Cake with the Daring Little Separator

My most recent cake reminds me that there is an awful lot of editing that goes on behind the scenes before you ever see a television show.  Let’s give you a little background before I show you the wedding cake from somewhere south and red and very, very hot where people have little horns and carry pitchforks.

I’m sure at some point in your life you’ve watched one of the numerous cake decorating shows that are on the Food Network or TLC channels. I’ve watched several of them – my favorites are the Food Network challenges. I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to take a class from the wonderful Kaysie Lackey! She is one of THE MOST energetic and creative people I’ve ever met! The class was so much fun & I was super shocked that she taught us to put together a cake (real cake – not just a cake dummy) that made it all the way home from Nashville, TN – A 5 HOUR DRIVE!!!!  Here’s a picture of the cake before we left:

Kaysie & Casey - KC squared!

And here’s a picture after it’d been traveling for 5 hours in the car.

Totally amazing that it survived right? I thought so.

So, this brings me to the cake from H. E. Double Hockey Sticks. All of my wedding cakes up to this point have been tiers stacked on top of tiers. Ever since I went to the crazy teapot cake in Nashville, I’ve wanted to step up my game as far as cake design goes. I’d gotten very tired of doing the same ole thing, but that’s what everyone seemed to want. FINALLY, I have a sweet friend that’s getting married and said I could do what I wanted.

This is my chance! I can do finally do something out of the ordinary. YAY!!!! Or so I thought to begin with… The cake design is fairly simple. Round cake, ribbon roses, and buttercream piping. The part that gets tricky is the 6x3 cake dummy covered in fondant that separates the center tiers. I really think that if I had not insisted on stacking the entire cake at home before I left, I wouldn’t have had a problem. They do it on TV all the time, so why wouldn’t it work for me?

Purple and Black Round Wedding with Separator & Ribbon Roses

The car ride was MURDER! I thought it would be a good idea for someone to sit in the back of the car with it just in case it tried to topple. I didn’t make it to the end of my short little street before I was hyperventilating in tears and made my hubby pull over. He graciously sat squished up in the back with it and let me drive. I think I held my breath the entire way there. Just before we pulled into the parking lot, we hit an unexpected BUMP & my hubby’s hand smashed a small part of the bead border. No worries though – that’s what the emergency kit in the front seat is for. We got it set up, I fixed the border only to realize that the cake is sitting on a table that is slightly crooked L I guess it could have been my cake, but all the tiers would have had to be crooked in order for it to be the cake I’d think. All the tiers seemed to line up to me. I guess it doesn’t matter though – the bride said she loved it & I’m fairly certain she would have told me if she didn’t like it. I am just thankful it made it there in one piece and she was pleased.

If I ever do another similar cake, I will just have to put on my big girl britches and stack it in front of people. I’m thinking I won’t do another one of these though. I don’t know if I nerves could take reliving the memory of this one again...

Closeup of some details (I know this looks crooked because of the camera angle - LOL)

More Hello Kitty Cakes

So apparently Hello Kitty is quite popular... I think it might be my most popular request. My most recent HK cake was so popular it deserved its own post :) That one is probably my all time favorite HK cake, but these are pretty cute too. You can also tell that I've come a LONG way in my decorating abilities. Sometimes it's fun to go back and look at the cakes you thought were so cute at the time, even though now I'm sometimes disgusted in what I'd done before. But - does it really matter as long as the precious little recipients like them?



Simple all fondant decor with buttercream icing underneath 

Another simple round cake covered in fondant - I like the bow on the first one like this better, but i LOVE the name up in the air on this one :o)

My favorite tiered version! Buttercream base with all fondant decor (HK, polka dots, stripes, name & flowers)

The super sweet recipient of the Shamrock Hello Kitty cake below just about brought tears to my eyes. I was having a bad day when I got the sweetest message from her mother. She said that the cake was exactly what she wanted and that it was her favorite part of her party. She wanted balloons, shamrocks & HK on her cake. This story is what makes me love to do these and what made it so hard to decide to stop.


Shamrock Hello Kitty - Buttercream base with fondant accents



Tiered buttercream with fondant accents and Hello Kitty candle



Simple carved shape with buttercream decoration

(Told ya you could see the difference a couple of years can make in your decorating ability! - newest on top obviously!)

Crochet - A Brief Encounter

Most of the time my desire to learn a new craft comes from pure boredom. I get bored so I start Google-ing for new projects or browsing through Pinterest to see what sparks a creative light. Last year, I taught myself how to crochet. You can pretty much figure anything out with some YouTube videos! I started off just using free patterns I found online at different yarn websites. I found this adorable Easter basket pattern on the Lion Brand website.



I’m honestly not sure how I came across the Oodles4Noodles blog, but I did and I volunteered to test out a couple of patterns for her. This helped me learn how to do some things that I might not have otherwise tried & I got the patterns for free for testing them out J This sweet hat came from my testing adventures with her. You may purchase the pattern thru her etsy story if you would like to.

Up until I found the RAKJ patterns page on Facebook, I vowed that I would not pay for a pattern. Of course, her ridiculously cute patterns swayed me into purchasing a couple that I simply could not resist. This giraffe is to absolute die for! I just love it! You may purchase the pattern here or here.

I tried to adapt the giraffe pattern and turn it into a Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer hat… I think I just need to stick to following a pattern. Cute, but not GREAT – LOL! I should have purchased this pattern :)

When I was dabbling in crochet, I just wanted to get good enough to make a sweater. I just thought that would be a master achievement if I could make my own sweater. So I tried this one. It is so far from perfect it isn’t even funny, but I did it. I accomplished my crochet goal! I even wore it a couple of times when it got really cold.

I made several scarves, shawls & hats for Christmas gifts for the family too. Some turned out cuter than others. If I do another homemade Christmas again, I must start much earlier in the year than I did last year. That’s another story for another day though J  

Mardi Gras Groom's Cake

This has got to be my absolute favorite groom’s cake I’ve ever done! I love Mardi Gras and all the fun that’s associated with it. When I was asked to do this one, I knew I just had to figure out a way to make it happen!

As with most of my cakes, the majority of this was buttercream icing. I made the masks out of homemade gumpaste following the Nicholas Lodge recipe you can find here. This was my first attempt at making my own gumpaste & I have to say I was extremely impressed with the results. The masks felt almost as smooth as porcelain. I rolled the gumpaste out, cut out the shape freehand & let them dry on a mask form I found at Michael’s. For the silver stripes, I used edible image “paper” and airbrushed it silver, let it dry, and then cut strips with an Xacto knife. For the extra bling here and there, I used Disco Dust. So much FUN!!!!

I was so excited with how this one turned out! Can you tell???

Damask & Stenciled Bridal Cakes

I was so scared when I ordered my first set of cake stencils. In fact, it took me about 3 months before I got up enough nerve to use them. The first attempt wasn’t all that pretty. (I’m not even sure I took a picture of it – I couldn’t find it when I was looking. If I come across one, I will add it here) I simply had to get better though! I had a bride that knew exactly what she wanted & I just HAD to make it happen for her special day!

Another friend was throwing a bridal shower for a friend of hers & asked me to do the cake. She wanted me to try the stenciling out again because she just knew I could do it! So I tried it. This time I tried a different stencil. This one turned out better, but I learned that I need my hubby home to help me hold the stencils when dealing with a round cake. I know it isn’t perfect, but I absolutely loved the sweetness of this little cake.

So after having a successful attempt, I felt so much better about doing the wedding cake. I stenciled on alternating tiers of this 4 tier square beauty. I used black royal icing for the stenciling and satin ribbon on the non-stenciled tiers. The super talented bride and groom made the gorgeous cake stand along with the cake topper. I loved the set up of this cake table! So elegant! A pretty table setting does wonders for an already pretty cake – even helps out ugly cakes too!

After doing these cakes, I started getting asked for more stenciled cakes. The next opportunity I had to use it was for one of my very best friends! She was throwing a wedding shower for a super sweet girl and she wanted a cake with some WOW factor. This is what I came up with. I used the “princess damask” stencil again around the bottom tier, tiny black piped dots on the top 2 tiers, gumpaste flowers (first attempt at anemones – without the stamens), and black satin ribbon around the base of each tier. I have to say, I’m not a pink person, but I absolutely loved this color combination on this cake. I thought it turned out so delicate and striking all at the same time.

Last month, I was honored to make a wedding cake that just screamed SPRING for an awfully sweet girl! This was based on Abbie's GORGEOUS Navy Damask Wedding Cake. Similarly, I mixed square, hexagon, and round tiers. This time I used coral buttercream icing to stencil on top of a buttercream cake. I piped the monogram to look similar to the stencil on the second from the top tier & added various piped details on the sides. We used thin yellow satin ribbon at the base of each tier and sprinkled rose petals to give this one the “pop” that it needed. Isn’t it amazing how just changing the colors can make such an awesome difference?

Navy Damask Bridal Cakes

I was so excited when I was asked to do Abbie’s wedding cake! She was an absolute dream to work with. She basically let me do what I wanted to which is always the most fun for me! Her colors were navy blue and apple green. In the beginning, she thought she wanted a lot of piping with ribbon around the base, but it evolved into using the most wonderful stenciled damask cake I’ve had the opportunity of creating! I know I said the other one was my favorite, but that was before this even came close to entering my mind!

I combined square, hexagon, and round tiers to put together the shape of this beauty. The sides are stenciled with navy blue royal icing on top of a buttercream iced cake. I used the Elegant Cakes cartridge with my Cricut Cake to make the monogram from navy blue gumpaste. I’d finished the cake the night before the wedding but when I woke up the next morning, I decided to add the swirly piping to the top of each tier. I really think this took the cake from pretty to a little over the top – in a super good way! I hope you enjoy viewing the pictures!

I was also honored to make one of her bridal shower cakes. Again, I was just given the colors and was told to do whatever I wanted! I decided I wanted to use my Cricut Cake for this project. This is similar to the prior Cricut Cake post, but with a few differences, of course. I think if you look at my first attempt and this one, you can see I’ve come a long way. I used navy gumpaste for the damask design & then apple green buttercream for the solid side. I added what seems like my signature scrollwork to the sides because it just needed something to make it pop! The flower is also made of gumpaste.

My New Mail Organizer!

Tonight, I completed another Pinterest project & I think this might possibly be my favorite yet! I used the tutorial found here: http://www.noodle-head.com/2010/05/mail-organizer-tutorial.html. I just tweaked it so I could use my embroidery machine, of couse, since it's my current obsession! I bought the fabric from Hobby Lobby, used the Aquarelle font from Meringue Designs, and the Classy frame from Hang to Dry. I absolutely love this! Can't wait until my hubby wakes up tomorrow to hang it on the wall for us!

Woohoo! It's up on the wall now :)

Patchwork Bunny Pouch

Last month I participated in the first monthly challenge on Applique Forum. I really enjoy being a member of this forum - I've learned so much from all the ladies & it's a super fun & friendly atmosphere! I thought the challenge would help me learn even more. Even though all participants used the same design, there were separate categories for hobbyists, professionals, & mentor/administrators of the forum. I entered as a hobbyist & our task was to make something out of the box & to focus on mixing fabric patterns. 

When I started thinking about what I was going to do with this challenge, I knew I wanted something patchwork. I’m not sure why, but I’m obsessed with patchwork designs right now & at the beginning of the challenge, I hadn’t had any successful attempts. I had it in mind that I would make an apron. It didn’t take me too long to find the fabric I wanted to use. I searched online and then by luck, the little quilt store near my real job had a charm pack in stock. I used Ooh La La by Bunny Hill Designs for Moda. I didn’t realize it was a “baby” design, I’m not sure why the pink & blue didn’t clue me in – LOL.

After I got the fabric, I was so eager to start on the project but of course life got in the way – sigh. On my way home from delivering cakes the day I’d scheduled to work on the challenge, I was exploring thru Pinterest (my hubby was driving) and found the cutest tutorial for a patchwork bag.
http://pinterest.com/pin/220746819205363638/ I thought that might be a better option than the apron I was going to attempt without a pattern (especially considering I’ve only sewn a couple of things & they both went horribly wrong).

So that’s what I did. I just followed the instructions for making the patchwork panels for the bag, and then did the appliqué on top. I chose to use the blues for the bag, an ivory with a gray scene for the scallop piece, and then used the different pinks for the rabbit. Oh, I added a piece of lace on top of the ivory/gray scene to give it a little something extra! I was a little unhappy with the puckering of fabric in the bunny, but it kind of reminded me of a quilt from my hubby’s grandmother so I thought it added a little character & I went with it. Once I’d completed the appliqué, I just finished following the instructions on the tutorial. I used ribbon instead of cording – mainly cause it was 1 a.m. and that’s what I had

I had so much fun with this challenge and can’t wait for the next one. I am using and abusing them to learn how to do new things since I’m a newbie to most of this  I was shocked that I received enough votes to get 2nd place in the Hobby category   I know there were only 40-something entries but still! It was finally a contest that wasn't a popularity contest since it remained fairly anonymous the entire time! So much fun! I can't wait to see what they challenge us with next month!