2008 Milestones in Sugar

After realizing that I've been toying with my new hobby for well over a year now, I thought it would be fun to pick a few milestones from 2008. Let's just say we've come a long way baby! In no particular order, here were three milestone cakes from this year.

1. July 2008, My Birthday Cake: First time with three tiers - whew!

2. October 2008, A Cake for Damaris: While a sad occassion for this cake, I am forced to point out that under that pressure, I piped the BEST buttercream roses I have ever managed to pipe.

3. August 2008, Baby Shower Cake: First time wiring flowers and using them on a cake! Not only were my wired flowers successful, but I loved my clever idea of putting litle baby footprint blooms in there. Also, I was given the shower invitation to match, and well, I was impressed with my color matching abilities here. (see earlier post for pic of invite.)While I'm at it, this was also my first "bow" which was also successful.

And the greatest thing about this is you learn from every experience, and so next time I do any of these things, they will be even better!

Cheers to a Happy New Year and more Happy Cakes.

Merry Christmas Petit Fours

Click photo for close up.

I knew going into this world of tiny covered cakes that there was potential for absolute disaster. So, I must say I was pleased with the relative lack of disaster... I think there is still some ganache on the kitchen cabinets, but that comes with the territory.

I do believe everyone enjoyed the taste, and for a first attempt... not bad looking! Right? Note the tiny gingerbreak men and candy canes :)

There were almond cake with white buttercream and almond filling, almond cake with apricot filling, chocolate fudge cake with Kaluha-Chocolate buttercream, white cake with rasperry or buttercream... and a few other variations. Merry Christmas. Easter will be a good second attempt at petit fours.

After making it from my Mom's house to a dessert party and to a post-Christmas party the following day, they were finally all eaten!

Chistmas Cake

A friend is trying to teach his son that Christmas is about more than the presents. Each year they celebrate with a cake for Jesus' birthday. This year, I had the honor of making that very cake, and here are the results. I'm excited because I used some of the left over batter (Mandarin Orange Cake - cream cheese frosting with a hint of orange) to make mini cakes so I can make my first attempt at petit fours for Christmas at mom's house. Watch for that post soon.