Halloween Cake Pops

I volunteered to bring some yummy treats to Josie's Halloween party today.  These types of parties are exactly why I took the cake decorating classes to begin with.  Josie was able to help me in the kitchen for these because they were for her, not a client, per se.  And she was SO excited to dig in make something fun. 

We were going to make pumpkin cake pops, that is, cake pops shaped like pumpkins.  Josie wanted to the batter to be green so she helped me color it appropriately. 

After the cake baked, I took it from there.  I molded them, dipped them, rolled them, decorated them and wrapped them for her special occasion, and here's what they looked like. 



Josie, dressed up as Izzy from Jake and the Neverland Pirates, takes the first bite at her party.  Ca-RUNCH!

 Coooooool!  It's GREEN inside! 

As completely time-consuming and labor-intensive as Cake Pops are, I really think they're fun and festive.  Happy Halloween, Everyone!



Christmas is for Kids...An October Cake

My mom's office always does a huge fundraiser for the organization Christmas is for Kids.  They fundraise by holding an auction and all of the proceeds go to helping those less fortunate.  I donated a cake for the cause and the recipient requested a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and "Fall colors" to decorate the cake.  Here's the finished product.

Happy Birthday, Joan!

Happy Birthday to my Mom!

I had a lot of fun planning my Mom's birthday treats.  She's so funny because she wants a Cake Mama cake, but she doesn't want me to work so hard, but she really wants a fun treat, but she doesn't want me to stress about it, but it would be nice to have cake, but I shouldn't spend too much time on it...  I could go on for days like this!  She's a wonderful mom and deserves a nice treat from me.  Quite frankly, it's the least I could do for her for all she does for me.

So, a few days before her birthday, I gave her a package of cake pops for her to share with her friends.  She brought some up to share with her mom and friends and a few days later she had coffee with "the girls" and had a great time sharing. 

Then, to celebrate her birthday, I made her favorite cake.  She absolutely LOVES poppy seed cake with 7-minute frosting.  I added some lemon syrup to the cake and lemon curd filling to make this a lemony-moist treat.  Because she wanted it simply decorated, I added the lemon candies for some color. 

Happy Birthday, Mom!  Thanks for all you do for us!

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!