........dropping the finishing touches on were easy.

I had a moment of panic when I thought that putting an icing border at the top of the cake would be overdoing it........but then when I remembered I made white buttercream for the purple icing I decided to pipe on a pearl necklace for a type of top border.........and it turned out super cute! Totally I would do that again..........only maybe not on a day when all of the rest of my life was going in full speed.

Okay - who am I kidding - stop giggling - we all know I would totally overbook myself again if asked.

This cake was Chocolate Chocolate Chip (duh right? that was totally part of the story focus). Chocolate buttercream with a Vanilla buttercream for deco. Fondant used for lipstick and purse.

If You Give a Cake a Cookie

This week we decided it was time to do my son, Ben's, teachers Half Birthday. Why a Half Birthday? Well primarily because my friend, Stephanie - our class lead, and the rest of us helping out in the class MISSED her real birthday. That was in September. So close to the start of the school year that honestly we didn't feel terrible about missing it - because we hardly had our backpack's on straight enough to have caught it. Yet at the same time - we LOVE LOVE LOVE Mrs. Burns and didn't want her to think we weren't "thinking" of her. So we counted 6 months from the month and had a party.

Now best laid plans are sometimes better then the actual happening. Stephanie contacted our favorite student teacher - Ms. Brown - who ALL the boys have a crush on (although Ben would deny this.........his friend, Malik, called him out on it by saying, "Dude you know you crush on her because we all think she is hot" - I even think she is very cute so he was totally fibbing). Anyway - Stephanie contacted Ms. Brown who helped her send out notes to the class asking for donations for a gift. Then I made a cake.......since we were buying her a gift card to a scrapping store I thought a cute Scrapbook Replica cake. Had it all planned out to the gumpaste scissors.


Then Ms. Brown let us know that while we could still do the party........it would also be the day they do the Multiplication Ice Cream party. You earn a scoop and/or topping for every times table you complete. Ben earned both scoops and 6 toppings with whipped cream - yea Ben!! Which seems weird since they did 0 - 12........where are the other toppings? So anyway - now we were doing the Birthday at the same time as the Ice Cream - as a parent we did the responsible thing and downsized the cake to a "Take Home Gift". Cake AND Ice Cream might be a party tradition, but it makes for a giant mess in the class and we didn't want to take away from the experience of what toppings they earned.

So the cake morphed. I was still thinking gumpaste scissors - but then I thought about the fact that it was very close to St. Pat's........and we are TOTALLY lucky to have such a Great Teacher.....and I just received a delivery of cutters.....and I was COMPLETELY surprised that the shamrock I bought was GIGANTIC!! and immediately thought "well that is as big as an 8" cake round......and I wanted to try out my cookie cutters and a few cookie recipes.......so why not use cookies to border the cake and top it with a cute Shamrock with a message?

Idea born. Cake Baked (I know Mrs. Burns a chocolate fan). Cookies Baked (I didn't know she was a shortbread cookie fan - bonus!). Cake Decorated!

Turned out pretty cute. A little icing flare at the bottom and the cake only took a few more minutes to decorate. Love the cookie thing. Ben came in as I was finishing and said in an unbelieving and thinking I had lost my mind voice (you know how kids do that?)...."Why would you put cookies on a cake?"....I said, "To decorate it and tell Mrs. Burns how lucky we are to have her teaching you." Ben thought for a minute and then said, "So she gets cake AND COOKIES TOO? She is the lucky one." followed by, "Are there any cookies left?"

This cake was Chocolate Chocolate Chip with a Chocolate Buttercream icing and small Cinnamon Shortbread Cookies and one giant Traditional Sugar Cookie.

Coach Tim

This is a cake I did a bit ago. Never was caught up with the cakes and now I find that since I have let myself fall another week + a few days behind it might take me a bit longer. Still Tim's cake has been waiting and waiting and waiting - and I know Catherine likes to look at the pictures and I know it is fun to see things that you recognize.

Tim is one of my favorite people - he is part of one of my favorite families too! and husband to one of my favorite friends. When Catherine asked me to make him a cake she said "simple". I am totally good with simple, but Catherine keeps sending me her friends and they have me do creative things.........so I wanted to do Creative for Catherine too. I asked her if there wasn't something that he enjoys (if you know them you know that they are huge WV fans..........so I kinda figured she might say something in that line) - Catherine said no, not really.

Through the year Tim has been subbing for one of our gym teachers. I see him all the time at school in his "Coach" uniform with a whistle hanging around his neck. That is how I have been thinking about him in my head......as Coach Tim........I asked if I could deco the cake with a coach whistle and Catherine said that would be fun.

I didn't realize how "not so easy" making a whistle would be. And my in-experience with modeling things did not lend itself to being over successful the first few tries with modeling a whistle. Eventually, however, I was able to figure it out. I let it dry for a few days and then I painted it with Silver Luster dust and let it dry again - then attached the pieces together - let it dry again for another day. The one thing I am learning is that anything fondant modeling based I should start about 5 days ahead of time. I am also learning that fondant takes longer to dry then gumpaste. At this point though I wasn't quite ready to admit that gumpaste was a bit easier to use.

Day of the birthday I baked the cake. Catherine said simple and chocolate - so simple and chocolate is what I did. A basic cake with a basic icing and a kinda fun little swirl and a trim that looked a bit like a fancy rope.

Next I topped it with the whistle and a thin line of fondant for a rope. Now this is one way that using gumpaste might have been smarter. The fondant thread I created kept breaking when I would attempt to move it up onto the cake. Gumpaste is a bit hardier and could have been moved easier. Live and learn right?

End of cake deco though..........and tah dah...........a Coach Tim cake!! Cute and simple. Now Catherine tells the story that when they presented it Tim really enjoyed it. He was planning in his head to save it and take it to work to show people.......only before he could say what his plan was his daughter (my favorite friend of Andersen's - see how their family is full of favs?) plucked the whistle off the cake and bit it in half. Whoops.

This cake was Chocolate Chocolate Chip with a Chocolate Buttercream icing.

Electric Guitar & Forged Signatures

I guess when I posted this on the Ipsy Bipsy Facebook Page I totally forgot that I had not yet posted it here. Tah Dah!! An Electric Guitar!! Honestly Honestly I never ever would have thought last fall when I started crying over fallen fondant that I could do this!!

Are there imperfections on this? Well yeah - what piece of art is perfect? But the problem isn't fondant on the corners with this cake!! And that is what I am carrying forward after completing the electric guitar cake. My edges - no matter how weirdly curved - are not split and cracked!!

Is the tweater thing maybe too short? Sure - well, errr, I don't really know a dang thing about electric guitars, so maybe not - could be? When it comes down to it though - are there things I will do different the next time I do a guitar - YES - but I am pleased as punch with this cake - DANG STRAIGHT!!

This cake was made for a friend - who is also kinda Ben's teacher. So that might add to why I was feeling a bit anxious about the outcome. Jenny said "whatever, but Griffin's guitar is red so if it can be red".........then the day before, "well if you could ........" and then, "well now my husband is saying could you sign Les Paul on it".......so then I felt even more like I was trying to do the best for the teacher - and I started to really research guitars and what a Les Paul is and where you write Gibson and all this other stuff. My thought was "I have to get the signature Les Paul close to dead on - but is that legal to sign a fondant cake? If I post it on my blog will the Gibson company come for me?" Yet I had to make Jenny happy because if I failed Ben might totally get a D in something. Nah - not really - Jenny is too great to hold my failure against him. Plus - I am sure Gibson has bigger strings to pluck then mine.

And in the end I did kinda fail..........

You may recall that the Magic Hat cake was done the same day as this hat (hmmmm....notice a color match?). Well Jenny must have told me what time her party was starting - but in my muddled sinus infection overwhelmed head her party started at 2pm. And if I didn't deliver the cake until Noon I was good. Only that wasn't the reality of the world. So I am getting the cakes done and Dawson's party prepped and I get a text and Jenny says, "Are you lost".........so I texted back, "ahhhhhh no I am just leaving"......because I was so obviously wrong about the time!! The cake was officially loaded though. Having to still finish D's cake I sent Dave on delivery. Dave so does not like to be the center of attention. Well........he says when he pulled up to deliver he realized the party was already going and as he stepped in the house it was like a Cake Boss episode and everyone starts shouting, "THE CAKE IS HERE!!" and he gets surrounded and Jenny starts getting all excited. Which I TOTALLY would have loved - but a shy guy like Dave just wanted to turn and run home.

Jenny sent texts later saying how cool the cake was and how she LOVED it - so I guess my tardy to class was forgiven.

How cute right? Dave is such a trooper. Too bad Andersen can't carry a cake and drive a car - she would love to deliver!

This was Chocolate Chocolate Chip for the body and Banana for the arm. Vanilla buttercream covered in Vanilla Fondant.

Rock On!!

For Jimmy & MaryJo

This post is a quickie for Jimmy & MaryJo..........Dave will love them for this. On facebook they made the comment that they were tired of the Cubs stuff and wanted to see some Cardinals things. Problem is...........no one says "Make me a Cardinals cake!!"......which surprises the heck out of me since I live in a house where 3 out of 5 of us are Freaks about the STL Cards!

Each year at Dave's work he takes in a treat for his birthday to share with his friends. One year this is what he asked for. This was probably 3 years back when I was first starting to mess around decorating cakes. And Yes.........he asked to have a Cubs logo on it too so as not to offend any of the friends that he razzes about their team being completely inferior to the Cardinals.

So Jimmy so far this is the most I have done in reference to the Cardinals..........wanna to have a Cards cake for your birthday?

This cake was Chocolate with a Chocolate Buttercream icing. Reese's Peanut Butter cups chopped up and scattered all over it. The cupcakes were also Chocolate with a Vanilla Buttercream icing.

Wrigley Field Cake

This cake was fun and I thought would be relatively easy. However, not having ever seen the famous Wrigley field sign I didn't have a true understanding of what it looked like and found myself blank in the head about it. (No comments from those of you who often see me blank in the head).

So I started by carving the cake based on a picture of the sign I found on the Internet and a picture of another cake I was copying.

















Then I iced the cake once with a crumb coat..........followed up by doing the edges in black.

















After that I kinda got into doing it.......found the lettering a bit frustrating.....I wanted so badly to get it perfect that it got into my blank head and became a fixation. This is where sometimes fondant is easier then using buttercream - fondant I can use an alphabet cookie cutter and simply cut the letters out.......with buttercream I need to try to replicate writing styles that aren't my natural handwriting.

Once finished though it become easier to NOT look at the fact that the OM in "HOME" isn't all I wish it were and that each identical letter isn't actually identical to one another.

And instead just see the finished cake - which resembles the goal and makes others pretty excited to see.

This cake was a Spice cake with Vanilla Buttercream. Yum!

That is the real goal right........making a party fun with a cool cake. Tah Dah!