April Flowers

Addie's April Flowers

This window box cake was made for a sweet little girl named Addie.  She had a beautiful third birthday party on a rare sunny morning at our neighborhood park.  This cake was made for alot of people but, of course, there were still leftovers!  My biggest challenge on this one was too many helpers.  I couldn't do without them but there are times, like putting on the last touches that it would have been nice if I had sent them all to the park too!  My youngest loves watching me but eventually can't stand that I am giving all my devoted Mommy attention to someone else's cake! 

This was a yellow cake with strawberry mousse filling and a buttercream frosting under my very own homemade fondant.  I used flower molds to make the white chocolate lollipop flowers. 

My little birthday girl seemed happy with her cake but was already looking droopy at her party and fell asleep before the cake was cut.  I was so sorry to hear she spent her birthday weekend sick in bed.  Hope you are feeling better Addie!

Easter Hat

Lilies and Roses and Daisies...oh, my!

The Pacific Northwest had it's first sunny morning here after a gloomy, wet 45 days.  The light streaming through my clean windows inspired the soft, happy colors of my second Wilton class cake final.  My flowers did not make it to class but I didn't think it was a big deal until I came home to place them on the cake by myself.  It was lot harder than I thought it would be to get the look I wanted without the benefit of my instructor's experience.


Can you find the hand painted blue butterfly?

Maddie couldn't resist trying it on for size!

All of the spring flowers and the bow were made of a mixture of fondant and gumpaste.  I tinted the pale rose petals with pink luster dust and covered the centers of the pink daisies and lilies with yellow sugar.  I am grateful to Doug for taking the best pictures he could but I was happier with realistic quality of the fragile flowers more than his camera phone captures.  White almond sour cream cake with raspberry filling was hidden underneath the fondant straw hat.  Happy Easter!

"I miss my jeans!"

Emily's Country Music Birthday Cake



It is always hard to make the first cut!

 I had so much fun making this jeans cake for my niece Emily who is expecting her first baby in June.  I was told she enjoys listening to country music lately and that her favorite colors are pink, green and blue.  A picture of this cake immediately popped into my head.  I vividly remembered how I felt around my seventh month of pregnancy....I really missed my jeans.  Emily told me she actually loves her cute and comfortable maternity jeans but I think she liked the cake anyway. 

This cake was very rich and really needed the yummy ice cream Julia brought to go with it.  It was chocolate with raspberry filling and a chocolate buttercream frosting (enriched with chocolate ganache) under the homemade fondant.  My friend Robin came over to 'help' me with the fondant and ended up doing just fine on her own!  One of these days I will get it right all by myself.  I was able to use the pink gumpaste carnation that I learned to make in my new Wilton class.  We had a wonderful girls night eating, chatting, and celebrating.  Happy Birthday Emily!

Beautiful Bling

Beautiful Bling Birthday cake for my sister Amy!

Happy Birthday Sis!

Inspiration for this cake design came from the softly styled, beautiful paintings that my sister Amy and her husband collect in their home.  I also wanted to make a cake that would honor her generous heart and sense of style so I chose to make fully-blossomed white chocolate roses and a bit of bling.  Since Amy is hard to please when it comes to cake, I had a challenge on my hands.  I felt that my experimental cake recipe paired a sweet, subtle flavor with a moister, lighter texture than my other banana pound cake.  My first attempt at chocolate ganache was a test of patience but sooo yummy, especially with cheesecake mousse filling.

I couldn't have completed the cake jewelry without my Dad's handy touch with the wire, it was pretty stubborn.  Finally, with help from Amy's daughters as well as my own, we blinged out the cake with pink dragonfly pendants, pink swirled chocolate shavings, and shiny sugar crystals to represent a girl's best friend...diamonds.  Happy Birthday Beautiful Girl!  I love you, Amy! 

Mom chose the dragonfly pendants which were gifted to Amy and her two

 daughters to wear as necklaces...after we licked off the chocolate ganache of course! 



Finally!



Buttercream Rose Garden Wilton Class Final Cake
Happy Half-Birthday Janae!



Bragging rights go to Kimi for sewing my apron!



Finally, my daughter Janae can stop telling people she didn't get a birthday cake!  This is her replacement cake for the year she complains to her friends about.  I decided to dedicate my final cake for my Wilton Cake Decorating class to her as a half-birthday cake.  She helped me design it by choosing the funfetti cake flavor, buttercream colors, and suggesting the gold dust on the white roses.  The idea for a pistachio pudding mousse filling was all me and pretty as spring with the purple frosting.  My very first Wilton rose, and my personal best is in the center.  A classy class certificate and my new AMAZING apron make it official now: I have joined the ranks of happy home cake decorators everywhere!    

Academy Award



Best Hostess Oscar goes to Julia!

Doug scored!

And the Oscar goes to.... Julia!!!! for hosting the best Oscar's party every year!  After making my Golem cake, I was putting away leftover modeling chocolate and before I knew it, a little Oscar statue had formed in my hand.  I painted him gold and stuck him on top of a chocolate dome cake with red chocolate and gold stars.  The movie strip is also chocolate with luster dust highlights.  Doug won the Oscar for guessing the most awards correctly.  I was caught cheating therefore unable to claim the glory but I was still awarded my share of the chocolate cake!

Golem in the Cake

"Golem in the Gears" Birthday Cake

This cake was commissioned by Richie and Carol for their dad and husband Rick Larson.  We happen to have some of the best neighbors in the world and this family has been my biggest fanclub outside of my kids.  With each new cake attempt, the first thing the kids say is, "You have to show Richie!"  So it wasn't long before they asked me to make a cake for their Dad's birthday, which I was thrilled to do.  Those of you who know my own Dad will understand when I say that I feel great comfort living next door to a man of the same high caliber; they would get along great.  I thought, after all the fun I had making this modeling chocolate woodland scene, that I would have a hard time letting it go, but actually I was very happy to give it to them with my whole heart.  They truly deserve it after putting up with my neclected yard for so long!

The cake theme was taken from Rick's favorite Piers Anthony novel from the Xanth series.  They requested the same Crazy Good Banana Pound cake that I made for the Tangled Tower.  This one had 3 layers because I love any excuse for extra banana cream filling!  The multicolored marshmallow fondant for the book cover was my first attempt at homemade.  I found myself really glad to have so many leaves and figures to cover all my mistakes!  It tasted better than the storebought stuff so I will definitely try it again.  I actually scared myself a little when I finished those piercing eyes on my toad.  I could feel a little empathy for poor Golem Grundy.  I only had a chance to read an excerpt of  "Golem in the Gears" in between making leaves and my baby slug (under the mushrooms on the right), but I think I am going to have to ask to borrow it.

I really meant to keep these blog posts short and sweet, but I can't leave off without giving due credit to my amazing children for keeping up with my mess.  My daughter Janae's skill surprised me when she took over cutting out the letters, made my favorite little curly red leaves, and the icky awesome earthworm.  Also, thanks to Richie and Carol for encouraging me, challenging me, and making me take some of your money!  I really do need more cake $tuff!