Wild Thang

Round two for the banana cake. This time I watched it like a hawk. It turned out almost as good as the first but just not as level as the other one. I'm not sure if it's my perfectionist nature or if the bottom tier really is lopsided. Sometimes I think I stare too much at the cake that after awhile I just can't tell anymore.

The cake was delicious and well worth the second attempt. See the recipe page for the cake and cream cheese frosting recipes.

Not sure where I came up with the snake skin idea to go with a cute little purple bow but I think it works. For a trip down memory lane I decided to include my first cake.....remember poor lavender lumps? Can you believe how much of a difference there is. I am really glad that I can show such an improvement. Next time I will work on making a cute cake board.  They make such a difference in the overall look. The cake plate just doesn't go.

My Dog Ate My Cake... :(

I am so furious right now all I can do is blog! I spent pretty much my entire day baking what happened to be maybe my best cake EVER! I decided to try a banana cake and got this most wonderful recipe from cooklikeyourgrandmother.com. You have to check their site out and try the banana cake. I will post the recipe as well.

Anyways, I got the cake all wonderfully crumb coated, just waiting for the fondant layer. Went to help my hubby with something and went back to check on the cake only to find it GONE! Totally and completely GONE! Oh my heck I am still mad. It almost felt like having the Thanksgiving turkey destroyed. I worked so hard on the dang thing and was so excited that this cake might actually be my best one. It was perfectly level, moist, but sturdy at the same time. I made two tiers and filled each with a new cream cheese frosting recipe I found. Why oh why couldn't Bear, our very large brown lab, have picked one of my disaster cakes to devour? I secretly hope he gets just sick enough to learn his lesson. Maybe 16 oz of cream cheese will teach him not to mess with my goodies!

Moral of the story.....Do NOT leave your precious baked goods within reach of any animal, child or husband. Who knows exactly what havoc they can wreck. Ok, I feel a little better now. I am still dying to have some so I will just have to try again soon :) Thanks for reading my rant!

The "I HATE WINTER!!" Cake

So most of you who know me are well aware of the fact that I hate the snow and I hate, hate, hate winter! It prolly wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't soooooooo long. I just happen to be a girl who loves the sun, loves the heat, and could seriously live in a swimsuit and flip flops by the pool or beach everyday if I could. That being said for some reason I am living in a place where the snow just keeps on keeping on. BLAH! I decided my next cake would be completely opposite of a winter wonderland because frankly there is no such thing. :)

I know the design is a bit funky but I like it. I absolutely love, love, love my flower. The cake has elements that reflect all of the things I love; water, waves, flowers, sun and shimmer. All nice spring and summer things.

Now for the surprise, this is not really a cake. I decided to take a shot at making a display cake. So it's all styrofoam covered in fondant. I imagined covering a piece of foam a heck of a lot easier than covering cake but it was far from easy. Cake is difficult because it is not sturdy and can fall apart if you are not careful but the foam doesn't have any give to it so it shows EVERY little flaw in the fondant. I had the hardest time working out all of the bumps, tears, air bubbles, etc. There are actually two layers of fondant on each tier along with a layer of the blue. Glad I was able to cover it up. At one point I wasn't so sure the thing wasn't going to end up in the trash. I have learned though that with patience you can usually either fix or at least cover up most flaws.

 The flower is made out of gum paste.  All I did was create several different shades of the turquoise by mixing the food color with the gum paste. The darker shade has a little bit of navy mixed in.  Then I rolled out each in a circle and formed the shape I wanted using a foil cup.  I let each one dry enough so that they were still a little soft in the middle. This is so I could layer them without each layer being too hard which would make the flower stand out a lot more. It also made it easier for me to work with it without breaking any layers. I added the swirls and loops and center then dusted a few areas with edible dust and glitter.

Time For Change

I decided that with a new year comes a new blog design :) It only took me forever to figure out how to add a new font again. Thanks to kevinandamanda.com!! Why can't I just remember these oh so important bits of random information? I think designing the blog might be more difficult than decorating! I stayed up most of the night pulling my hair out with this. There are a few touch ups left to do but those will happen shortly. Anyways, hope you like the new look and the new cake designs soon to come!!

Winter Lovin

I can't believe it has been so stinkin' long since I have not only posted but made a cake!! For an update we are still in limbo as far as where we are going to live.  Everything is still packed so of course that makes all things caking difficult.  It is my new years resolution to get back on top of creating and posting.  I still love love love making cakes so motivation is definitely not a problem ;)

Congrats Sally and Zach (pictured here with my only December cake)!! They recently got engaged and luckily I was able to find out about it before he popped the question.  I was able to surprise them with this cake on the same day as their engagement. They are such a cute couple and I absolutely love this picture.

I wanted the cake to be simple but cute so I opted to try out my piping skills again with this design.  I really love how it looks and will work on getting the dots more uniform and in straighter lines next time.  Red and pink do happen to be my fav colors but what better colors to use to celebrate love and Christmas in one ;) Oh and I forgot to mention how nervous I was giving this cake to Sally because she is a culinary student and makes way better goodies than me by far ;) Hopefully I didn't remind her too much of why people should go to culinary school instead of trying to teach themselves.... Again, congrats Sally and Zach!