My Mother's 50th Birthday Cake

I thought I had  gotten to the point where I was comfortable making gumpaste shoes. Turns out maybe not so much! My mother was about to celebrate a milestone birthday and a cake involving shoes would be perfect for her because she absolutely LOVES shoes!!! Another one of her loves is Coach purses so I decided to try my hand at one.

The shoe process started off as it normally did. Cutting a shape from a template , making the heel and letting them dry for a week. I added the piece for the ankle strap at the beginning of day 3. So far so good.

 I started to finish the shoe the day before her birthday.

Problem #1. When it came time to attach my heel I found that I had made it a bit shorter than it needed to be. Problem #2. The sole of my shoe broke in 3 pieces. I made repairs using black candy melts. I was hoping no one would notice once the shoe was completed.

The cake was made using the method I learned in my class at Cakegirls. She loved the cake! So much so she refused to cut it. I had to buy one from a store so the guests would have something to eat at the party.

Recent Work

Hello everyone!! Here are a few pictures of some of my recent work. I try to get pictures of everything but I must admit I am a horrible procrastinator (I'm working on it, I swear) and often end up working right down to the very last second so photo shoots aren't always possible.

Christina's 21st Birthday cake- This is my favorite shoe so far. I feel like I'm finally getting the hang of this gumpaste shoe thing and my next one will be a bit more advanced.

Daijah's 13th Birthday-

Daijah's mom was buying her a new cellphone for her birthday and I came up with the idea of using the new phone as her cake design.This has to be one of the easiest cakes I've made. The screen and keyboard are an edible image purchased from Gogo Cake. I carved the cake a bit to resemble the shape of the phone,covered it in fondant and place the image on. Very simple and very effective.

Recital Cookie Favors-

I picked up this adorable ballet slipper cutter from ecrandal. I LOVE their cutters!!!

Did I mention ecrandal is having a sale???

Gorgeous copper cutters at great prices!

I have my eye on about a dozen designs that I simply must have ;-)

Mortar Board Cupcake Topper Tutorial

Graduation season is upon us. Geez, where did the time go?? A choir teacher at a local high school in my area wanted to treat her graduating seniors with a little something sweet. Here's a simple and quick tutorial for making mortar board cupcake toppers.

Finished cupcakes

Some with little music notes for the choir members

Recent Work

Back to my slacker tendencies!! Here are some of recent photos that I haven't posted.

Michael Jackson cake and cookie favors

Baby Boy Shower Cake and Cookie Favors

30th Birthday Bling Cake

Created for a childhood friend of mine. One of the most simple cakes I've made. The banding provides most of the decor and I added a few simple ribbon roses.

I finally made cake pops after years of drooling over the fab creations by Bakerella.

Monkey Boy Baby Shower and mini cupcakes

Dunkin Donuts Cake accented with a doughnut cookie

My First Cake Class

Up until Saturday March 27, 2010 every single thing I knew about cakes was learned via Internet and books but I felt it was time I got more hands on training. Culinary school... hmmm, so not in my budget right now. Wilton classes.... No! I wanted something a bit more advanced than that. So I started stalking.. I mean browsing my favorite cake designers sites when *gasp* I saw that Cakegirls offers classes!!!! I called and left a message with all of my contact info. Georgia ,who handles runs the office promptly called me back to finalize all the details. I was so excited!! That morning I made it to the bakery early. I even had time to run to the Starbucks across the street :-) By the time I got back there was one of the other students already inside (darn, I wanted to be the first one there). While we waited for the other six ladies I took pictures of all the cake designs I had been gushing over.

                     Including this little beauty that I've always admired. I didn't even know they made it.

Finally all of the others arrived and out comes Brenda Maher who is seriously one of the sweetest people you could ever meet. After a quick tour of the bakery she the class starts. Everyone is given supplies such as an apron, spatula, 10" square cake, super sharp knife (I have the scar to prove it),templates,etc.

During the course of 3 hours we learned carving, stacking, filling , how to cover a cake in fondant, painting on a cake, and some other many other tips.

Mary (the other half of Cakegirls) did pop in to finish a cake she was working on but I didn't get a picture.

My Finished Cake!!!

I had such an amazing time at my class on that Saturday and was truly saddened by the events that took place on Monday March 29,2010. The apartment above the bakery caught fire and the building was completely destroyed but fortunately everyone escaped the building without injury. 

To help their employees bridge the gap they're selling t-shirts while they try to rebuild. If you'd like to help purchase one here.

What's New, Cupcake?

Hello everyone! I'm sure by now you've all heard about the release of  Karen Tack and Alan Richardson's new book What's New, Cupcake?: Ingeniously Simple Designs for Every Occasion.

Those little ducks are so darn cute I wanted to buy the book just because of the cover. I must tell you it only gets better once you get past the cover. The April Fool's section is my favorite. It features everything from pound cake french fries and faux foot longs. The authors have  outdone themselves.

I can't wait to get started on some of these designs. Wait, what's that? You wanna join in on the fun? Ok,ok you don't have to twist my arm. I'm giving away a copy of the book!! All you have to do is leave a comment and you email address. The winner will be choose randomly on Friday April 9,2010 at 5:00pm CT. What are you waiting for?? Post those comments :-)

Sorry, US residents only.
Contest is now closed. Thank you for all those who entered!! The winner is ...... Red30!!! Congratulations

Little Black Dress Cookie

Last month I celebrated my 30th birthday with a small group of my closest friends and family. My party theme was little black dress. My invitations were these darling clutch purse made by Kee2Creativity and they featured lbd's on the insert so naturally I wanted to carry that theme through to the rest of the details including the favors.  

I was inspired by a design I saw in the book Cake Chic by Peggy Porschen and instantly fell in love. The book is filled with one gorgeous design after another. There were a couple obstacles in my way. First there was finding the cutter. Now I am all for making templates and hand cuttting cookies but this particular week I had so much on me that I just wanted to keep things as simple as possible. I posted a picture of Peggy's cookie design on flickr with hopes that someone could help me track down a cutter and sure enough the incredibly talented Glory of Glorious Treats came to my rescue. She suggested this great company called Ecrandal. High quality cutters and excellent customer service!! Thank you so much Eric and Jamie!

Ok, so I have this gorgeous new cookie cutter and I still have one more problem.  Peggy's cookie was absolutely stunning and had gorgeous piped royal icing details. Royal icing and I have a love/hate relationship. It just never seems to work out for me. For my version of the cookie I chose to go with rolled fondant instead. You simply use the cookie cutter to cut the fondant and place it on a warm cookie. I added a few details to the neckline and skirt and added a bow using real ribbon.

They turned out well and my guests were thrilled. My poor little birthday cake suffered major damage in transit and I didn't get any pictures before that incident. Dispite the cake fiasco a great time was still had by all.