A question for you!

Okay. I have some projects lined up and two of them are falling pretty close together. I have to work with limited time due to the kids and often need several days to make all the fondant and buttercream before I even start baking the cake and putting it all together.

I have a quick question. Those of you who have traveled with kids know you have to take everything but the kitchen sink with you. My daughter's food needs often involve packing extra items as well. Meaning...limited car space.

In this situation, where you had a cake to make for a locale that is hours away. Do you:
A) Bring some supplies, have nothing made (well maybe the icings premade) and work with what your friend has when you get there...doing the whole cake (baking, icing, covering, stacking, decorating) in one day and one night.
B) Make the whole cake ahead of time, cover it in fondant, decorate what you can (and finish decorations/stacking at locale) and balance it on your lap in a cake box the whole drive (keeping in mind this would put the cake done a day and a half early and make for no hand freedom to check on the kids during the drive).
C) Bake the cakes, make the icings and just bring them and supplies with you to the location where you fill, ice, stack and decorate.

Honestly...I have NO idea which would be best...I keep rolling it all around in my head. The last time I did this, made a cake for an event out of town, I did it all ahead of time but drove to the event (only an hour away) right after finishing the cake. I'm a little scared. My hubby thinks I should do it all there. But with the kids, their needs, the time constraints/locale constraints...it just concerns me to wait and do it all at once. Not to mention packing cake pans, cake divider, plus icings (premade) and all my fondant working supplies.

Any thoughts??? Hmmm? I don't have the luxury of an empty backseat or trunk to stick a no slip mat or anything cool like that...the one car with a full backseat and trunk. Doesn't leave much room for...well...much.

Please share any ideas! I'd REALLY appreciate it!

Blessings!

Birthday Dragon

I made this cake to enter in the Creative Cakes Competition. I'm hoping to win something! :)

Either way I had fun learning to carve freehand!! I carved all of this from a cake I had frozen that I didn't use for my "Wedding Birthday Cake". I carved the halved egg, whole egg, and dragon's torso from it and used mini cupcakes to make his neck which I glued onto his torso with buttercream. It was easier than I expected!! I have always been a little scared to lunge at cake with a knife, but it is not as scary as I thought and produced some great results!



The cake was a layer of vanilla and a layer of chocolate with buttercream and decorated entirely in marshmallow fondant and buttercream foliage. The toadstools are mini cupcakes stuck together.

I freehand sculpted his head (UGH this is can be so frustrating!) and made a party hat out of fondant too. I stuck his head in with a toothpick. Maybe not so sturdy in the long run, but for a quick pic and a cake that's going to be cut apart minutes later...it didn't matter much. lol.



He has a tail which you can't see in the first pic! I wish I could get a great pic and show everything, but alas it is not always possible!!!!


Hope you like it!!!!

Blessings!

Birthday Fun

Tomorrow is my birthday! Yippee! So I wanted to make a cake to celebrate. My hubby was a little confused by this concept, but hey...I enjoy it and it's my birthday so I pick what I want right? :) There's no point in him making me a cake since I love doing it so much.

I REALLY, REALLY wanted to do a wedding cake, but given my resources, young children and the fact my son cut 3 molars in 4 weeks...I had to let it go.

So I opted to do a tiered cake.

These designs I tried for fun.

I did one design---took a pic--- and then did another, took a pic and finally finished with something wedding-esque.

Overall my technique is lacking and I've got a LONG, LONG way to go before I can make a tiered cake that is both well designed and technically proficient; but I thoroughly enjoyed playing around with it.

PURPLE! It's my favorite color so this was especially exciting...hehe.

I really like the final one, but I think I would have just hearts on the top made out of gumpaste. I didn't actually have gumpaste so they are fondant...and I didn't decide to do this design until last minute which meant they weren't dry so I had to prop them up with some ribbon roses. I think if it was a wedding cake I would have done them in gumpaste, let them dry and had them bigger.

Nothing like a little cake experimenting to make for a happy birthday! :O)

Blessings!

Oh BOY!

Here are two baby shower cakes I made...simultaneously. I must be CRAZY. However, I was worried that the bassinette cake would not be enough since my great bassinette hood experiment of '09 failed miserably and I had to deconstruct and rebuild the back of my cake. So...here they are!




This Bassinette cake was chocolate cake with oreo buttercream and fondant decorations. The hood was entirely rice krispie treats covered in fondant.



This round cake was vanilla with chocolate buttercream and fondant decorations. I really enjoyed these cakes in spite of all the stress I put on myself trying to do two cakes in a short span of time. Otherwise I think Baby Shower Cakes are lots of fun to experiment with design wise.

Thanks for looking!

Blessings!

Shower of Roses

"I will let fall a shower of roses. I will spend my heaven, doing good on earth."
-St. Therese of Lisieux

My husband and I have a special devotion to St. Therese and we recently finished a novena to her for intercession for a special need. My husband had mentioned wanting to see roses as a sign of our prayers being heard and I started thinking roses...watched a tutorial and then made this cake. I hope you like it! It's certainly not perfect but I was SO excited my fondant non-ribbon roses came out well. I threw in a few ribbon roses too, just because I like them.



It's a chocolate cake with a chocolate butter cream frosting and all fondant decorations.

It's in honor of St. Therese and in thanksgiving for her intercession and all the blessings the good Lord has showered on my family.

Blessings to you!

Give Me Liberty!!!!!!

Happy Independence Day!!! As a way to say Happy 4th to all you wonderful bloggers, here's a stars and stripes cake to help you celebrate!!!


Of course...you can't eat it. But it is all the right colors and symbols....even if you can't dig your teeth into it's vanilla-y goodness.

The intent to wish you a Happy 4th of July is still there!

I took a few pics of the process of making the stars...

I cut out the corner first.

Lined up stripes I cut using a pizza cutter.

Then lined up my star cutter on top of the whole thing and cut it out.

I put some water on a white star and (using a spatula) transferred the flag shaped star onto the white star. Then I cut it out with a knife into a little bit of a larger star. The end result is neat!

I was so happy with this design!

My hubby is such a huge fan of our great country...and oh so PATRIOTIC...I mean our house looks like we should be having a party for Independence Day. We aren't. But at least there is cake! He's happy about that.

A lovely Independence Day to all my American Comrades and a blessed day to all!

"Fruit" Cake

I'm working on an Independence Day Cake, but thought I'd post this today since I haven't posted in a while.

Here's a picture of a "fruit cake" that I made for my mom's birthday. She's on a major Weight Watchers kick and refuses to eat much of anything as tasty as real cake so I made her one out of fruit! :)



I used canteloupe and watermelon for the base of it and pineapple, strawberries and grapes for the decorations.

Blessings!