I clearly need to practice

This is my first effort at putting one cake on the other...and the fist time trying a flower shape cake. Its hard to get all the way around the cake properly...I'm used to just icing round cakes I guess! I'm not terribly happy with how this turned out but I think its because I feel like I really really need to practice more.

I am a seriously delinquint cake decorator!! This is what happens when you finish taking the courses and are no longer forced to make cakes on a weekly basis. I miss the decorating but seriously have no time!! Here is a cake I made for the heck of it for last weekend. I tried to make some "grass" around and on the cake and Oliver asked me to make a butterfly cake...and this is what I came up with since I had already baked two round cakes...we came to a compromise!

Oliver turns 4!!

My second baby boy turns four this weekend. For his birthday, Oliver requested a "guitar" cake...and of course his wish is always granted!!

My first fondant cake!

Well it has been so much fun taking the cake decorating classes but I have now finished of all three courses. This is my very first fondant cake...made on the very last day of class.

Making pretty flowers...

Now I am taking the fondant course through Michaels and we are learning to make various flowers....today we learned to make a rose, a carnation and I cannot remember the name of the other one...oops!!

And he is 19 ....again!!

So my sisters and neices and nephews did not get to celebrate Josh's 19th birthday with him since we were celebrating in Windsor with a night of drunken debauchery. I have invited them over for a lunch gathering tomorrow and of course there must be CAKE!!!

What a pretty little purse!

One of my besties is having a birthday this weekend and I have decided to surprise her with a new purse!!

And making this cake has reminded me that I need to get bigger card board pieces to put the cakes on.

Saying goodbye is never easy....

So it should at least be delicious!

My middle guy (call him the boy)'s last day with our daycare provider was today and I had made her this cake to say 'Thank You' for all the great care she has taken of the kids! The boy's little buddy also was ending his care there as well...they are both moving onto school/preschool.

My baby is turning 19!!!!

Tomorrow!!!!!! Well...Josh is my biggest baby...my sweet boy, my first born. Josh came into this world almost 19 years ago....at 4:51 AM on August 28th..a blue eyed, strawberry blonde, 7 lb 10 oz bundle of sweetness. He is still blue eyed and strawberry blonde, and is slightly more that 7-10 now but he still makes my heart burst with love as it did the day he was born and he has made me a very proud mama. Josh is good man with a beautiful heart and kind soul. And in honor of Josh reaching the 'legal drinking age' (which is really what this birthday is all about for him!!)..I present his birthday cake!!

Last Cake of the class!

So I have just finished the second series in cake decorating at Michaels. And this is my "basket of roses" cake!

Attempting a beer bottle!

so, this isn't completely what it would look like...but I'm trying to get the general shape of a bottle and this will go on the top of a 9x13 cake.

A woman obsessed!!!

With Beer!!!! And not the drinking kind...'cause really the thought of drinking beer makes me vomit in my mouth a little. The kind I am obsesed with is the cake variety of course! Since deciding to make Josh a cake resembling a beer bottle, I have been constantly thinking of how I can acheive this. Also, I wanted to model it after his favorite beer, (although at 18 and completely underage he should not be drinking at all..and doesn't in my presence)...and when I asked "what's your favorite beer" his answer was "an open one"...funny funny boy! Turns out he is partial to Coors Light. Thankfully its not something we stock in this house (Beer = Disgusting) but he did "get a taste for it" (as he says...) at the trailer ( I could make all sorts of trailer park jokes here right now, but I will hold off...back to cake!).

So...what I am thinking so far....a 9x13 cake as the base...chocolate of course! And then I will ice that with the buttercream vanilla flavored icing that I make (delicious!) and then I am going to make round cakes to use the round edges to make the bottle so that the bottle looks in more 3D laying on the one side of the cake. I have a frozen 8" rond cake in the freezer so I will be attempting to practice this at some point today. Lets hope it works!!

Castle Cake!

So here is the cake that I made for a friend's daughter's second birthday. I am pretty proud of the cake, though it isn't the greatest job, I think its pretty good for a first crack at it. Things I have learned: need to work on the filling in with the stars using more consistent pressure...some were to low, others went too high (but who can hate all that extra yummy icing!!). I also need to remember to read directions ahead of time and make sure I have all the right tips...turned out that I didn't have the right tip for making the drop flowers so I had to make a quick trip to Michael's to buy it...but I did have my 40% off coupon so I saved a dollar!!





Now for my next cake...which is next weekend, I need to make a cake shaped like a beer bottle or some other bottle of alcohol. Josh is turning 19 and very much looking forward to being able to buy his own booze...so a booze related cake sounds appropriate.

A basket of flowers!!

So I thought I would try my hand at basket weaving! It initially started out a bit of a mess, given that I forgot one of the vertical stripes...but I decided to have flowers overflowing down the one side and this covered up my mistake. I think it looks not too bad!

A birthday cake!!

My neices turned twelve recently and came for a visit so that we could wish them a Happy Birthday! This also gave me a chance to practice my cake decorating!!

And the final cake of the course!

So today was the last class of the course and I have to say that I am pretty happy with my cake. I am still very clearly a "beginner" but with some more practice I'm sure I can continue to improve!

My First "JOB"!!!

So I am very excited that I have been commissioned to make my very first birthday cake...and by commissioned I meaned "asked nicely" (thank you Kathryn!!) and by excited I mean "freaking ecstatic!!". I will be making the cake for a friends daughter's birthday in August and wil have it prepared for August 22nd!! I am so excited and I hope that I can do a great job...I am very pleased with this opportunity to pratice developing this skill.

On that note, I have decided that I want to make cakes for whomever needs them for whatever occassion (except wedding because seriously no one wants a "practice" wedding cake)....as this way it will help me get better while at the same time meaning that I don't have to grow fat eating all sorts of cake that is hanging around the house. Now to just find some willing victims....I mean participants...

I had some of Oliver's preschool friends over for a visit today and decided that this was the perfect occasion for a cake! (Isn't every occasion perfect for a cake though??). This cake is dedicated to Martha...my lone blog follower (shout out to Martha!!) who inspired me with her boat cake...I didn't do quite as well as hers and mine is seriously lacking some detail but here it is!

Attempt number two!

So I am a bit more pleased with this latest attempt. I realized though, a little too late, that in my attempt to make a less 'rip-able' icing, I added a bit too much water and it became too thin and slippery. This means that it didn't 'crust' quite the way it should have and I was not able to smooth it out like I would have wanted. Oh well...I'm sure it still quite edible!! This cake is going with the kids to the sitter's house tomorrow.

**note...the reason that it says "Mr Sun" is because Oliver and I both enjoy singing "Mr Sun, Sun, Mr Golden Sun, please shine down on me...." and I was thinking of Oliver while making the cake!

I have made a decision!

So, initially after making such a mess of my first cake (seriously that is a cupcake on the top of the cake, not a blob of doodie as one might imagine)...I ended up feeling quite depressed.....actually, really really depressed. And I think what made me depressed is the fact that I am trying to work on keeping my weight down yet I need to clearly make 1 or 2 cakes a week to practice on and having that much cake around the house is just insane. So what I have decided is that I am going to make at least two cakes a week and then just give them away to those around me. Even if they don't want cake, that is too damn bad because I need practice! Luckily my daycare provider has been gracious enough to accept a cake made by me and I will be making it for her on Sunday. I will post pictures of it here...and I hope it turns out okay because this is the woman I entrust my children to 5 days a week...I don't want to disappoint!!

First Decorated Cake. Status:FAIL!!

Ummm...yeah....so apparently I suck at this whole 'cake decorating' thing. It seems that it is much harder to decorate a cake than it is to eat it!

I will post a picture of the cake here only because my purpose is to document my "journey into cake decorating" and everyone must start some where right??

Now, as unappealing as the cakes looks, I have to say it was delicious. Really...it was!!

The Icing on the cake......

.....is really freakin' yummy!!!

Tonight I made two batches of icing for my cake. One batch is for the all over icing and the other is for decorative purposes (oh look at my fancy lingo!! hahahaha). It was very fun and easy to make the icing....granted it is just the standard icing...nothing to fancy, but once I get more confident I am going to spice things up a little....I might even venture into making CHOCOLATE icing.

Good Lord I am so daring.