Boop-Boop-A-Doop!

My wonderful friend Erin's mom was retiring from her role that she's had for 35 years.  Erin wanted to celebrate this wonderful occasion with a cake and asked me to make one for her. 

The flavor of the cake changed a few times before she settled on red velvet.  Seriously...it's SO good!  The cream cheese frosting is the creamiest, melt-in-your-mouth sort of frosting.  I was really excited to bake this for her.

Then Erin said that she just wanted "Happy Retirement" or something written on it.  But after talking with her mom, she discovered that her mom wanted a Betty Boop cake.  This was a shock to Erin, as her mom has never mentioned Betty Boop...ever.  But nevertheless, that was what she wanted.   We've all had a pretty good laugh about this;  Erin's mom, Sheila, is a real hoot!

So, here's the cake I made to celebrate her retirement. 

This is a red velvet cake with the creamiest cream cheese frosting.   Betty Boop and the border are made from chocolate cream cheese frosting, and the lettering is a gum paste/fondant mix. 

And here's Sheila with her cake.  (LOVE the glasses!!!)

Sheila - I hope that you enjoy your retirement and all of the new experiences coming your way!

Yee-Haw! Cowboy Glenn!

Glenn is my mom's boss.  He's also my realtor (best one EVER!!).  He's also a cowboy. 

So to celebrate Glenn's 50th birthday, my mom wanted to do something special for her dear boss and commissioned yours truly to make a cake in the shape of a cowboy hat. 

The cake, and cupcakes that follow (my mom wanted to throw those in too...), were all gluten-free chocolate.  I filled the cakes with vanilla buttercream and topped the cake with fondant and used gum paste to make the brim of the cowboy hat.  

The cupcakes were topped with chocolate buttercream and fondant decoration. 

Glenn, I send you warm birthday wishes!  I hope this is the best one yet!

As an aside, if you're looking for a realtor in the Lake Country Area, give Glenn a call.  He'll take EXCELLENT care of you and your real estate needs! 

http://www.shorewest.com/vp/AgentServlet?SITE=SHOREW&ScreenID=AGENT_DETAIL_P&cd_Agent=5057

Animal-tastic Baby Shower Cake

So, after seeing some of my cakes on some of her friends' Facebook pages, Kari figured she MUST know me.  We have mutual friends afterall!  Turns out we went to high school together and it was a BLAST to see her again!  She requested a baby shower cake to go with the invitation that looked like this:

And here's the cake I made for the celebration.  It is my FAVORITE flavor combination.  Chocolate cake with buttercream, chocolate fudge and Oreo cookies in the middle.  Oh.My.Gosh.  It is divine!  

I hope the shower was super fun!  Thanks so much, Kari, for thinking of me!  It was wonderful to see you again!

Birthday Present Birthday Cake

Jessica and Brooke are sisters who were planning a joined birthday party for their kids.  Five in total would be celebrating their special days.  For Jess' kids' birthday last year, you may remember this trio?  Each kid got their own cake and cupcakes to match. 

This year, Jessica and Brooke thought it would be fun to have a cake for all of them, but one that looked like a bunch of birthday presents, so they requested a three-tiered cake.  

Neither Jessica nor Brooke were concerned about colors or design or even flavors.  Although, she did say that the biggest tier had to be Red Velvet cake.  Fans they are!

So I started baking and creating and this is what I came up with!

Because there were four boys, Jackson, Mason, Noah and Jake, I wanted to keep the colors a little more masculine.  I chose blues, greens, yellow and orange for the entire cake color scheme. 

For Lauryn's cake (the top tier), I made it green (however there was a pink surprise underneath - I'll get to flavors in a second), but I added little white flowers on hers with purple centers;  a shout out to her cake last year. 

The top tier was yellow cake with raspberry buttercream and raspberry preserve filling.   The middle tier was a chocolate cake with Oreos and buttercream/fudge filling.  And, as requested, the largest, bottom tier was red velvet cake with creamy, cream cheese frosting.   They are all topped with a bow that brings together all of the colors in a festive way. 

I hope that Lauryn, Jackson, Noah, Mason and Jake all had a fabulous birthday celebration!!!  This was a super fun cake to do!  Thanks!

Kalli's Cake Pops

Baby Kalliope turned 1 this weekend.  Her mom, a friend of mine from high school, Angie, requested some cake pops to celebrate this great occasion.  They were planning to visit the hospital and the nursing staff and wanted to bring them something to celebrate.  Cake pops are a truly ideal option, don't you think?  They're nicely packaged, and bite-sized, but delicious. 

Angie wanted chocolate and yellow cake pops and she wanted half to be green, with green sprinkles and half of them to be pink with pink sprinkles.  I added the little "k" on them for added flair and I really think they turned out cute. 

Forgive my photography here.  Note to self:  take pictures of cake pops before wrapping them.  I apologize...but lesson learned.  I've got some cake pops coming up in October which will be photographed a little better.  

Happy Birthday, Kalli - you amazing little girl!  And congrats to Kalli's parents!

Andrew's Pirate Party

Andrew celebrated his 4th birthday this weekend.  And what a better way than to celebrate in pirate style!

I asked his mom what his favorite flavors were and she told me that Andrew absolutely loves chocolate and raspberries.  Well.  There you go!  That's what he was going to get!

The cake is a chocolate cake with raspberry preserve filling and chooclate cream cheese frosting.  I decorated the top with the fancy skull Jolly Roger and gum paste polka dots and letters.  Getting black frosting is really not that hard if you start with chocolate frosting.  In this case, Andrew would be pleased that decision.  :)

The cupcakes were raspberry cupcakes filled and topped with chocolate cream cheese frosting. 

I found these fantastic cupcake toppers at Amazon.com.  I loved the variety and colors!  

We had a great time at your party, Andrew!  I wish you the best for the coming year!

Christian's Christening Cake

Oooh...nice alliteration with my title, eh? 

This weekend, Christian was baptized and his mom, my wonderful friend Kristie, ordered a cake to celebrate!  This is a chocolate cake with blue buttercream filling and chocolate cream cheese frosting.  I topped the cake with gum paste letters, blue buttercream and blue [white] chocolate crosses. 

Congratulations to you, Christian, and to your family!