Michelle's 50th birthday

Michelle contacted me a few months ago with a cake design already in mind.  She was planning her 50th birthday party and wanted to acknowledge her family with her cake.  When she sent the sketch of where she wanted the names placed on her family tree she explained that her Malibu was her cat and that she teases her children by telling them that when she dies the cat gets everything.  She asked for Malibu to be near the top of the tree and above her children and grandchildren.
Michelle chose a vanilla with raspberry filling bottom tier and a chocolate top tier.

Of course as soon as I set up the cake someone commented on Malibu's place on the tree.  ♥  This was such a fun design to create for Michelle.

Happy Birthday Honda!

Honda (Alexandria) turned 18 this weekend.  Her mom asked for me recreate a cake from a design she found online.  One giant "18" made out of red velvet cake and garnished with cream cheese buttercream rosettes.

Pink or Blue- We love you!

I love all of my clients, but I'm especially thankful for my repeat clients.  It means so much to me when I get asked repeatedly to be such a big part of your celebrations.
Last year I had the privilege of making a wedding cake for Kayla and Ryan's wedding.  Kayla fell in love with my spice cake with spiced pear filling at her sister's birthday and requested the same for her wedding cake.
I was thrilled when Kayla asked me to help her announce the gender of their baby with a gender reveal cake.  She liked the phrase "pink or blue, we love you" and knew she wanted spice cake again. I created this 8" cake with colored layers of buttercream hidden inside.  The idea was that her family would know if the baby is a boy or girl based on the color of the buttercream inside (pink or blue).  The outside of the cake had a watercolor design and gold accents.

And in case you're wondering- it was blue.  ♥

April and Phillip's Wedding

There is something so beautiful about the imperfection of textured buttercream.  It looks so simple and effortless (but actually takes more work than a smooth buttercream surface- go figure).  April and Phillip chose vanilla cake with sweet vanilla buttercream.  This gorgeous three tiered cake was simple and elegant and the robin's egg ribbon added such a sweet touch.

I'm in love with this cake.

Baklava Orange Spice Cake

The "cousins" in my husband's family recently started a tradition of getting together every other Sunday.  We take turns hosting a casual dinner and inviting all of the cousins.  It's a time for food, stories, and most importantly- keeping those family connections in tact.  It's such a sweet tradition and we have a great time whenever we're able to go.  There are many cousins in my husband's family and even after almost six years together, I'm still not clear on how everybody is connected.  The dinner for the week was scheduled and our sweet host announced that she was planning a Greek/Mediterranean style meal.  I offered to bring something and she asked for dessert (to be fair gave her two options- dessert and Ouzo).  I immediately started doing some Pinterest "research" for Greek or  Mediterranean style party cakes.  There wasn't much inspiration to be found and I wondered about doing a baklava "cake".  There wasn't too much on that, either.  Apparently somebody had figured out how to make baklava cheesecake and baklava cupcakes, just not what I was looking for.  Finally I found a gorgeous image of cake that had a layer of baklava in the center.  There was no recipe or instructions, but I was up for the challenge.  I grew up eating Greek style baklava- this is baklava that is sliced and drizzled in honey and eaten with a spoon or fork.  I didn't know any other kind of baklava until my husband and I met and I tried the baklava that he grew up eating- which I suppose is more of a Lebanese style.  It seemed more like a cookie filled with nuts (very tasty... but different).  He didn't know there was any other kind of baklava until I introduced him to Greek style baklava at our favorite Greek restaurant- he sort of snickered behind the waiter's back after he'd asked us if we wanted two spoons, "a spoon for baklava?"  Sure enough he used that spoon.
Despite my love for the nutty and sweet dessert, I had never actually made baklava.  I turned to my gal, The Pioneer Woman for help.  I followed her easy recipe for baklava and added some additional twists (cinnamon mixed with the nuts and orange infused simple syrup as the base for the honey drizzle sauce).  I also baked mine in a round cake pan and skipped slicing into the layers before putting it in the oven.  It really was not at all intimidating!  
The final result is layers of delicious spice cake infused with orange, cream cheese filling, and pecan baklava (that has been drenched in an orange honey sauce) and topped candied orange peels and drizzled in more of that yummy orange honey sauce.  Opa!

Happy Graduation Joshua

Sweet little Joshua graduated from Kindergarten today.  His favorite color is green and he LOVES Link from Legend of Zelda. His mama wanted him to feel extra special at his graduation and ordered this cake to celebrate.

A 6" cake was the perfect size for Joshua and his family to share.

Jurassic World

Happy birthday Dewayne! This little dinosaur enthusiast chose a Jurassic World Cake to celebrate his birthday. He and Mom picked vanilla cake with strawberry filling (yum!) and sweet vanilla buttercream. Each tier is frosted in lime green buttercream and decorated with fondant leaves, vines, and grass. The Jurassic World logo and the gate were made out of fondant and are totally edible! Mom provided the Tyrannosaurus Rex and Indominus Rex for the top of the cake and I finished it off with chocolate rocks and a giant chocolate boulder.

I hope this cake is loved by Dewayne and all of his dinosaur enthusiast party guests.

Ninja Turtles Cake

How fun is this Ninja Turtles cake?! JR's mom sent me a picture of a cake that she wanted and it turns out that this may be one of the most popular Ninja Turtle cake designs ever. I saw so many variations of the same cake online, kudos to the original designer!
The bottom tier is a chocolate cake with lime green buttercream and green "ooze" between the layers. It's frosted with blue sweet vanilla buttercream and decorated with fondant buildings, stars, and glittering "7". The top tier is moist vanilla cake with lime green buttercream and ooze layer and frosted in gray buttercream and embellished with fondant bricks and "JR" in Ninja Turtle font. The cake is topped with a silver manhole (complete with the TMNT logo) that has been sprayed with silver metallic food coloring and all four turtles are peeking out from the manhole. The turtles are made out of fondant and completely edible! The cake is sitting on top of TMNT's favorite food- pizza!

I'm in love with this cake and I hope JR and his party guests enjoyed his cake as much as I enjoyed making it.

The Tale of the Weeping Fondant

All cake decorators have mishaps, moments of panic, and full on cake disasters from time to time. This week it was my turn. Bethany's mom asked me to make a birthday cake for her 18th birthday (that's one of those special birthdays in case you were wondering). Bethany is the oldest in her family of 8 children and in addition to turning 18, Bethany is graduating from high school next month. Her mom wanted something special for her. Her mom said that Bethany loves to read and collects snow globes and wanted the cake to reflect her interests. Aside from telling me her favorite colors (red and black) and that Bethany doesn't like glitter, I was given free reign over the design. If you're ever ordering a cake from a decorator- give them free reign. Trust me. We end up doing way more work than what we quoted you for and having a lot of fun with the design. We did talk about doing one of those gelatin bubbles that you see on Pinterest- but all of my research showed that those bubbles end up cloudy and if you don't mix in food coloring it looks like a dirty bubble. You can use pricey gelatin sheets (if you can find them) but even then they just don't look as good as glass. I opted to use a glass fishbowl from the craft store and inserted one of Bethany's senior photos into the snow globe. I made fondant books and wrote in the names of her three favorite books; Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The Giver, and The Scarlet Letter as well as a few of my favorites; Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Gone With the Wind, To Kill a Mockingbird, Unwind... think of it as a book list passed from one bookworm to another. I placed the "snow globe" on top and topped it with a fondant book. I photographed it, very pleased with myself and headed to work for the day.

I didn't account for the fact that we'd just had horrible flooding rains here in Houston and the humidity level was 87%. That was my fault. When I came home the poor cake looked awful. The books were bubbled falling off and the fondant was "weeping." Weeping fondant is fondant that is bleeding. Fondant sort of acts like a sponge and absorbs moisture from the icing under it and from the air around it. The book titles were just running off the spines. It was horrible. My cake was weeping and I wanted to, too. I set to work repairing the damage and was able to flatten out the books, but I couldn't get the titles back on. The fondant was just too wet. It wasn't perfect, but when we left the house it looked decent. Anytime I deliver a cake, even if we're only meeting at a location and the client is taking it the rest of the way I open the box and show them the cake- this is also my last chance to make sure that everything looks as good as it did when I left the house. This cake did not look as good as did when I left the house. The humidity was killing me! Bethany was so sweet about it and said that she liked it. I felt horrible. In the course of our conversations I learned that the family was postponing their celebration until two days later and I knew that even in the fridge that cake wasn't going to last two days. I tried to be optimistic, but within a few minutes of leaving I knew that I was going to remake the cake for their Friday celebration. My original plan was to not even tell them I was doing it (out of fear that they would tell me not to and that it was OK), but when Bethany's mom sent me a picture of Bethany smiling with her cake and I saw how much worse it looked in that short period of time since I'd left it, I told her that I was going to remake it. Of course she told me I didn't have to, but I told her that this cake had started off way too pretty to look the way it did. I told them to go ahead and eat the ugly one and that they would have a new one for the party two days later. The second cake was a success. The humidity level had gone down, and I babied that cake so much. I also made a change to the inner structure of the cake (the way that I had the snow globe mounted) and it was perfect. This time when Bethany's mom sent me a picture of her smiling with her cake I didn't cringe and tear up. So although this cake story was a bit of a horror story, it had a happy ending and I learned a valuable lesson about Houston weather, humidity, and weeping fondant.
The End

Jessi & Clint

I appreciate an enormous wedding cake complete with edible pearls and lots of pizzazz just as much as the next girl, but there is something so sweet and romantic about a small textured buttercream wedding cake and cupcakes. I was so excited when one of my closest friends finally got engaged to her very long term boyfriend, Clint. I was even more excited when she asked me to do her wedding desserts. Her inspiration photo was a rustic cupcake display with cupcakes in varying colors and textures. She pretty much gave me free reign with the condition that she had to have pink rose cupcakes on her table (her middle name is Rose, after all). She also wanted a small cake to freeze for her first anniversary. I knew a rustic textured cake with fresh flowers on top would be the perfect thing. Jessica and Clint exchanged vows at their home in a small, intimate ceremony and had a backyard reception three months later in their amazing country backyard. The setting was so sweet. All of the food was prepared by the couple and their friends and family and most of the decorations were made by Jessica herself. Their dog Bailey was able to roam free and nibble on scraps that guests fed her. Guests entertained themselves with games of washers, good conversation, and visiting the backyard chicken coop.

Jessica chose to have a mix of chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry cupcakes. All of the cupcakes were topped with sweet vanilla buttercream and the cake was a single tier strawberry cake with beautiful hydrangeas on top. I misted the flowers with silver airbrush food coloring to give them a nice shimmer and to mute the blue color just a touch. Her simple, sweet cupcakes matched perfectly with the homey family feel of their reception.

Teen Titans Go!

Every so often a cake comes along that pushes its way to the "favorite cake I've ever made" spot in my heart. This is one of those cakes. Last week Jeremiah's mom contacted me about making a Teen Titans cake featuring Robin. She requested a red velvet cake and I paired it with sweet cream cheese buttercream frosting. The design she she showed me for inspiration used a technique that I had never attempted, but I was confident that I could replicate.

I LOVE this cake so much! I want to make all sorts of cartoon character cakes now! Jeremiah and his mom live about two hours away from me. Luckily, his aunt lives nearby and was willing to transport his cake. (Aunts are the best!) I was a little nervous about handing my hard work off to somebody else to deliver, but the cake arrived to the party safely and both Jeremiah and Mom loved it. She sent me the sweetest review I've ever received along with a picture of him with his cake. He's a doll and I'm so glad I got to help make his birthday special.

Dallas Cowboys

Nick's mom reached out to me only a few days before his birthday party and asked if I could make a cake on short notice.  They were on a budget and expecting about 25 guests at his 16th birthday party.  She sent a few images of cakes that she liked and told me what her budget was.  I always tell people that I can work with just about any budget.  I know how important a cake can be at a celebration, and I also know how expensive they can be.  I was able to use the inspirations photos she sent to create a cake that they loved.

As I've said before- fondant covered cakes are more expensive and just don't taste as good.  For Nick's cake I did a chocolate cake with sweet vanilla buttercream and airbrushed the bottom tier blue and the top tier metallic silver.  I covered the cake in fondant stars in blue, silver, and white and added a few wired stars to the top with his name in fondant letters.



Adding the letters over the star was a different technique for me, and I love how it looks.  I think it would look great for many different cake designs.

Nick's mom said the cake was a big hit at his party and I'm so glad I was able to help him celebrate this special birthday.

Breakfast at Tiffany's

For years I have wanted to make a Tiffany box cake.  I saw a picture of one back before Pinterest was even a thing and wanted to make one.  This was before I actually "made" cakes.  I just loved the idea of that pretty blue box in cake form. After I started taking cake orders I kept secretly hoping I would get a Tiffany box cake order.  When that didn't happen I decided to put it on my list of cakes to make just for fun.  Imagine my delight when I actually got an order for a Tiffany cake!
This cake was for a Breakfast at Tiffany's themed bridal shower, which happens to be my favorite shower theme of all time (it was my own shower theme).  The original order was just for a blue cake with a white bow, but I knew I wanted to do more!
I know that fondant covered cakes are so popular, and this is because they look beautiful and although they take an extra step on the part of the baker- they really are easier than a smooth buttercream cake.  Fondant is great for covering little air bubbles or slight lumps in buttercream.  However, I prefer only use fondant for accents on the cake.  Of course if the client really wants a fondant covered cake, I'll do it.  Buttercream just tastes so much better than fondant and a cake that isn't covered in fondant costs less to make, which allows me to charge less for it- which everybody loves.



This cake is a 9 inch square vanilla cake with fresh strawberry slice filling and sweet vanilla buttercream.  The only fondant on the cake is the ribbon and bow, the ring, and the strand of pearls.  The pearls are actually hand made and strung together with a needle and thread which allows them to drape just like a real necklace would.  The ring was airbrushed with metallic silver food coloring and the diamond was dusted with luster dust- as were the pearls, ribbon, and bow.  I am so in love with this cake.  It was so wonderful to cross something off my cake bucket list!