Arghhhh! It's Birthday Time Me Maties!

Let me start by saying I often get interesting cake requests. Some of which I can do, some of which I can do some version of, some of which I can't do a darn thing with. This cake was sort of a compromise cake. Mom had called me, let's call her Jane, and asked if I could do a pirate ship cake. I thought no problem! I have a new cake pan with pirates, and it is very cute. Then Jane added the part that it was for her son's birthday. His 18th birthday. Cute and 18 don't go together. Especially when your son makes his own video games and can give you the background and history to almost every Manga character every created. Jane said his new thing was all about pirates. I said I would think of something. Now I do have a flag cake pan and could have done a pirate flag. That just seemed a little predictable. So I decided all pirates must have a sword. However there is not set cake pan for that so I was relegated to carve the cake.

Carving cake is always an interesting process. Like stone, marble or some type of hard object if you chip away too much you can't go back and replace it. However unlike those hard substances, cake tends to get crummy when you carve it. I don't mean as in crummy tasting, but cake crumbs everywhere. That can lead to a very messy decorating job. In this case with a chocolate fudge cake, it could be very very messy. I baked a 12x8 cake and carved from there. First the blade then the handle. Decorating was a little tricky but with two shades of grey a steel blade was born and I made it as ornate a sword as any pirate might have stolen. Added the birthday boy's name down the center and voila-a pirate sword cake.

I was informed that mom needed her own sword to fight off the masses until the cake was served a couple of days latter. However once it was cut...it was apparently gone. True to the pirate way of life.

Saying Thanks for the Oreos and Cheesecake.

I must admit I like to bake. I bake lots of things not just cakes (or at least decorated cakes). This year for Thanksgiving my mother and I had the privilege to share a wonderful Thanksgiving meal with another family who are friends of my mothers. To make sure we kept up our end, mom wanted to invite everyone to her house for dessert. First request from my mom, an Oreo cheesecake.

For those who like cheesecake it is great. For those who like Oreos, it is a great way to get non-cheesecake eaters to try cheesecake. For those who like both...this is heaven. However, it takes an hour to bake and overnight in the refrigerator before serving so I made this two days before Thanksgiving (knowing after driving I would not want to stay up and try to mix and bake this). I must also admit that the recipe calls for regular Oreos but I use double stuffs and I add a few more than the recipe calls for to make sure it is chalk full of the good stuff.

The cheesecake transported really well. I must admit it seemed to make our special guest pretty happy too. We had enough left over for a family gathering a night or two later and seemed to put a lot of smiles on faces. So I am thinking it kept fairly well.

Oreo is not the only cheesecake I make. There is also strawberry (second highest seller) and a chocolate chocolate Oreo cheesecake. Not to mention the regular cheesecake, Bailey's cheesecake, chocolate chip and chocolate chocolate chip cakes. If you can come up with a flavor...I will see what I can do about making it for you.

Racing to the Birthday

I know I keep saying this but I can't help it. I LOVE the people I work with. About a week ago I got a call from a very polite nice young lady whose name I should have known but could not place until she said, "I'm Christy's daughter." Oh boy did I know who she was. If you read this blog much you have read about Christy and have probably seen Amanda's graduation cake that Christy designed and I tried to incorporate into cake.

Anyhow I digress. Amanda asked if I could make a race car cake for a friends son and make the number of the car 7 since the little boy was crazy about racing. Race cars are fairly easy for me (and I have done several) so I figured yup let's go for it. Amanda even had a sample car for me to follow the color scheme. I was so excited!

I made a butter cake and got to decorating. The car had a blue roof, hood and trunk while the rest was white. I put it on a checkerboard flag background and voila. Our birthday boy's name is Hunter and where else would you put a name on a race car but on the hood.

When I got the cake to the office, photos were flying to and from cell phones and shortly before noon I got to meet our orderer in person. I must say it was a little like meeting a celebrity because I have heard so much about her (and even seen her in a commercial for Lumbee Guarantee Banks). She seemed very pleased with the cake and I hope Hunter is as well and has an unforgettable seventh birthday.

Polka-Dotted Poka-Dot

Do I enjoy what I do for a living!!! One of the main reasons is because I work with this incredible group of people. For example, one of my co-workers, let's call her Janice, was debating about getting her daughter a cake for her birthday. That doesn't sound good...let me back up a second and better explain this situation. This daughter (she has two) usually has really big birthday parties. As a matter of fact I think one of her previous cakes, for a blow out bash is on our blog. Anyhow this year she decided not to have a big party. Instead she had a few items she wanted for her birthday and she and her mother went shopping and purchased all of her gifts in advance. Being the wonderful mother Janice is, she couldn't let the big day go by without any recognition. She fretted back and forth, because she had told her daughter that by making the decision for gifts not a party there would not be a party. Of course you want to stick to your guns...but how can you not recognize the day itself?

A couple of days before Janice asked if I could do a cake for the birthday, nothing big just something for the family to celebrate. She couldn't bear the thought of her child not having some type of recognition the day of. So we talked about what would be a fun cake and we came up with the idea of the polka-dotted polka dot. Bright colors were my instructions and I went to it. I made a marble cake and did my best to round it out into a polka dotted shape. Janice seemed thrilled. So thrilled that she took it to gymnastics practice along with some mini cupcakes that she decorated around the bottom with. It wasn't long after that I got a text message that the cake was a big hit.

After I was told that although the girls enjoyed the cake there was still some left over...but there wasn't anymore. I am thinking it went home and was promptly devoured there. Hmmmmm...got to love a polka-dotted polka dot.

Happy Birthday 100 Times Over!

It is not everyday that you get to design a centennial birthday cake. As a matter of fact usually it only happens every 100 years or so. This year I got the privilege to do such a thing. Being a 4-H Agent (which is my real job) gives me some special opportunities to make cakes that I normally would not get to do. This is one of those cakes.
2009 marks the centennial for North Carolina 4-H. The national 4-H centennial was in 2002 and I actually got to design that cake as well, however that was before I was a 4-H Agent. Funny how that works isn't it? Any how I digress.
November traditionally marks the annual Robeson County 4-H Volunteer Appreciation Banquet and this year was something extra special, not just because of the centennial but there were some history making surprises.
For the banquet we needed a special birthday cake for our volunteers so I set forth to design something, not too flashy, but something you normally would not get to have (okay I was trying to stay away from the standard sheet cake...I dislike them intently and try to stay away from them whenever possible). The original design included three tiers with photo separators between the cakes and photos of our volunteers working with youth between them. After careful consideration of the amount of people (130 RSVP their attendance). I decided that might not be the best idea because if someone accidentally bumped the table they would knock the cake over and that might cause a kink in the program. Instead I used a floating cake stand and designed a 14 inch butter golden base with a 10 inch one layer butter one layer fudge cake, and topped it off with a six inch fudge cake. I figured that was everyone could have what they wanted.
The decorating was fairly easy, white icing with green writing. It matches the 4-H colors and worked for a birthday celebration. I did my best to do the writing on the sides so everyone could see it and finished off with having our 4-H super stars .
cut the cakeIn the photo are Clinton McRae, the South Central District Director for North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service, Sharon Rowland who is in charge of the Development Fund, Everett Davis, the Robeson County Director and Dr. Marshall Stewart, Department Head, State Program Leaders, Department of 4-H Youth Development and Family & Consumer Sciences. As our illustrious County Director declared as he cut into the cake, "Oh wow! It's real cake!" Thanks to our volunteers it was a real cake that they took a big chunk out of and enjoyed with their dinner that night. It was a spectacular way to kick off a spectacular night.

Giving Birth to Baby Cupcakes

Apparently I have a problem saying no. Imagine that. Which is why I often do several cakes or take several orders at one time as a matter of fact I find it very relaxing to decorate so this past weekend I must have been relaxed. A friend of mine, former co-worker, current 4-H volunteer, and all around good egg, let's call her Missy, called me to see if we could come up with something fun for her cousin's baby shower. We started off with cake squares which I quickly shied away from due to issues with other cake square orders I have had. So after talking up and down and sideways we settled on cupcakes. We started talking about pink cupcakes (according to all reports the baby will be a girl) but not pink cake. As a matter of fact we have butter cupcakes with white icing and pink feet. As we got closer to the date the order grew and the instructions melded into a new form. We wanted pink icing but not baby pink, so I suggested hot pink (which is soooooo easy to create) but we settled on pink with a hint of orange. We also dropped the feet and I added my cupcake trees to hold the 40 plus cupcakes that were needed. To add to the texture I decorated in two ways one was flat the other was cone shaped coming up in the center to add to the drama of the tree.

As I was in route to deliver the cupcakes I realized as Missy and I were discussing the color that they were really grandma pink not baby pink or orange pink. So I was not sure how that would work out. Missy showed me the roses she got to decorate with and one batch was orange with pink edges the other were a deep pink. I did not put them on the stand for photos however I do have a photo of them strecthed out on racks after being iced.

As the report goes the cupcakes matched the color scheme perfectly and the mother to be downed three cupcakes in a row. Although one report says she ate one whole, and then had two more that were eaten more carefully I am going with the thought that she really enjoyed them and I know she had a great baby shower. Now we just have to wait for the big day...maybe we will need a welcome cake for the big event? Just a thought!

Plowing Up a First Birthday.

For those of you who know me you know I am not a person who was raised in the soil. As a matter of fact you know that it would probably make me sneeze. So know what a tractor is and what it looks like might be a stretch. So when Penny came to me (and for those of you unfamiliar with Penny she is one of my co-workers at the office and has been mentioned many times in this blog) and said her brother and sister in law were hoping for a tractor cake but she thought that might be out of the realm of my talents, boy was she surprised when I said no problem.

Let me explain it is Penny's nephew's first birthday and of course we needed a cake, and a smash cake. For those of you not familiar with a smash cake it is generally a smaller cake that is baby size and appropriate for a one year old to stick their hands into and smear all of their face. Since most adults who attend the birthday party would prefer not to have a smashed cake from a one year old there is the official cake and the smash cake for the child. Back to the story...the theme of the party was John Deere which is very simple, just a green and yellow tractor. To jazz it up a little I painted my decorating bag with the green and yellow icing colorings and piped the border from that which gave it a tie-dyed effect and was kind of cool. The smash cake was actually made from cupcakes and was in the shape of a one. I put the tie-dyed rosettes across the top and iced the rest smooth.

Penny said her nephew sat and looked at the smash cake for awhile and then stuck his finger in it. Apparently after licking his finger and realizing that he liked it and getting a quick sugar rush he delved right in and smashed the cake and literally shoved it into his face. Which means he got the range from his chin to the tip of his nose and up his nose but did not seem to mind. He did not mind that is until mom put a stop to his fun and had to get the cake out of his nose. Other than that I would say his birthday was a big success.