50's Jukebox Memories

To celebrate her Dad's 67th birthday, she wanted to "relive" the "happy days" years.

When he was in school it was a one room school house, and when he was old enough, he drove the bus!

He played football.....and I guessed there was a pair of saddle shoes in his closet!

As he is a music lover, I wanted to bring that feel of the late 50's with a cool jukebox.....

and record albums....not CD's!

These are 45's with some hit songs from the late 50's.
They are made from modeling chocolate!

Hope the birthday was a successful trip down memory lane!

No matter what you drive.....

Charlie is turning 29.

Charlie is a firefighter.

Charlie LOVES his motorized toys.
MotorcycleFour Wheel ATVFord TruckCharlie has a lovely fiance that wanted him to have a personal and delicious cake! (smart girl!)

So I say....no matter what you drive.......at 29....you're still driving uphill, so enjoy it!

Happy 29th Charlie!

It's a bird....it's a plane.....it's Superman!

I love superhero cake themes! It gives me a chance to revisit old comic book pictures and find the right one that works for the cake.

John Ryan is turning 5 and is an extreme Superman fan. His mom told me he is watching the old episodes from quite a way back. I found out that Superman was first printed in comic form in 1938. He's still quite a man for being over 70 years old!

First I made Superman cupcakes for John Ryan to share with his classmates at his school.Then he was having a party at the locale jumping party place ~ Leapin' Lizards ~ so he needed a cake to share with all his guests!

I used the FBCT method to create the Superman on top of the cake....
and the cityscape skyline and logos are made from chocolate.
John Ryan was very excited when I brought the cake to his party. Everyone that was in the room was oooing and aaahing over it. One woman even said..."we can't cut that cake!". I just LOVE it when I get that kind of reaction!Here is the feedback I received from John Ryan's mom:

Thank you so much for the awesome Superman Birthday cake. You did a fabulous job. John Ryan thought it was the best cake in the world and wanted to know if he can have another one for his next birthday. It was the best tasting cake I have ever eaten. I am spreading the word and will use you for all of my cakes in the future. Also the fact that you delivered it to the party was so convenient and decreased my stress level for the day. Again, thank you for the cake and cupcakes. Hayley A.

Tie Dye & Peace

They say in fashion, that trends find a way of circling back around every few decades. I believe it to be true....the other thing they say is....if you wore it the first time it was "in", you're too old to wear it the second time around!

I guess tie dye makes me think of the 70's when I was a young girl (VERY young) ;). And now it looks as though it is making it's way around to another generation.

Abbie wanted a tie dye/peace sign themed cake. I wasn't sure how I was going to translate tie dye in icing, so I did a lot of research on the WWW. So believe me when I say....tie dye is definitely popular again!

I decided to use a gel icing in multiple colors and streak through them to give it the tie dye effect.

I think it looks "groovy man"! Hee Hee. I also made a rainbow of peace signs in chocolate to surround the base of the cake.

Peace, love and cake!

80th Birthday Bash

I have made this bass fishing cake design before, just not this big and not one that needed to include chocolate buttercream.

See Hollie had some of my yummy Hershey's chocolate buttercream icing on another cake and HAD to have more! So I came up with a two tiered cake that would allow for a "muddy bottom lake" effect! The whole bottom layer is iced in chocolate buttercream and I brought the water down on top of that for the wavy water effect.

What a wonderful and momentous birthday to celebrate! 80 years is an amazing life! "PaPa" must be an avid fisherman, so we gave him one he could eat....wait....you CAN eat fish.....okay, one you can eat that tastes SWEET! Hee Hee!

The fish is actually molded from Rice Krispie Treats and covered in fondant/modeling chocolate and hand painted with food color paste. The "water splash" is made from modeling chocolate made the same color as the buttercream icing.

I put a fish hook with a worm and then made the fishing line spell out the birthday message to PaPa!(See the fish's tail sticking out at the bottom of the top tier?....you gotta love it!)

Here is the complete design. With buttercream and fondant accents and chocolate rocks!Congratulations on 80 years of life and here's to many more to come!

Pinkalicious!

I don't have a daughter of my own, that's why I really like making cakes for other people's children that are girls! I get to explore the pink and frilly side of life!

I haven't read this story, but if I "judge a book by it's cover", I'd have to say I would pick this up if there were another estrogen source in my house!

Here's the excerpt from the front flap:

Pink, pink, pink. More than anything Pinkalicious loves pink, especially pink cupcakes. Her parents warn her not to eat too many of them, but when Pinkalicious does... she turns pink! What to do?

Bryson is turning 6 and having a "Pinkalicious" party! So let's make a cake that fits the bill!
Here is Pinkalicious made from chocolate!

Here is her favorite...a pink cupcake!

And here is the final cake!Hope your party was pink perfect Bryson! Happy 6th Birthday!

Bulldogs!

I have done a couple of Georgia Bulldog cakes and wanted to try a different design this time. I really like this dog's expression.

I incorporated a football field design on the sides of the cake and even included some chocolate footballs!

Hope you had a great birthday Liam!

Maxine....on turning 40!

Who doesn't know Maxine??? You have to love her sense of humor and when it comes to advise about aging....well I'm pretty sure she wrote the book!

I found this cute party picture of Maxine and her dog and decided that would be a good basis for the message that was requested for a turning 40 cake.

Here is a close up of Maxine and her dog. This was made using the FBCT method. It is a great technique when you want a very recognizable character or picture on your cake with a flat finish. I don't have an edible printer, so this is my best option.

Here's Maxine's wisdom:

"Life begins at 40...but so do fallen arches, rheumatism, faulty eyesight and the tendency to tell a story to the same person three of four times!"

I love their party attitude!

Raspberry Marshmallows!

I saw another blog that showed some awesome marshmallows, and I thought....hmmm.....I could try that!

I searched the www for recipes and found many were the same and I wanted to make raspberry flavored marshmallows. So I decided to try Martha's recipe for strawberry marshmallows and substituted raspberry jam instead.

This is the marshmallow in the pan cooling. I didn't take any pics of the steps leading up to this..... I guess I should work on that!

Once they have set a few hours or overnight.... turn the pan out onto a powder sugared board and slice with an oil covered knife (because this stuff is sticky!)

Then cut into squares and toss in powdered sugar, so they don't stick to each other.

Aren't they pretty?

Here's a close up of the finished product.

Me personally, not so much a marshmallow fan....but you have to try homemade marshmallows! Imagine one of these floating in your hot chocolate.....or making a raspberry marshmallow smore! I think everyone should try these at least once!
I'd love to try other flavors and different recipes....have one to share?

Zebra Stripes

I think I'm starting to get the hang of this zebra striping! It's actually pretty fun to put it together and watch the "cake personality" grow!

This was a request that allowed me to work up whatever I could that incorporated the zebra stripes and polka dots. I like the pink and green combo! The stripes are chocolate fondant colored black, and the plaque and banner are made from modeling chocolate.

Happy 15th Birthday Kristen!

Valentine's Treats 2010

These are the sugar and shortbread cookies that I made for Valentine's Day this year.

I put them in these cute "bouquet" boxes with matching ribbons.


I also made raspberry marshmallows and homemade caramels! I love it when I get the chance to try new sweets!

Hope your Valentine's Day was SWEET!

Aaahhhhhh.....a MONSTER!

I can't wait to share this with you all!

I was able to take a class this weekend with Ashlee Perkins at Minette Rushing's Custom Cakes in Savannah GA. If you watch all the cake competitions on TV like I do, then you have seen Ashlee before. She most recently competed in the Beauty Pageant Cake Challenge.

This is Ashlee with her monster model that the class was based on.There were 10 of us in the class and we all made our own monster. I tell you I could get used to having someone else get all the prep work done for me!

We started out with a base structure so our monsters could stand on their own 2 feet! Hee Hee.
Then we gave them legs using modeling chocolate.Next comes the cake!And of course the arms!The heads were made of styrofoam....if I make this cake again I would use rice krispie treats.....I really like to use as much edible material as possible. But for the purposes of learning this worked and was faster!This is where I got busy working and didn't take my camera out.....so now you see her fully covered in fondant

And here she is in all her glory! Horns, fangs, claws and all! Have a name suggestion???

Scooby Doo.....Where are You?

Brice is turning 4 and he likes Scooby Doo! I just love how many generations Scooby has entertained! He is a timeless laugh!

This is a buttercream cake and the top design is made using a method called Frozen Buttercream Transfer (FBCT).

Are you interested in knowing how to do it?

I can give you step by step pics for the next cake I do that uses this method.
Let me know!

This is a side view of the cake. I put paw prints around the sides and bones on the bottom border.

Here is a close up of the chocolate mystery machine and Scooby I put on the front of the cake.

Happy Birthday Brice!

Braves Fan!

Ashton is turning 22 and she is an Atlanta Braves fan (#10 Chipper Jones is her favorite). Her Mom teaches my oldest son and asked me to make this special cake for Ashton's birthday.

The Braves logos were made from chocolate, Chipper's jersey and the flowers are made from fondant.

I went on the WWW and found an example of Chipper's autograph and freehanded it in buttercream on the baseball.

Hope your birthday was special Ashton!