Fall Roses

I had a 50th Anniversary cake this weekend. A three tier main cake and four sheet cakes. That took the whole dining room table, but I had just found it for Thanksgiving, so that was a bonus! They had used some muted fall colors for their wedding, so we used some of the same for this. The couple had five daughters and one of them got some hideous green napkins, but they said it looked better with the cake. I had matched the green perfectly, but it was making most of us sick, too! It was something of a strained-peas-green. But anyway, once it all came together, it did look quite nice!!

50th Anniversary, June 2008

This was a really fantastic 50th Anniversary cake I did this summer. It was a 3 tier with sotas... which I said I'd never do again! It takes a few days for my hand to recover! But it was for a really special couple. Pretty much my first employers and they've taken good care of me ever since. We just lost her a few weeks ago to a 22 year battle with cancer. She fought long and hard and will be missed by many.
Her original flowers were daisies, which I had a lot of! I gathered up a whole bucket full from my garden and found that they had no other plans for the cake table, so I used them all!
I also had daisies on the chocolate sheet cakes. Those were very striking as well.

Yes, I have a great many other cakes to catch up as well, but this is a start!

... bring May flowers!!

Daisies are coming!! Kendall's cake has been pink roses for the last two years, so she deserved something new. I really love daisies, but couldn't do them at home the way I could at work... until I got my airbrush! It was Kendall's mom that got it for me, so I knew I had to use it on her, but I forgot until now how much I like putting the white daisies on the blue airbrushed background. Hope she likes it!!

April Showers

A little more fun with the airbrush! My storm clouds didn't come out like I wanted so I covered them with some grey and white frosting ones. The residents loved it.

Michael will be leaving the Ambassador soon, but I have already heard that I will be able to continue making their cakes. I'm really excited about this. We have really fallen in love with them!!

Bridal Fair

I was invited to my first Bridal Fair and was so excited that I wasn't sure I was going to make it to April. By about Monday, I was so nervous that I wasn't sure I was going to make it to Saturday!! Things did go extremely well, and I really think the cake was elegant. We made lots for show and lots for samples, so there was an unbelievable amount left over! We took some to the residents there in town, and some to Michael's residents and also had some for Sunday School this morning! Not much disappointment this weekend!

I did try something new this weekend. Actually, a couple things. First was the three layer cake in the middle. I really liked how that made such a massive, yet smooth line to it. I have also seen many cakes with ribbons around the bottom of the cake and had to wonder what that did to the cake. The frosting did soak into the ribbon that I put on Friday night, but by Saturday morning, it was evenly soaked so you couldn't really see it as a bad thing. By Sunday morning, the red had seeped into the frosting, but again, I couldn't see that hurting anything. I guess it will all depend on what the bride wants!

Wilma

This was for one of our favorite residents. Michael said I was naughty because I made her cry! I didn't mean to do that, but I did want it really special!

Emergency!!

The highlight of March had to be Kathy's wedding cake. She had arranged something else, and that did make me a little sad, but I really did want her to have what she wanted!!

So anyway, I didn't feel extremely well that day but I was going to go to my "Second Saturday Scrapbooking" at church, and then hopefully make the wedding later that night. We had just pulled in the parking lot and were starting to unload when I got a call from Marci, Kathy's very frustrated sister. What Kathy had arranged didn't turn out anywhere near what she wanted and they didn't know what to do. I thought about it for a while and really only came up with Hy-Vee in Omaha or Council Bluffs that even MIGHT be able to come through. It was weighing very heavy on me because I really wanted to do this, but could I really do it in only seven hours??

I got Marci called back and told her I was on it and I would have something, but really couldn't promise WHAT!! Mallory and I got home and got started and were thanking my mother who already had the boys and said they'd be fine where they were. I got started and was really shocked at what I got done! I knew I had to use styrofoam for the bottom layer for the simple reason that there was no way to bake and cool a cake enough to frost. The middle layer was even a bit too warm when I frosted it! Then there was a matter of DEER in the road on my travels to the reception, so I was really surprised it stood, but it did. Many, many pegs!!

And that's my emergency wedding cake! It slid a little, but not just everyone noticed. It was really nice and Kathy even said it was really just what she would have ordered! I had to make her topper later, but she has one! It has the date she actually got married on a cruise, but the reception was in March. Just a bit of trivia there!

Little more March

This was two events in one cake. It was a very small get-together to honor a 25th Wedding Anniversary and a 50th Birthday. That's about all I know about that event!






Then there was the residents' cake for March. I really love doing that and I love getting to deliver it. The kids do, too.





We also had an order for the local taxidermist. He was turning 95!! Wow!! Still very energetic and chasing his dreams! He started the local Nature Center with some of his animals and it really seems to be doing well. I still have to take the kids over, but we now really look forward to seeing it!









Also in March was our February/March Birthday Bash. It was on Easter, so I made an Easter Egg for each of the February and March birthdays. Not as elaborate as my usual February Bash, but also nothing as elaborate as I like to do for Mallory! Hopefully we can do something with their friends this summer.

Little more February

Just found a few more strays from February! I knew I was behind and needed to take the time to see what I had posted and what blew right by!!

This was my mom's Valentine Birthday Cake. She usually shares a birthday party with Matthew and has to take his theme, which has a tendency to involve mudding vehicles or Marvel Comic Heroes. It also usually involves a bit of whining about needing some pink hearts! This year she got her own cake and her own party, so I made her a Valentine heart cake! Love you Mommy!

Precious little Madalyn and Ava are sisters that really need something special. I did some Barbie Princesses last year, but this year their aunt would be getting married in a few days and they needed to limit the amount of cake! This was really less than a half sheet, but I stacked it up to make a strawberry patch for Strawberry Shortcake. Matthew was just in awe over Ava's name only being three letters. "Sweet!" (Pronounced, SWAYT) Of course "Mat" is too, the way he spells it, but they GAVE her a three letter name. Some kids just have great parents.

Ok, back to cakes. Next was a poor soul who must turn 50 next year and I don't think her hubby plans on being very nice about it. I tried to be nice. Hope it did something for her to know that!

Now I think that's it for February, but I also found a few more March, so I'm still not done...

Farewell

This one was tough because it was for some really great friends, and just really great all around people. He was a deacon in the church and she was on the school board, so you know they are folks who want to get things done and get them done right. And they were doing great! But I guess they'll do great in their new town, too. All the best, Hoopies!!

Small Wedding

This was a small wedding for a really good friend. They just wanted a small sheet cake to serve and two small hearts to cut. The other heart got names, too, but I didn't have time to take another photo. They thought they had called me to fill in the other names, but I still got them on in time!

February

I seriously haven't been slacking! I just don't seem to get things posted. I've done a couple for the Ambassador and a few others along the line. Mallory's getting to be a great little helper, too!

The big pink flowers were for a baby shower. Those are a lot of fun and it's also fun to make them really big!! A first birthday cake got away without a photo. It had the big flowers like that in neon green, orange, yellow, pink and turquoise. I also made her a little first birthday "smash cake."

My favorite was the "Coconut Cabana." It takes forever, but is a lot more fun now with my new airbrush! This was for my cousin who wanted a beach with seashells. I think she's okay with what she got!!

And finally...

This was the Chamber of Commerce's annual banquet. I had a couple friends think of me and get my work in there. From some of the comments, I think I'm starting to get noticed! These may be some very exciting times ahead for me! I do hope so. I seriously enjoy creating these things and would love to take on more. I'm also getting Mallory involved in the process. Here's her work for the potluck dinner at church today!

Farmers

Yes, I love doing cakes for farmers. Once I got this done, I just loved how all the edges came out and I couldn't bear to cover them with borders. It was just so nice and square. This was another one that was hard to charge full price. I'm just not good at selling to my friends. And everyone is my friend. But anyway, since the price changes at the store, this particular cake is more expensive at the store than through me. Not a big deal. I charge enough to cover what I need to cover and I'm happy with that. I have to sleep with myself at night!

I'm also hearing that some folks are pretty disappointed that I left the store. I've been taking some business cards to my friends that hear such things, just in case!

Go Clones!

A friend from Nebraska ordered this! Good taste in teams! They needed a gluten-free cake, so they had to bring me some cake mixes for this one. I would have rather they just directed me where to get everything, just in case it's needed again for someone else. It's really nice to be able to offer something that the store can't do. Anyway, I can get ahold of them if I need to!

It was disappointing that the teams weren't the right color. It was more disappointing to the little guy ordering it than it was to those of us who were just trying to figure out how to get the little guy's cake done on time!

Teachers

My friend sent her daughter to me for these. Both just wonderful gals. She insisted that I not give her a discount, but I just almost always do when it's for more than one cake. I feel bad that the grocery store will do a full sheet cake and I don't offer one. It's just too big and heavy to transport safely. I figure if the cake can't get there safely, what's the point? Well, anyway, if I were ordering in my cakes from Kansas City like the bakery does, they would work just fine. But while I'm baking my own, they are just too heavy to be that big. They also have to be set side-by-side, so that leaves a very good chance that they will separate and crack the frosting. Just not worth it. Only had one complaint and I was too expensive for her anyway. That's why grocery stores exist, I guess. Anyway, the store has now raised its cake prices, so mine aren't very far off from theirs anymore. But back to the cakes, those are supposed to be little apples, but I'm not sure anyone ever really caught that!

Recent past

This was one I missed, so my mom pointed out. It is sad that I missed it because it was for the grandson of one of my three readers ;)

Anyway, he's a rocket enthusiast, and it was actually his step-mom and grandma that got this worked up for him. I have never had more correspondence and meetings over a cake than I did for this one, and now I really miss them! It was a Thanksgiving cake, but we had been mulling over ideas since early spring. Now I haven't heard from them and I really miss them! They said the bride was very specific about who was in charge of what, and that they were in charge of the groom's cake. So we had a really great time with it, and I've heard comments that it looked and tasted better than the wedding cake! Okay, maybe I'm just bragging on myself. This was just one of the more crafty ones. It's two layers, so after I got them carved and frosted, I cut a hole into the top to insert a little pilot/astronaut (all we could find was a Star Wars fighter pilot), then covered it with an acrylic cover. I hear all the little kids wanted the man inside, but they were all told that it was for the groom. Not totally unexpected. I had two at my house asking if the little pilot would be returned here and if I was really sure I had to put him in there in the first place.

December

I only had a few cakes in December. Here's the residents' cake. I love making the poinsettias. Bonnie has me making a lot of them at the bakery!!

I wasn't even going to take a picture of this next one. I was in a hurry and it was way too simple for me! But, my assistant is always keeping up with me! The poor girl usually gets left with the clean up, so I like to make sure she gets credit where she can! This was for some residents that we have fallen for, mainly because they like our cats. I always do a monthly birthday cake, but she wanted a special one for him.

Then there was a deputy's promotion. The boys really had no desire to let go of this little gun. It was just Michael, Morgan and me when we got it, but I don't remember why. Anyway, Morgan held the two packages all the way home, quizzing me on which pieces I'd use. I never know until I get going!

Then, finally, the most important birthday of all. Kristy ordered this for the Sparkies. It wasn't too long before I realized that the red frosting along the bottom border probably wasn't the best idea for lots of kids in a church! Never fear, Kristy's so good she basically served around the red border... took the cake and left the red behind. Later, we caught all of her kids in the kitchen eating the red frosting remnants with their fingers!! You never win!

Oh, well. I do hope your holidays brought you closer to friends and family and left you time to quietly ponder why Jesus really came and why he came the way he did. Thank you to all who have supported my business both with orders and promotion. I appreciate it more than you'll ever know! May God richly bless your lives, families and businesses in the coming year!

November

I fell behind, I know. I'll try to get these caught up here:
These may be in no particular order as my memory is already shot!
This is one where we get a call at the bakery at closing time, requesting something that we just don't do. He didn't want plastic pigs, he wanted frosting pigs, and he wanted it tomorrow! Well, there was nothing I could do for him from the store but I told him I could help him at home. And we did. Mallory had a great time with this one. We both did. Fat little pigs all over. That was all he really cared about. Lots of pigs! Nice kid, though. Even sent me a thank you note!

The next one is a Pirates cake that uses one of the kits from the grocery store. These are supposed to make life and cake decorating easier, but a lot of times I think they lose something. This one was fun because of how much we changed it. It's just supposed to be a small, flat cake, and the size is pretty much determined by the railing at the back (aft??).
The problem was that they needed more cake than that, and they wanted half white, half chocolate. That's where I added the second deck. I liked it a lot better, and I think they liked it too! Made theirs just a little more original!



Here's a toughy: what's on this cake? I thought this was a great one. We rolled and cut fondant for a quilt, then airbrushed a design on it. It was, of course, for a quilter! Anyone I ever talked to just asked what that was. Oh, well, the quilter knew!

Then, another resident's cake. There were two hundredth-birthdays in November, but someone else was doing the other one. They wound up with two parties for them, and the rest of the November birthdays never got cakes! That made me sad!

That's all I can remember of November! Thanks for checking back!