Uncle Dean's 65th

July 2010: Well, its been a year since I started decorating cakes! The first cake I decorated was my uncle's Old Milwaukee cake... this year I made a royal flush cake with cowboy boots for his cowboy party! yee haw! I only had 2 days when I was out of town to create the gum paste cards and boots and then hand paint them. Its not my favorite cake by far, but it was my first attempt at hand painting something like that.

Freedom Fest 2010

June 2010: My best friend was KIA in 2007 and his family and friends have created an organization in memory of him and also to support the troops: http://patriot29.com/

I made a half sheet cake based on this year's t shirt design (which is the 3rd picture). I made a red velvet/ white cake (dyed blue) with vanilla cream icing and fondant details. I learned NEVER to over fill my cake pan again.... after the cake became a waterfall tossing about 2 cups of cake mix on to the bottom of the oven (after it missed my not so strategically placed cookie sheets) and filled the house with a lovely singed smell I had to use to oven's self clean mode. THREE hours of a horrible stench and eye burning smoke coming from flour being incinerated at 900 degrees... this is no joke-look it up! The cake turned out looking nice (even though I once again had difficulties with the icing slipping on the sides- I'll figure it out soon.... hopefully!) and hopefully with the 3 hour drive to Dallas it stays that way!

High School Reunion

June 2010: For my high school ten year reunion I made a chocolate and vanilla buttercream sheet cake and sugar cookies with fondant and frosting details. Although the cake melted on the drive to the lake house everyone enjoyed it!

Eisley, lil gingersnap!

June 2010: My sister is expecting the first grandchild in our family this week (actually she is overdue). We are certain she will turn out to be a little ginger and I should have made gingersnap cookies, but I didn't think about that until after! whoops
I made these almond sugar cookies with fondant decorations and buttercream details.  I must admit that I saw something similar to these online and was inspired! Unfortunately, my cookies decided to spread wide. I still like the way the turned out though. She better hurry up and give birth within the next few days though so we can eat them!

Toy Story

June 2010: Jamie Brett's son was diagnosed with Wilm's Tumors, a kidney cancer that occurs in children.  He is handling the chemo very well, but I wanted to do something to bring some cheer. He LOVES Toy Story so I decided to make him a cake of course! I worked on the gum paste characters first (Hamm, Mr. Potato Head and Alien). As you can see they are only about 2" tall. Other than a few small flowers I have not really worked with it so I did experience some cracking. I think they turned out pretty cute- at least you can tell who they are! The cake is the actual bed; I got this idea from a few different ones I saw online. It is a triple chocolate chocolate chip cake with chocolate filling and a butter cream crumb coat. The fondant is all homemade a well.

If this story touches your heart and you would like to help out this family or find out more here is the website: LeviStrong

Why is a raven like a writing desk?

May 2010: This was the extra chunk of cake left over from Bree's Nike Swoosh cake (see previous post). I covered it with fondant and added a gum paste heart and a few flowers I had previously made. Since I had just watched the new release of Alice In Wonderland I made a growing cake.  As you can see it was a rushed project and I didn't take the time to level the top of the cake so it is quite bumpy.

Just Do It

May 2010: My friend Bree's birthday is approaching and at this point they all expect a cake from me! I couldn't decide what direction I should take (although after I finished making the cake I realized I should have made a roller blade skate).  She really likes anything Nike and I wanted to make her a pair of Nike Dunks, but I didn't have enough time... so a Nike swoosh it was detailed with music notes- the girl likes to sing. This was a marble cake with a butter cream crumb coat.