Speaking of Woodland Creatures

I made this cake for a baby shower. It was fun to revisit my good owl and hedgehog friends. I spent a good portion of my pregnancy seeking out little woodland creatures for the twin's nursery.

I was asked to use butter cream frosting instead of fondant for the base of the cake. I personally don't like the look as much but it does make for a tastier cake.

My Little Brother's Wedding

My youngest brother got married over the Holidays to a sweet, wonderful, beautiful , smart, cheery girl (I could go on and on with compliments.) My mom had the wedding at her house which turned out perfectly. Here's the wedding cake that I made. The design was simple and hopefully added to the winter white theme of the wedding.

I also painted a picture that my dad framed and matted to use instead of a guest book. I did something similar for my own wedding and my sisters. I think it's a little more practical than a book and hopefully will add some color to the newlywed's first home.


Here's a compilation of little videos I shot with my digital camera the day of the wedding. It's a little shaky and Andy is squawking through the last half of the video. But the bride and groom look happy and beautiful. It makes me a little teary just thinking about how proud I am of both of them.

Vet Cake

I made this cake a couple of weeks again for a veterinarian. A couple of cats and dog just chillin' on the couch is a typical day in the office.

Baptism Cake

I finally made another cake. It's been far too long. This cake was for my friend Shyler's baptism. Her mom wanted something elegant. I'm not sure if this cake is elegant or not but it the colors reminded me of Shyler.

I haven't made a cake for so long I feel like I forgot how to use fondant. I had some trouble covering the larger tier. I guess that means I need to start practicing again.

White Cake | Black Flowers

Last Wednesday I made a couple of birthday cakes. One for my sister-in-law Debbie and one for a good friend at work. I haven't had much energy lately, so they both got the same cake. I hope that they didn't mind. I really wanted to add a huge flower or a red ribbon to the top of the cakes but "the boys" told me that I was done.

I had another ultrasound today and everything is looking great. Both boys are head down and growing really well. Baby A is 4 lbs 4 oz and Baby B is 3 lbs 12 oz. That's a lot of baby!

Finally a new cake post

I feel like I haven't made a cake for ever. So when my friend Jessica asked if I was feeling up to making a cake for her mother-in-law's 50th birthday, I jumped at the chance. This cake was a lot of fun to make and surprisingly pretty quick. I baked the cake and made all of the stars and numbers the night before to give them a chance to harder. So when it came time to decorate the cake I think it only took about an hour.

Nick and Shay's Wedding Cake

My friend Tammy's son is getting married today. I feel honored to have been asked to make the wedding cake. They didn't want anything large or with fondant. It's been so long since I've worked with butter cream I was a little nervous taking on the challenge. Luckily I hadn't forgotten how to use a piping bag. This is what we came up with.The groom is in the Navy so they added this sculpture on top of the cake. At first they wanted a nautical themed cake to go with the sculpture but in the end they decided on a more traditional cake. I really love how the cake turned out.

Puss n' Sneaks

Whenever I take a cake on a plane, I usually get a lot of people interested in what I'm traveling with. Last month when I took my ugly ducking cake to Idaho, I came equipped with business cards. A flight attendant from Dave's airline called me shortly after to make this cake for her friend's birthday. Her friend is a marathon runner who has two orange cats. So I made her some running shoes with her feline friends playing with the shoelaces.

More Bouncy Balls

A woman in Dallas stumbled across my blog and saw the bouncy ball cake I made for my friend Melinda. She asked if I could make the cake and send it to Dallas. I wasn't sure how well that would work so we came up with a compromise. She had a Dallas bakery make the cake and I made all of the fondant bouncy balls. So here they are, ready to be packaged and delivered.

Nice Croutons

The theme for this month's cooking group is salads. I decided to make a traditional green salad with ranch dressing. Well actually it's not that traditional since it's made out of cake. I had a lot of fun with this one. The little croutons are my favorite part. I was asleep before Dave got home last night. As I was getting ready for work, Dave woke up and said "have a nice day at work, and I love the croutons." Then he fell back asleep. I thought that was pretty cute.

African Violet Cake #2

I have a church party tonight and I was asked to bring a centerpiece for one of the dinner tables. I wanted to make a cake that didn't necessarily look like a cake but something you would expect to see as a centerpiece. I decided to give the African Violet cake another try sans the lumpy pot.

Kitty Cat Cake

If you were to ask me what cake I'd make for my own birthday, I would have to say this little cat on yarn cake. I saw this cake in one of my cake books and I've been dying to make it. My friend asked if I would make a cake for her cat lover grandma's birthday. I knew it was time to give it a try. Now that I've made it I guess I need to choose another favorite birthday cake.

Award Winning???

Here is the Little Duckling Cake I made for the cake competition this weekend. I wish I could have spent more time on it. It's been a busy two weeks. I'm not sure what I would have done differently but I don't feel like it has the "wow" factor.

I'm worried about taking it on the plane. Most of the cake was airbrushed so if anything breaks I won't be able to replace it and get the same color effect. Can you tell I'm a bit nervous? Man this post is a downer.

Wish me luck?

Debbie's Wedding Cake

The wedding turned out beautifully Saturday night. Debbie looked gorgeous and the party was lively.

So here is the wedding cake. The bumble bees were added last minute. Debbie thought they would be cute. At first I wasn't so sure, but when the cake was put together I thought that it worked.


I wish I had a better picture of Debbie and Kylie cutting the cake. I snapped this one really fast beacuse I didn't want to get in the way.

Almond Daisy Cake

I made this cake about 4 years ago, long before I experimented with fondant. The cake is covered in a glaze frosting. I goes on really smooth and has the appearance of fondant with out the work. The flowers are real (I don't think I'll ever be able to make sugar flowers look that realistic.) This is the only time I've put fresh flowers on a cake. I'm usually not a fan. It looks beautiful but I worry about the pollen getting in the edible part of the cake. Maybe next time I'd use edible flowers.

Sugar Orchids

This weekend I attempted to make orchids out of sugar paste. I made enough petals for about six flowers but was only able to successfully make two orchids. But now I think I've got the technique down so next time it should go a lot smoother. They would look a lot more realistic had I spent the time to paint each petal instead of leaving them white.

Eastern Idaho State Fair

I was thinking about submitting a cake to the Sugar Arts Festival in Tulsa which is the largest cake competition in America. I went last year as an onlooker and was totally amazed. I think I need to ease into the competitive side of cake decorating though. I found out the Idaho is having their own Sugar Art Show at the Blackfoot fair this year. Perfect. I can easily get a cake to Idaho and I'll have supporters to go to the fair with me.

I need your help though. I'm not sure what to submit. Should I recreate a cake that I've already made or come up with a new idea altogether?

My Finding Nemo cake would be fun. I can spend more time on the sea life details.


I've always liked this popcorn cake. I'd definitely put more detail on the popcorn bucket.

The trout cake might appeal to the Idaho crowd.

I really want to make an original cake. Not out of a book. So the Dragon and Jungle cake are out.

Let me know what you think the judges and fair folk would be the most impressed with.

Pot of African Violets

A few posts ago I warned you that I would be posting pictures of my beginner cakes. This is my first attempt to make a cake look like something other than a cake. The terracotta pot is a little lumpy but it kind of works. It looks like a kid made it in art class.

This cake was for my mother-in-law's birthday a few years ago.

Lightning McQueen

Dave's high school friend Amanda asked if I would make a cake for her son's 4th birthday. His party is Cars themed so we came up with this Lightning McQueen cake. This was my first attempt at making Lightning. I thought it turned out pretty good. I put in the basement to stay cool, so I thought.


Before I went to bed I decided to check on Lightning. It was so hot yesterday the bottom cake buckled. I'm sure I had enough supports in it but the heat was just too much I guess.


Luckily Wal-Mart carries fondant and is open late. Dave ran to the store while I disassembled the poor Lightning cake. I put a new layer of fondant on the bottom tier and repiped the message. Disaster averted!

I actually like the second cake better. The first time I put Lightning in the center of the cake and wrote Happy Birthday Eli on the side of the bottom tier. I wasn't thrilled with how it turned out. So the second attempt I made room to write the message on the top of the cake.

Cake decorated always has its surprises. When I was working on the cake in the morning I thought "this was too easy." I guess I was a little too confident and needed to be humbled. Well, fixing a cake in the middle of the night in my pajamas seemed to do the trick.

Elopement Cake

Disclaimer on my next few cake posts: I think I made a bit of a mistake with this blog. I started out showing my most recent cakes which of course are a lot better. So now I'm left with my beginner cakes that are a little lumpy.

This is my first attempt at a tiered cake. My friend Josh eloped a couple of years ago. He and his wife Molly had a casual party to celebrate after they told everyone the news. I thought it would be funny to bring a wedding cake since they didn't have one at their wedding. I was a little nervous bringing it because there was nothing traditional about their wedding. Luckily they loved it. They had a "ceremonial" cake cutting which was really cute.