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