Monkeying Around

I love monkeys. They are fun, funny, cute, and even the ugly ones have adorable features, and they tend to be rather smart. How could you not love a monkey. I have had a monkey cake pan for quite awhile and never had a reason to decorate a monkey cake until recently.
I eat lunch frequently with a group of professionals who have a tendency to turn lunch into a laugh-aerobics hour. We have a great deal of fun and great sense of humors are flying. Kind of like swinging from the vines sometimes. So when one of the group had a birthday it seemed appropriate to make a monkey cake. The cake was also the opportunity for one of my coworkers to try her hand at decorating again after a several year hiatus She did a great job of decorating and we had a good time getting the cake together. The chocolate fudge cake was a hit with the monkey as we jumped into it with both feet.
It is just a fun loving cake for any occasion, especially a birthday in this case.

The Top Reason for Cake is.....

Have you ever watched the game show Family Feud? The gist of the game show is that two families compete against each other and answer questions such as, We surveyed 100 people and asked them what is the top reason you buy a cake. The families then try to guess the top reason and get points in descending order based on their answers for example where and answer of desert might get you 10 points Birthday might get you 75 points. That's right if this were to be a real question Birthday would be the number one answer.

I say all of this to lead into the next cake. A wonderful co-worker came to me needing a cake to feed about 75 people. The occasion was her Aunt's 77th birthday (and sort of a family reunion). She really wanted to do the cake but did not have the time that week. So she asked if I might be willing to do it. Of course I said yes and looked for information about the Aunt. We decided on something traditional with spring colors. By the time we got done we decided on a 13 inch cake that is three inches thick. The butter cake was covered in traditional decorators icing with a basket weave design and various flowers coming out of the basket and poking through the basket weave. I understand the cake went over well and the 77th party was a success. I love my coworkers.

A Ducky Birthday

Often when people ask how I am I say ducky! They usually laugh and shake their head but every once in awhile I have someone who asks what I mean when I say that. What I actually mean is that I am calm on the surface and paddling like mad underneath. I tell you this to say I have a special connection to the duck. So when it came time to make a birthday cake for our new interim director what could I do but a duck? I say this sarcastically as I try not to push my ideas on others.

However after only knowing him for a few months coming up with a great cake was tough so I called the one person who I knew who would know, his secretary. She was wonderful at pitching ideas and said he enjoys duck hunting. I knew that I had a 3-D rubber duck cake pan that I had once used to make a chicken cake, so how hard could it be to convert it to a normal duck? I baked a butter cake and ended up with a great 3-D duck cake. A little carving of the head and neck (and a photo of a mallard up on my lap top) a mallard duck was created. To help decorate several candy ducks were made to decorate around the cake. He might not be perfect but he did let us sing Happy Birthday before he lost his head, literally. It did not take long to devour this cake. The birthday man (boy seems a little inappropriate especially for your supervisor) seemed pleased with his cake too.