"Ants on a Picnic" Cake

I just finished making this cake for a BBQ tomorrow at our friends' house.

I was inspired by some cupcakes that I saw in a book.

 

The ants are made of chocolate covered almonds. Mmm.

And the watermelon slices are made from fruit candies:

One cut and a quick "switcheroo" of the red and green pieces.

(Plus some chocolate icing for the "seeds".)

Caitlin and Carl's Wedding Cake

My first (and probably only!) wedding cake... 

There are some imperfections that bother me (we are our own worst critics!), but Caitlin and Carl were happy with their cake and that makes me happy!

The odds were against us..

I baked the cake in my mom's 25+ year old oven that:

(a) I wasn't used to, and

(b) does just fine for fixing dinner but (I learned the hard way)

does NOT bake cakes evenly.

I had to remake several layers and did not even go to bed that night.

And then, there was the delivery!

I assembled the cake first (probably a bad idea!) and rode in the back with it while my mom drove as slow as possible with her flashers on. 

But we had to go up a hill. A BIG hill.

The cake layers were separated by cream filling...which sloshed back in forth in the car with every bump and turn.  It looked like the Leaning Tower of Pisa and I prayed outloud that it wouldn't fall over compeltely! 

It didn't.  Thank you, God!

The best part of the cake (for me) was the delicious new recipes that I found.

Carl likes strawberry cake, and I didn't want to just use a strawberry mix.

This one uses REAL strawberries and has a delicious strawberry filling.  Here's a picture of an early stage:

The other tiers were french vanilla with a Bavarian cream filling,

also a new recipe and equally yummy.

Tyler's 17th Birthday "B2 Stealth Bomber" Cake

Just Peachy!

Those of you who know me well know that I LOVE everything peach... the color, the flavor... when I was little I had a peach room and drank peach pop, and my wedding color scheme was all shades of pink and orange.

Well, these are my new favorite dessert! Not only are they gorgeous, they taste decadent! They combine all of the flavors that I love, too!

Each peach half is a hollowed out shortbread cookie filled with French buttercream and there is an almond in the center (the peach "pit"!)... the halves are glued together with dark chocolate.  (The stem and leaf are fondant).  But wait... it gets better! :-) The whole thing is then dipped in peach Schnapps (oh, yeah!) and rolled in peach Jello cystals.  DE-LISH!!!

Cheyenne's 14th Birthday KC Royals Cake

The request was a KC Royals baseball jersey with her name on the back and her age as the number. I took the liberty of adding sparkles and flowers to keep it girly ;). She loved it!

"Puppy Love" Cookies for Valentine's Day

Aren't these cute?! All you need is a heart shaped cookie cutter! You cut one heart in half for the ears. Clever, huh?! I wish I could take credit for the idea, but it wasn't mine. I can't remember where I first saw these, but I have been anxious to make them, and Valentine's day seemed like the perfect excuse!

If you used blue food coloring, they would be the perfect "Blue" from Blue's Clues!

Jannett's 50th Birthday Cakes

Present shaped cakes in fall colors/flowers for my mother-in-law's 50th birthday party in November. Once again, I did not have not enough time to do everything that I wanted..... but not bad for working full time and having a 1 year old daughter!

Ashley's 1st Birthday Cake

Maelie's 'Rella Cake

Cinderella cake for my neice's 2nd birthday. As usual, I'm my own worst critic and wish some things had turned out better. No complaints from the birthday girl, though!

Malinda's Birthday Cake

I'm a little late in posting this... I have been so busy posting pics of Ashley that I sort of neglected this blog! The next cake will be a Disney Princess cake for my niece, Maelie for her 2nd birthday in a couple of weeks.

2 New Cakes

Tyler's 16th birthday cake. I was pretty excited when the idea came to me to use an icing tip as a mold for making pylons. :)

This was a last-minute cake for a party for some of my seniors at OGHS. Not my best, but not bad for being short on time and materials. I made a diploma and forgot to put it on :(.

Easter Bunny Dinner Rolls

Not a cake, but I made Easter bunny-shaped dinner rolls to go with our Easter dinner.

Cakes through 4-12-09

Onesies for the above baby shower cake. The outfits and the cake were my gift to a friend. Turns out I made another cake typo as her daughter's name is spelled Brinlee. She never said a word about it, though!

Baby shower "belly cake" - and boy, did I have a belly when I made this!

"Smash" cake to go with Maelie's castle cake.

Princess castle cake for Maelie. I had bigger ambitions for this cake... more details, more flowers.. but I was 7+ months pregnant and it was the hottest part of the summer. The towers are ice cream cones covered in fondant.

Hannah Montana guitar cake for Briana.

Swimsuit cookies for another4th of July party at Nathan & Dee's.

Tyler's birthday cake - a John Deere tractor plowing/seeding a field. Even the tractor is edible.

Graduation cupcakes for my OGHS seniors. The caps are Reese's cups with a chocolate covered grahm cracker, fruit roll-up tassel, and fondant diploma.

Birthday cake for Rosa, who is from Australia.

Jeremy & Nathan's 30th birthday cake. Everything is 100% edible and made by me.

Anniversary cake for my friend Leslie and her husband Phil.

Anne's birthday/husband's birthday/Christmas cake.

Omni's High School Musical birthday cake.

SpongeBob cake for Mason's 2nd birthday.

Grandma & Grandpa's anniversary cake.

Butterfly cake for a fundraiser at school.

Grandma's birthday cake.

Another Wilton class cake.

Butterfly cupcakes for Jeanine's birthday.

A cake for a friend of the family... it turns out that the woman's daughter was wrong and it was actually just her 93rd birthday!

My first "tiered" cake... a class cake for Wilton Course III.

Gumpaste roses made by me. Practice makes perfect!

Another class cake.

Even though this was one of my early cakes, I am still pretty proud of it. For a 4th of July fireworks party at Nathan & Dee's house.

A giant cookie "cake" for Cheyenne.

This was a class cake for Wilton Course II. My hand still hurts thinking about the basketweaving technique!

I made this snake cake for my Animal Care Team at RHS.