Mother's Day From My "Cake Kid"

Mother's Day is such a fun day for me.  I know that I'll get to sleep in.  I know that my husband will make breakfast.  And this year, Josie had a surprise for me.  She went to our local grocery store and decorated a cake for me.  The cutest little 4-inch cake I ever saw.  Lots and lots of frosting and colors - just the way Josie likes it!

Here's a picture of the most beautiful cake I've ever seen!

She picked out that red heart ring just for me!  She was so excited that she could be my "Cake Kid".  You know, Cake Mama's kid who also decorates cakes!  She was so proud of her creation!

And I loved it!

Happy Mother's Day indeed!

Cake Pops

This has been a cake pop kind of month.  First, Kari ordered some blue and pink cake pops to celebrate her two adorable kids' birthdays earlier this month.  I don't have a picture of the blue, but Kristi (who's featured on this post below) took a picture and sent one over for me.  The pink cake pops were strawberry flavored and the blue ones (looked the same except blue) were yellow cake flavored.  

Kristi liked her cake pop so much she ordered some for her graduation party.  I was asked to make half of them white and the other half purple.  The white ones were white cake and the purple ones were chocolate cake.

Kristi snapped another picture for me with the group all together.  Love it!!

Cake pops are one of the most time-consuming things I make.  But my clients sure appreciate the ease of serving them.  Aren't they cute and festive?!!!

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, NEW Fish

Sue called and requested a Cake Mama Cake for a baby shower she was co-hosting.  The theme was One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, NEW Fish.  What a cute idea, eh?    I immediately went to my new obsession, Pinterest, and got some great ideas for the occasion.  And here's what I made.  

This is a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.  Whenever I do a carrot cake, I LOVE the basketweave on the sides because, come on...who DOESN'T love cream cheese frosting?!!!

The little decorations are made out of gum paste and fondant and I used an edible food marker to color in the details.

I hope the shower was super fun!

May the 4th Be With Maren

I'm going to apologize for how self-indulgent this next post may appear.  I just had such a good time creating this experience.  Or should I say, re-creating this experience.    Let me also say that if I had the cake decorating skills I have 6 years ago, I would have done the exact same thing for my oldest daughter, Josie.  The two girls had very different first birthday celebrations.  Both of them were wonderful in their own right.  

But I digress.

Here is a picture of my first birthday cake.  From the 1970's.  All pretty and pink.  With a cute little ceramic baby on top.  

 There's my Grandpa flirting with me.  That's my Grandma looking on.  (I'll be making her 93rd birthday cake this summer!!!)

 And here I am.  Me.  One year old.

I'm wearing a cute little pink dress that my Grandma (pictured above) made.

 I really wanted to get my hands on that cake!

So, when Maren was born, I went down to the basement and looked through a few more bins of clothes I had down there.  My parents did a good job of saving valuable and sentimental things for me.  They didn't save it all; but they saved neat things.  Like the ceramic baby that topped my first birthday cake.  And the dress I wore at my first birthday.  I happened to come across those two items and knew then that for Maren's 1st birthday, I would recreate it.

Here's my rendition of that famous birthday cake, ceramic doll and all!

And here's Maren, wearing the same dress.

 Mmmmm!  Enjoying that cake!

 Yep.  Good stuff.

Her special day was easy and super fun to decorate.    Here, I took my favorite photo of her, face looking straight on, printed it in grayscale onto card stock and made little hats from scrapbook paper.  I love the effect and can't wait to make one for Josie later this month!  

I wanted to tie in the pink floral look to the food I served for brunch.   Here's the buffet.

Bacon and leek tart.

 Blueberry scones.

 Donuts.  Lots of 'em.

 Pink fruit salad.

 Yogurt and granola.

 And another picture of her cake.

Yep.  She's one.  I can't believe.  And what a wonderful celebration it was.

Happy Birthday, you sweet little girl!  I can't wait to see what this next year brings!

Carsen's 1st Birthday

Carsen shares the same birthday as my daughter.  In fact, Maren and Carsen were in the same hospital together at the same time.  I know her mom from high school and it's cute to think the two will have known each other for their whole lives; sharing the same birth date.  

So, when Carsen's mom, Brooke, asked me to do her birthday treats, I was absolutely honored to help out. Brooke had a vision!  She came prepared with pictures and inspirational shots of what she wanted for this magnificent milestone.  Pink, black and gray.  A schnazzy color scheme indeed.  SUPER fancy for a 1-year old.  ;)

The top tier of this cake is a yellow cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting.  The bottom tier is chocolate cake with Oreos, fudge and buttercream fillings.  

These cupcakes are yellow cupcakes, filled with chocolate cream cheese frosting and topped with buttercream.  

Cake pops are red velvet and cream cheese.  Mmmmm!

 

I hope Carsen had a fabulous birthday celebration!  She was in our thoughts as we celebrated over here.  Happy Birthday, Carsen!

Addy's First Communion

Eloise's big sister, Addy, received her first communion this weekend.  They had a joint celebration for the two girls.  So, I wanted the two cakes to coordinate nicely, but also be different enough to truly capture both of these wonderful milestones.  

I used Wilton tip 12 to make the pull-out dots on the top of the cake.  The little flowers and the cross are made of fondant. 

 I used a cut-out to make the floral imprint on the cross and I like how that turned out.  

My camera setting makes this cake look yellow, but it was really a nice soft white buttercream.

Congratulations and many warm blessings to Addy on this wonderful occasion!

Eloise's Pretty Petal Cake

A few weeks before my Maren was born, this little Eloise arrived.  My oldest daughter is in Kindergarten with Eloise's big brother, Alex.  The two of them have a LOT in common and it will be great fun to see Maren and Eloise grow up together.  So, when Jessica, their mom, asked me to do Eloise's 1st birthday cake, I was absolutely honored.  She said that she wanted something frilly and pink.  I came across an orange ombre-type petal cake on Pinterest and thought it looked super cool.  I used pink instead of orange and here's what it turned into.

Wilton tip 81 is what I used.  Never used that tip before and now it's one of my favorites!!

Here's a little smash cupcake for Eloise.  I used the same effect with tip 81 to top the cupcake.  Not too much frosting, but just enough!

Happy Birthday, Eloise!