Swallowed by the Holidays

It has been awhile since I blogged.  Just like everyone else, my already insanely busy life gets all the more crazy around the holidays.  The past few weeks I’ve been juggling a full time job, opposite working hours as the hubby, a baby at home, baking, shopping, decorating, wrapping, get togethers and trying not to let the house fall apart.

Before Christmas, I made somewhere between 400 and 500 cake balls in either the form of pops or truffles.  These were for multiple orders, gifts and get togethers.  Surprisingly between all of the craziness and separate packaging of the treats – I did not manage to get any pictures.  One of my co-workers took a picture of one of those 400-500 treats from a batch I shared at work… Feast your eyes:

Not the best quality...

From the reading I’ve been doing, I’ve anticipated that January/February would be quieter as far as placing orders is concerned… but so far, I haven’t noticed with my January quickly filling up with various cake orders.

I’ve been doing a lot of cake pops and truffles lately, and while I enjoy putting them together and especially enjoying eating them, I’m really looking forward to decorating a cake again.  Some of the upcoming orders are really going to challenge me (camouflage, carving…)

Maybe when a slow season does roll around, I’ll be able to decorate a cake just per my design?

Anyway, just wanted to put a quick update out here.

Tam a Lam,

P.S. Don’t forget to get your Valentine order in soon:  www.cakeaholiccakery.com

More of those Deliciously Cute Cake Pops :)

Working 45-50 hours a week, I probably spend more time at the office with my co-workers than even my own family... And of all my co-workers, I spend most of that time with Mel.  We sit right next to each other, and for a long time, were the only females on our half of the office.  You can probably imagine the conversations we've shared :)  I know at times we drove each other crazy, but for the most part - we keep each other sane.  

Mel's been keeping up on my cake progress from the very beginning (albeit I am still in that phase), and celebrated with me as orders began rolling in.  She has been itching to place her own order or recommend me to anyone who may need some cake product of sorts but thus far, nothing has come up.  My birthday is only a couple of weeks before hers and when we went out for lunch and drinks to celebrate - she got excited as she realized her birthday was coming up and was a perfect excuse to get some cake pops.

She only requested a dozen, and wanted a purple/silver combination.  I do not yet have an edible airbrush machine, and was not able to get my hands on any silver icing in time, so I found silver sprinkles to accent the pops per her request.

These were a lot of fun to do, and a good warm up for me before my up coming holiday orders.  A very pretty request for a pretty birthday girl - Happy Birthday Mel!

At this point, there is no stopping me... If I am not working, taking care of the baby, eating or sleeping, I am either baking, decorating or blogging about it :)  Just kidding... sort of...  Needless to say, you all are keeping me busy - and I love that.  

Hope to share some of this deliciousness with you soon!

Tam a Lam

Happy Birthday to You and You and You and You... and me... Gobble Gobble

On my mother’s side of the family alone, we have 9 November birthdays – 5 of which are in the same week as Thanksgiving.  

• Aunty Theresa
• Uncle Dave
• Uncle Chris
• Nephew Logan
• Aunty Ellen
• Cousin Crystal
• Cousin Lawrence
• Myself
• Nephew Aidan

My family asked me to make a November Birthday cake to bring to Thanksgiving so we could celebrate the birthdays as well as the day of giving thanks.  Since I’ve been busy filling cake orders for other people’s celebrations, I was psyched to make my own design this time around.  At the same time I needed to keep in mind that this cake was for kids, adults, males and females so I kept it fairly generic.  If I didn’t work full time, I would have loved to make individual components that captured each birthday person’s personality – but I just didn’t have the time to make it “that special” with a full time job, a new baby at home and opposite working hours of my husband

I made both cake pops and cake and I love the way it turned out in the end.  The cake pops were a hit – easy to grab as someone walked by, and super delicious.  Another bonus is that I was really able to get to know my new toy/birthday gift as well and used it for the entire cut outs on the cake.

Needless to say, after our Thanksgiving feast, pie, appetizers and cake pops no one had any room for cake so we cut it up and sent some home with every family.  I made ganache to cover the cake with (under the fondant), and made sure to put a thick layer of the ganache on the cake as most people are not fond of fondant (no pun intended).  YUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMM!  I am a true chocolate lover and have a huge craving for dark, semi-sweet uber rich chocolate.   Let me tell you – this ganache was just that – heavenly!  I’m happy to have some left over in my freezer for either future cakes or ganache truffles or something.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it…

I’ve been really busy between cake orders, holidays, birthdays, full time job, baby and husband and I am really looking forward to a short “cake break” this week/weekend.  Although, I’m not entirely sure I will take the whole week off from caking…

Thanks for reading,

Tam a Lam

Keeping Busy

After my Under the Sea cake, I was anxious to get started on my big Thanksgiving/Birthday cake... When unexpectedly, I got a last minute order on Wednesday for Friday.  Working full time and coming home to a baby, this didn't give me much time to whip up the order - but I was optimistic...

This cake definitely challenged me.  On Thursday night, I stayed up almost all night and got up shortly after 4AM to finish it.  Nothing with this cake seemed to go as planned, and on Friday morning, I was contemplating calling the Jodi (person who ordered the cake) to tell her it just wasn't going to happen.  But I am not one to let road blocks hinder me from pursuing my goals, so I kept pushing through and made the most of it, altering my plans for the cake as needed. 

In the end, the cake turned out really cute, and received raved reviews.  The cake was for Mikenna who was turning 13.  The request was for a local high school's colors of light blue, royal blue, white and silver with paw prints (resembling the high schools mascot) on it.  

Happy Birthday Mikenna - and thanks for thinking of me Jodi!

Lots of orders are lining up - it's really encouraging to see this hobby/passion/learning experience turn in to more than just a nerdy hobby of mine :)

Thanks for checking in - Tam a Lam

Under the Sea

I received an order from someone who wanted to surprise their friend with a 21st birthday cake.  Her friend would love to be a marine biologist someday and so she wanted a "sea themed" cake.  To be quite honest, this is totally out of my element and not a design that I was particularly excited about...  My 'ideal' cakes to make are shabby, chic, feminine or pretty - but between cake orders and work I don't necessarily have a lot of time to design those kinds of cakes.  I have a few other orders coming up and I've been looking forward to getting this cake completed so that I could start on the other orders that I was a lot more excited about.

So I got to work researching sea creatures and sea cakes for inspiration and formulated a plan - hoping this cake wouldn't be too difficult or time consuming.  I made a large 21 and gave it some texture to appear "corally" (yes I made that word up).  I also made some sea creatures - an octopus, some fish, a jelly fish, a couple of star fish and a crab - all with cartoon like faces for fun.  I didn't forget about foliage and included sea weed and other sea plant life.  I covered the cake board with brown sugar and crushed up chex cereal as "sand".  I also added a whale tail splashing through the top of the cake for a fun detail.  With some bubbles and the birthday girl's name on the top, the cake was complete.

This is probably the first time I can say, this cake turned out so much cuter than I imagined (it is usually the other way around).  Although I was not looking forward to designing this cake I am so pleased with the way it turned out.  I don't want to sound conceited or anything but I think this cake is uber cute and cuter than the sea themed cakes I was pulling inspiration from.  Not to mention, the tropical colors are an instant eye catcher, especially with this dreary snowy MN weather.

Happy 21st Birthday Emily!  I hope you loved your cake as much as I did :)

Tam a Lam

Beginnings...

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Check ya later - Tam a lam

Happy Birthday Ann

Get Ready... Get Set...

I was recently approached by a few different people asking me to make them cakes so I have my first couple of "official" orders coming up (so psyched!).  I really want them to turn out perfect so I spent this past weekend prepping.  

On Saturday, I shopped around for tools and supplies.  I actually baked 7 cakes (and a batch of cookies to hold the hubby over) on Sunday morning - it's a good thing we have an extra freezer/keg-o-rater to keep the cakes fresh.  Tonight was spent making a stencil.  

I'm going to try ganache under my next cake - I've heard incredible things about laying fondant over ganache, and it tastes soooo good.  Perfect for the Chocolate cake they wanted.

Wish I had a new cake from this past weekend... but there are not enough hours in a day for that :) 

Simplicity

This cake was a simple design that you can modify however you wish.  Smaller tiers, larger tiers, more tiers, one tier, different colors, various blossom sizes... etc.  Because of it's simple design, and for no one in particular - I don't have a whole lot to say...

Of course, as always, if I were to do this again, I would have done this slightly differently.  Smaller top tier and taller bottom tier.  I would have also kept it all white (as was my original plan)... 

 

At any rate, I like this one.  I feel like the design is universal; could be used for a general get together, happy Spring cake, birthday, shower or even wedding...

Thanks for checking out my cake for the week!

Tam a lam

Cake Pop Cake Pop Cake Pop

It may sound crazy but truth be told, I don’t love to eat cake.  If I am presented with desert options, nine times out of ten I’ll choose anything over cake (that is unless it is carrot cake or ice cream cake).  I love frosting, and I love decorating cake – but that is about as far as the love goes for me when it comes to cake…  Well, that is until I discovered cake pops.

Reading about cake decorating online, I stumbled across the term “cake pop”.  I had no idea what a cake pop was so I googled it, and found the cutest little creations made from cake, frosting and candy coating.  Essentially, a treat made from cake that looks like a lollipop.  Cake balls if you will, stuck on a sucker stick, then dipped in candy coating.  And it turns out these things are pretty popular – even substituting wedding cake for some people.

 It really is cake!

They sounded easy enough to make and I just had to try it.  Sounded is the key word there… not quite as easy as one would think.  But so fun never the less, at least to me.  So here is my first attempt at cake pops.

Not only are they adorable, but they are friggen yummy!  Perfect combination of crunchy and soft – double decker mini cake shot.  And, they keep for about 2 weeks at room temperature!  Not that they will ever last that long.

 I was so excited to try my hand at cake pops that I put my cake for this weekend on hold again.  It’s all baked and leveled sitting in our freezer.

Anyway, as you can probably tell, these little cake pops got me all psyched up.  Doesn’t take much ;)

~Tam a Lam

 

 

 

Taking a Short Break

Hey - o!

No cakes this weekend - my husband is itching to brew a batch of beer this weekend (he has been brewing for a few years now)... And the three cakes from last weekend kept me pretty dang busy between working and baby.

But... I already have my mind made up about my next few cakes and I'm psyched to start working on them soon! If I am able to do a cake next weekend, it will be trueley a "Tam" cake - simple yet somewhat feminine. I think I'm also gonna take a shot at making homemade red-velvet cake just to shake it up a bit... There will be plenty to share... you will just have to come and visit :)

Maybe in a few weeks we'll have a celebration with home brew and cake?


Cheers,

Tam a lam

September Birthdays

Until Next time...

Tam a lam

No New Cakes this Week...

Sunday my immediate family is celebrating 3 September birthdays.  This will be the first time I am making cakes based on what other people want/requested.

So, I am taking a "break" this past weekend/week as I have 3 cakes to make for this upcoming weekend.  I have been working on the birthday cakes since last week, doing what I can after the baby goes to sleep for the night...

I hope they all enjoy their cakes as there is a lot of love in the making of them :)

Until next week -

Tam

For my Mother in Law

I wanted to try making a more "marketable" cake this week - One that, if I were selling cakes, would appeal to people for any occasion, whether birthday, shower, anniversary, congratulations... etc.  I also wanted to start learning how to make flowers - as nerdy as that sounds, since a lot of people want flowers on their cakes.  I'm still working with mostly fondant so all of the flowers and leaves on this cake are made of fondant.

So far, after I'm done decorating a cake, I let it sit out for a day so we can admire, then it goes right to the trash.  There is no reason to keep it, as there is always plenty of left over or mess up cakes to keep my hubby satisfied, and fondant doesn't keep much longer than 3 days without a box, but before I even made this cake, I had Joan in mind (my mother in law) therefore, this one was not landing in our trash.  The classic beauty of the roses and the 'soft' color scheme (although not as soft as I had planned) - spoke of Joan.  Out of anyone I know, I felt she would appreciate this cake the most - she was my inspiration behind this cake.  Enjoy Joan!

This cake was sort of a copy of another cake I found when googling cake images, but I put my own spin on it.  I learned a lot in making this cake, and I had fun at my first attempt at roses, leaves or flowers in general.  The more I decorate, the more I want to... :)

Stay tuned for September birthday cakes.

Tam a Lam

Home Made Gift

After my first attempt, I was itching to get started on another cake.  I thought I would scale this one down a bit - and practice a few new techniques, focusing on creating a clean, fun cake.  This cake was only 1 tier (3 cakes of the same size stacked).  I think I actually had a harder time with this one than with my first 3 tiered cake.  

The original plan was a hat box present with the lid partially open and tissue paper peeping out - i.e. 4 cakes, but I ruined the last cake I baked when taking it out of the pan.  So, I had to edit my cake a bit and decided to ditch the open lid idea and instead place "tissue paper" around the base of the cake.

The fondant was testing me this time.  The texture was a bit off.  Seemed dry, yet was sticky - it didn't make a lick of sense... but I was hoping with everything I was putting on the cake, I could disguise that.  Also, covering a tall, skinny, round cake was much more difficult than I anticipated.  Oh well, I'm learning along the way.

 Everything on the cake is edible - but not sure I would be so brave (ha ha ha).  

If I were to do this all over again, of course there are a lot of things I would change.  At any rate, it is fun to practice and learn from my mistakes.  

It's a good thing there are several birthdays in September in my family... Many birthday cakes for practicing with ;)

xoxo,

Tam a Lam

Piece of Cake?

I have been so intrigued with cake decorating ever since the boob tube made it popular.  This whole new world of fondant and various shapes, designs and colors absolutely blew my mind.  Up until that point, all I "knew" about decorated cakes consisted of flowers, frilly foo foo grandma piping, and plastic figurines. Now, thanks to Duff Goldman, I'm hooked.

I know, I'm a total nerd - I mean, cake decorating?  and now blogging about cake decorating?  But I can't help it... something about the craft, or about taking something like - cake and making it look like something completely different... there is just an art to it that I'm totally addicted to.

So for the last couple of years, I've watched cake artists on the tele in complete aw (even sucking my hubby in to my weird obsession), when one day, I thought "maybe I could do this?..."  Needing an outlet, working full time with a new baby at home - it was not a bad idea.  With the help of google, and a local cake decorating store - I began my journey.

Having never used fondant before, and having never stacked a cake before - what did I decide to do for my first cake?  Well, use fondant on a giant 3 tiered cake, of course!  The cake didn't turn out spectacular by any means, but never the less I'm proud.  No tears in my fondant, and the tiers did not collapse...

I'm so excited to keep learning the art, and sharing this fun hobby with family and friends!  Feel free to tag along on my ride with me.

- Tam a Lam