True what they say

"Once the word gets out, have fun with the requests..."
They are coming faster than I can even keep up with!
Baby Shower, Work Party, Get Well Soon, Birthday... Can I get a bigger kitchen?

Forever 21! Happy Birthday Sue

It was Sue's birthday and we went out to brunch, but we brought our own dessert! It was a surprise. She loves to play cards in her free time, so her son (myboyfriend) and I decided to go with a card theme. He helped since it was his mom's cake-- he's become quite the sous chef these days :)... He came up with the idea "Forever 21" and doing the blackjack cards. Cake makes people smile and that makes me happy. Happy cake! (pictured -- Sue and her friend Chris at brunch.)

Cute Cakes From Convention

Here are a few cakes that I thought were super cute from the 2008 Convention Show Room.

In the second one, if you can see it, there is a pea under one mattress-- princess and the pea! How CUTE!

Okay, and one cool demonstration I went to was about using stencils on cakes... pretty neat stuff. At first I was like...eh, maybe this makes you lazy-- but it looks SOawesome it doesn't matter.

Cake for Joy

Well, this was a cake for our friend/colleague Joy who recently lost her mom. We wanted to cheer her up, but thought flowers were boring and not nearly as comforting as some yummy cake.

Here's to Joy and her mom!

More convention stuff

This is me with Norman Davis, if you watch the Food Network Cake Challenges you've seen him a number of times. He's won a couple and lost a couple... the PIXAR challenge was so sad when his SULLY totally fell apart on him.

He was really nice and answered a lot of questions. His demo was "Wedding Cake with Inlaid Bow"-- simple technique, I probably wouldn't have thought of myself for a long time.


Here's what the inlaid bow looked like (he showed us a few other techniques too as you can see.





And here are a few of my favorite cakes from the cake display room, (people bring their work from all over the country to display)but the pictures do NOT do the cakes justice:

Cake Convention - Some reflections

I always wondered what really went on at Trekkie conventions, or ComicCon, or any of those things. What happens when you put a bunch of people obsessed with the same thing in one place, I thought?

Then I became one of "them." I am now the girl who goes to cake convention. The International Cake Exploration Society holds this conference every year in a different city, and this year it was Orlando, so considering my new hobby, and the money and time I've already invested, I was encouraged to go. So I went.

I learned a lot of great tips, and saw some really cool things. There is something to be said for SEEING something done vs. READING about something being done.

I saw lots of familiar faces. People I know, that don't know me. I'm a Food Network junkie and of course I was thrilled to walk in on Friday and find many of the "CAKE CHALLENGE" types wandering around and/or selling things or teaching. Mike McCarey, Bronwen Webber, Kerrie Vincent, Norman Davis, and quite a few others. I sat next to the woman who put the head on backwards on the recent Soccer Bday Cake Challenge!

Happy 50th Birthday JT!

I will post a better picture later-- this isn't quite the finished product, but those pics aren't on my camera.
Back to adventures in Buttercream... it's all about trial and error. Anyway-- The party was Luau themed. Chocolate cake with a hint of coconut and a tropical chocolate buttercream.

I've stopped thinning my buttercream so much and I'm getting more comfortable with it...I have finally managed to ice a cake and not pick up crumbs!! Success is mine!

Happy Birthday JT!

check back for new pictures!

ICES Convention 2008, Orlando

Okay, cake teacher said I should take advantage of the fact that ICES, the International Cake Exploration Society, (hehehe) was having their annual convention in Orlando this year.

So I did.

It was a five day ordeal at the Contemporary hotel at Walt Disney World... I only participated in three days. It was quite an experience, I've never gone to anything like this before, so I was amused. And along the way I learned a bunch of awesome tips and techniques, so it was worth the money spent.

I will write more soon and post pictures of some stuff-- I'm having issues with the internet at home. I'll tell you about my "cake celebrity" sightings and other musings about cake and cake people. Stay tuned!

Happy Birthday July 13 Kids!

Singing: Happy Birtday to Carol, Happy Birthday to Paul, Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to us all!

Like I previously posted, Carol asked me to make a birthday cake for the three of us, and kindly provided me with some money to get supplies. I couldn't resist the temptation of trying to stack up a three tier cake. Tada!

I'm pretty proud of it. The best part is that I'm getting faster, more organized and neater. This took me a total of probably 8 hours over the course of the week. Good thing I have no life!

Okay, who gets a cake next?

Three tiers of cake for three fabulous July 13 babies. In case you would like to know, the first and last tiers were orange supreme cake with lightly lemon buttercream, and the middle layer was chocolate butter cake with chocolate almond filling. yummm...


(Picture: Paul, Me, Carol, The Cake)

Three Tier Time

My wonderful volunteer at work, Carol, and another colleague of mine, along with me, myself, and I, all have the same birthday. So Carol gave me a little money for supplies and asked me to make us a three-person birthday cake. No better time to go for the third tier right? I've done two tiers a few times now... gonna step it up. So I'm working on a very colorful celebratory cake, no real special theme. Each tier will honor one person's birthday... the older you are the bigger your tier. 10", 8", and 6" -- I'm the 6"...Anyway--Stay tuned!