WEDDING!

This was my first "real" wedding cake. It was a 4 tier cake covered in ivory fondant. The top and bottom tiers were 4 layers of chocolate cake and 3 layers of chocolate truffle filling, raspberry jam and fresh raspberries. The 2 middle tiers were 4 layers of vanilla cake and 3 layers of vanilla buttercream. The bride provided the leaves for the cake and I made a sort of scrolling design on each layer with royal icing.

It was lots of fun to make and definitely a learning experience! I'm looking forward to my next wedding.

Bug Cupcakes

I made these cute cupcakes for a friend whose son was having his 4th birthday. I made spiders, ladybugs and caterpillers out of fondant and sat them on top of my "grass" covered cupcakes.

Halloween Wedding

I made this for a couple who was getting married on Halloween. My impression was that the marriage was a side bar to the Halloween party...lol. They were dressing up as "the bride and groom of death" as the lady put it. Not my thing, but whatever. I made chocolate cake with homemade strawberry filling and I covered it in fondant. I made black fondant roses and made spider webs with royal icing and accented with silver dragees. The skull on top was the only non-edible thing.

Gehrig!

This is a 2 layer carrot cake with cream cheese frosting decorated for baby Gehrig. They wanted the pinstripes with Lou Gehrig's retired Yankees number.

Halloween Cookies

I made these for my boys to take to school to share w/ their friends.

Jungle Baby Shower

I made this for my husband's friend who is having his first baby. I made all the animals and trees out of fondant.

Eye See You!

So I know it's been forever since I posted anything...been slow. This was a cake I made for my niece's 13th birthday party. She wanted a cupcake tower and the eyeball was on top. The cupcakes were eyeballs, brains and well.....I guess skeletons of some sort?

My First Award! YAY!

I'm a total dork, I admit it...

I was given my first blog award and I'm completely clueless as to what I'm supposed to do, even with instructions. Heather may be sorry she chose me..lol.

I guess I've figured it out.

So, Heather at The Penny Pinching Mama, thank you so much! I'm very flattered. You've given me my first blog award! Yay! If you're not already a follower of Heather's, please check her out for the best coupons, reviews and giveaways! She provides tons of useful information and she has the cutest little cupcakes on her blog...I LOVE cupcakes! Ha.

So now I get to pass this award on to some of my other favorites!

The Girl with Flour in her Hair at Peeling an orange with a screwdriver!

She's a stay at home mom of 3, like myself and a fellow cake decorator! Her blog is very entertaining and funny!

Leelou Blogs offers free premade blog templates that are wonderful! She also does custom made blog designs. Go over and check out her great stuff!

Beth at AntiSupermom is hilarious! Seriously, you need to check her out. She's a mom of 2 little boys and has the most amazing story of her experiences as a surrogate! Just amazing.

The rule for this award:

1. Add the logo to your blog

2. Link to the person from whom you've received the awards

3. Nominate blogs of your choice

4. Leave a message on the nominees blogs

Thanks again Heather and sorry for being such a dorkzilla!

Aww...Thanks Flour Girl!

Yay! I'm very excited to have gotten this award from my new bloggy friend The Girl with Flour in Her Hair over at one of my favorite blogs Peeling an orange with a screwdriver! Please go check her out. She's a fellow cake decorator also...Sugar Weave Custom Cakes.

Now to the rules for this Award:

This award is bestowed on to blogs that are exceedingly charming.These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends.They are not interested in self-aggrandizement.Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers.Deliver this award to other bloggers who must choose others to pass it on to and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

I would like to pass this Award on to:

Sara Sophia at tout-est-des-roses. Fun, whimsical, heartfelt, organic, lovely! I think I wanna be you! *giggle*

Natalee at Raising Normal Kids. Funny, Funny, Funny!

Flour Girl at Sugar Weave Custom Cakes. Step by step pictures and directions to do it yourself! And recipes too!

Jennifer at Cup a dee cakes. Seriously beautiful work! I'm jealous ;-) HA.

Please show my friends some love! These are 4 blogs I love reading and I know you will too!

Sick of Roses!

So I did sunflowers!

Geico Money Eyes

It always feels like somebody's watching me!

Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate!

This is a cake I made for a little boy whose family's house burnt down a couple of weeks ago. When I asked what kind of cake he wanted, he said chocolate with blue frosting and a giant chocolate bar on top. Obviously being being artsy I couldn't just plop a candy bar on top. This is what I came up with. I decorated it with M&M's, chocolate covered tootsie rolls, snow caps, malted milk balls and mini chocolate bars. He loved it and I was so happy to see his eyes light up when he saw it!

Fishy Fishy

This is a cake I did 3 years ago for Max's 3rd birthday. It's just a round cake and the fins and tail are fruit slices and the spots and the eye are Wilton candy melts.

Happy Birthday Zach!

My eldest son Zachary turned 11 last month and can you believe he didn't want a cake? Pff.... So he had some buddies over for a sleepover, homemade pizza and a matinee the next day. I made him an ice cream cake for he and his buddies to share.

I baked a brownie in the bottom of a spring form pan and then put it in the freezer until it was icy cold. Then I quartered 2 kinds of ice cream sandwiches, regular vanilla with chocolate cookie and one from Blue Bunny caked birthday cake. I alternated them all around the outer edge of the pan then froze it again. Then I layered his choice of ice cream flavors, first was moose tracks then a layer of crushed chocolate cookies like oreos (the generic ones are cheaper and you can't tell the difference in an ice cream cake!). Then the next layer of ice cream was dutch chocolate then more crushed cookies and topped with cool whip. I garnished it with halved cookies and some fun confetti sprinkles. It was fun to cut into the cake and see all the different layers in it. I had a picture of it cut but I must have deleted it by accident because I can't find it :-(.

This was a big hit with all and it lasted a long time! My husband kept commenting on how good it was. It was super easy! Give it a try.

Go Yanks!

I seriously didn't think I'd ever get to the finished product with this cake. I needed supplies and had to wait until my hubby got back from soccer practice with the two older boys so I could run to the store. 8pm is when I finally left home. I baked the first layer and it came out perfectly. After baking the second layer I tired to take it out of the pan and it was sticking so I went to turn the pan back over to go around the edges of the pan with a knife and it what wasn't stuck fell out and the rest stayed...yep, broke into pieces...Perfect! So I figure the first layer is thick enough so I can get away with not using another layer. So at midnight I climb into bed.

This morning I get to work. I have this sawlike cake leveler that I love. I set it to the thickness I want and slice away. I did notice that it was closer to the bottom of the cake than I had wanted but now I'm half way through and don't have a choice but to keep going. When I go to take the top layer off, I see that the cake leveler has cut it so crooked and with a giant hump in the middle, I can't even use that one! AWESOME!

I'm forced now to bake another cake anyway. Not only did I have to re bake, I ran out of powdered sugar and milk and had to run back to the store! Luckily I was able to get it baked and cooled and decorated by my 2pm deadline. So, here's Devin's Yankee's birthday cake. It's a 2 layer white cake with chocolate pudding in the middle and vanilla buttercream. The accents are done in fondant and buttercream. There's also larger fondant baseballs around the sides of the cake (I can't stand to wait another 20 minutes to upload the pic).

Have You Seen.......?

Have you seen my personal blog? That's right....go ahead....CLICK IT! To the left, the blue letters.....you know you want to!

I'm lonely over here!

My So Called Visit to Charm City Cakes

Yep, that's me in front of Charm City Cakes. Can ya see the black plastic on the windows? Yep, it's there and nope, ya can't see in. And the sign on the door? It says "By Appointment Only"..... Okay, I can do that, how much notice do you need? 5 minutes okay?

Jaclyn's Sweet 16

Jaclyn's sweet 16 cake. Jaclyn wanted a cake like her sisters 13 cake. I didn't want to do it exactly like her sisters so instead of the fondant flowers, I mad a swirly pattern and piped Happy Birthday Jaclyn on it.

LMMC Got a facelift thanks to Sheila!

I searched the internet and searched and searched. So annoying that I'm on dial up and EVERYthing takes forEVER! I couldn't find things I liked that were free, let's face it, I'm cheap! Or frugal...that sounds better. After all, I'm raising 3 growing boys on 1 income...I don't have a choice but to be cheap. So I got the name of a blog designer from my friend at Momma D's. Check out her blog and read all about her testosterone filled world. I thought her blog design was very cleaver and so I contacted Sheila to get started on my own. Extremely reasonable and really nice work, sooo worth it!



I knew what I wanted, or so I thought. That is until Sheila started asking questions about colors, backgrounds, patterns, fonts, images...SERIOUSLY?, I have NO idea what I want! So after doing some research, I came across the cutest felt cupcake! I contacted the maker of this sweet felt creation, Donna to ask permission to use her image in my blog design. Happily, she agreed! So thank you very much Donna! Here's your cute little cuppiecake in my new blog logo! Donna has lots of adorable items for sale at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5387167 .



So after lots of trial and error, here's the new blog design! Let me know what you think and BTW guys, I'm lonely over here with my 7 followers! Spread the word!

Cornelli and flowers

This is my friend Kim's birthday cake. 2 layer chocolate cake with italian buttercream. I decorated it in a cornelli lace pattrn with random flowers.

Brendan's Graduation Cake

This is Brendan's graduation cake. I made the mortarboard with a cake I baked in a Pampered Chef batter bowl and a piece of cardboard covered with wax paper and frosting. The tassel was made by adding green and white fondant into a PC garlic press. The badges on either side were for the fire department he was a member of and the NYS police. This was a 2 layer vanilla cake with homemade bavarian cream and strawberries.

Ryan's Cupcake Tower

The finished product! It turned out great!

Ryan's Graduation Cake

This is my favorite cake ever! I had so much fun making all the different elements of this cake for Ryan. I made a 2 layer 3 tier vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream and covered them with fondant.

Starting at the top, I made a marblized black and white sheet of fondant and cut out the letters of his name.

Then I layed a football on top. Hanging off the side was his football jersey. He is an ESPN fan, so I made the ESPN logo out of fondant and added that to the front. One of his favorite shows on TV is Lost, so I made a little Lost scene with palm trees and sand. I made a red heart with his and his girlfriends initials inside. I made a cool black cross outlined with red. Standing in the front is my pirate cat made out of fondant. Ryan was in advanced photography classes in high school, so i made a camera out of fondant also. Attached to the cake next to that is a diploma. I also added a basketball,

Ryan's Graduation Cap Cupcakes

Graduation caps made with fondant.

Ryan's Football Cupcakes

Football cupcakes made with fondant.

Ryan's Basketball Cupcakes

I made the basketballs with fondant. I got the texture of a basketball by rolling the fondant on the dash of my car! Cleaver huh!

Ryan's Cats

Ryan's cat cupcakes for his love of "Cat Fancy" magazine.

Shiver Me Cupcakes!

The next few posts will all be about Ryan's graduation! I have this great friend who's son graduated high school this year. I had so much fun doing his cupcake tower! So the story goes this way....

Ryan had very specific ideas about what he wanted on his tower. Basketballs, footballs, cats, pirates and graduation caps. Here's how he came up with his wacky themes...Ryan's mom took him shopping for party supplies and walking through the store he kept commenting on how he's like to have a pirate themed party. He got his wish in some very cute ways. I made these pirate cupcakes for him. I also made a pirate cat holding a telescope that went on top of the cake for the top. He made himself a treasure chest to hold his "booty"...very cleaver and crafty! The cats came from his love of the magazine "Cat Fancy". He jokingly said that all his friends were coming just for the cats....to my surprise they were the first to go at the party! Basketballs and footballs self explanitory. Graduation caps I made of fondant and half with "TV '09" and half with "RWC" for his high school and college.

The cake on the top was my baby! I know Ryan had an idea of what he wanted on top, but I begged him to let me have creative control of the top. I think he was pleased!

More cupcakes and the top cake to follow.....

Springtime cookies

I made these cookies for a festival in the springtime. These are great 3D flower cookies. Who doesn't love a good soft sugar cookie?!

Eid Cupcakes

I made these pretty cupcakes for an Eid celebration.

UPK Graduation

I made this for the local Christian school's Pre-K graduation. I made each childs face with buttercream and piped their names underneith their face. The curtain is made with fondant that is actually a burgundy color but the picture looks much darker than it was. I also made each child a cupcake with their hair color and a fondant graduation cap!

Dare Graduation Cake

This is a cake I made for a local Christian school for their D.A.R.E. graduation. I made the lion directly on the top of the cake with buttercream.

Luau cake

This was another of those challenging cakes. I made beautiful petals for a flower and ended up not getting them together as nicely as I'd like to have. I molded shells using an unused soap mold and made a grass skirt around the edge of the cake.

Fire Engine

I made this fire engine and the badge with royal icing on wax paper. When they were dry I transferred them to

the 2 layer chocolate cake with chocolate fudge frosting.

Butterfly cupcakes

These were among the first orders I had. Cupcakes with fondant butterflies for a little girls birthday.

About Ready to POP!

This is a baby shower cake I made. Favors for the party were popcorn boxes full of homemade caramel popcorn. The tag was the silhouette of the pregnant lady with the recipe on the back of it and it said "About Ready to POP". So I made carrot cake with cream cheese icing and shaped it like a popcorn box. I covered it in white fondant and then added the red stripes. I printed the silhouette on paper, cut it out and used it as my template for the fondant. For the popcorn on top, I boiled sugar and water until it was thick and dipped each piece into the hot sugar and stuck it all to the top individually. This is one of my favorites!

Max's burger

A couple of years ago Max wanted to have his birthday party at Burger King, so I made him a burger cake.

I made 3 layers and used flattened gumdrops for the lettuce, colored frosting for ketchup and mustard and sunflower seeds for the sesame sees on the bun.

Jagermeister

This was an extremely challenging cake. This was the second cake for the tattoo guys. I started by shaping cake into the bottle shape. That color fondant was very hard to achieve! I covered it and added all the details. The deer was very hard for me and I ended up drawing it on with edible marker.

Footballs

Football sugar cookies.

Halloween Cookies

I made these adorable cookies for each of my boys to take to school for their Halloween partes. I wrapped them individually and made lables to put on the back of them saying Happy Halloween From Zach/Max. I make all kinds of decorated sugar cookies and they ship well!

Pretty in Pink

I made this a 2 layer vanilla cake with strawberry filling and vanilla buttercream. I made a basketweave border and some pretty flowers.

Merry Christmas

I made this cake with 3 layers of chocolate cake and 2 layers of chocolate raspberry truffle filling. It was covered in buttercream. The snowflakes were made of royal icing and the poinsettia with fondant brushed with white shimmer dust. I made the Christmas bulbs with rice krispie treats covered with fondant and rolled in colored sugar. The tops of the ornaments were just pieces of black fondant with a piece of wire for the hook. The bow was also made of fondant that I brushed with gold shimmer dust.

Pretty little cuppiecakes!

Just some cute cupcakes I made for a festival.

Jessica's 13th birthday

So Jessica wanted her cake to be in the shape of the number 13 and wanted lime green and purple. So my hubby found letters on the internet for me and printed the right size. I cut out the letter shapes and covered them with buttercream. I made purple flowers out of fondant and pressed the centers so they would sort of pop off the cake. I piped the lime green centers on the flowers and bordered the top and bottom with black. They loved it so much that I had to make the same sort of cake for her sister's 16th birthday!

Pastor Dave's Yankees!

This summer our pastor and his family moved after 18 years at our church. We had a picnic as a going away for them. I put together a cupcake tower and on top I made a Yankees baseball cap because it's Pastor Dave's favorite. I love the way it turned out! Miss Sherry even tried to pick it up as if it was a real baseball cap!

Miss Sherry

At my church we have a womens get together once a month at a local restaurant. It's called SOS or Share Our Stories. Each month a different woman tells about her faith story and her walk with God. The speaker this particular month was our pastor's wife Sherry. It was an extra special SOS because Miss Sherry and Pastor Dave and their daughter Christina were about to move to another church after 18 years. My 2 girlfriends and I attended Miss Sherry's SOS as our first. What a beautiful story! We laughed and cried and we miss them terribly!

So the first cake was for guests and was vanilla with strawberry filling and vanilla buttercream. The second smaller cake was made as sort of a back up in case we ran out with the hopes that we wouldn't so I could send it home with Miss Sherry. I was able to do that and she loved it. I covered the top of it with royal icing flowers.