Happy Birthday to... my blog!

One year ago today, on a whim, I started this little blog o' mine.  I never, ever thought anyone other than a few family members or friends would read it.  Now, one year later, this little blog has reached all 7 continents!  I'm still shocked and amazed on a daily basis.  Thank you!!!

Happy First Birthday to my blog! 

To celebrate, here's a recent birthday cake I made. 

This cake had so many little details for the birthday man.  Some of this birthday man's favorite things are his fast car, his Vegas casinos, golf, and his dogs. 

In case you're wondering, it is all edible.  The only things that couldn't be eaten were the support dowels and the cake board.  The cake itself is Vanilla Pound Cake with Vanilla Buttercream.

Here's a little close up of the poodles, the birthday man and his golf clubs, and the edible sugar glass windshield.

A big thank you to J, who let me know that this cake was a big hit at the party.  I LOVE hearing back from clients!

Happy Birthday, Charles, and Happy 1st Birthday to this little blog o' mine.

Wine Bottle Cake

Who wants some homemade Georgia wine? 

Oh wait, that bottle's not real....

This cake was made for a very special birthday man.  A man who turned 90 years old this October and AND he makes his own wine. 


He must have a whole lotta people who love him because this cake was MASSIVE.  No, seriously, it served 60 people by my standards (and easily served 100 by industry standards... have I mentioned my cakes are made for cutting big slices? I don't skimp on servings).

The granddaughter of the birthday man contacted me about this cake.  She had a few details she wanted on the cake but the rest was up to me.  Here's some of the details...



"Vintage 1920" label



The label reading "Aged to Perfection 90 Years"



The bottle top with an "H" for Howard on it.  This actually wasn't a request, I just had to add it.

The cake itself was made to look like a storage crate for the wine bottle and was vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream.  The details, including the bottle, were made out of fondant and modeling chocolate.  The "leather pouch" the wine bottle rested in was fondant and dusted with spices.  Everything written was hand-painted with food dye.  Everything was edible. 

 

That's the first of the latest fun cakes I've been working on.  I have several more to post and several more coming up so I'll post them as soon as I can.  Just keep checking back!

Mini Tote Bag Cake

What better way to celebrate being in the thick of a HOT, HOT summer than with a beachy tote bag cake? 

And, since we're in the (beautiful, peachy, amazing) South, it's monogrammed, y'all!

This cake is peanut butter pound cake with chocolate ganache.  Ummm... can you say peanut butter cup?  So stinkin' good.

Happy Summer to all of you.  I hope your Summer is filled with lots of fun (and beach trips with cute tote bags). 

LOST cake

Unless you've been hiding under a rock, you know that ABC's much-loved series LOST has ended.  I think there was as much pomp and circumstance for this finale as there is for Super Bowl games.  Seriously, if you watched it, you know that even the commercials were LOST-themed.  Craziness. 

So, I was so very, very excited to get an order for a LOST finale party cake a few weeks ago.  I literally started coming up with ideas for this cake as soon as it was mentioned.  I quickly realized I was very much lost (ha ha) regarding LOST after not watching it for awhile.  But, hey, did you know that there is even a LOST-themed wikipedia?  AND IT WAS ON LOCK-DOWN from public editing so no one would spoil the show's ending.  Seriously.  I COULD NOT BELIEVE the amount of information on the internet published by the show's viewers!  And oh, the theories spinning around!  Geez. 

After a whole lot of planning and days of work (on the decorations. The cake itself was fresh!), here's the cake....

I tried to be as accurate as possible with the shape of the LOST island and the placement of all of the decorations according to where each incident happened/area was on the actual show. 

The cake order included three requests: the plane crash, the black smoke that kills people, and the recurring mysterious numbers from the show. Can you find them all?

I hid the numbers on the back of the DHARMA vans as "license plates."

The ruins of the four-toed statue and the tail-end crash site for the plane.

Everything was edible!

I had a whole lot of fun making this cake but was very glad to deliver it and get it out of my sight but only because, being a bit of a "cake perfectionist", I could have kept working on it for days and I would have still found things I wanted to fix. 

After years of digging in the dirt, traveling way too much, and always trying to make clients happy in an unhappy "business world" (more on that later, if you're interested), I LOVE what I get to do and feel so incredibly blessed.  I can't explain how good it feels to see someone smile when they see their cake.  Here's hoping I keep producing smiles. 

Purse Cake

This was for my beautiful mother-in-law for her birthday! She has some purses any woman would covet so I thought this was only appropriate.

The cake is red velvet with fondant overlay and edible silver dust on the "zipper."

I learned a lot from this cake about working with cream cheese icing and fondant overlay. (It's tricky!)

Happy Birthday to my sweet Mother-in-law! Thank you for all that you have done and do for your kiddos and me. I love you!

Dog Cake

It's a dog's life.

I think each time I make a cake, it becomes my *favorite one.* Again, I had too much fun making this cake. There is something to be said for pursuing your dream and how it makes every aspect of your life better...

Anyways, back to the cake. This birthday cake was for a dog lover. The wife of the birthday boy contacted me and wanted to surprise her husband with a cake that looked like his beloved dog. I should have scanned the photo she brought me but, of course, I didn't think about it at the time. Anyway, you'll just have to trust me that this looks like their dog.

(Yes, this dog "enjoys his food")

Fido on his favorite blue banket. Happy Birthday, Mr. C.! Hope she surprised you and I hope you liked it.