Our Maren, Full of Grace

Saturday we celebrated our daughter, Maren's, baptism.  It was a special day for all of us and one that we were looking forward to for some time.  The gown she wore for this occasion has been in my husband's family for 105 years. Danny, Josie and Maren all wore this gown and it just feels holy!

To celebrate the occasion, we had all of those involved over to our house for an Italian-style meal (lasagnas) and we enjoyed these delicious cupcakes.  I made pink lemonade cupcakes with pink lemonade frosting.  I was really picturing something simple and innocent for decoration and came across these little cross toppers and thought they were perfect.  



I came across the plates and napkins at a later date and thought they went perfectly together.  What luck!

My God Bless our little Maren Grace.  We love her so!



Oh, The Places They'll Go!

My oldest daughter, Josie, graduated from K4 this week.  It was a bittersweet ceremony.  On one hand, she's accomplished SO much this year, and on the other, I can't believe she's moving on to KINDERGARTEN next year!  Oy!  Where has the time gone?!

Her K4 experience has been an exceptional one.  Her teachers are outstanding and have really worked hard to offer neat, fun, unique experiences for all of the kids in the class.  This included "travel around the world".  Her teacher is from England and has a love of travel and throughout the year,  incorporated her journeys into their curriculum.  So, when I was asked to do a cake for their gradutation ceremony, I thought going along with that theme would be a nice tribute to their travels together.  

The little red dots on the world map show where they've gone this year: 

And during their travels, by the way, they all got on an [imaginary] airplane and were served their snack as they traveled.  They'd spend about a week in each location before their [imaginary] trip home.  When in Italy, they actually sampled pizza and gelato for snack time.  When in China, they got to try eating noodles with chopsticks.  What fun!

As for the cake, it's a two-layer sheet cake.  Half of the cake is chocolate, the other half is yellow.  Both sides are filled and frosted with vanilla buttercream.  The decoration is made up of a gum paste/fondant mix. 

I wish the graduates of the 2012 K4 class a heartfelt congratulations and wishes for a great summer.  We'll see you in the Fall!!

Give Me Five!

Today, my oldest daughter turned five.  I kind of can't believe it's been FIVE years already.  Where on EARTH did that time go?!  She is a spectacular little girl, full of creativity and imagination.  I'm honored to call her my daughter. 



So, this special birthday required a special treat to bring in to school today.  Josie requested cake pops.  Oh no.  Not just plain cake pops.  She's was specific.  She wanted pink cake, (I made a yellow cake and dyed it pink) with pink chocolate and pink sprinkles with the letter "J" on them.  Yep.  Specifics.  Gotta love it!  Here's how they turned out. 



 I'm pretty sure she was pleased!  Her party will be in a few weeks and she'll get her cake then.  Think Disney Villain.  I can't wait to get started!

Happy Birthday, my sweet 5-year old.  I love you to infinity and beyond!



Curious Will...I mean George!

My friend Kate requested a cake for her son's 2nd birthday. She was going with a Curious George theme for him and his birthday party. I hadn't done a Curious George cake before and I couldn't wait to get started!

We decided on a 10-inch chocolate cake with a Curious George face on top. She also wanted some cupcakes to accomodate the many guests she was hosting. So, I suggested banana cupcakes with chocolate frosting. You know, because monkeys like bananas. I would top each cupcake with a little yellow hat.

Here's how the cake turned out. I made George out of a gum paste/fondant blend.

Here are the cupcakes with the yellow hats which are made out of gum paste and colored with edible black food marker.

Here's the cake and cupcakes at their final destination.

I know it's not cake-related, but these are the party favors for the kids. Too cute not to share!

And here's the birthday boy! What a cutie!

Happy Birthday, Will! I hope you had a fantastic day! Thanks for having me be a part of it!

Captain America

My wonderful husband is a real fan of Captain America. Always has been. His favorite super hero indeed. So, when he requested a Captain America cake for his birthday, I was ready to roll. That is, until he came across a picture of Captain America cake pops that he wanted instead. I was all for it!

Cake pops are not hard to make, but they ARE time consuming. There are a lot of steps involved in making them and in making them well. I always forget about this. But when the finished product is in front of me, I'm always pleased - and they are a fan favorite!

I took some chocolate and vanilla cakes and mixed them together with a smidge of frosting until they were able to stick together for me to form them into balls. I refrigerated them for a few minutes and began to melt the red melting candy. When that was ready to roll, I dipped each of the sticks into a little bit of the melted candy and inserted them into the cake balls. Back into the refrigerator until I was ready for dipping.

Later, I let the cake pops sit out at room temperature while I got the candy melted again. I found that when I dip the pops cold, the candy tends to crack. They need to be chilled, not cold. So, I dipped each one into the melted candy and let them set up for a few minutes.

Later in the day, I began decorating. I used a gum paste/fondant mix for the white and blue decor and I attached everything using some more of the melted candy.

Then, I wrapped each one in a cellophane bag and tied them with some ribbon.

This was the box of goodies that Danny brought in to share with his team at work.

And these were what we had for his birthday celebration after work.

Happy Birthday, Sweetie! I hope you had a great day!

Easter Bunny!

For Easter, we had a simple celebration with my family after dinner. My nephew, Connor, and his parents (my brother and sister-in-law), along with my parents, came over for some egg hunting fun and cake.

Sometimes, it's nice to take a break from baking cakes, and I decided to make a cookie cake instead. My daughter was most helpful in helping me bake the cake and also in decorating the cake. She doesn't have the hand strength to hold and squeeze the pastry bag of frosting yet, but was able to guide my hand while I squeezed the frosting out to create this fantastic Easter bunny.

She's so proud of her creation and it was a delicious addition to our already abundant Easter celebration. Happy Easter, Everyone!

Zombie...Monkey?!

Caution. You've been warned.

Eric contacted me to do his wife's 30th birthday cake. I never know what order will come next or what a client will request, but this one was...unique. Dalia loves monkeys and zombies. So Eric thought it would be awesome to make a Zombie Monkey cake. If you've ever done a Google Image search for "zombie cakes" you would be blown away by the gruesome things you will find. So I was ecstatic that Eric wanted a more "cute" zombie monkey to top Dalia's cake. Here's the inspiration:

Eric also thought it would be cool to have blood spatters and intestines on the sides of the cake. After doing my research, however, I found all of the pictures of intestines to be...well...unappetizing. So instead, I recommended making little brains (zombies eat brains afterall) for the cake border. Here's the picture I sent to Eric and we thought it to be a good compromise.

So here's the final cake. A gum paste Zombie Monkey front and center. Gum paste brains on the four corners. Strawberry preserves dripping down the sides. The cake itself was a chocolate cake with chocolate Kahlua filling and buttercream frosting.

Dalia - I hope you have a VERY wonderful birthday! Eric - thanks for the challenge (and the giggles).