Babies, babies, babies!

They say spring time is when the majority of kids are born. I'd never know that based on the orders for baby showers (not to mention the people I know who are expecting!)

I must confess I'm a softy and think nothing is more awesome then a new little person being born into this world, therefor these shower cakes are my favorite to make!

This shower cake was done for a friend and made with simple yet elegant polka dots. The silhouette was made using chocolate. Simple and elegant.

Yo Gabba Gabba

Today I finished this cake. I also was blessed enough to be the one who made Henry's first birthday cake.
I was really excited about making this one, since I have never been commissioned to make "Yo" before, and my kids love the show.

As I began on the actual decorating (the little guys were made before hand so that they would dry in this humidity), I couldn't stop singing "There's a party in my tummy, so yummy, so yummy, there's a party in my tummy...."
If you've ever been forced to sit and watch this with your children you'll know it is one of the weirdest, and slightly annoying shows I've ever seen. Kids love it though, and if it buys me time to get things done while they sit glued and singing- more power to it!

Anyway, I had some issues with a few of my gumpaste decorations due to the recent rain and humidity, but other then that I thought it turned out very, very cute.

I hope Henry loves it as much!

When a cake goes wrong.....

Some weeks you just want to stay in bed, when "Old man Trouble" comes a knocking, it can knock you down, or you can get up and keep fighting.

This week has been one of those weeks here in our family. Everything seems to be breaking. First, the camera, then my phone (it's my business cell!!) and last, my car.... while driving with all 4 of my kids on a very busy road during rush hour.

When trouble comes a knocking we can choose to embrace it and see what we may learn, or we can choose to become frantic and throw in the towel- probably securing more trouble to come your way!

Thankfully, the troubles I've had have not been business related. That is a fear every cake person has, after all, we are only human- and although we can do our best to work with the elements to create wonderful things...... sometimes things just happen. Out of our control.

My worst nightmare would be a wedding. You only have one day and you want it perfect. It would be awful to have a disaster with one of my wedding cakes!

I am pleased to say (humbly however,) that I have never had something happen that I could not repair. I have however had many cakes in which my vision in my head, and what actually works, turns out differently.
One such cake is this 3D Elmo. this was the first one I had ever done, and the piping on his fur took me 6 hrs to complete! Talk about hand cramps! Numerous things didn't work on this design.
When I took him out the day of delivery, his mouth had "fallen" from a cute smile into a shocked "Oh my goodness" look. There was absolutely nothing I could do to help him smile. It was a disappointment for me although I did get a great response from the client.

Maybe we have things happen so that we can learn from them and we should (I should) learn to embrace the unexpected better. After all I'm not the one in control!

It's official!

Yes, it's official!

School is back in and this year we hit another milestone in my home: 3, yes 3, of my children are in school this year. I have a Kindergartner again! Only 1 left with me at home- THIS is big!

In honor of my little girl becoming a "big kid" we are heading out to a new cup cakery in Overland Park called Smallcakes, where my big kid will get to choose the cupcake of her choice. I love getting to see what other bakers do too :)

Since we are honoring this milestone in my house with a cupcake I thought it only fitting to also inform you that the Guinness Book of World Record's recorded the World's biggest cupcake yesterday. This has not been an easy feet. Duff Goldman of Charm City cakes and the hit show "Ace of Cakes" had won the title only to be later stripped of it. So my hat is off to the awesome team that pulled off this monstrous cake!
I'm posting the story below:

Cruise cupcake proves that bigger is better

By CECIL ANGEL
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

At 13 Mile and Woodward in the Firestone’s parking lot Ryan Abood’s triple vanilla cupcake with a pink topping made it into the Guinness Book of World Records.

The 1,224 pound cupcake was a curiosity to many revelers and passers-by at the Dream Cruise, some of whom stopped to have their picture taken next to it, or to munch on the samples.

The 7–foot cupcake was a fundraiser for Passionately Pink for Cure, a program of Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

Abood’s company, GourmetGiftsBasket.com, pulled off the feat with help from Merengue Bakery Café of California and Jensen Industries in Whitmore Lake that loaned them their oven, which generally is used to bake the wings of aircraft.

The cake, which took 12 hours to bake, contains 700 pounds of batter, which includes 800 eggs, 200 pounds of sugar and 200 pounds of flour.

“It’s estimated to be around 2 million calories,’’ Abood said.

Life on the farm

One of the most popular cakes I have ordered is the farm cake. Chalked full of bright primary colors- it is indeed a cute one and pretty darn fun to make.

I think one reason we get so many of these is that there is a popular free farmstead in our area that is a blast to visit. Did I mention it's free??

Summer is winding to an end, and leave/pumpkin cakes become pretty popular soon, but for now, I am loving the colorful farm animals I get to make reminiscent of days when you owned your own garden, and animals for food.

The cake I'm posting today is one I made trying to mix it up while keep the cake that the client desired.

Sonic the Hedgehog

This cute 3D cake was done for a little boy who loves the famous games.

It was fun (and a bit challenging) to make- entirely out of cake!

He feeds about 40 people, and boy was his head heavy.

So here are a few interesting Sonic facts that I thought you may want to know. I pulled them off the web. I mean useless information may one day become useful...... right?

1. Sonic is blue, (sorry, couldn't resist!)
2. Sonic's birthday is the 23rd of June.
3. Sonics favorite food is chili dogs
4. Sonic's motto is, "i don't look back, i've got no regrets, cause time don't wait for me i choose to go my own way."
5. Sonic grew up in the emerald hill zone.
6. Sonic can't swim.
7. Sonic's sneakers were designed by professor Kintobor, (Dr robotnik before he went evil!)
8. The chaos emeralds were once twelve instead of six, (excluding the grey "control" emerald.
9. Sonic can travel faster than the speed of sound.
10. Sonic's favorite drink is cola
11. Sonic was once an ordinary brown hedgehog.
12. Sonic is better than Mario. Period.
13. Sonic's theme song is called "It doesn't matter"
14. Sonic two was one of the biggest selling games of all time.
15. Sonic has NO brothers and sisters, apart from in the blasphemous series Sonic Underground, which was shit and gay and a million other negative things.
16. Sonic has had four TV series based on him, and one anime movie.

Shark week!

We've been watching lots of Discovery channel this week. You see, it's Shark week-- where the network decided that they'd try to scare everybody on the planet away from the oceans of the world.

I suppose for some it is fascinating, but for me me it's just downright terrifying. My hubby is an ocean lover and dreams of one day soon living on a remote island, where he can dive, surf and eat ocean creatures to his hearts desire. He seems to think that watching these "fascinating" shows will one day get me on board for his dream- ha! I love the BEACH- but that's where the love stops. I am a land- mountain lover.

I had an interesting order for a 16 yr old girls birthday recently. I never asked the story behind this but I guess this girl is one who loves great whites and finds them fascinating. Either that or dad was playing a really mean joke to help her ring in her big day!
This cake is as close to a shark as I hope I ever get.... and after watching the creatures all week, it was also spot on realistic, if I do say so myself!

Corporate cake

What a week! Last week we decided on a last minute vacation to see family in TN. I had to shift all of my cakes that were due last weekend and I very much appreciate those who were willing to allow me to make their cakes a little earlier then first planned.

The break was much needed for my hubby who's been stressed at work lately.

We've found driving at night is the only way to go with 4 kiddos in the car, less stops, less whining, less fighting!

Before we left I had this corporate cake due. Make to look just like the company's logo ( a forklift).

The cake were make using sheet cakes, then carved. Logo cakes aren't SUPER exciting and are rarely adorable, but this cake turned out great and the company loved serving it to their clients.