Cake Mama Class 1-30-2011

My very good friend Erin requested a Cake Mama Class for her sister, her mother, her niece and herself. I was so excited, I could hardly contain myself. Teaching is what I like to do best of all!! Erin was definitely an over-achiever when it came to hostessing. She got all of the supplies and included little plastic boxes for everyone. Not only that, she baked everyone's CAKES!!! It was awesome.

The first thing I did was teach how to properly torte and frost a cake. I needed a little help with the frosting so I also taught how to make some delicious buttercream (we went through 4 double-batches of it!!!) and color it, which is what they are doing in this picture.

After everyone torted and crumb-coated their cakes, we practiced different borders, making dots, writing and making various flowers, including the Wilton Rose.

Someone was having a REALLY good time!

Because refrigerator space was limited for everyone's cakes, I thought it would be a good idea to place the cakes in the 20-degree front terrace for a little while. I mean, we in Wisconsin have the largest freezers at our disposal. I know I'm forshadowing a bit by telling you this, but Erin is VERY proud of the albino squirrel she's seen in her neighborhood. She talks about it frequently, posts updates on Facebook regarding its whereabouts...you know...she pretty much stalks it.

So, when it was time to begin decorating the cakes, we all nearly died from laughter when Kristi returned from outside with a cake that had been half-eaten by some sort of critter with long nails. If you look closely, you can actually see the scratch marks ALL over the cake. (I'm totally laughing while I type this!!!)

Did Kristi let that albino squirrel bring her down (we're totally assuming that it was the albino squirrel because it just makes this story all the more funny!)? Absolutely not! She just used a TON of buttercream and filled in the chunks of missing cake and numerous scratches. That cake turned into the one below! Viola!

Here's Sheila's cake.

And Lindsay's cake.

And Erin's cake.

And here's everyone holding their beautiful cakes. I'm SUCH a proud teacher!!!

It was sad, but it was the right thing to do. Here, Kristi is tossing her cake into the trash.

Perhaps we should have set it outside and waited. Tee hee hee!!!

Thanks so much, Erin, for hosting this class. I had a fabulous time and hope you did too!!

Mint Chocolate Chip...CAKE?!!!

One of my brother's favorite ice cream flavors is Mint Chocolate Chip. He loves the stuff. The combination of mint and a semi-sweet chocolate is really bliss, don't you think? So when I came across a recipe for a homemade mint-chocolate chip cake, I got so excited. Then, when I was asked to bake his cake, I got even MORE excited!

Here's the outside of the mint-chocolate chip cake. Pretty classic. Not too much decor. I think fluffy top and chocolate chip-covered sides were all this cake really needed.

Then, I got to cut the cake. Doesn't that look GREAT?!! (I usually don't get this shot unless I'm there...or one of my clients sends me a photo...)

And then I got to sample the cake. It was divine. They served it with some really rich mint chocolate ice cream and words cannot describe the deliciousness....

Happy Birthday, Jimmy!!

Love,

Your Little Sister

85 Years Young

My sister-in-law, Lisa, requested a Cake Mama Cake for her grandma's 85th birthday. I was very happy to oblige. Lisa wanted a really "fun and colorful" cake for this milestone of a birthday and thought that this one was the way to go!

There are three tiers to this cake. The top tier is a lemon cake filled with lemon buttercream and lemon curd. The middle tier is a vanilla cake filled with raspberry buttercream and raspberry preserves. The bottom tier is a chocolate cake filled with vanilla buttercream and crushed Oreo cookies. The candles are made out of chocolate sticks covered with fondant.

I certainly hope that they had a fantastic celebration. The cake was certainly happy! :)

Angie's Blue Daisy Cake

There is nothing more fun than getting a cake request from someone I haven't seen since high school. I've had many such requests for which I am so thankful. This Blue Daisy Cake is from a high school friend of mine who I haven't seen since 1994! What fun!

Angie contacted me earlier this week requesting a birthday cake with blue daisies. She wanted a chocolate cake with cream cheese filling and buttercream frosting. That sounds good enough to eat!

I made the blue daisies out of my home-made fondant. Everything else is buttercream.

I think this one turned out to be a very elegant cake. I hope she had a great birthday celebration!

Cinderella...ella...ella...

On the day after Christmas, my sister-in-law, Lisa, and I hosted a bridal shower for our soon-to-be sister-in-law, Rachel. Rachel is a very big Disney fan and an even bigger fan of Disney princesses. Her favorite princess is Cinderella. So, it was a no-brainer to have the shower revolve around that.

We themed the gifts (slippers, Cinderella ornament, sewing kit), the dessert (pictured below), and our fabulous trivia game around Cinderella.

We also served a light lunch along with some great conversation.

What a great day!

Christmas Treats

For the past 7 years, Danny brought in HUUUGE cookie trays for his team in the office. Back in the day when he only had about 16 employees that WAS a nice treat for them around the holidays.

(This is such an old picture!! LOL! We don't have those chairs and the walls are no longer red.)

Because his team has grown so substantially over the last year, we decided to do something a little different this year. We thought about making everyone a gift box filled with goodies instead.

They were personalized for each of his employees (and the cookie fit perfectly in the window...how lucky was I?).

Each box was finished off with a " Home Made" seal.

Merry Christmas indeed!