Always a Bowl of Cherries

Woah!

2011-05-02T11:12:00.000+02:00

The Kid went to a week long horse camp over spring break. AAAAAAaaaahhhhhHH!!!! Vacation for both of us.
Here is the cake that I made for her last day.

It had a black dog, a rabbit, and a pig running around the bottom of it. Those are some of the other animals she got to play with and take care of over the course of the week.

This was my first time working with marzipan, I used it to make the horse,and it worked out pretty well. One thing I did not expect was that the marzipan would be so oily. I did like the way the shapes held up, and did not sag the way I would expect my fondant to.

Like I told my friends, I was feeling kind of guilty since I did not make The Kid a cake for her birthday last year. But then I think on it, and realize that she gets no reason cakes all year long.

Trying New Things

2011-04-19T07:31:00.001+02:00

So I've been experimenting with some new flavors, you've already seen the Guinness cupcakes. A magazine came out that has tons of flavors I've been wanting to try, including a chocolate peanut butter cup! Yummy!
I have not got that far yet, but I did try:

Orange creamsicle cupcakes.

These were for Lenae's son's birthday. I think they got the thumbs up from almost everyone, except for me and The Kid, but we're cake ~~freaks~~ purists, we both like plain white cake with no frosting.

And I had some leftover chocolate batter from these cupcakes.
So I tried out dark chocolate and orange cupcakes. I just added a hoop more bittersweet chocolate chunks and orange juice and zest to the batter, and used leftover orange creamsicle frosting.
Of course, since I'm an evil enabler, I took them to the gym for my workout partners to taste test.

They cursed me, but they ate them!

Also on the "To Do" list are these delicious sounding Butterbeer cupcakes from AmyBites. Cream soda and caramel...sounds like awesome!

Boys of Summer

2011-04-16T08:34:00.000+02:00

I love baseball, I really do. I don't have a favorite team, I just like watching it played. I think it reminds me of when I was a kid, my brother played for many years, and one of my best friends was on the baseball team in high school.

I've said before that I really like making cakes for men. You can only make so many girly, frilly, children's cakes without going a little nuts. But then maybe that's just me.
**Sidenote: Had a discussion with Sgt. Awesome the other day while we were watching previews for movies. The words that actually came out of my mouth were "Maybe I'm a man because I would much rather see Hall Pass(which looks super dumb) than Sex in the City (which makes me want to gouge my eyeballs out)." So maybe I'm just predisposed to slightly less feminine themes? Who knows. Probably more than you ever wanted to know about me. Sidenote over**

Ok, so what does all this have to do with cake?
Well, I made a baseball themed cake for a man's birthday.

We had originally discussed just cupcakes with the Dodger's logo on each one, but I though that would make me crazy. I'm glad I came up with the pennant idea, it's something I've been meaning to make for Awesome's birthday for some years but he keeps getting the girly white chocolate cake.

I used my cake dying skillz to color the inside of the cake.

I also had to make a template to maximize the cuts in the cake so that I could get the longest pennant shape possible out of two 9X13 cakes. Math makes my head hurt.

Geburtstag!

2011-04-13T10:17:00.000+02:00

None of my German friends has ever had me make them a cake before. I've taken cupcakes to my doctor once or twice, but I've discovered that the thing the Germans really love is Brownies. I don't think that they have anything like that here, so it's really a treat.

Anyway, my doctor has told me that American cakes are too sweet, I guess it's all the frosting.

Anyway, again, one of the teachers at The Kid's school wanted a birthday cake for her mother's 90th birthday. I was told...."She likes roses". That was all. Crap, my rose piping skills are pretty out of date, I don't think I've made a buttercream rose in over 3 years.

So I did the next best thing, I hid my cruddy piping skills with chocolate covered strawberries (another thing I don't think they make here!).

Ok, I guess they're not *THAT* bad.

Mustache March Madness!!

2011-04-02T07:45:00.006+02:00

So, Mustache March is finally over, here is a link to the Wiki. The husband only lasted about two weeks with his lip weasel. It was causing too much distraction at his office, people kept giggling during meetings, not productive.

I started out with these mustache templates I found on The Inspired Bride.

I ended up having to cut them apart to account for the sticks. Here is a photo of a bunch of them piped out in chocolate.

A whole bunch of chocolate 'staches that have set up.

The finished product

The problem with the little sticks is that the 'staches kept twirling around, but overall a great success!

Happy Belated Birthday!

2011-03-21T06:33:00.000+01:00

The Husband's big Four-Oh was on the 4th of this month. Unfortunately for him, he spent it in bed sick with Norovirus. I guess it's going around our area...Awesomesauce!
So, obviously no cake for him on his birthday.
The next week, he went on a trip, so no cake again.
I told him that the only way he was going to get a cake for his birthday was if I could bring it to him at his office. There was no way in processed grains and sugar hell I was going to have a big cake sitting on our dining room table for a week.
So I took it to the office last monday.
I swear, I don't mean to sound like I'm stereotyping, but taking a cake into an office filled with cops is like chumming the water on Shark Week! One person left the office with a slice of cake, and soon enough there was a line out the door!

Anyway, onto the cake.

This is a special cake I only make for him on his birthday. Not the most masculine cake ever to grace these pages, but it was fantastic!

Sgt. Awesome's White Chocolate Strawberry Shortcake, with white chocolate buttercream, fresh strawberries, and white chocolate dipped strawberries.
White chocolate is his favorite obviously. Luckily the strawberries have started to come in to the stores, and they are very nice for this time of the year.

Happy Birthday Mr. Awesome!

St. Patrick's Day

2011-03-17T21:03:00.000+01:00

We started our day with some green eggs and milk! I think that she was somewhat nervous about trying these. It's just food coloring babe!
Here is Steve the Sock Monkey modeling one of the pins I gave out this year.
A fantastic pattern from another outstanding crafter and blogger, Betz White.
I only made one glittery & sparkly one, four guesses who got this one, I only have 4 friends after all....
If you answered Lenae, gold star for you! She was actually pouting because I was handing the pins out to my other 3 friends since I wouldn't be seeing them on St. Patrick's day. Yeah, I made her wait, evil laugh....MWAAAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!

Well, it didn't end there. It ended with St Patrick's Day (night)ZUMBA!!!
I actually bought a pair of green legwarmers, and then when I was cleaning my "closet" I found another pair! So, Teri got my extras.

Lenae and Me rockin' the green fishnets!

I also prepared some appropriate sweet treats for the evening.
Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes, with bittersweet chocolate ganache centers and white chocolate and Bailey's Irish Cream buttercream. I used the recipe I found on Confessions of a Tart! What kind of an awesome blog name is that?!?!?
I didn't use the whiskey in the ganache, and I had some white chocolate buttercream left over from The Husband's birthday cake, so I mixed my Bailey's right into that.
Who knew beer (stout) in cake would be so good?!?

OK, so I managed to work Crafts and Cakes into this post....

I'll round out this St. Patrick's Day post with my favorite Patrick on the CrossFit circut, Patrick Barber. Currently tied at #33 on the Crossfit Open Leaderboard.

Funny Bunny

2011-03-14T07:32:00.001+01:00

Now I can't seem to discover if this bunny is named "Happy Bunny", or "Grumpy Bunny", but I guess it is an entire product line? I know I've seen it before, and it is kind of cute.

Yes....I still suck at taking photos of my cakes...

I would say that this is a pretty happy bunny.

Here is the cute saying that the birthday girl wanted on her cake.

Awesomesauce!

Hear me ROAR!

2011-03-10T19:00:00.000+01:00

Ok, enough diet and exercise nonsense, I know you freaks come here for the cakes.

One of Kidlet's friends had a birthday at the movie theater, and they showed Voyage of the Dawn Treader (this shows how old this cake is). Originally we had wanted to make an actual Dawn Treader cake, but I gave myself a headache just thinking about it.

Finally, a brain fart, and thought I could make a Sir Peter Shield!!

Ta-dah!

Semi-Paleo and Other FitFamily Nonsense

2011-02-23T14:20:00.011+01:00

So since about the first week of January I made a serious dietary change. I (just me, not The Husband, or Kidlet) started trying to eat Paleo. It just seemed the logical progression after getting seriously serious about CrossFit.

Paleo is essentially a high protein, low carb, clean eating lifestyle. I guess it is similar to The Zone, but less structured.

Now for the "But" section. I am not 100% Paleo, I still eat and drink dairy, I use commercial salad dressings and some condiments, I do not consume grass fed beef, Omega-3 eggs, and I eat lots and lots of bacon. I do however try to reduce as much as possible, my intake of processed sugars (no more Coffee Mate), whole sugars, and grain carbs (bread, pasta, rice).

By far the easiest thing to lose was the grain carbs, because they are obvious, and easy to avoid. Sugars however are another thing all together. High Fructose Corn Syrup is The Devil, and as you know, The Devil is in the details. Why is there HFCS in my sausage?????

Anyway, serious changes are afoot in my body! The Husband claims I am calmer, easier to get along with, and generally in a better mood. What the heck? Was I some kind of crazy harpy last year? My clothing is getting loose, I have muscle definition where there once was none, and I now look better in a size medium, than a size large.

Starting at the beginning of this month The Husband decded he would get serious about his diet as well. Here it is, only 23 days in and he has already lost 10 lbs, and is at his target weight, that bas***d!

Starting this week, Kidlet is now eating 2 Paleo-ish meals a day, and regular kid foods for lunch and snacks. She's only 8 and pretty active, I also try to never refer to it as a diet when talking to her, to her, it's just what we eat.

Here is an example of two of our meals for the day.

Breakfast:
Baby bear:
1 scrambled egg with a bit of milk, salt, pepper, and cheese and fresh fruit.

I am curious to know if Kidlet's teacher notices any changes in her as a result of her new breakfast. Does she seem to have more energy, is she less hyper (due to not eating a bowl of Fruit Loops before going to school), is she in general better behaved? Not that these were issues, but I am wondering. Kidlet herself says she feels better, but maybe she knows that's what I want to hear.

Momma Bear:
2 scrambled eggs with pulled pork, leftover roasted bell peppers, and fresh fruit.

I usually drink about 20oz. of water with this meal and take my mulitvitamin, blood pressure medication (which I hope to lose soon!), and fish oil.

Pappa Bear:
3 scrambled eggs with milk, bacon, mushrooms, asparagus, and fresh fruit.

His is in a take out container because I drop it off at his office on my way to the gym. People complain that I'm spoiling him, but honestly it saves us money (a similar breakfast is about $7), and I can make sure he is not cheating on me with toast or pancakes.

Her is a sample of our dinner from the same day.
Baby Bear:
Pulled pork, buffalo mozzarella balls, green salad.

She gets some ranch dressing on her salad, I'm not a monster! Though I've found that if I crumble some Fetta cheese on it, she does not want the dressing. She will either drink a glass of water, milk, or OJ. She used to have a popsicle for dessert, but we talked about how a dessert should be something special, and really not for every night. In the end we compromised, and now I buy frozen berries and keep them in a tuperware in the freezer, and she has a bowlfull after she finishes her dinner.

Momma Bear:
Pulled pork, roasted sweet potatos, tomato mozarella salad, and green salad.

I'll drink a big glass of whole milk with my dinner. People gross out when I tell them I only drink whole milk, I like it, it's kind of a treat.

Pappa Bear:
Roast beef (he does not eat pork), roasted sweet potatos, asparagus & Portobello mushrooms, mozarella & tomato salad, and green salad.

He will usually have a glass of milk too. I try to give him more good fats, and protein in his meal since now he is at a good weight, but trying to build muscle.

Also note that I did not cook two dinners this night, the roast and pork were cooked on the same night, and we ate most of the roast that night. I like to make pulled pork because I like it in my eggs, and on salads, and Kidlet will eat it too.

So there is a sample of my meals. Is it easy to stick to? Yes, after you get over your cravings for sugars and carbs, it's so easy. Do I cheat? Of course!!! Just not every day. We allow ourselves up to 5 "treats" per week, I guess you could treat a whole meal, but I rather treat only one item. For example, if I'm going to Lenae's house for dinner, I call ahead and ask if she is making her awesome salsa, because if she is, I'm going to hold out on my treat until then. But even with this treat, I'm not going to eat a half a bag of tortilla chips like I used to, just a handful. When I get a craving for something sweet, and fruit is not cutting it, I get a 70% or higher cocoa content chocolate bar. Yeah that thing is bitter, but it satisfies my chocolate craving, and I will only want to eat one small square, not the whole bar.

Is this the best diet out there? Who knows, but it is the best diet for me. I think it works because I'm not ever very hungry, and if I am, I have so many things I like that I can eat. Luckily I'm more of a savory person, and not that hung up on sweets.

Up side, I feel like a total winner when I'm at the grocery store. The last time I did my weekly shop, the only things in my cart that were not fruit, veg, meat, or dairy, were garbage bags, laundry detergent, and dryer sheets.

Yes, I was disproportionaly proud of myself.

For the Ladies!

2011-02-18T06:17:00.001+01:00

So Kidlet got her awesome V-day cards again this year, and so, keeping up the tradition I made flower corsages for my friends.

Last year I got snowed in, so had lots and lots of time to work on those. This year it was down to the wire, so I used this tutorial from Heather Bailey. Who is by the way one of the coolest crafters out there in the blog-o-sphere.

I modified her pattern a little bit and added my own touches of flair. A couple of zipper roses, and some fun stacked buttons.

And lots of ribbon of course!

Here is the action shot.

I gave one to my Zumba instructor and she pinned it to her jacket. It did some funky moves whenever we had to shimmy.

V-Day 2011!

2011-02-14T07:00:00.004+01:00

Generally Valentine's day turns into a last minute craftapalooza on the dining room table, and why break tradition, this year was no exception. I have been feeling particularly lazy in the whole crafting department, and we had our swimming championships the weekend before V-Day.

But I managed to pull it together for the kidlet.

This year we went with a combination of last year's card (based on this totally AWESOME tutorial),and this guitar lolli template from Zakka Life. She looks oh so different this year than she did last year.

After some false starts with the jumping action photo (my kid has unfortunately never seen a VanHalen video).

We finally got the shot that we wanted to use.

I digitally cut it out and placed it over a background I found on the internet, and added the text. This year I actually had some photo paper, so I used that, and mounted the pictures on some craft paper.

Next I made the guitar lolli's according to the tutorial, and pushed them through the card near her hand. There was a scale issue, but that's ok, these are for 8 year olds.

Ba-da-BAM!!! The rockin'est Valentine's cards in the 3rd grade!

Minnie Mouse

2011-02-11T07:41:00.000+01:00

Baby Minnie cake for a first birthday party.

Of course I forgot to take a picture of it until after I had moved it into it's transport box.

I just cant resist adding those little choking hazards. But then I guess that the baby is not the only one eating the cake.

And the lovely little dive cake.

I don't know if I should laugh, or be mad!

2011-01-31T12:44:00.002+01:00

Zumba vs. CrossFit
This might not be SFW, I can't remember I was giggling so much.

For the record, I do Zumba on the days I feel too muscle tired to lift, it makes for a nice change, I call it my MetCon day. I have also never ripped my hands from doing too many pullups (mostly because I can't even do one unasisted), and I am on a 70/30 Paleo diet, since I can only drink my coffee with lots of cream, and enjoy the occasional trip to Subway.

CrossFit is kind of a cult though!

Hey There Snoopy!

2011-01-30T16:40:00.001+01:00

My first Snoopy/Peanuts cake, made for a 1st birthday.

The colors here and the Snoopy images came from the plates and decorations that the parents had bought for the party.

I was pretty happy with the doghouse that went on the top of the cake.

There was a Woodstock smash cake that went along with this cake, but I forgot to get a picture of it.

Spangdahlem Combat Fitness Facility

2011-01-27T06:38:00.004+01:00

The CFF is finally opening on base!
From the Fitness Center Facebook page:

Es wird der einzige Beitrag angezeigt.
52D FSS Skelton Memorial Fitness Center
Interested in the Combat Fitness (Crossfit) workout program?
Workouts are scheduled to start Monday January 31. Walk-in hours are Monday-Friday, 0900 - 1100 & 1300 - 1500. *Come-in and workout with one of our certified instructors. Reservations for squadrons may be made by calling 452-6634. PTL's must have proof of certification before reservations can be made.

Combat Fitness Training:
Training will be held on Friday, February 11 @ 0800 in the Combat Fitness building #149. This class is open to all PTL's who have been certified by the HAWC after July 1, 2010. The training is mandatory for all PTL's who wish to lead squadron Combat Fitness classes in building 149 training area.

Combat Fitness Orientation:
Class will be held every Friday starting February 4 @ 1000 (no class Feb 11). *This class is open to all Base ID card holders who would like to use the Wing Combat Fitness workout area. This class will cover equipment, safety, form and different workouts. This class is mandatory prior to use of the CF workout area.

Hours of Operation
Monday - Friday 0600-1800
Closed weekends, holidays, goal/down days

**Note: Active duty has priority

We saw the CrossFit Cert instructors in the gym's office yesterday morning, it was like a celebrity sighting. Of course I had to give The Husband a call, and let him know that if I saw Pat Barber I was going to make a fool of myself. Sadly/luckily he was not one of the instructors. Hopefully interest in the program will be such that they will hold an open Level 1 certification open to everyone.

Inspiring!

2011-01-25T12:12:00.005+01:00

Feeling that New Year's Resolution starting to slip away?

Need some inspiration to get you back on track??

Read this blog:

Mark E. Wallace's Blog
He has not posted in awhile, but his older posts are great.

I'm still chugging along, going to the gym about 8 times a week, vitamins, diet, all that good stuff. I still have not been able to drop the coffee, but I'm almost out of grounds at home, so in a couple of weeks.

I did not post my weight/measurement goals, because it's kind of embarrassing how far away I am from them. Maybe when I reach my goal(s), I'll post the before and after.

Remember, don't make excuses, make sweat!

Do the Hustle!

2011-01-21T06:45:00.000+01:00

A disco birthday cake!
With my best attempt at disco balls. I hope nobody broke a filling on all of those dragees.

The only thing I could really think of was the flashing floor I remember from the TV show Dance Fever with Danny Terio.

I tried to model the age part after the Studio 54 sign, the font is almost right.

Ninja Cat

2011-01-18T07:03:00.000+01:00

I know that the title of this post is Ninja CAT, but what really got me excited was the ZOMBIES!!! I don't know if I've ever gone on about my love for a good Zombie flick. And, you wouldn't be surprised at the lack of requests for me to make a good ole' Zombie cake.

This was a Ninja Cat (made for a lady named Kat) vz. Zombies cake!

EEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

Here are some of my undead parts! (I'm kind of inapropriately giddy here)

More parts, with extra gore!!!

And a wide shot of the whole cake.

The Ninja herself, I didn't get a shot of her tail in here, so it is kind of hard to tell that she is a cat.

One of her victims.

The funny thing about this cake is that I made it on the same day that I made the Louis Vuitton (??) one posted below. If you look closely, you can see that they are the exact same cake, just decorated on two different ends of the taste spectrum.

I'll let you guess which one I like better.

Louis Vuitton

2011-01-15T06:03:00.000+01:00

Who does not love a little bit of Louis?!

I have never made a handbag cake, and I don't know that I ever will, but here is a LV themed cake.

I think that I got the colors down pretty well.

I wish that my bows were a little peppier, but I can never get them to look very fluffy.

I had just happened to pick up a pattern marker from the sewing section of a store to add to my toolbox. It's a good thing that I did because hand marking all of those stiching marks individually would have drove me insane! Hand cutting all those logo shapes was hard enough as it was.

Here is that sad droopy bow again, almost as sad as a bridesmaid's butt bow.

Do you Zumba?!?

2011-01-13T20:22:00.003+01:00

If you're at Spangdahlem, you should!

Ok, so Zumba is not exactly CrossFit, but since my club days are long behind me, this is really the only opportunity for me to get my dance on. For all you Spangdahlemites out there reading check the Fitness Center's Facebook for the schedule. I go with my gang once a week to one of Fiona's AM classes.

If you show up, I'm easy to spot, I'm the sweatiest one there, I seriously think I have a sweat gland problem. Lenae says that Botox can take care of that, do you think Tricare would cover that?

Cars

2011-01-12T08:03:00.000+01:00

So another first. I have never seen the movie Cars, it came out during a period when The Kid refused to watch animated movies. Shark Week on Discovery Channel, yes, talking cars, no.

Anyway, here are some of the characters I know nothing about.

I Heart Adidas

2011-01-07T06:57:00.003+01:00

Here is just another reason that Adidas is my favorite sports brand.

Star Wars, Draft Punk, Snoop Dog, Becks. The only way this could get any more awesome would be for Merry and Pippin to show up dancing and singing The Green Dragon on one of the tables.

My Birds

2011-01-01T08:00:00.000+01:00

So Lenae and my other friends had a squadron Christmas party to go to, and this year it was themed. The theme, was a Masquerade Ball. Lenae was complaining to me about having to wear a mask, and what a hassle it would be, those things never stay on right, what do you do with it when it came time to eat. You can't put it on the table, there is never any room, do you wedge it up on your forehead, what the heck???

So, I had a plan!

Face paint and feathers!!!

Lenae's was the most thought out since her theme was the first one we came up with. A peacock...

Connie was a raven...

Teri was a Firebird...

My flock!

I made each of them different kinds of feather headpieces that coordinated with their makeup and outfits.

I was quite proud of the detail on Lenae's makeup. If she closed her eyes it would look more like the eye of a peacock tailfeather.

Dolphins...Principal's Cake

2010-12-31T09:04:00.001+01:00

Lenae designed a new logo for our Elementary School's spirit wear. Our Principal absolutely loves it and is not putting it on everything that he can.

Naturally when his birthday rolled around, the Vice Pricipal ordered a cake with the new logo on it.

iTouch

2010-12-30T08:04:00.000+01:00

The #1 item on most teen wishlist in the area is an iTouch.

Here is an iTouch cake I did for a 13 year old.

The time and date on display are her birthday and birth time.

It took quite alot of time to get these apps made out.

Luckily I had all of the right colored dragees to make a blinged out iTouch cover.

Heide Red & Black

2010-12-29T08:05:00.000+01:00

Here is a small cake done for an adult's birthday. The overall design was left up to me, I was just given the recipient's favorite colors.

They happened to be red and black.

As a general rule, I don't like to use too much red or black frosting. Both colors take alot, and I mean ALOT of icing dye to get a true color. Grey and sort of dark pink does not really do it for me, it looks very faded and just not right. Anyway, with that much icing dye the taste of the frosting becomes very sharp and bitter. Not really what you want to go for when making cake. Black frosting also tends to turn your mouth and teeth a very strange color.

Using the colored frostings as accents worked out pretty well.
As a note, it does not take as much dye to color fondant, and the taste is rarely affected.

This cake/cupcake combo also ended up on The Cupcake Blog. Woot!

Bakugan Brawl-Day Cake

2010-12-28T08:05:00.000+01:00

I'm brshing off my cake baking doldrums here to post some of the cakes in my backlog.

Here is a very simple cake I made for a Bakugan birthday party.

Super simple, but at the same time, time consuming. All of those flames are indivdually cut out and then hand shaped.

Woo-Hoo!

2010-11-17T12:30:00.001+01:00

I guess I was up on Thecupcakeblog.com this month, or some month, who knows!

My Cupcakes!!!!

Woo-Hoo!!!

Topsy Turvy!

2010-11-12T10:20:00.004+01:00

O-M-G!!!

FINALLY!!! I mean, seriously, finally!!

I put on my big girl decorator pants and attempted a topsy turvy cake again.

For those of you reading from the beginning (I know there are not many of you, but that's ok) you might remember my very first post. My first attempt at a topsy turvy cake was a pure disaster. And since then I've had unintentionally crooked cakes, but not an actual true, meant to be wonky cake.

Until now.....

Ta-DAH!

This was an Alice In Wonderland themed cake.

Really how else should an Alice In Wonderland cake be, but a little off balance.

Granted, there are some areas that could have been improved, and things that I would have done differently. But overall, I am incredibly happy about the way that it turned out.

A very merry unbirthday indeed!

Chill in the Air

2010-11-09T16:17:00.006+01:00

It has finally been getting chilly here in the Eifel. We had been experiencing a pretty nice indian Summer for awhile, but I think that the cold has finally, really arrived.

And, I seem to be on a bit of a scarf kick lately.

Here is my first ever neck warmer/cowl scarf.

This is my absolute favorite yarn. I bought it about 5 years ago at a shop about 3 miles away from the Husband's famiy home in Maine. It's been sitting, waiting for me to make it into something.

Finally! I was winging it, so I did not account for anything like a hole for the button, so that's a FAIL for me!! DOH! So I ended up sewing metal snaps to the back side, and so it snaps on, which works too.

The first day I wore this, one of my friends commented on it, and so I asked her if she would like one too.

Here's hers.
This time I planned ahead a little better, and was able to make the button holes.
It can be worn with both buttons done up

or just one.

Cute! I love the ruffle action.

I also had the time to finish this crochet scarf I've been working on.

I attatched the ends together, so it forms a long loop, I did not add a twist to it like I was supposed to, so the wrong side turns out sometimes. Again, DOH!

It is also a little too long, I think I got carried away, so I might gather a bit of it together to make it ruffly.

This looks like a rather complicated pattern, but it is really a simple fan pattern repeated over and over until you reach the length you desire.

Cold weather I'm ready for you!!!
OK, not really.

Hallow-Weenies 2010!!

2010-11-07T09:14:00.000+01:00

Serious Weenie action here.

Last year Lenae and I spent most of our time on costumes for the kids. This year, we decided to spend more time on our costumes, and allow our children to tag along. Our plans sounded good at first, and then quickly took a turn into what the hell were we thinking territory.

Here we are starting out

The majority of our supplies.

Getting paper mache-ed.

Lenae under our high tech drying lamp.

Fitting my hat.

I somehow escaped the whole paper mache my head thing, and now that I think about it, we probably did not need to do it for Lenae either. Oh well.

Craft foam makes great armor. You can heat it a little and form it to whatever shape you need. Don't heat it too much, and don't heat it before adding whatever under paint embelishments you want....like I did. Check out this tutorial for more information on creating your own craft foam armor.

Here also you see the apalling lack of storage in my kitchen. Though, for a German non-fitted kitchen, I have lots of space, just not alot of storage.

This is Lenae's hat that has been filled with expanding foam. We will cut it down later to form the top.

Any ideas of who we will be?

Keep in mind that we live in Germany, it's not as if I can drive down to Wal-Mart, or Jo-Ann's for a supply run. We had been collecting odds and ends here and there for a year. Our best find was a couple of glittery gold "dresses" from the thrift shop, our most difficult find, stretchy shiny fabric for our shirts/armor. I swear we walked all over the city of Trier looking for something suitable, and we finally stumbled onto a tiny fabric shop that had just what we needed.

That is pretty much it for the in progress shots. We get too absorbed in what we are doing that we forget to take pictures of the process.

Here we are skipping ahead to the end product.
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BA-BAM!!

Here is a reference comparison.

The kids rounded out the rest of our group, with Sacajawea, Amelia Earhart, Jedediah, and Octavius. Plus my little kid as a non-matching witch on the end there. I'll post a litle more about her costume later.

Down Time

2010-11-01T11:52:00.006+01:00

So the blog has been down for awhile. I have been reassessing my business and other activities.

The Kid and I are currently working out our differences.

This photo was taken at the Film Museum in London. There is a Star Wars set built there, and you can have your photo taken. This in itself was worth the price of admission.

Posting will resume with photos from Halloween! Forever to be known as "The BEST Halloween EVER!!!" by The Kid.

Lenae's Un-Birthday

2010-09-15T06:04:00.003+02:00

So we were going to surprise Lenae on her birthday this year. Long story short, it did not work out, but she got a new nephew out of the whole deal.

Of course I had already prepared the dessert for her party, so here are some gratuitous cake shots

Last year I made her sunflower cupcakes, this year I figured I had to go one a little better.

Her favorite colors are a turqouise/teal green, and greens, so that's where I got my color combination from. This is the first time I've ever done a two colored cake like this, and separating it with that swirl of brown really made it work.

And here she is looking not a day past 29 (again!).

Dora!

2010-09-13T10:52:00.005+02:00

My first ever Dora the Explorer cake!!

The kid absolutely loved this show when she was a toddler. I remember once when my mom came to visit, and was talking to her. Grandma asked "What's the magic word??" The Kid's response, "ABRE!!" Awesome.

Anyway, I had the cake and background turned the wrong way, so my photos all came out dark and a little blurry. I am a rubbish photographer. So these are a bit flashy.

The cake was served along with some flowery cupcakes.

And here is the birthday girl with her cake! I love it when people send me pictures of the recipient enjoying the cake....hint-hint...

yay!

Racing to Finish

2010-09-06T10:27:00.003+02:00

So, easing back into things, my first cake after a fantastic summer vacation was a pretty simple one.

Now, like many of the themes I deal with, NASCAR is a big mystery to me. Many, many times I give thanks for Google.

So, I turned out a slightly modified Jeff Gordon logo for this cake.

I found these little chocolate cars in my stash to add around the edge. They were not racing cars, and some of them were pink, but I hoped the birthday boy would not mind.

It's OVER!!!

2010-08-24T10:25:00.006+02:00

Summer that is.
The calendar is open again, be gentle on me, I'm out of practice.

But, let's celebrate with some awesomeness!

Cake and classic Star Wars!

awwww....booo...it's cut off on one side!
Ok, fixed a little bit, thanks Mrs. S.
And yes, Jen this one's for you!

Kate's Cake

2010-07-23T06:57:00.001+02:00

I really love making baby shower cakes. There is just something about them, it does not matter if it's for a boy or for a girl, I can make them as sweet and cute as I want to. Lenae and I had a discussion that the cake is really not for the baby, it's for the mom, so you can't go too girly.

This cake was for Lenae's little sister who is having her second baby, we had a BBQ and a little party while her family was here for a visit.

Kate likes cherry blossoms, so I used that as my base. I was wondering what a masculine "Maggie" cake would be called. A "Magnus" cake???

In the usual manner of planning my cakes, the idea to use the bird family came to me as I was lying in bed the night before.

The cherry blossoms worked their way around the whole cake, and it looks like I've perfected that robin's egg blue I love so much (a little bit of teal Wilton's dye, and an even bittier bit of sky blue).

They already have another boy-child, so I thought it would be a good idea to include him in the little bird family.

So Tweet!

Tink 3

2010-07-21T06:46:00.002+02:00

Tinkerbell seems to be getting popular again, after saying I did not make too many of these cakes, I've had two requests in the past two months.

Each time, it gets easier to make this cake. It helps alot to know exactly what I need in order to pull it off.

And I'm still in love with those toadstools.

Mario

2010-07-19T06:53:00.004+02:00

Here is a small somewhat last minute Mario themed birthday cake.

Very simple, none of the game's characters were represented, just the platform background.

The last time I made these...whatever they are...I got dinged by a 9 year old for not putting teeth in them.

The last time I make that mistake!

Blossoming

2010-07-11T06:51:00.001+02:00

Here is another one of my "Maggie" cakes.

It's getting easier and easier to make this one. It's also becoming one of my most requested styles.

Lovely.

Little Einsteins

2010-07-09T08:43:00.003+02:00

I'm not all that familiar with the Little Einsteins show. The Kid was past that stage when it came out. She did watch the heck out of those Baby Einstein videos.

Anyway, this is supposed to be the ship that is in the show.

It sort of came out looking like a cartoon version of a cartoon ship.

Of course there were cupcakes to go along, you can kind of see them there in the background.

It's been a long time since I've done a really carved cake. I was not too sure how well the crusting buttercream would go on, especially around the shapes like the rocket engines (which were cupcakes...on a stick!), but they ended up smoothing out pretty well.

Shadow Boxing

2010-07-06T07:45:00.003+02:00

Here is another retirement cake for The Husband's Chief. It was supposed to look like a shadowbox that is generally presented to the retiree. The stripes ended up being a bit large, so the "box" ended up looking very crowded without having a great variety of items in it.

Here is a detail of the ribbon rack. I meant to have a picture of The Husband's actual ribbon rack to compare, but he hid it somewhere.

Dog tags.

Coins. The Husband has a whole mess of coins that he displays on his desk. I was lucky enough to find this chocolate mold that was in the shape of the Air Force seal. It is quite detailed, but is a little hard to see in chocolate.

I placed a couple of them on the top of the cake, and ran them around the edge of the cake. I made them in white and dark chocolate for that.

Apparently it went over quite well.

The Cake Baker Strikes Back

2010-07-04T07:01:00.001+02:00

So, the second Star Wars, well the second one according to my time line is Empire Strikes back, my most very favorite Star Wars movie. Therefore naturally, my second Star Wars cake...we have yet to see if it turns out to be my most favorite Star Wars cake.

Anyway...

It's pretty good I think.

There are some of the same elements as the last one I did, but this boy requested "more Dark Side".

I added Clone Troopers.

And Storm Troopers.

To add a little more to the pot I ran some stars around the back of the cake, and black frosting. Oh, black frosting is a dangerous thing. For one, it usually tastes disgusting because of the amount of food coloring needed to darken it. And second, it can turn your mouth a very strange, strange color. Used sparingly it can work, but I do try not to use it too much.

Wizards 2

2010-07-02T06:42:00.002+02:00

I did another Wizards of Waverly Place cake, almost just like the other one. Just a couple of minor changes to this one.

I love those feathers, they were so much easier to make the second time around.

Here's that party invitation that the cake is based on.

I love working the details on this cake, for some reason my piping was right on target with this one. These color combinations are so non-traditional and fantastic, I love them!

Again those feathers!! I love them too, I think I might have to make a peacock cake just so I can make these feathers again.

Caketimus Prime

2010-06-30T07:00:00.002+02:00

Transformers are pretty popular with the kids these days. I'm still always a little concerned, since I don't know if they're expecting a carved cake that looks like one of the characters. I've seen them online before, and they are impressive, but waaaaay outside my capabilities.

So, this is what you get if you ask for a Transformers cake.

I was kind of hoping that my Optimus Prime shrinky dink would turn out bigger, but sometimes you never know how large they will turn out. I got the logo down pretty well though, and I was able to find a Transformers font online which kind of tied everything together.

Gray frosting kind of creeps me out, but it worked pretty well here. You can't tell from the photos, but I lightly dusted the whole thing with a silver luster dust to make it a little more shiny and metalic looking.

Still loving those flame cutters!

Look! Up in the Sky!!

2010-06-28T19:42:00.001+02:00

Not really the most obvious Superman cake ever.
I was suffering from humid conditions at my house, so an actual Superman image flying out of the cake was unfortunately not going to happen.

The recipient was turning 15, so it was really more of a gag cake than a serious one.

We had a debate at home as to the meaning of "Swagger 16", and without Googling, decided that it is the dude equivalent to a "Sweet 16". But we could be wrong.

I added the cape behind the initial chest plate to give it more of a Superman feel. I think that since I have not been working with Fondant too much lately I could have done a better job with the draping.

I forgot to warn the recipients about the dark blue frosting though.

Tends to turn the teeth a lovely blue for a couple of hours.

Cake vs. Kim...30-Love

2010-06-22T06:48:00.002+02:00

I was just about tapped out when it came to this cake, which made me feel really bad since this person had booked so far in advance.

But it all came together at the end.

The things I find in my stash amaze even me sometimes. Tennis ball shaped bubble gum!! Plastic knights for a graduate who's mascot is a Barron (represented by a knight on all their logo-ed items)!! I feel like Marry Poppins sometimes.

That tennis net was a stumper for a long time. A lattice was going to be too unstable and take a tremendous amount of time to create, a royal icing net, also the same stability issues. So, I sat down one night and poked about 500 holes out of a sheet of gum paste with a straw, and it dried to just the right hardness.

Any guesses as to what those posts that are holding up the net are made from?*
Set and match.

Oy, that net looks really crooked in this shot.

*They were Lik-a-Maid sticks that I had...in my stash!!!

The big 2-9

2010-06-20T06:18:00.002+02:00

This was a wonderful cake to make. There was much discussion on theme, colors, shapes, everything. I'm glad because it shapes my ideas of what someone's expectations are.

It was just pretty, pink, and still grown up somehow at the same time.

Obviously it was for a 29th birthday party.

There were of course coordinating cupcakes to go along with the cake.

Here is a close up of what I call scrolling, for lack of a better word, on the bottom tier of the cake.

Getting better, I think that my days with henna parties really paid off there.

Hello (again) Kitty

2010-06-18T06:45:00.002+02:00

For some reason I have a rush on Hello Kitty cakes this month.

Can't get enough of the cute, but honestly, I have to admit I'd be happier about it if it was a ZOMIBE Hello Kitty Cake.

This design is slightly different from the last one, but not too much.

I very much like the lime green and pink color scheme.

So sweet, it's time for my insulin shot.

Hail to the Chief!

2010-06-16T06:29:00.001+02:00

Another cop cake.

This time a retirement cake for The Husband's Chief's retirement BBQ.

Since I already did a Defensor Fortis cake for the same crowd last month, I thought I would go a slightly different route.

MUST. PRACTICE. PIPING. WORDS. I need better frosting handwriting.

While I did go with a small flash, it was not the main image. I was thinking about making the Security Forces badge, but it is a little too complex for me to make in fondant.

And on the other side, the current Air Force logo. Step into the blue.....

Enjoy your retirement Chief!

Go Sox GO!!

2010-06-14T06:08:00.002+02:00

I will refrain from that classic school yard chant regarding the Red Sox and the Yankees.

Baseball season has ended for the kids on our base and I was asked to make the cupcakes/cake for the two Red Sox teams.

First were cupcakes.

The Boston B.

And then the cupcake/Cake combo for the older kids.

Hello Kitty

2010-06-12T06:10:00.003+02:00

After making cakes pretty steady for about a year I finally have my first Hello Kitty cake request. And, I actually have another Hello Kitty cake later this week as well. When it rains it pours cute little kitties.

The colors and idea was based off this napkin that I was given.
She's pretty cute for a cat with no mouth.

Here are the coordinating cupcakes that went along with the cake.

Nom, nom, nom!

Pretty n' Pink

2010-06-10T06:38:00.001+02:00

Sometimes, not very often, I will get a request for a simple cake. By simple I mean no set theme to it, no characters to research, no confusion as to what color it should be.

Simple, pretty and pink for Victoria.

I dont' know what's up with all the stars. I seem to have gotten the urge to add more stuff to these cakes. I'm not happy with the star placement on this cake or the one before it. I guess I just need to practice a little more.

Ni-Hao

2010-06-08T06:20:00.002+02:00

As a toddler The Kid loved Nick Jr. shows. Above all was her favorite Oswald. Even I liked Oswald, though I think that it took place in an outpatient reabilitation town. Anyway, once she got older and moved on to other shows I had no idea what was new in the world of Nick Jr.

I guess Ni-Hao Kai Lan started some time after we left the states. I remember seeing ads for it, and though it looked really cute. I liked the whole Asian-ness of it. You don't often see Asian characters in chidren's programming, unless you count the time Oobie went to the Chinese restaurant with Gram-Poo.

Anyway, a Ni-Hao Kai Lan cake for a birthday party.

Kai Lan's head is supposed to be gigantic, but I could not get my hands to make her body smaller than I did here. I just did not seem right.

One of her sidekicks. I didn't look up their names.

I had the hardest time with this name. I kept spelling it wrong. When I got there the mother told me it is "Heaven" backwards. Aaaaaahhh.......I still had a hard time putting the letters on the cake.

And of course I had to use, as Margaret Cho puts it, "That chinky font."

Elephantitis

2010-06-06T12:03:00.007+02:00

Somtimes it's those seemingly easy requests that really trip me up.

Elephants.

I could imagine what I wanted to do in my head.

But the ears, they really tripped me up for some reason.

And then the cupcakes kepy spontaniously generating powerded sugar somehow. I would brush them off, and then the next time I turned around there would be sugar everywhere again.

Those fondant Elephants really love their powdered sugar dust baths I guess.

Tinkebell

2010-06-04T06:11:00.003+02:00

One of the first cakes I made was a Tinkerbell cake in this style. I think that it's really cute, and I'm surprised that I don't get asked for it more often.

It's also nice, since I've made it before, it makes it alot easier to make it the second time around.

Luckily I can find a cute Tinkerbell candle quite easily.

It was a double birthday party, judging from the names it would seem like it was for twins, but not.

I was a little bit worried that it was going to be too small, but it turned out pretty big. The stump is chocolate cake, and the rest of it is rainbow.

Each little girl got their own cupcake to dive into.

Du-nu-nu-nu-nu-nu-nu-nu

2010-06-02T06:06:00.002+02:00

BATMAN!
I know that does not really translate...

Anyway.

A very simple Batman cake for a birthday boy.

I know it's hard to tell, but those brown blobby things all around the cake are chocolate themed Batman candies. I discovered I had a Batman candy mold in my stash-o-stash.

BAM!! POW!! Again, I know I'm dating myself there, but it was fun.

This cake probably could have used a little more "Bam!" and "Pow!"

Pong?

2010-05-29T12:50:00.004+02:00

So, I think I've discussed my lack of tallent at video games right?

I get worried when people start asking for video game related cakes.

But, I love the internets! Luckily there are lots of PSP pictures out there.

PSP cake!

I realize that it is not exactly as long as a real PSP, but hey, it's made of cake!
I wish I could have made a little more of the screen. I think I should have made some kind of game on there (Pong?), and wrote on the cake board instead.

My little details came out pretty ok though.

A Shoe In

2010-05-26T17:39:00.002+02:00

So, the actual cake.

It's meant to look like shoeboxes. I suppose I could have made the cakes to look like closed shoeboxes, but I just could not work it out in my head. Open, or slightly open shoeboxes seemed to make more sense to me.

This is the white cake. (With a chocolate "cover" because I tend to get confused as to which is which as soon as I frost the cakes. Even though I repeat it to myself about a billion times!)

Here is the chocolate cake. (With a white "cover", durr....)

One regret I have is those blank white spaces you can see between the shoes. I think that I should have filled them in with more fondant "tissue paper".

The "N" on the inside of each shoe is the first inital of the recipient.

I tried to tie the colors of the cake in with the paper that we used to make the shoe favor/decorations. Here is the scrapbook paper pack I bought.

This was such a large and unweildy cake, The Husband had to help me carry it out to the car. This is when I'm cursing the German windy staircases and a big nosey dog who always wants to see what's going on.

So did you guess the goof up with the shoes??

Two left feet!!! I discovered this fact as I was pouring the chocolate for the molds. I tried my best to disguise that fact, I don't even know if I can order a right side.

A Shoe In-Sneak Peek

2010-05-25T16:55:00.007+02:00

There are just so many pictures that go with this cake, so I'm going to post some of the spoilers first.

So I suppose you can guess that the theme of this one was shoes.

There was a teacher retiring this year from The Kid's school, and I guess she has lots and lots of shoes.

We used this pattern from Skip to My Lou (who is fantastic, by the way!!!) to make these shoe shaped favors and table decorations.

I don't have a picture of what they looked like on the tables (hint-hint!).

I also ordered a high heel chocolate mold on ebay.
These came out so sweet!!!! Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

The white ones went on the white cake.

The chocolate ones went on the chocolate cake.

I don't know if you can tell, but there is something a little strange about these shoes.....

The actual cake tomorrow!

May the Force be With You

2010-05-18T06:15:00.001+02:00

The Air Force that is.

The week of May 10 was National Police Week. The Husband a Security Forces member, technically a cop. They had a BBQ to cap off a week of events here on the base.

I volunteered to bring the cake.

I truly wish that my spacial recognition was a bit better. There was so much improvement that could have been made with my spacing of the writing. But dark blue icing on white, there is no going back.

This is the patch or flash that all the Security Forces members wear on their snappy blue berets. This part came out quite well I think.

Meow Mix

2010-05-16T07:09:00.004+02:00

Rock and roll cakes seem to be one of my most requested these days.

This time a Rock and Roll Cat.

Not much guidance again on this one, just some favorite colors, and the kind of cat she wanted.

The cat ended up being pretty cute, but working with gumpaste and fondant can be difficult sometimes. There is a fine line between letting the paste dry so that it is stable, and letting it dry too much so that it is impossible to attatch to another piece.

Her microphone hand was originally up higher, but began to sag as the day wore on.
This cat even had a bit of a wire armature inside her.

The star cutters my firend Jen gave me are really coming in handy these days.

Thanks Jen!

FORE!!!

2010-05-14T06:14:00.001+02:00

I think I've said it before, I think that cakes for adult men, and older boys are really hard to do. Too much on it, and it starts looking too fru-fru.

This one was no problem though.

A golf cake for Steve's big Fore-OH!

I swear that grass tip is going to give me carpal tunnel.

"Nice bunker" was The Husband's comment. I don't even know what that means.

And then I found this little guy in my collection of cake toppers. I think my mom sent it to me. Thanks Mom!

Living Large

2010-05-10T06:36:00.003+02:00

As a kid I absolutely loved Garfield comics. I think I had about 30 of those books. So, imagine my surprise when I was asked to make a Garfield themed cake for one of The Kid's BFF's birthday party. I also made her cake last year, which was an American Idol theme, but I don't think I've ever posted it here.

Anyway, Garfield, Yay!

I was lucky I also had some inspiration. Thank you Bakerella.

The cupcakes ended up being served at the party, and then they took the cake home to be eaten later.

This is the only fully fondant covered cake that I've done in a really long time.

Not So Little Mermaid

2010-05-08T06:41:00.001+02:00

The mother of the birthday girl had a Ariel doll that I could have used, but I decided that I would try my hand at making her myself.

Well, I thought it came out pretty well...buuuuuutttttt.....

She looks a little, um, "Mature".

I think that I even inadvertently gave her some awesome abs.

The bottom of her Dingle Hopper broke off, so I'm not even sure it's apparent she's holding one.

She's kind of cute though.

Oh, BTW, this was my 100th cake!! WOO!!

Very Merry Unbirthday!

2010-05-06T06:01:00.001+02:00

My first Alice in Wonderland cake!
This was for a 13th birthday party, and the recipient wanted it based more on the recent Tim Burton Alice than the old Disney one. Which was fine by me, except that I did not see the new one.

Unintentionally topsy turvy. Germany roads are not condusive to transporting tall cakes. At the house it was a little tipsy, but got even more "whimsical" on the car ride. I think I almost had a heart attack leaving my driveway.

But she made it, mostly in one piece. There was alot of cracking in the frosting, which I managed to smooth out a little when I got it set up.

This is the topper, which is supposed to be a tea pot. It's kind of hard to see the spout and handle.

The tea pot sits on The Hatter's hat.

Which sits on a harlequin kind of base.

Hopefully it did not fall over during the course of the party.

I Love the 80's UPDATED

2010-05-04T06:30:00.003+02:00

This was for an adult's 80's birthday party. How much fun was that?? That was my era, Duran Duran, casset tapes, jelly shoes, stirrup pants, you get the flashback. Unfortunately all those things do not translate well to cake decorating.

I thought it came out well though.

I ended up going with a "Boy Toy" belt buckle for the middle. Man, I wanted one of those, but my mom just would not let me get one. I know why now, but man, I was maaaaad back then. Besides I can see the irony of me having one back then, because believe you me, I was the farthest thing from a "boy toy" that you could imagine.
Anyway...

Here's another shot of the Rubik's Cube from another angle. This came out really well actually, everything lined up! And the jelly bracelets, that I actually had on hand for some reason. I think they were in my party supplies box.

I would end this post with a picture of me from the 80's, but I think I burned all of them.

UPDATE!
OK, I found one of my Senior portriats.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!!!!!! My hair is huge!

The Big Freeze

2010-05-01T07:20:00.003+02:00

These were kind of a last minute creation for one of The Kid's classmates. I made his cupcakes last year too, so I was more than happy to do these as well.

He wanted Ice Age cupcakes this year.

Sid and Manny were the only characters I could sculpt, the others kept coming out too blobby.

Add some snowflakes and a few acorns here and there.

Skate party

2010-04-30T06:40:00.001+02:00

First time ever making a skateboarding themed cake. Cakes for older boys can get tricky, add too much and it gets to looking too girly. Lucky for me, this family had a pretty firm idea of what they wanted.
Originally it was going to be just a skateboard shaped cake. But we got to talking and decided on a Vans inspired red and black checkerboard with some skateboard decorations.
These skateboards are gumpaste painted with icing gell colors. I know that on a real skateboard it's the bottom of the deck that is painted and decorated, but I thought that it would look weird to have them upside down, so I painted the tops. Artistic license.
And some cupcakes to go along with it all for easy serving at the party.

Yarn Kitty

2010-04-28T06:41:00.001+02:00

This was for a teacher's birthday. She ordered a small cake and cupcakes to share with her class.

She likes crochet, and kitties.

Here are the cupcakes that go along with these. She has a rather large class.

Happy 18th!

2010-04-26T06:15:00.001+02:00

Another redo of a previous design. But instead of a shower, this one was for an 18th birthday.

Pretty incredibly girly.

It's a Puzzle

2010-04-21T13:03:00.001+02:00

One of my favorite little boys had a birthday party during my "break", and so of course I had to make his cake.

He had a scavenger hunt party where the kids had to follow clues around the house to find other clues and items for their goodie bags.

So, the only thing I could think of was an I Spy Cake.

I had to have a good look around my house to find a bunch of stuff to put on it.

I was rather surprised by the number of things that I had around to put on there.

I then listed all the things that were "hidden" around the edge of the cake on the cake board. It was such a simple cake that was really fun to do, and how could I say no to Colton?

Blossoms in Spring

2010-04-20T11:21:00.001+02:00

Spring is spring....for real this time. It's sunny and my apple tree is starting to blossom in the back yard. Yay!

Let's celebrate with a cherry blossom cake for Maggie.

Another try at the cherry blossom cake. My method was a little bit cleaner this time, I planned a little better so that I could get more blossoms on the branches before the chocolate hardened up. I love this cake style, it's so pretty, and surprisingly easy to make.

Life

2010-03-20T10:43:00.004+01:00

Spring is somewhat sprung here in the Eifel. The Kid declared it Sprinter (not quite spring, not quite winter) since it is still pretty cold in the mornings and evenings, but is tshirt weather much of the rest of day.

Today the rain came, but not enough to stop a morning romp in the back yard.

Another sign that spring is on it's way are the lovely strawberries avaliable in the shops. I bought 3 packs, and there were only 2 that I had to toss. I love when that happens, it's like an extra little bonus.

With all of those sweet strawberries around, of course I had to make chocolate dipped strawberries for a dinner I'm going to tonight. I love making these, because they are fast and easy, and I'll actually eat some, ok, lots. I rarely eat my own cakes anymore, by the time I've spent 8-10 hours on a cake I've lost the desire to actually eat any. These strawberries though, I'll eat all night long!

And of course, some white chocolate dipped ones for Lenae because she is ~~high maintenance~~ special.

I'm going on a little bit of a cake break for the next few weeks. The Husband is returning from his extended "camping trip", and so some family time is in order.

If you need a cake, please check my calendar for my avaliability. If I'm not avaliable for your event, please email me anyway, I have a couple of other baker/decorators who I might be able to refer you to. And, if your theme is totally awesome, I might not be able to resist, and just have to make your cake regardless.

Hugs and Cupcakes,

Kim

Baby cakes

2010-03-16T06:37:00.002+01:00

I'll be the first to admit that these kinds of cakes are not my strong point. Straight lines and super smooth edges, notsomuch, which is why I rarely do wedding cakes. Too much perfection required. Though I'd do a zombie wedding cake in a second!

Anyway, this was for a baby shower.

We went back and forth over what to do for the topper, and finally settled on this Anne Geddes style sleeping baby dressed in flowers. I thought that this was the best part of the cake. Well, that and my pretty awesome piping (ifIdosaysomyself).

I think it might be physically impossible for me to ever properly center a cake tier.

ARRRRRR!!!

2010-03-13T15:47:00.005+01:00

Pirates again! But different.

I had alot of fun with this cake, as you can see.

What was most thankful for were all the provided pirates, and pirate gear. Making actual pirates out of gumpaste was not something I was looking for. She even provided me with some treasure chests and skeleton parts! And HELLO! not a smooth surface to be seen! Textured buttercream, another one of my favorite things!
It's hard to find a Lego guy who is not smiling. Though when I dropped it off, the birthday boy said that it looked like he was screaming, so I guess it worked out in the end.

And then, my favorite bit of inspiration! Dueling cephalopod and crustacean!! Though I think I got a little carried away with the size of that crab.

Hope it was ARRRsome Joey!

Rock Hero

2010-03-10T08:33:00.008+01:00

My inability to play video games is pretty epic, it is one of the areas of Geek that I get a big fat F in. I generally end up mashing the buttons and survive out of pure luck. I have Crosswords on my DS for goodness sake!

So I had a request for a guitar cake. Guitar Hero??? Rock Band???

I guess it came out pretty sweet in the end.

Something I though about as I was driving the cake to drop it off, was that I should have added the cord to the end of the guitar. I could have then used the cord to write out the recipients name, since it's not on the cake anywhere.

Next time!

Twilight....AGAIN!

2010-03-06T06:41:00.003+01:00

I know that the last time I said never again....

What? You've never seen a hypocrite before?

This is by far the largest cake I have ever made, each tier is made up of three layers. I did dowel it through the first and second tiers, but it still listed a little to the right, which really bummed me out.

For those of you suffering from OCTD*.

The apple.

The Rook.

Those flowers (my favorite part).

And the ribbon twining around it all.

I really don't get it. I guess I'm more of a Sonja Blue kind of fangirl.

*Obsessive Compulsive Twilight Disorder

Beef, It's What's For Dinner

2010-03-04T06:27:00.003+01:00

Yummy!

The "beef" is made from chocolate cake, the carrots, mashed potatoes, and peas all have white cake underneath.

The funny thing is that we had pot roast cooking in the crock pot while I was making this cake. Inspiration!

Happy Anniversary

2010-03-03T20:49:00.000+01:00

I just noticed that I did not write anything to go along with the pictures of this cake! DURRR....that's what 18 cakes in a month will do to you.

Anyway, Judi and John were celebrating their 24th wedding anniversary. Their daugter who lives in the states, emailed me to ask if I would do a surprise anniversary cake for them. Absolutely.

She wanted a snow theme, since she was born during a heavy snowstorm, and the last time they were all together they were snowed in for several days.

So this is what I came up with.
To make the snowpeople not so slumpy, I used a 50/50 mix of fondant and gumpaste, and they had structual wires inside to help them sit up a little better as well.

This is the first time I've used Royal Icing as a decoration. I usually use it as a glaze on lemon poundcake. I piped these snowflakes onto wax paper and let them dry overnight, then stuck them all over the cake. They turned out really well. I love the 3-D effect they add.

This is a white chocolate cake with white chocolate buttercream frosting.

Judi almost ruined it all by ordering a cake for John's birthday. But luckily she wanted it for the weekend before, and was going to share it with a bunch of people at a dinner.

Once all the details were figured out, Lenae and I snuck over to their house with an ill gotten key and delivered the cake, some flowers and balloons.

One day I hope The Kid will plan something like that for me.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

2010-03-02T16:46:00.003+01:00

Today was Dr. Seuss's brithday, and the kids at school celebrated by wearing green, and having green eggs and ham for lunch.

The Kid and I came up with this fun outfit for her to wear.

She was a Star Bellied Sneech! With two on hars!

Here is the back.

The t-shirt was made using a freezer paper stencil. My favorite way to make a custom one of a kind t-shirt. The t-shirt was 1.99 Euro from Kik, and I already had the paper and paint.

Her green hair clips are made using this Betz White pattern. I used polyester felt bought at the craft store. The felt cost about $.50, and I already had the hair clip backs.

She already had those pants, which matched perfectly, so total cost of a cool outfit to celebrate Dr. Seuss, about $4.50!

Go...Whoever...!

2010-03-02T06:33:00.002+01:00

I have this labled in my files as a Chargers Helmet. Apparently its not.

Like I've said before, not really the kind of football I like.

Anyway...

A Bronco's helmet against a pink background.

To me this could have been one of two things. Either it was a cake for a lady, or it was a gag cake for someone who likes the Broncos from someone who thinks they're a bunch of Nancy Girls.

Turns out it was the first one, a cake for a lady. The other option would have been pretty funny though.

Whew!

2010-03-01T06:32:00.001+01:00

DUDES!

18 cakes in February!

18!!!

Oh, Oh, Oh, It's Magic!

2010-02-28T07:32:00.003+01:00

I personally love Wizards of Waverly Place, and Selena Gomez, she is so cute!

This cake was done to coordinate with the Wizard's party supplies. This was one of those cakes where I just could not stop adding more and more stuff to it. Though I think it worked for the overall look. I know that most little girls this age have raccoon fever, so the more going on, the better.
My piping is getting a little bit better I think, a little trouble around those feathers still. I think piping on a vertical surface is redonks difficult.
I think adding the name of the recipient on thiese fondant lollies is a great way to top it off, and finish the cake. Thank you Amy F. for the great idea!!!
And to think her mother and I had to convince her not to go with a Littlest Petshop cake.

Girly

2010-02-26T06:45:00.001+01:00

But not too girly.
This cake was made to match this party set.
For some reason I had the hardest time taking pictures of this cake. I just kept standing right smack in the middle of the light and casting my own shadow in the frame. Basically I couldn't get out of my own way, that's just sad.
Hot pink buttercream frosting!
I had no idea those wing cutters would be so usefull!

Cake Attack!

2010-02-25T06:52:00.001+01:00

It's the end of the swim season for The Kid's team, and we had an awards banquet to go to.
Naturally there needed to be cake.

I had hoped to have the mouth propped open a little more, but that really did not work out too well.

My favorite thing about this cake was the fact that the frosting did not need to be neat. Fantastic! And the bottom edge of the shark, who cares? Just slop some frosting up against that bad boy and call it "waves". Woot!
This was a ridiculously heavy cake, I actually had to rest twice during the walk from my car to the restaurant. It was half and half, chocolate and white cake, and the shark was red velvet. So while I was serving the cake I was asking: "Chocolate, white, or Shark?" it MMN.

The HAMMER!

2010-02-23T06:39:00.001+01:00

My friend Judi's husband is having a birthday this week, so she wanted a cake.

I guess one New Year they were going around the room making their resolutions, and he declared that he was going to become a UFC fighter that year. He was then presented with his new name...

This should look like a prize belt, but I'm not too sure it's coming across too well.
Either way, it's still pretty funny.

Judi and I are now a tag team. She's "Hulk Harvin" and I'm "The Teriyaki Terror". Lenae's going to be our Nitro Girl.

It's ON!

Baby Lion

2010-02-21T06:46:00.002+01:00

My friend Staci is having a baby...eventually.

I gave her this cake on her due date, which was Wednesday.

Very simple, but very cute. The baby's room is done in yellows, with a jungle theme.

I saw her on Saturday, and still no external baby.

Hot-Cha-Cha!

2010-02-20T18:29:00.009+01:00

Our PTSA did a Teacher Appreciation lunch this week with a spicy theme.

I'm not so much for cooking spicy foods these days (The Husband has a sensitive palate), eating spicy foods yes, cooking not so much.

I'm usually on desserts for these things, so I decided to try something new.

I hear that the chocolate/chili combo is supposed to be very nice.
So I did chocolate dipped chili peppers on regular chocolate cupcakes.

Here is The Kid's teacher after braving the first nibble.
I'm guessing it was a little hot, though she did admit that her tongue was a bit numb after the rest of her spicy lunch.

The consensus of those who braved the pepper was that it was a nice flavor combination.

Who knew?

Oh Pooh!

2010-02-17T06:55:00.001+01:00

This was the cake that almost never got made.

Lenae and her family were over for dinner, and she wanted me to have the last glass of wine in the bottle we opened. However, I explained to her that I did have to finish a cake, and it had to be a Pooh cake, not a poo cake. It does not help that I'm the cheap date.

ANYway...

Here is Pooh bear relaxing with a nice pot or two of hunny after a hard day.

This cake came together surprisingly easy and quite well. Sometimes I get lucky and things seem to go very smoothly, from baking, to frosting, to sculpting.

The tree stump and honey bees were a last minute idea. Luckily I had some leftover batter from the cake that I made into cupcakes, and I used one of those for the stump. My fondant figures tend to get slumpy, so it was nice to have something to lean him up against.

This is a cake for a little boy, I was a little hesitant to add the flowers, but the cake needed a little something more. I decided to go with some neutral colors for the flowers to keep it from looking too feminine.

Happy first birthday Patrick!

Come to the Dark Side

2010-02-16T06:46:00.001+01:00

We have cake!

I have not had much luck with Star Wars cakes in the past. My excuse for that one was that I was also taking care of the rest of the party, not just the cake. My poor kid, she sure gets the short end of the lightsaber sometimes.

Anyway.

Slightly more sucessfull this time around.

Just a general Star Wars kind of theme.

The Death Star and the Jedi Order emblem.

Lucky for me I had just gotten a big bag full of Star Wars party acessories from a friend who was cleaning out her stash.
Including this pretty cool Darth Vader candle holder for the top.

And all of those cut outs of the various characters.

The Dark Side smells like buttercream!

Going to the Dogs

2010-02-15T08:09:00.003+01:00

So, puppy dog cupcakes for a birthday.

Luckily I had just checked out this book from the library, and it had some great ideas for making dogs.

A sort of Dalmatian.

My favorite, a disapproving Scottie.

Some sort of squishy faced dog that kind of looks like Chewbaca.

And a sort of a Westie.

One little girl went around the room collecting all the dogs from classmates willing to give them up. She ended up taking about six of them home on a plate, it was kind of strange.

An Organza Extraviganza!!!

2010-02-14T07:19:00.002+01:00

I totally could have made a double entrende with that title, but restrained myself, this is a family blog after all.

Anyhoodles.

So The Kid got those cool Valentine's Day Cards to give out. I have one or two friends, so they get a Valentine's Day gift from me too.

Last year I made some corsages out of roses made with this very simple ribbon rose tutorial.

I figure I should keep with the theme of a corsage by giving them out again this year. But of course I can't go do the same thing as last year.

Thankfully the internet is full of fantastic tutorials for those of us who are good at execution, but not development. It's like saying I'm the brawn of the crafting community. Well, not the whole community, just.....well, anyway...

So for this year I used this tutorial for making organza flowers, and made them into corsages.

Here is the lump of them on my ugly ironing board before I thought to lay down a nicer piece of fabric.

This is the boutineer that The Kid's Principal gets.

And the "action shot".

All you need is some organza (1 Euro a roll at Kik in Spiecher), a candle, scissors, needle and thread, and some time on your hands.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-12T08:25:00.004+01:00

I so totally wish I could take the credit for this one, because it is a seriously AWESOME idea.

These are The Kid's Valentine's Day cards that she handed out at school.

Isn't that the best?!?

I found the idea here at the blog 24-7-365.

Here is the original picture I took.

I then digitally cut her out and added a background and the wording.

I did not have them printed as photographs, rather I printed them on regular paper with my inkjet, and then mounted them onto pieces of scrapbooking paper.

Actually there are two versions because I could not decide between the two shots.

Best idea EVER!!!! Thank you Alissa!

Sweet Blossom

2010-02-09T16:29:00.004+01:00

A friend's husband called me up to do a surprise cake for her birthday this week.

We managed to decide on her favorite color, purple, and her favorite flower, cherry blossoms.

Turned out quite well I think. It's not as big as it looks, that top tier is made of two large cupcakes.

The branches are made of dark chocolate, and the flowers are fondant. I might just have to do an easy tutorial on making these cherry blossom branches some time in the future. They were surprisingly easy to make.

Here is a shot of the back. I think that little branch was one of the small ones that hardened up before I could throw some flowers on it. But, I usually like to continue a design on the back of the cake as well as the front. I think it finishes the whole composition off very nicely.

Funnily, as I was dropping this cake off today at the husband's office, the wife pulls up infront to take him to lunch. I think we spotted her before she did us, and we had to scoot back inside. He ended up going out and I waited in the building until they had gone, and I snuck the cake into his office. I am very, very sneaky. Hopefully he was able to pull off the surprise.

Happy Birthday Melissa!

Bowl me Over

2010-02-08T06:14:00.001+01:00

So I guess there was some kind of big sporting event going on yesterday?

I had and order for a Superbowl cake, and man I love baseball, so of course I said yes!

Just kidding, of course I know that the superbowl is football. Unfortunately, it is not the kind of football I like.

Anyway, on to the cake. My directons included the phrase "Make it look custom, not like a normal cake."

I hope this is what she meant.

I was quite proud of my football helmets, there was a couple of hours there where I was rather confused as to how it was going to work, and a bit of time where I was thinking "Stuff it, just do the logos!"

Colts

Saints

And the Superbowl logo for this year. Colors are a bit off, and I am the first to admit that my piping needs alot of work.

I just happened to notice the chocolate footballs at the store, and grabbed one up just in case I needed something extra to add. Then I had a thought.

Lombardi Trophy!!!

So a bonus side of chocolate trophy. This would be my first time working with chocolate like this, and it turned out surprisingly well. I suppose it would have been alot different if I had to make the football too.

Here's where poor planning also kicks me in the butt.

Yeah, I set and frosted the cakes before I realized I was not going to be able to pipe my borders on those inner edges. Whoo! D'oh!

Poke-Char

2010-02-06T11:23:00.004+01:00

What I don't know about Pokemon is alot. Luckily I live in the age of Google.

Here is a Pokemon cake made for the middle son of one of my best customers.

She supplied me with all those little figures, which was awesome because then I did not have to make my own.

This little dude kept diving off the cake though and left a couple of dents in the side.

I was trying to make a completely round Pokeball thing for the top, but it was incredibly hard. That is something I need to practice a little more, and not just try to do on the day of order.

This cake is the party counterpart to these classroom cupcakes.

Whiteout!

2010-02-01T07:07:00.003+01:00

We were snowed in this weekend so there were no cakes.

We went out on Friday to do some erands, and when we got back, the car got stuck in the driveway. Apparently ~~Lenae~~ someone gouged some ruts in my driveway with their car, add slippery snow to that, and even 4WD gets bogged down.

Here is an idea of how deep this snow really was by the next day.

My dog is pretty tall, her head comes up to my hip, at some points the top of the snow was brushing her belly.
So really, I don't think we could have gotten up the hill, even without ~~Lenae's~~ someone's assistance.

It's ok though, since there was nowhere really to go and it was nice and cozy in our house.

Besides there were things to be done.

Snowman building

Sledding

And it looks like the forecast calls for more snow to come.

As a bonus I'm completely prepared for Valentine's day. Cabin fever, so not a problem for me.