cakes by michelle

Christmas Birthday

2011-01-03T09:13:00.000-06:00

Just posting a couple small cakes to remind me I haven't been updating my site! (For over a year now... yikes!) If you haven't found me on facebook, look for "cakes by michelle" and then choose carefully... there are more than 12!! The link on this page might help.

My grandmother has a Christmas Eve birthday and you can imagine how her childhood went! Every year (at least those WITHOUT a blizzard) we have soup and cake on Christmas Eve to celebrate Grandma Rose's birthday. Then we proceed to open presents, which, yes, blows over her birthday yet again, but we try!! I make her a cake that has NOTHING to do with Christmas, usually doing her favorite: Tweetie!! This year I played with some fondant; something I really need to use more. It makes such a pretty cake. It just tastes horrible!! For my wedding cakes, I just smooth everything out of the frosting so it looks like fondant. One of these days, I'm going to try it! This one was not so successful because I didn't have enough to cover the cake and I couldn't find my smoother!! I just pulled up grass to cover my shortfallings and it looked fine!

The really strange thing is that my other grandmother also has a Christmas Eve birthday. It's really been hard growing up... as the family expands it's just impossible to get everyone together. Would love to gather together at Grandma's house like we used to do. It was so easy for us as kids to just hop in the car and go to Grandma's house... I had no idea what it took to put all that together!! Reality really bites sometimes. Just not ready to let go of all of that, even though new memories are constantly being made.

The other small cake is just our annual cake I make for the kids to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. This year we almost forgot, so we gathered around the cake and sang, but were too full to have cake!! Since the next day was Sunday, I took it to the Kindergartners' Sunday school class. I think they were okay with a forgotten cake!!

Extremes

2009-05-10T21:32:00.007-05:00

I had one princess and one hunter cake this weekend! The princess was to be Cinderella, but I could do whatever I wanted. I had just found some little fondant cutters on sale, so I decided to make the scene where the little sparrows were making Cinderella's dress. I had a lot of fun with that one.
The little boy wanted a deer hunting cake, but I could not find a deer for him anywhere. I ended up doing a camo background and found a tiny cap gun to put on it for him. I did his borders in safety orange. He was still impressed!

Tastes like Chicken...

2009-01-24T10:36:00.004-06:00

Ok, have to finish this so Nic can see it. He's down in Arizona where it's warm, so I have no idea why I even care, but I guess I must love him.

This was actually a 50th Wedding Anniversary. The original wedding had been quite small, so someone brought a bucket of KFC to it for lunch. It has long been a family joke that KFC catered their wedding. I met the kids at a party we catered and we were just brainstorming the cake after they found out I do cakes. Someone said it would be cool to do this, and I was sure in! That sounded like fun! I didn't slope the bucket as much as I planned, but the trip it had to make made me a little nervous. I'm much braver with cakes that just stay at my house! Anyway, it doesn't show up, but there are some black sugar sprinkles on the chicken for pepper! It really turned out cool and was a total hit at the party!

Fall Roses

2008-11-29T15:40:00.004-06:00

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

2008-11-16T21:46:00.005-06:00

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!!

2008-04-26T18:35:00.003-05:00

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

2008-04-26T18:30:00.003-05:00

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

2008-04-20T20:26:00.003-05:00

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

2008-04-20T20:23:00.003-05:00

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!!

2008-04-20T19:53:00.003-05:00

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

2008-04-20T18:51:00.015-05:00

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

2008-04-20T18:22:00.006-05:00

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

2008-03-16T06:01:00.003-06:00

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

2008-03-15T21:57:00.005-06:00

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

2008-03-15T21:28:00.012-06:00

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...

2008-01-27T07:00:00.000-06:00

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

2008-01-27T06:53:00.001-06:00

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!

2008-01-27T06:45:00.000-06:00

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

2008-01-27T06:31:00.001-06:00

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

2008-01-27T06:15:00.000-06:00

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

2008-01-03T07:41:00.000-06:00

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

2008-01-03T07:03:00.000-06:00

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!

Word is out!

2007-11-04T05:41:00.001-06:00

Well, I had nine cakes through my little business this weekend, and only five at the bakery. This didn't please my manager, but I keep reminding her that what I make on my own is what allows me to come play there!
I had four for an 85th birthday party, two baby showers, a big Spiderman 3, and two other birthday cakes.

One of the baby shower cakes was pretty specific, with a photo reference. They wanted it to match their party goods. So we put the carriage on top and all the little baby words around the sides. It was really fantastic! The other baby shower was not as specific. It was for a little girl and they wanted it in pink and brown, maybe with a carriage or blocks or something. I just made another carriage! I really liked that design, too. I might even use it again!

My tough one was a Spiderman 3. It's stacked and airbrushed at several points. The bottom half of the building is red and black, then you add the next layer and airbrush it blue and black, then add the sand and fire and airbrush that. Just a lot of steps, but so much fun. I'm really having a ball with this new airbrush! Thanks Jaymi!!!

The set of four was for the mother of Dad's neighbor and friend. These boys, Craig and Larry, are long time friends of Dad's and two of four kids. I only knew of Craig and Larry (who my kids call Uncle Larry!), but met their sisters when I delivered the cakes. Craig was very specific about flavors and colors on them. I mostly followed instructions, but when it comes right down to doing them, sometimes things change last minute. He wanted one of them trimmed in green. I was just hoping that he wasn't thinking about the rosebuds having green leaves and needing to add something else, so I added the purple and lavendar myself. On the chocolate one, he wanted brown trim. Well, I base iced it in chocolate which leads to an obvious brown, but then it needed color, too. I added pinks since pink looks so striking on brown. Fortunately, everyone was extremely pleased!!

My last order was actually the one that's been on the books the longest! Two November birthdays, one being a 90 year old, and the other being one of my best friends, whose birthday is on my anniversary! I've had his planned for a while. They wanted something really small, so I ran off a tractor that's at least in John Deere colors. The fall one was actually my favorite. I told Michael I wanted to keep it! I made some yellow orange roses, light brown acorns and chocolate pine cones. I really love fall cakes, and this was my first chance to make one!

Sarah

2007-10-31T06:20:00.001-06:00

This is another one of my first cakes. I think it was number three, in May of 2005. I don't have a very impressive picture (one is scanned and one is a really lousy digital camera!), but it was an impressive cake! It had love phrases in yellow.The groom's cake was served at the rehearsal dinner. It was a baseball "signed" by all the players and coaches... the bridal party and parents!

Halloween Birthday

2007-10-28T05:52:00.001-06:00

My girlfriend's husband is a Halloween baby, so we made him a spooky birthday cake with the airbrush she just gave me! I had tried to do the red stripes on the bowling pin with the airbrush last week, but I couldn't get it working right. I knew this one had no fine lines, so I played around with it. Eventually, I discovered that the needle had a profuse bend at the tip. So I got that straightened out enough to do this one and will get another needle ordered this week. The strange thing on the tombstone is his Waterbuffalo hat. He was the Grand Poobah for a couple years!

Anniversary

2007-10-28T05:46:00.000-06:00

There's a sweet couple at the Ambassador, and their daughter ordered a 66th anniversary cake for them. The kids and I had just visited them and they have a whole wildlife sanctuary and playground outside their window, so I decided to put wildlife tracks all over their cake. I also added a couple piles of leaves, but I'm not sure that turned out as neat as it looked in my head!! Anyway, while I was making this one, I got a call from Michael saying that it was their 67th anniversary. So I called their daughter back to confirm. Sure enough, she had gone through the same conversation and assured me that it was correct! So anyway, it's so nice to give the residents a little taste of home and we are certainly glad to know this sweet couple!!

Molly

2007-10-22T11:09:00.001-05:00

I finally felt on top of things this time. I had Friday and Saturday both off from the bakery to focus on this one, first of all because it was pretty big, and secondly because it included a groom's cake. I don't particularly like the flat stacked cakes because of the difficulty getting them set up on site, and also because of the balance factor! There is just so much that could go wrong. However, everything that went wrong had nothing to do with that! It was actually the humidity. Once we got everything unloaded at the site, the frosting started to slide right off the sides of the cake. We redid several places, then I rewrote all the love words on the sides. We spent a couple hours getting it back and then left a note to the bride about really hoping it stayed. The bride's mom talked to me yesterday and said no one saw anything wrong, so I was exceedingly relieved to hear that!!
The groom's cake was a bowling pin, which I told him would not be correct in size and proportion if they actually wanted any cake from it! I also made a separate keepsake tier for Molly and Chris for their first anniversary.

Cathy

2007-10-22T10:56:00.000-05:00

We started early on this one! 285 roses. She wanted Nebraska red roses, so the lightest ones didn't work out. I think there were still over 150 roses on the cake! This little guy is the individual topper I've been making for my brides. It seems to be well appreciated by the brides, but I'm sure even more so by the cake cutters!!

Go Diego Go!

2007-10-22T10:54:00.001-05:00

One of my homeschool friends ordered this one. It's one of the printables I can make at the bakery.

Residents

2007-10-22T10:48:00.000-05:00

Since I'm a bit behind, here are the last two birthday cakes for the residents at the Ambassador. The white one is September and the chocolate is October.

Brecka

2007-10-17T08:58:00.001-05:00

Had to post this one because I just heard from Brecka. They have reached their first anniversary and just had their wedding cake topper. She said it was still really good!! That's great to know after a year in the freezer!! I've had a lot of fun with the wedding cakes. Just did one last weekend and have another one this weekend. The camera's still in my purse, but I'll try to get it loaded soon. Just had to get this one up, though because it's one of my favorites. Actually, there's only one I didn't like and that was because of the flowers, not anything about the cake. Brecka was actually the one that got me started on the little keepsake toppers. Her top tier was an 8" square, which I thought was a lot of cake to put away, so I made her a 6" keeper. Then we could serve the 8" tier. It worked out so well to just put the keepsake tier right in the fridge and not have the cake cutters have to mess with it that I have done that ever since. Everyone seems to be very pleased with the idea! Anyway, must get on to other things. I have a birthday cake for the residents this afternoon!

Happy 50th Anniversary

2007-09-22T09:37:00.001-05:00

Just a quick job! Five sheets for a little party!

This was at Janice's church, but not for Janice! I just posted hers, but it was from her party earlier this year.

For this one, I did two chocolate with chocolate frosting, one white on white, and two lemon cake with lemon frosting.

Janice

2007-09-11T18:08:00.001-05:00

I was talking to Janice today, who was looking at my blog for the first time, and couldn't seem to find her cake. Well, here it is! It was a lovely white cake with a lovely white bead border. I offered the frills and roses, but she wanted a simple cake with real roses. It really was pretty, but I told her I really could have done more!!

Double weekend

2007-09-08T22:38:00.001-05:00

I don't ever do this, but I did a two wedding cake weekend. One was a true wedding cake, but a small one, and the other was for Jenny, my very special "little sister." This was a bridal shower cake for Jenny for tomorrow. Since it wasn't a request and I could do whatever I wanted, I decided to just make it like the other one. Well, after I finished the "other one," my arm was as dead as when I did those sotas I just posted. Yes, that's why I posted that now!! It had some really pretty lace work and some fleur de lis, scattered with dots and roses. The roses are royal icing and there's nothing I like more than that!! I just delivered that cake; I didn't set it up, so the topper and the crystals for the base weren't set up yet when I left. Jenny's is at my house and will be decorated more tomorrow, so I may replace the picture then. I also made a separate top tier for Tolly, something I've been doing lately. This is the main reason. I'd hate to have to dig the top tier out of that mess to save it. This way it's all ready for the freezer! I also made Jenny a little topper to take home to Nate. She spoils him, so I guess I should, too!

Pain from the past

2007-09-08T22:32:00.001-05:00

It may not look like it, but this was one of my hardest cakes ever. It was for a 50th anniversary a few years back, and had sotas on top of each tier. What's a sota? Well, it's basically cornelli lace that wanders and overlaps. I got a little carried away and made it pretty thick, so you couldn't see the top of the cake. It was very beautiful, but my brain lapse came when I matched the three sheet cakes to the sotas. My arm hurt forever. It took a week to recover from that one. But it really was one of my prettiest and most elegant!! I decided never to do that again! It can be thinner and still be very pretty!

Toni

2007-09-06T08:09:00.000-05:00

This is another one from the past. I thought of it this weekend as I was saying how glad I was that I didn't have a Labor Day wedding cake this year! LD weekends are pretty busy for me, but this one was over the top. So that brought me to this, the wedding cake I was doing last year. It was a lot of fun. I made chocolate fondant wandering ropes and little horseshoes. Even that was difficult. I looked everywhere for horseshoe cutters, but finally had to make one from a tiny tulip cutter. She really had a nice cake. She had a western theme and everything went so very well together.

Little Girls

2007-09-01T08:11:00.001-05:00

This request actually came in to the bakery, and I knew it would be more time consuming than we allow there, so I left a note for Cindy and sure enough, she gave her my number. It was really precious. Base iced in pink, pink tipped roses and little white daisies and a dress with cornelli lace. I was supposed to meet her before work, but she didn't show so I had to take it inside. (See the post about the sunflower cake if you need more info on leaving a cake in your car.) Everyone at the grocery store was talking about it. It was so adorable!!
And yes, she did come to pick it up, our clocks were just an hour off!!

Fire Bird Ballet

2007-09-01T08:06:00.001-05:00

Every once in a while, I get a request that just makes me say ??? This was one. Precious little gal, had her in Cubbies, totally taken with ballet. She assured me that all she needed was a fire ball with wings. That's great until you go to actually do it. In my mind I'm still saying ??? so I Googled the Fire Bird Ballet. Great info, no help. Well, this wasn't at all what I had in my head to happen, but Aspen seemed so excited that I'm hoping it really was what she wanted.

A cupcake wedding!

2007-08-11T12:55:00.001-05:00

Have to move quickly; my family is waiting for me! This bride wanted mini cakes or cupcakes. When we figured everything out, she decided on jumbo cupcakes. I think they turned out pretty well. Each has a blue and silver shamrock on it. That took forever!! The whole family was working on those last night!! But they look very nice now. The lighting wasn't great, but I do think this looks fairly nice. The band around the topper and all the shamrocks are made of fondant. We had a lot of fun on this one. Bring the family together!

Don't try this at home, kids

2007-08-11T07:38:00.001-05:00

I really liked this one. A sunflower in our garden is about to bloom, so I just had to make one for the residents' cake this month.

I was a little disappointed that I didn't want to wait for the Ambassador to call back with the names like I've been doing, but I needed to get it done and get back to this week's wedding cake project.

Michael took it to work, and then remembered it was still in the car around 7pm.

I think it looked a little better before!

I'm also just noticing that Michael cut down that sunflower in the garden. grrrr

Happy Birthday Morgan

2007-08-04T19:33:00.000-05:00

The next generation:I got a new dream castle set from the bakery, although Morgan had other plans for his birthday cake. He quickly changed them. Unfortunately, everything he wanted included a lot of rolled fondant cut outs. I convinced him that m & m's would be enough! I learned a lot from this and am really glad I got a practice one! If I ever do this one again, there is a lot to do differently. The plus is that Morgan really wanted to do this himself, so he really felt like he did.

My bad...

2007-08-04T18:56:00.001-05:00

My favorite "little" family ordered this one for a son-in-law. They order a lot of cakes!! Rachel said he likes fishing, so I know that game! I got this idea off of a taunting little shirt Michael's mom sent him. It just so happened that it was too small for him, so I got it and she sent him a bigger one!! Oh, the fun we have with those. So anyway, here's hoping Rachel and Josh have a sense of humor!!

Happy Trails

2007-08-04T18:53:00.000-05:00

How do you say good bye to all your troubles? Just kidding, but they did almost order a black cake. The whole thing was pretty funny, but they had good cake!

Carrot cake

2007-07-31T08:58:00.000-05:00

Just had a small order this morning, but fun. It's a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.

Elizabeth's Little Dots

2007-07-27T19:57:00.001-05:00

This was supposed to be an all fondant cake, but I told Elizabeth that I can smooth out the buttercream and save time and money, plus people won't be picking off the fondant! She said she just wanted it like the picture and wanted people to like it. Everyone seemed to love it! Not sure how I always end up cutting cake, but hey, I guess I'm getting pretty good at it!! Mallory played the punch fairy again and all was well in the world.

The groom's cake was a soccer ball. I'd done this design as a baseball before, but it sank into the cake a bit. Thought I had the problem solved by putting supports under the ball, but then the ball just "deflated," so I'm not sure I solved anything! Well, it looked great to the bride and groom, but it just wasn't what I was thinking it could be. Next time, I may fondant cover the whole ball and see what that does. Like I said, it wasn't traumatic, but I was nervous.

I've also been making separate toppers for my brides. It's so much safer to have her layer to save already be saved! Since her cake was in three colors, I made her topper white with all three colors of dots. It was really pretty, but I just never could get a decent picture of it.

Fremont County Fair

2007-07-24T04:47:00.001-05:00

So I took a little something to fair this year... and found I hadn't followed the rules!! All cakes, no matter what category, have to be tasted. Well, I hadn't counted on that. It is real cake, but I just didn't pay attention to things that I normally HAVE to! Didn't even watch for egg shells, no idea if I washed my hands and REALLY overbaked them so they could hold for three days. A normal cake stands for about six hours, so I knew three days was going to be a test in itself! They gave me a purple ribbon, but I'm afraid it may have been an act of compassion!! I checked for next year, and they said one edible tier would be fine. I can do that, but I'd still like supporting tiers to be completely overbaked!!

Anyway, the roses are royal icing, which means they're hard enough to crack teeth, but also strong enough to stand the Iowa heat. If I had been thinking, I would have put posts in each one. Had to learn that the hard way. I was putting them on the night before and at least four of them fell... actually rolled... off and I had to fix a little streak all the way down, along with the vines and shell border. What a mess. So, on a score card of 100 points, if I even got the 25 points for appearance I'm a lucky gal!!

You need what?!?

2007-07-24T04:38:00.001-05:00

Always a fun time when you're knee deep in last minute fair preparations and Darling Hubby calls asking if you're remembering the residents' birthday cake. Of course, dear. They wanted white, right? That's good! Anyway, as we were going over the names, Michael told me who was no longer there, and it took me a while to realize he was saying that his favorite resident had passed away. I can only imagine how hard that is on him. She was a fun one. Always a dandy... "Finer than chocolate candy," was always her response to how she was doing. So, this is also in memory of Mary.

...catching up

2007-07-24T04:15:00.000-05:00

This one was for my favorite twins. Nic is kind of sporty and Matt is pretty farmy. However the differences don't really end there. In fact, I've never seen any similarities in them other than their date of birth. But anyway, this was a somewhat last minute cake, so we had to come up with something fast. It was a bit disappointing because Nic is so fun to impress. Matt was impressed enough... it's cake. Normal reaction from him!! They're great boys and so talented.

The order for this one came from Michael's work. He just wanted a birthday cake for some gamer friends of his. No, I still don't have my airbrush; this is actually spray paint for cakes. It's new at the store and I haven't found it anywhere else yet. It can really fog up the house quickly, so next time I may try doing it in the mud room!!

...Then there was a groom's cake. A brownie, actually. It was for a Cubs fan, obviously!! The bridal cake was done by a family member who actually preceded me at the bakery. I never got to work with her, but I've met her a few times and she is a complete riot. Anyway, her cake was all red velvet (don't envy that job!!), so the groom's cake needed to be something far out of the ordinary. The bride's mom suggested brownies, since they were the groom's favorite. Don't know how you go wrong with that!! He loved it!!

Firehouse

2007-07-24T04:05:00.001-05:00

Morgan's best friend was having a birthday party while we were gone, so we had to freeze this one. Jake's mom said it worked very well! She had approached me thinking Jake was asking for the world, but after some of the cakes my kids have requested, this wasn't too hard. At the last moment, when Jake's dad was coming for the cake, the boys asked if Jake and Matt, his brother, could spend the night. We got that all worked out so when they all came we looked at the cake, then Steve and the cake left. We never could get a straight answer out of Jake as to whether he liked the cake, so I was very nervous that I just didn't get what he wanted. Well, the party went very well and it seemed that he was really happy with his cake, so the only thing his mom can figure is that he was afraid Steve would eat it on the way home!! Now what would make him think that?...

Basketweave

2007-06-24T16:10:00.001-05:00

This was one I'd hoped I'd never have to do!! Basketweaving takes forever!! But it did turn out very nice. This was also the first time I'd had someone else do the flowers. They had called their florist to talk to me about what would fit between the tiers and I thought we had it all straight. I thought wrong. I wound up taking a lot of them apart and redoing them, and wishing I'd redone the rest. I think I'll do my own flowers from now on. There has been one other cake that I really wish I'd had more floral control, but she loved how it looked, so that's what matters.
Anyway, the photographer was setting up at the same time I was, so she offered to take our picture. I declined, but she talked Mallory into it! She's the real expert anyway. They really enjoyed Mallory's knowledge of the process. They were quizzing her about everything, and even I was surprised at how much she knew! I've got to get her going on the rest!!

Hurry Hurry!

2007-06-20T15:09:00.000-05:00

This was a rush! I wanted to make it last night, but we spent the whole evening working on the pool and I was too tired. So I had to rush it this morning. There's only one birthday at the Ambassador in June, so I made her favorite. This also ensures that the residents get some chocolate frosted chocolate cake, because I can't stand it and don't usually make it if I don't have to!!

...and one more from the past

2007-06-17T06:54:00.001-05:00

Michael just had a new administrator join him in Sidney and we found a connection! I made her wedding cake! So I thought I'd welcome her with photos she might recognize. The white one is hers and the chocolate is the groom's cake.

Retirement

2007-06-17T06:50:00.001-05:00

My cousin requested a road and lake scene for a retirement party, and she was going to find a truck and camper to add to it. I hope she did, because this one looks a bit dull without it!!

Pastor's Cakes

2007-06-17T06:44:00.000-05:00

This was a celebration for a pastor at a local church. They requested lemon cake with lemon frosting. Actually, it was my friend who was in charge of coordinating this whole party who requested lemon cake with lemon frosting. Sometimes there's a payoff to being in charge!

Poor Bob

2007-06-10T20:38:00.001-05:00

Didn't realize this didn't post... hope somebody looks back and finds it!! This is another one for the Ambassador residents. Mallory was pretty concerned about putting flowers on Bob's cake. She wasn't sure he liked flowers. I figured he'd like these, so we sent it out like this, but then found out Bob fell before the party and didn't even get any of his cake. Michael said he lost his balance after seeing such an awful cake. What a supportive guy!!

Karli Karli Karli

2007-05-28T00:01:00.000-05:00

Ok, I thought graduation was over, but this was cosmetology! I made a little ponytail with a pink bow out of the tassel. Karli is Matt & Nic's sister... the youngest of the four sisters. Nic's coming to get it in the morning and to see the house. I need to tidy up!! But I had to post this one first. Been having fun with the stacked cakes, but this was a late one and I'm going to call it a day!!

Late last night

2007-05-26T06:40:00.001-05:00

These were the cakes of last night. One more to go for the weekend, but I need eggs. It's amazing how many eggs I go through. I told Michael I need chickens!! From the sound of it, you're still pretty limited on eggs, but I really want my chickens!! Anyway, the kids wanted to help with these, as always, so Morgan made the blue, Matthew made the purple and Mallory made the yellow. They had to go to bed before these were done, so this may be all they see of them!

...and a wedding!!

2007-05-19T21:47:00.001-05:00

I've been so excited about this one! First of all, it's a couple that is just incredible and incredibly made for each other. I just love Christian weddings! Even the bridesmaids and groomsmen had incredible things to say of the couple.
Anyway, Amber and Jeremy had very little concern for the cake, except that they wanted three tiers and it needed to be white cake with chocolate frosting and pink detail. She pretty much left the rest up to me, so I started with a crown cake topper. It's the newest thing in all the books, so I was anxious to see it done. They also never requested a groom's cake, so I took that upon myself as well! We all give Jeremy a hard time about his Jeep. It's bright orange, has a ladder on top, and never has the doors on. So that had to be his cake. But it had to have some sign of Amber, so I added her veil to the passenger seat. I was afraid of what his mom would do. She had such a stunning garden spread going on, and I was afraid that an orange jeep would send her over the brink! It was quite the opposite, however. She was overwhelmed with how appropriate it was! She wanted to work his jeep into the theme as well, but never figured out how! I was really counting the groom's cake as part of our total available servings of cake, but Jeremy didn't want it cut!! We made it through the line once and several people came back, so there was obviously enough cake. Whew!!

Final Grads!

2007-05-19T21:29:00.001-05:00

Ok, these are the last graduation cakes. This is from a church to honor their graduates. Ree felt bad that she had ordered her other cakes from the bakery when she found out that I do some at home, but that's not really something I can tell her from the bakery! I've also been busy enough not to really care where I had to do them, it was so hectic either way! The sad part is why I was doing them alone. Janice, my co-worker, lost her son-in-law in a tragic accident during a church event. I just can't imagine what life has been for her family these last few weeks, so the last thing I wanted was her worrying about the bakery. Cindy called in some help and we survived. I'm not looking forward to doing it again soon, but we survived!! Glad it only happens once a year. Now, what happened to Mother's Day???

Football Grad

2007-05-19T21:17:00.001-05:00

Nathan's the son of friends from my school. They were waaaay older than me in school, but it's funny how we seem the same age now! Guess we're all just old! Juli said she wanted Nathan's football number on the cake because he's pretty proud of it, so I did that. She came up with the football players and wanted a special field, but that was beyond me. We were just hoping he'd understand that I did my best for him! It wasn't much in the middle of graduation week at the bakery. We did 105 cakes by last Saturday, and I think they did about 12 more yesterday. I took the week off!! Haven't heard yet if Nathan's was a pass or a fail, but everyone said they liked it. His girlfriend helps with Cubbies and she said it was great, so maybe that means he liked it, too.

2007-05-19T21:01:00.001-05:00

These were for a life long family friend. Mom used to babysit Tim, Tim used to babysit us, and we used to babysit these kids. Just goes on and on! Timmy and Jamie had been to Nic and Matt's graduation and were really hoping for a chocolate cake like theirs, so I was really glad I had already planned it that way! Tim never requested flavors, so I just did a chocolate and a vanilla. Good call, I guess!

Backtracking...

2007-05-19T20:40:00.000-05:00

Internet's been out for a while, so I'll have to catch up some!! These were for the twins, the babies of some friends of mine. Their sisters were a bit upset that they never got graduation cakes like this one, and Nic was so understanding as he so sweetly said, "You never knew Michelle." Little brothers, I guess!! Nic's the baby of the six, and he seems to fit the title! Everybody loves Nic. Matt's the drummer, and very quiet. My Matthew thinks he's pretty cool, but they're very much alike. Matthew's not much into asking questions and Matt's not much into offering information. So anyway, these were Debbie's last and she's now done with school. Wow. Quite a ways off for me.
Well, I better keep posting while I have internet. Who knows when it will go out!!

Graduation arriving

2007-05-04T06:53:00.000-05:00

Things are getting pretty busy, but I'm hanging in there so far. My best friend called in a request for a cake for her 13 year old daughter, so I got something lovely together for her. She wasn't very picky!
These two are for some friends at church. She let me do his cakes early because she has freezer space to accommodate them until graduation. That helps a ton!!

Little fundraiser

2007-04-24T14:05:00.000-05:00

This was another one for my realtor friend. She wanted two of these for an event today. Pretty simple ones, but fun. I threw my new glitter on them. Having so much fun with that!! It was still pretty plain, so I added a little ribbon, too. Just can't leave things alone.

That's it for now. I'll add another wedding cake to the archives soon.

Rachel, July 2004

2007-04-20T20:43:00.000-05:00

Still building my archives...
This was my very first wedding cake. It seems like so long ago, but not quite three years! I've only done about a dozen wedding cakes so far, so it should be fun getting them posted.
I spent a lot of time practicing and praying for this one! I'll always be so grateful to this family for trusting me and encouraging me to do it. They were more sure of me than I was!! I'm so glad they asked me to make Rachel's cake and had the faith that I could come through. It was the start of something I hope to spend a lot of time doing! I got to do the candles and flowers for this one, too. That makes it even more fun.

April Birthdays

2007-04-19T07:17:00.000-05:00

This is another birthday cake for the Ambassador. I really love doing those because I know the appreciation. It's really fun to do nice things for the residents. They also like it when I bring the kids, but this time I had to leave them home picking up the yard between classes.
It's a little hard to see, but around the edges, I put some rainbow glitter that looks a bit like plastic confetti. It's something new I got at the bakery and was pleased to have a chance to try it out. That's another thing I love about these cakes. I get to do what I want. Sometimes it's hard to come up with something, but I usually come through. If ever I'm doubting myself, Michael will come home saying that they hated it and I better never do that again because they'll be cleaning it off the walls for months! He's a real sweetie!!

Tink

2007-04-14T06:53:00.000-05:00

Mallory's finally getting her birthday party. We've had such busy weekends since her birthday that this was the first chance to have a couple girlfriends over. She was trying to figure out what she wanted for a cake and I told her that was already decided!! Poor girl. Well, she loved it!! Her girlfriends think it's pretty neat, too. They really had fun watching. We'll take it to the crop this afternoon and have a little party there.

Loading the past

2007-04-10T06:59:00.000-05:00

It has come to my attention that I never really have loaded some of my better cakes from the past. Mostly a matter of time, but also figuring out a new computer. I feel I've done well keeping up with the ones I do! Anyway, this one came up in a conversation and I thought I'd post it. Its shape is out of proportion because they were more interested in having enough cake for their guests than they were in having it anatomically correct!

Two cake week

2007-04-08T05:33:00.000-05:00

I had two cakes for Saturday this week. Grandma Rose talked herself out of an Easter cake, so none there. She said she still has the last four cakes in the freezer, so she really didn't need any more!
This one was for Scott's son and grandson. Scott is the one that helped so much on the house last summer. I have really enjoyed having some way to repay him with small favors, but he has insisted on becoming a paying customer. I'm not much in favor of that, but he's not one I believe I could win an argument with anyway.

The other is for a sweet 16 year old who helps me in Cubbies. She really is one of the sweetest gals you could know, so it was so special to get to make her sweet 16 birthday cake. It's a carrot cake, so I used the same cream cheese colors I used for little Juliet last week!

Oh, Juliet, how lovely art thou...

2007-03-25T06:03:00.000-06:00

This is the one I was working on last night. I felt like it was the longest day at work... ever! Don't know why, I just really hurt. It took a while to get going, but I really love this one. It's a shower cake for a baby Juliet, the baby and granddaughter of some folks that I think are an amazing set of people. The couple helps me with homeschooling, so I have a lot of interaction with them! They had six kids, and three of the girls are now having kids. Their twin boys graduate this spring, so I'm also looking forward to those cakes.

Anyway, this one is a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. It is only colored brown, it is NOT chocolate frosting! The accents are a dusty lime and rose that matched the invitations, and I can only hope, the rest of the party!!

Mallory also made truffles, so I should get some pictures of those, too!

Ambassador

2007-03-25T05:53:00.000-06:00

Michael has had me make a cake for the residents nearly every month since he started working there. We both enjoy it so much. I say nearly because sometimes it's cupcakes instead, or he's done brownies or something else. Wednesday, he had meetings in Omaha when I received a call from Robyn to see if I was bringing in a cake for the party. Well, I hadn't put it on my calendar, so I hadn't even begun. The kids helped me and we made a whiz-bang job of it! This was also the first month I've had the names to put on the cake. I usually do a themed on that just says "Happy Birthday," but I told Michael I wanted to start putting their names on them. So anyway, this isn't my favorite one, but I was very glad to get it done for them.

Simple things

2007-03-18T21:06:00.000-06:00

These are my most recent cakes, though rather simple ones. They are what the kids wanted! They were for our cousins, but then their party got delayed and they invited Mallory to share the day. Sure made things easy on me! Anyway, these are all I have on the new computer. I'll post more when I figure this thing out!!

Twin Barbies

2007-02-18T06:58:00.000-06:00

It was a princess party! These were for friends of mine, which makes them all the more fun. Matthew was having some friends over and they were very concerned that I was making Barbie cakes for him. It took a while for me to catch on to their concern, but finally did and got them straightened out!
The princesses enjoyed their cakes and we enjoyed making them! More later when I get photos of Matthew's real cakes!

Grandma Rose's 70th Birthday

2006-12-25T07:12:00.000-06:00

Grandma Rose has a Christmas Eve birthday, but that really has to be the pits!! We always have a NON-Christmas birthday party for her, even though it's so busy and hard to do. We have to make sure she knows how important she is to us and how much we love her!

Happy Birthday Grandma Rose!!

Starting New!

2006-12-14T13:35:00.000-06:00

I decided to separate my cakes from the rest of my ramblings, so this will be devoted only to my cakes! I hope you all enjoy!