Whoa so it has been a while to say the least, I am on a much needed vacation this week so I thought I would finally get a blog out. My husband has found it a bit humorous that even on our vacation, I have spent every day of it thus far, caking in some way or another. What can I say? I'm obsessed, totally addicted; hence the name "Cakeaholic".
To say I've been busy would be an understatement as well as a cop out. So besides working 50+ hours a week at my day job, taking care of my baby/toddler, working near opposite hours as the hubby and all of life's other demands, here is what I've been up to Cakeaholic related since my last post:
Spiderman Cake for Grant's 4th Birthday! The cake was supposed to be a 2 tier topsy turvy style cake… but it just wasn't cooperating with me. Lucky for me, the cake was ordered by an ever understanding co-worker. Spiderman scaling the side of the cake was my favorite detail, and the sharp edges fell right in line with the rigid style of the Spiderman illustrations. From what I heard, the birthday boy couldn't be happier with his cake - and that is all that matters :)
The same day the Spiderman cake was due, we were celebrating Easter (it really has been awhile) and my sister's 31st birthday with my family. My sister and I are night and day - so when I asked her what some of her "favorites" are for inspiration for her cake, and I got this list: 'Movie = Braveheart, Flowers = Sunflowers, Flavors = chocolate, strawberry, cream cheese, Colors = metallics mostly Blue, Hobby = Gardening, Wine = Shiraz…'. Well that put me way out of my element and any pre-conceived design ideas in my head were thrown out the window. I obviously wasn't going to dump all of that onto her small cake - so this is what I came up with.
A wine bottle (100% edible including the label "Sonya's Shiraz - Aged 31 Years"), with metallic blue accents and Sunflowers to compliment. Everything on the cake is edible. The cake itself was chocolate with raspberry filling.
Next up was a Wizard of Oz inspired 50th birthday cake, staring the Wicked Witch of the West, a Flying Monkey and a crystal Ball showing Dorothy. I was really happy with the way the figures turned out but not so pleased with their fragility and needing to transport them. The crystal ball gave me the opportunity to learn a new technique of creating gelatin bubbles (that's right, the crystal ball is edible!). The cake itself was a from scratch carrot cake (Yum!) with nut, coconut and carrots of course, complemented with a crusting cream cheese frosting. I love the Wizard of Oz movie, so this was a really fun cake to make!
Rosette Cake: This cake wasn't ordered but really just an excuse to try this technique that is becoming really popular. I was lucky enough to enjoy this cake with my husband's family as sort of a Father's Day/Birthday cake - and discovered my recipe needed a bit of improvement. I'm excited to make a variation of this design again for an up-coming wedding.
My next order was for baby shower cake pops, Mickey mouse silhouette. These turned out so dang cute! I especially love the long dramatic sticks. If you remember, I made similar pops for my babe's first birthday party January 30th. This time around however, I decided to have them displayed so the pop portion sits on the plate with the stick in the air.
Another Baby Shower inspired cake for my cousin + my old friend's little bundle of joy on the way - It's a Girl! I had free reign on the design of this cake and I thought the birds/egg/nest idea would be cute. I also played with the look of lace/ribbons, fabric inspired flowers and ruffles along the bottom. Super girly but a fun cake to practice some techniques on. All white cake; one being buttercream/caramel/pecan, one being buttercream with raspberry filling and finally, the top being buttercream-strawberry - almost like a sherbet. Unfortunately, this cake didn't quite turn out as planned (do they ever?), nor did it travel well... but it tasted great!
Ice cream cake pops: another gift. A coworker of mine had helped me out with a special project I had, and to show my appreciation (and as an excuse for me to try these super cute cake pops), I made him some red velvet cake pops/ice cream cones. These were surprisingly easy to make a really fun summer time design!
And finally, I recently made a sweet 16 cake based on an Art Eats Bakery design, incorporating hot pink, zebra stripes and "bling". The bottom tier is white cake with almond-buttercream filling, the middle tier is my "too much chocolate, chocolate cake" recipe filled with dark chocolate and covered with ganache and the top tier is red-velvet with cream cheese. The client also decided she wanted coordinating zebra cake pops, and I wasn't sure how I was going to make those but I am really happy with the technique I came up with and the way they turned out. The cake and cake pops looked great on the super cute hot pink/zebra themed candy buffet table her mom set up for her. From the sounds of it, Hailey had a great 16th Birthday celebration.Soon to come, a Welcoming citizenship cake, another Camera cake, a 100th birthday-house cake, a few wedding cakes and whatever else comes my way. Having a lot of fun testing my ever work in progress of discovering better cake recipes. Additionally, after seeing this "hobby" of mine unexpectedly take off on me, I have added quite a few new cake flavors, filling flavors and altogether combinations to my menu (I still need to update my website) to keep ahead of the curve with the continuing orders that are making their way to me.
Thanks for reading - I'll try to keep up on this blogging thing better… I am amazed at people who can find the time to blog a couple of times a week… maybe someday I'll be able to keep up :)
Until next time,
Tam a Lam
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