Life is Sweet

 So many happenings! Life is sweet. Since my last post, I have been very busy! I got accepted to grad school, (but decided to defer), I got a promotion, ran a 5k... ! There are so many exciting things happening in my friends and families lives' as well- and what better way to celebrate, than with a cake?!

Cupcakes for a combined celebration- Sarah and Junior's wedding anniversary and Brooksy's birthday! I was torn between making cupcakes and making a fruit tart, so I combined the two! This is a yellow cupcake filled with lemon curd, topped with cream cheese frosting, kiwi and a raspberry. (SO yummy!)

Happy Birthday Cindy! This is a chocolate cake with buttercream filling, covered in white chocolate (...colored, of course). The grass and frog are also made out of chocolate. I covered the cake in blue glitter gel to make it look like water.

Ribbit ribbit!!

Now for something bittersweet... As some of you may already know, my Grandmother recently passed away. She was one of the warmest, most compassionate people I have ever known. She wrote me letters weekly, updating me on how her garden was growing or how the windy weather had made more yard work for her and my Grandfather to do... Gramma was always in the garden (... or baking! I guess it's in my genes!) When I read the sympathy cards, it was nice to see how many people used to visit just to admire her flower gardens. Below, I have a few pictures of her Dahlias. The photos are lovely, but they do not come close to capturing their true beauty.

When Gramma was in the hospital, I talked to her about my niece, her great granddaughter, Brooke. I was saying how I couldn't believe that Brooke would be 1 year old soon. Before I could finish my sentence, she said, "Brooke's birthday is October 29th. I could never forget that!" This was heart warming and amazing to me because my Gramma had a large brain tumor and could not remember what she had for lunch! Gramma passed away a month ago tomorrow, but I know she helped me make a cake for Brooke.

The cake is yellow with raspberry jam filling, covered in buttercream frosting and fondant dahlias. I also decorative butterflies (non-edible) and edible pearls along the edge.

 Happy 1st Birthday Brooke!!! We love you!!!

Mmmmmmmmmmm!! Yummy Cake!

"to be or not to be"

Program for Stageloft's May 2011 production of Hamlet.

Yellow cake with buttercream frosting and raspberry filling.

Finished product...minus a delivery disaster... and the loss of a few fingers :(.

"To be or not to be..." It's an interesting thought, isn't it? I feel like I have come to this crossroad in my life and am not sure which direction it is going in. Grad school, marriage, career... so many decisions, obstacles and unknown joys. But anyways... about the CAKE! This cake was incredibly difficult to cover in fondant due to the weather being ungodly warm, thus making the fondant rip continuously.  After multiple attempts, I decided that the cake had won that battle and found a pretty ribbon to cover the warped sides... I was pleased with the outcome.. until the delivery disaster. Let's just say, a smudged skull and detached fingers were the end result. I would have stayed to fix it, but was too embarrassed! Yikes..

Pooh Bear and Pudding

Winnie the Pooh with Balloons! Yellow cake with buttercream frosting, filled with chocolate pudding and chocolate mousse!

Crazy Cupcakes!

I never thought I would make cupcakes like these! I completed a cupcake order for four happy bunny, cupcakes, four carebear/funshine bear cupcakes and four World of Warcraft cupcakes! Quite the combination, but when paired with chocolate cupcakes filled with caramel and topped with peanutbutter buttercream, it makes for the perfect combination!

So many cakes, So little time to update my blog!

Jasmine Cake for my niece's 4th birthday! Jasmine is made out of fondant and glitter sugar gel. The decorations around the cake consist of two different types of ribbon and hand drawn designs done with a "chocolate pen." I used spray color for the cake as well. It came out better than I expected!

Mmmmmm! Red Velvet Cake with white chocolate buttercream!

This is the neck of my bass guitar cake! This cake was so much fun to make and was an ongoing problem solving task! I made "wood" by making marbled fondant and I used silver and gold luster for the details on the cake (the strings are licorice strings painted silver!). 

Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and a raspberry jam filling.

RUDOLPH!

After finishing up last minute touches on the raindeer cupcakes, I went to bed. It was midnight on Christmas Eve morning and it became one of the best moments of my life. Chris came over to my side of the bed and got on both knees to ask me to marry him!! It was perfect :). I said YES! I don't think I could ever get a better Christmas present :).

fondant winter scene snowglobe

Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting