Barter for Batter

I am ALL about bartering. Love it. You do this for me, I make you a cake. Clean my gutters? Cake. Rake my lawn? Two cakes (my yard is really big). Take my dog for a walk? Cupcake. This particular cake was a barter with my brother...over batter (couldn't resist). You can see all around this post what my brother was able to accomplish for me. He's an incredibly talented artist; he made my logo and helped spiff up the rest of this blog, to name just a FEW of the things he's done for me. I just love it.

And evidently, my brother loved our Dad's cake that I made last month because he asked for a repeat. However, he's celebrating with his employees at work today, and wanted me to put this little icon, named Johnny Tracker, on the top of the cake as part of the celebration. Evidently, all of his employees will "get it", even if we don't know what it means. Inside jokes. Gotta love them.

So again, this is a yellow spiral cake with chocolate mousse filling.

Fondant Johnny Tracker on top. Pirouettes on the outside. Just like Dad's.

Happy Johnny Tracker Day??? And thanks, Jimmy, for all of your work. I LOVE it!

Trans Am...[I able to do this cake?!]

I was asked to make this Trans Am cake about 9 months ago. It haunted my dreams since then. HOW was I going to do a cake in the shape of a Trans AM?!!! Of course, in my usual way, when I was asked to do this cake I said, "SURE!" And THEN I panicked. Never done one quite like this before.

So many of you may be wondering why was this so difficult? Why did this cause so much stress? Well, it's because this cake was fashioned after someone's ACTUAL car. He loves his car so much, he had it professionally photographed, and I was to recreate HIS car with cake. No pressure or anything. (Acutally, I had a LOT of fun thinking about and planning this cake...really. ;)) It's a beautiful car, hey?

So I started out with this cake. Two 9X13 chocolate cakes filled with buttercream. This is a much firmer chocolate cake (see "Steve's Cake" post if you really need to understand why I didn't use THAT chocolate cake recipe). I needed a firm cake to do the carving necessary to transform this block into a car.

Many thanks to my husband who helped plan and carve this cake with me. You can see in the photo above, Danny actually got a pound cake to practice with before helping to carve the actual cake. What a great guy!

So, now it's beginning to kind of look like a car, right?

I crumb coated it and covered it with fondant. Then I etched in the car markings.

And then I added the final details so the car cake looked like this:

I dropped the car off yesterday and Tiffany, who ordered this cake for her fiance, was so excited! I was relieved. I hope her fiance had a great birthday! (I slept like a baby...)

Ahoy, Matey!

I've been corresponding with Chad, a high school friend of mine, for a few weeks regarding this particular cake. I'm happy that I had the time in my schedule to accomodate it, because it was a really fun cake to do! He was looking for a good "gift" for his Dad's birthday but he mentioned it's getting harder and harder to find something for him. So, why not a cake?

At first, Chad and I were discussing a John Wayne cake, so you can imagine my surprise when he sent over a picture of a Navy-themed cake. His Dad served our country (bless him) and Chad saw something that would honor his dad. So he sent over this picture that he found online:

But he wanted me to incorporate his Dad's rank, below.

And this is what I made for him. The bottom and middle tier are both chocolate cakes with chocolate buttercream filling (his Dad is a fan of chocolate...). The top tier is actually Rice Krispie treat covered in buttercream then fondant.

The verdict?

"Wow!! I totally loved the cake. My dad was compleatly surprised and had a GIANT smile for minutes...Thank you for that...BUT then we cut the cake..OMG all the women were jealous at your moist chocolate cake...it was so funny. Everyone loved it. My wife said it was the best cake she has ever tasted!!! You really helped make a run-of-the-mill Saturday into a day we will all remember. Once again...thank you so much! - Chad"

Thank you, Chad! And a special Happy Birthday and thank you to your Dad!

Steve's Cake (and making lemonade)

Making Steve's chocolate lover's cake was actually a pretty simple endeavor, or so I thought. Pumping out these cakes nowadays seems second nature to me, or so I thought. (...are you getting the totally obvious foreshadowing here?!) So I'm sure you can imagine my surprise, not to mention the total blow to my ego when I created THIS cake wreck.

What makes this even funnier is that my friend (THANKfully, she's a GREAT friend of mine), was coming, that very instant, to PICK UP THE CAKE!!! There's NO way I'd send this cake home with ANYone. Despite the deliciousness of the cake, it looks TERRIBLE! (Well, the caramel oozing out of it looks kind of good, actually. The chocolate ganache, looks kind of tasty too...but I digress.) The cake literally melted. Whenever I've made this cake in the past, I've used a frozen cake, which has held up well. This one was baked that day and was too moist for the fillings at the time. I'm considering it a hilarious, not to mention delicious, learning experience.

I'm sure you're curious about what I did with the cake and I'm happy to report it will soon turn into cake pops. That'll be for another post, later this month. Stay tuned.

So, after starting over and delaying my friend's pick-up time, I was able to pop out this one.

It's a simple cake, but I'm pleased with its appearance. It turned out MUCH better than the first one.

Happy Birthday, Steve! Thanks for letting me be a part of it!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

My family celebrated my Dad's birthday last night, a few days early. My mom requested that I bake the cake for him a few months ago. When asked about flavors or designs, my mom hadn't a clue. So I thought and thought and thought. I was thinking maybe something golf themed as my Dad likes to golf. But what to do? Then, I thought about something bike themed...but what?

Then, I thought about my Dad. He's a pretty traditional guy. Probably not the biggest fondant fan. He would probably like a classic cake. You know, vanilla with chocolate buttercream. Classic.

Yeah. I can't just do classic, not when I'm given the freedom to "do what I want". If I'M asked to make a cake, I'm MAKING a CAKE. So, a cake decorating friend of mine, Keith, forwarded an awesome website to me that features some pretty untraditional cakes (you'll see what I'm talking about in a second). "Everyday with Rachel Ray" magazine also featured a similar cake in the last year. I just had to try.

From the outside, it looks okay, right? It's a vanilla sponge cake with chocolate mousse filling/frosting. I decorated the outside with pretty...ahem...masculine and classic...cookies.

My Dad was pleased, and then I CUT the cake. Hee hee hee!

His reaction was worth it! He actually sat back and asked, "How did you DO that?"

Awesome.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Love,
Your Favorite Daughter
XOXO

Robin's Mosaic Cake

Oh, I've known Robin for a very long time indeed. She was one of my very first friends in high school. It was a welcomed friendship as I had just moved from Neenah and knew only the sweet girls in my neighborhood who took me under their wings. (Shout out to you Gina, Dena, Lisa and Emily!) Robin was in two or three of my classes freshman year and we sat next to each other and that's where our adventure began.

Through high school, college, our weddings and beyond, Robin and I remain close friends to this day. She happens to be one of the most talented people I know. Her mosaic designs are out of this world and I'm fortunate enough to have a few of her great pieces of work.

Look at the detail on this beautiful planter! I've never seen any mosiac work more detailed than this.

And this votive candle holder...seriously.

She also has a fantastic ability to capture wonderful images with her camera. A great eye indeed. She's taken my daughter's portraits the last two years and I still just look at them with great amazement and admiration.

So, when Robin's birthday was approaching, I was trying to find the perfect cake for her. She chose the flavor: Chocolate cake with chocolate ganache and caramel filling. Good choice. But how to decorate it?

A few months ago, my brother made a logo for Robin. (Consequently, my brother also made my Cake Mama logo, which I love.) I saw the logo and knew that I would somehow incorporate that into a cake design.

The fact that Robin chose a chocolate cake totally helped me out. But I do love the way it turned out. A mosaic cake.

After putting this one together and working on it for what seemed like hours, I have a great appreciation for Robin's talent. Even more than I had before, if that's even possible. You absolutely have to check out some more of Robin's work. You'll be AMAZED!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Robin-Downing-Photography/346884155505

Happy Birthday, Robin! I look forward to celebrating with you!

Adrienne's Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Cake

Mickey and I go way back. Back to 1998. That was the summer that I had the privilege (or so they tell me) of working at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. Oh what a job I had. Custodial Hostess was the fancy name they gave me. I can, without a doubt, tell you that Walt Disney World is the cleanest place on the planet. Seriously. At least, when I worked there it was. :)

Thinking about that time, I remember all of the "guest" questions I'd receive. The most common one was, "When is the 3:00 parade?" You'd think that'd be a pretty straightforward answer, but you'd be surprised. The correct answer is, "Where are you going to be watching the parade?" See? See how tricky that is? The true Disney fans will tell you that the 3:00 parade starts at Main Street and ends in Frontierland. Where you're standing will depict the time of the parade for you. You probably learned something here. Right? I bet you did.

I also got the opportunity to create a few hidden Mickeys. It's a rare opportunity, as the majority of the hidden Mickeys are created by the Imagineers. But I got to create one in the old Pirates ride and also the Haunted Mansion. Here's a group of us post-hidden Mickey creation. (I'm standing directly left of the chair. Me and my awesome Custodial Hostess costume.)

That's pretty neat, but, where am I going with this? Ah, I was asked to do another Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake. I just love Disney and was honored to make my friends' daughter's 2nd birthday cake. She's quite the fan! There are 3 Mickeys on the cake. See if you can find them. :)

And here are the bonus shots. One of Adrienne's first reaction to the cake. Seriously, could it get any cuter than this?

And here's an inside peek into the top tier of the cake. Marble with buttercream filling. Bottom tier was vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream filling (thanks for sharing these with me, Adrienne's parents!).

It certainly looks like Adrienne had the most magical 2nd birthday EVER! I'm so happy I got to be a part of her special day. ;)