Starting anew...AGAIN!

It is a new year and things are about to get into full swing here! My school year is going to start next week. I will be schooling my 11th grader, 8th grader, 4th grader, and 1st grader. WOW! Even I am nervous, a veteran homeschooler of 13 years, as I started with the oldest was 3!

Today marks the start of renewed nutritian and renewed commitment to self mastery. Here goes everything!!!

All Good things come to an end...

As off this last batch of goodies, the cake fundraiser is over!

I guess it just stopped being fun with this cake. I was all excited to make the coolest sweet 16 cake I could for a dear friend's daughter. She designed it and everything. I was ready to make her cake dreams come to life...and my personal nightmare to begin. I was trying to make a topsy turvy cake (my first ever!) and it was a disaster. I ended up having the top layer split in two and I proceeded to have a messy, tantrum like melt down! Needless to say, I threw cake all over my kitchen floor and sat down on the floor, covered with chocolate cake, and began to cry (very loudly, in the hopes that Roger, my husband, would wake up to save me from my mess). Roger did not come, but an epiphany did: I was no longer enjoying baking cakes. I would end up eating the left over scraps and before I knew it 20 of the 50 lbs. that I had lost, found their way back onto my butt! Needless to say, I finally snapped last Friday night at 1:00am. But I could not show up that this young ladies house empty handed.

Luckily, as usual, I had over baked. So I turned the chocolate cupcakes into music themed cupcakes. Add a little garnish onto the white fondant cupcakes and went to work on salvaging the bottom layer of the white cake... Here is what I was able to do... I was not at all pleased, but I was exhausted.

So figuring that this just needed to be a freebie...It had gained me my backbone and my courage to say NO TO CAKE!

This is officially the end of my cake baking fundraiser. I will probably still make a cake here or there, but I doubt it. I think I will give the glory and the fun to cake decorating back to my daughters. I will go back to scrapbooking and cardmaking...at least no extra calories are consumed there!!!

Surfs up! Wedding Cake

Every wedding cake should truly tell a story. It should tell the story of the married couple or of how they are connected. This cake tells the story of Rob and Anne, avid surfers and lovers of the beach and the ocean. I hope my cake pays tribute to their love and the long life that God is going to grant them together. Here is to you, Rob and Anne!!!

A special thanks to my dear husband who stayed up all night with me cutting dowel and making the shortboard and the longboard to use as props. And, of course, Thank You GOD! for helping me to transport the cake safely and to keep the whole thing from falling apart and just becoming a complete fiasco!!!

Snake cake

I guess you know you really like someone when you want to scare the snot out of that person for their birthday. Well, that is the case for my latest creation. My coral snake cake. I honestly wish it had turned out better, but I think it is a valiant effort for a first time project!
I hope my friend and her co-workers enjoy this sweet creation.

The snakes coils are chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and the head, tail and small rocks are white cake with white frosting.

The dirt is a combination of oreos, vanilla oreos, and chips-a-hoy cookies.

Treasure chest

I guess we moms are notorious for putting way too much pressure on ourselves. I was so very disappointed with this treasure chest cake. I wanted to prop up the lid of the box and have candy jewels flowing out of it...Unfortunately, I could only find ring pops and no cany necklaces or chocolate money. Then my grand idea of covering the top of the chest with chocolate fondant over white cake kind of fell apart...so I just had to make do.
Kevin surprised me this morning when he ran up to me and gave me a big hug saying, "Mom, that is the coolest pirate's treasure chest ever."

The hug was so genuine. He really loved his cake and his party. It is so easy to give your kids good things when they are so grateful. What a blessing to have a happy loving son! May God continue to open his heart to the love we have for Kevin (Nate, Em, and Kate).

Happy Birthday to my wonderful 8 year old treasure hunter!!!

Mini cakes and streams

In a perfect world, we make no mistakes. Well, my world is far from perfect. While making the baby shower cake last weekend, I "figured" my cake batter incorrectly and had a really really small 8" cake. I decided to hand it over to Emily to deal with and start over on the baby shower cake. This was what she did with her 4 year old little brother...

Too Cute!

To make some $$$ at the dance studio, I had a little cake display with mini cakes. These were WAY harder than I ever imagined. I tried it thinking it would be fun. As with all projects, the first few were fun, the rest were WORK!

When I try this again...and I will. I will freeze my cake, then cut it into mini cakes, then frost them frozen, let them come to room temperature, and finally add fondant...

Here is my display! Hope you have a great weekend! Near the end of the month keep your eyes on the blog for a snake cake and a fun penguin themed cake, as well as a treasure chest...Oh the fun creations we have in store for you!

Wild about Baby Showers

I am not sure if Emily and Katie are going to talk to me tomorrow after all the work I made them do tonight! My poor slave labor (I mean, dancers who are fundraising by making cakes!) helped me to make over 24 animal heads and 2 full fondant sculptures. I was very pleased with how they turned out and hope that my friend enjoys them as much as we like them!

Here is the 9" round three layered white cake with raspberry preserve filling:

Katie made the lion and Emily made the monkey. I think they turned out darling!

Here is another Katie creation, the giraffe on the side of the cake.

Monkey up close! I love his little banana!

Katie's little lion is darling too!

The only thing left is to get it to my customer in one piece!!!