Ring In the New Year with Chocolate

Everyone has little traditions that they repeat during the holidays. I have started a couple of them for New Year's Eve myself. One involves my inflatable bed in the living room so I can spend the last night of the year ( and the last night my Christmas trees will be up) enjoying the ornaments and twinkling lights for one last night. My other tradition of course involves champagne which can be very dry, and chocolate. Not mixed together mind you, but at the same time.

Actually several years ago I received a Hershey's kiss fondue pot as a gift. So each year I melt down some semi sweet chocolate chips, sugar, light cream and vanilla to make a chocolate fondue. With it I had some jet puffed marshmallows, pound cake, bananas, and strawberries. Of course the sweet of the chocolate and dipped items offset the champagne just right and made it the perfect treat to ring in the new year.

Happy New Year to all of you! I hope 2012 brings you prosperity and health, and if you feel like celebrating feel free to shoot me an e-mail so I can create a cake to add to your celebration.

Happy Birthday the Disney Way!

It has been a long time since I have done a Mickey Mouse cake. So long as a matter of fact that when Penny asked me to make one for her 16 year old's birthday I had to stop and think about what Mickey pans I have. I have a few, by the way. After a brief discussion she settled on the standing Mickey Mouse, traditionally decorated with a sheet cake under it to make sure they had enough food to feed the crown coming to his party. I made a butter cake and decorated the backgrounds in white so that they would allow Mickey to literally standout. The border was done with white swirl drops with red and yellow drops added in every other drop. It all made it pop, and pop for the birthday boy who was thrilled with his Mickey themed party.

Excellence in Families

I have often said how much I love my job. This cake is just another reason why. Robeson County Cooperative Extension delivers a program to families with youth between the ages of 10 and 14 called Strengthening Families. Families meet at the Cooperative Extension office one night a week for six weeks in a row. During that time they have the opportunity to have dinner together, then parents work in a group on discipline, communication and gaining a better understanding of their children. The children work on understanding their parents and gaining respect for them, communication and receive tools on how to handle tough topics like peer pressure, drugs, and sex. To date the program has been held three times with more than 10 families taking part in the program. About a month after the sixth session the group comes back together to meet, go over topics, talk about what works, and finally graduate from the program. Now needless to say, I always volunteer a cake but this time I did not know what to make. Finally the night before it came to me, make the kale like the certificate they would receive that night. Since we make the certificates it was nothing for me to save the certificate as a photo and print it out on edible paper. The cake was a butter cake and when I baked it it was much thinner than I expected so I cut it in half and made it a two layer cake. I already had an inkling that my audience liked icing so I was sure an extra layer of icing would not hurt any one's feelings. I printed the image on edible paper and then cut it down to fit the cake. It took less than a second to choose red for the border to highlight the red in the image. My other issue was that I could not find my traditional cardboard base to put the cake on. It so happened that the cake was the perfect size for my grandmothers cake plate/stand that I have yet to find a place for so it has been sitting on my dinning room table. Voila not only did we have a neat looking cake for a wonderful graduation for our families but I was able to kick it up a notch when I presented it. Which is exactly what tout families deserve. Congratulations to all of them on their graduation.

Ho Ho Holidays!

It wasn't just two days ago when a customer asked me if I had a bunch of orders for Christmas and I had to admit that I did not have a one.  Then just a few hours later I had a request for a Christmas cake of my choosing for an office Christmas celebration.  I love when people give me the choice because it just so happens, not long ago, I saw a cake design that I really wanted to try.
I used my paisley cake pan to create this Santa Clause.  I baked a double batch of my butter cake batter to make the cake and then went to work decorating.  The nice thing is that color wise it is simple.  Three colors and white icing to decorate the entire thing and there is not a lot of detail work until you get to the white icing with a rather large tip.  Then it was a case of making sure Santa had all the mustache, and beard detail that the spry old gent should have in all of our imaginations.  When I got done the cake had help give me a little more holiday spirit and I hope that those who had the opportunity to partake in the cake enjoyed it and got a little of the holiday spirit as well.

Monkey'ing Around S'More

Yes, I am one of those people who has reciepes sent to them on line. On any given day, if I have a second I will read through to see if there is anything interesting. This reciepe was not only eye catching it made me open it, click on a link, read, re-read, print, read again and then share. So you know that this reciepe had to have been more than an eye catcher. As a matter of fact, after work I went to the grocery store and picked up all the ingredients so I could make it tonight.
S'More Monkey Bread was the title of the reciepe, which to me has some of my favorite things, choclate and marshmallows. That alone was enough for me to try it but when I read the steps I had to go ahead and give it a shot. Long reciepe short; you quarter the biscuits in four cans of large biscuits, stick them in a zip bag with sugar and graham cracker crumbs and proceed to shake like shake and bake. Then you layer the biscuit quarters in a tube pan with chocolate chips and marshmallows. When you get done you take a melted concoction of butter, vanilla and marshmallow creme and pour it over the top. The entire pan goes in the oven and bakes for 35 minutes. One word of warning marshmallow expands when heated so you need to be prepared for run over. When it comes out you let it cool for a few minutes in the pan and then turn it upside down on a plate. The first words said when the finished product was served was, "holy moly that's a lot of something." Mind you it is ooey and gooey but delightfully warm and wonderful as you tear off chucks of this sweet goodness. Best served when hot and if you are looking to dress it up think about drizzling hot carmel or choclate sauce across it, or using them as dipping sauces for those with strong sweet tooths.

Cake Designer Meets Baker/Decorator for Dream Cake

I love people who know what they want. This cake is all about that. The Leadership Academy cake has made a splash with a lot of people. Especially one person who just turned 17. For her birthday she had asked for a party, down on the farm, with her friends and family. She planned a bon fire, chicken bog, and just fun and conversation. To make it right she needed a cake and she told me exactly what she wanted.
Let's call her Ally. She started off saying it was to be exactly like the leadership academy cake, which had her mom a little hesitant knowing that nothing is exactly the same each time, especially when you bake. However what Ally wanted was a little different. She started by designing her own edible image. She had her mom take the photos, then edited them together into her overall image design. She sent me a text to make sure it would work then sent the image, via her mom (who is such a good sport by the way) on a SD card so I could print it out. I was also instructed that two sheet cakes were to be used in tiers with the bottom one being my butter cake and top one being a chocolate butter fudge cake. So I had baked and had an image I just needed the rest of the vision. Once again, via her mom, she sent me a drawing showing the scroll work she wanted and the colors. Of course black and pink go with the image she designed. Now due to space I had to take a little liberty with the design. That always makes me a little nervous.
I delivered the cake at just the right time, right before the party was to begin. She was tickled with how it turned out and I must say that she did an excellent job of designing her dream cake. I gave her all the credit for how it looked because she was truly the designer for this endeavor.

Who Doesn't Want a Car at 16?

We have someone at our office who is fairly new and extremely important. Keith is our custodian who takes care of our building and us. You could not meet a kinder, genteeler, more humble man anywhere. He often tells us how much he appreciates us and we appreciate him. So when he came to ask me a favor it was a no brainer to say yes.

His daughter's 16th birthday was coming up and he was wondering if I could do some sort of cake for her. She likes sports cars and you can tell by the sparkle in his eye that she is the light of his life. So I came up with something out of the ordinary. I made a 3-D car, which is usually a beatle but this one was decorated in a sporty manner. I asked about her favorite colors and he said blue and black and not a blue like tar heel blue. So I went to work. Of course I had to add a little something special just for her and put her initials on the front license plate of the car. Apparently she was so excited at dinner she let her family eat all of the car except the very front end with her initials on the license plate. He was pleased as punch that she liked her special cake and I know she had a great time at a special family dinner with her dad.

Spook-Tacular Day

In case you are keeping count this is the fourth cake (not to mention cupcakes) that I did for one day in delivery. I haven't slept much, but I really don't care because it is so much fun!

There is a group at my office who is not much on chocolate cake or even my butter cake however they are all about this Funfetti cake mix that Pillsbury puts out. I can't quite figure it but everyone has their likes and dislikes and it is my job to fill those likes and dislikes. So this cake was done in a version of the funfetti cake. Which to the best of my descriptive powers is a white cake with sprinkles, that you might put on ice cream, dispersed through the cake.

In keeping with the holiday spirit I had the chance to use a new cake pan that I had not used before. This cute little ghost is anything but scary. He floated in made with a favorite cake flavor of funfetti and was decorated in white stars with a few black highlights to give him character. I am glad to say by the end of the day there was none left. So you could say this little ghost disappeared.

Lighting Up the Holiday

Halloween means many things to many people. For me Halloween always meant Jack-O-Lanterns, Trick-or-Treating, and just plain old fashioned fun. That's probably why this cake was so much fun for me. As you can see with so many cakes due right before Halloween this year I did not get a chance to get messy and carve a pumpkin for myself, and there are not any Trick-or Treaters in my neighborhood so I had to celebrate through cakes this year.

Our 4-H specialized committee had asked to have lunch with some of our youth to meet them and learn more about what we do in 4-H and better be able to see the difference we are making in our community. As part of the lunch I decided we needed cake. So I decided to make two. This one was a Jack-O-Lantern cake made from my butter cake recipe. I made him a cheery sort of fellow, not menacing and hoped that he would light up the holidays. He seemed to do the trick as he did not last long at our office. Happy Halloween to all.

I Think I Can...Celebrate!

I think today is the busiest cake day I have had in the history of baking cakes. When Michelle called and asked if I could make a train cake for her son I could not resist. She also asked for something a little different, two dozen cupcakes for the day care. Now as many of you know I do make cupcakes but they are not my most wonderful thing that I do. However when we started talking about a Thomas the Train cake it sort of all fell together.
I knew to do the cupcakes just right I needed to find some Thomas decorations. I went to one of my favorite little shops in Fayetteville, Crafts Frames and Things. There I found everything I needed. Although I could not locate a Thomas train pan I did locate a train cake pan and Thomas cupcake picks that I could use for the cupcakes. When I left there I was excited about the prospects ahead.

I started by baking the the butter train cake then turned to the cupcakes. I also used my same butter cake recipe to make the cupcakes. I iced the cupcakes in big white swirls of icing then sprinkled them with blue crystallized sugar to match the lightest part of Thomas's Engine. Then the pick of Thomas went into the top of each cupcake. I had thought about doing both red and blue cupcakes however with little ones I have learned that it is best to keep things simple and make sure everyone gets the same thing. When I got done I was tickled and the uniformity of all the cupcakes and wish I had extras to try one myself.

After finishing up the cupcakes it was time to turn to the cake. Since I was using a train cake pan and not a Thomas the Engine pan I had to do a little adjusting during decorating. The cake was a train cake adapted the best I could to make it look like Thomas the Engine. I puffed up his cheeks with grey icing and made sure his cars were in complimentary blue and red coloring. When Michelle came to pick it up she seemed very pleased with the cakes and cupcakes and was ready to celebrate her son's birthday.

Just a side note to this story....I recently took inventory of my cake pans (yes, there are many cake pans) and found my very own Thomas the Train pan that I thought I had. I have done a new catalog system so I can more easily find the pans and am happy to say there can be a variety of train cakes now.

Witchy Birthday

This cake request made me ask lots of questions. One of the people who attended the leadership academy enjoyed the cake so much she asked if I could make a birthday cake for her sister. I responded of course and gave her my contact information. She called and asked if I could make a wicked witch cake. I said yes, but thought she had originally suggested a birthday cake, but I did not question it because the customer is always right. On a subsequent call the customer told me that it was a birthday cake for her sister. This time I had to ask, "You wanted me to make a wicked witch cake right?"

"Oh, yes her birthday is on Halloween and she will love it. The uglier the better." So who am I to argue? The cake needed to feed about 30 people which took away my normal forms of wicked witch cakes because they feed 10-20 people, so it was time to get creative. I poured over my Wilton Cake books and came up with a possible solution. Using a paisley cake pan they had made a witch cake. Now this cake, in the book, was also decorated with fondant. For those of you who know me, you know that it is my personal preference not to decorate with fondant. That means I had to get creative and adapt this to icing. Ha Ha Ha! Actually she didn't turn out too bad, with lots of green icing for the face, icing nose and warts, and some really stringy purple hair. I did add a "Happy Birthday" to the band that went across the orange belt that ran around her witch's hat.

The nerves hit when pick up time came. I was still not sure if I had gone over board or if I had not done enough. With something like this and a new customer you never know. When she and her son came to pick it up he said "Woah! That is ugly!" She smiled and I knew that we were good to go! Later she reported that the cake was a big hit and there was more than enough to feed everyone. Most importantly she said her sister loved it!

On a Musical Note

We have all sung Happy Birthday to someone in our lives or had it sung to us on the important occasion of celebrating our day of birth. Although we usually don't have musical accompaniment this cake recipient really should have. One of my co-workers, let's call her Aggie, approached me about making a birthday cake for her husband, let's call him Bobby. She was not sure what to make but knew it needed to feed 15-20 people who would be present for his surprise party. That's right a surprise party. No pressure here.

The few details I received about the party was that it would be held at church after bible study. Therefore the cake needed to fit within the context of his church life, which really would not be hard. Not only does he lead several activities at church he is also a self taught musician. Although he plays several instruments the guitar, I believe, is his favorite. So making a guitar cake seemed appropriate. When I asked about making it like his, Aggie told me just to go ahead an make one not to worry about it looking like his. I think that had more to do with the fact that we were on a time crunch and trying to get an image of the guitar he uses would blow the surprise. So I made a generic guitar and delivered it to his wife so she could surprise him. When the time came he walked in and nearly fell backwards as everyone jumped up to say happy birthday. I understand there was only a fret left when they got done. For a baker and musician alike that is the highest form of praise.

Taking the Lead in Leadership Images

Did I mention that I have an edible image printer? Can you tell I am excited about introducing this technology into my cake baking? I am having a ball with the edible image printer and am happy to bake a cake for any occasion that will allow me to play with this new tool. Hence the next cake I am about to tell you about.
As many of you know my day job is as a 4-H Extension Agent. What you may not realize is that 4-H is part of Cooperative Extension. Cooperative Extension is the educational outreach of the land grant universities in each state. In North Carolina there is a Cooperative Extension office in each county in the state. So when our office administrative assistant asked me to make a cake for the first graduating leadership course group I could not resist. I knew our tourism agent had made a logo for the class which I could print out. The other key to this cake was that it needed to feed 90 people. That does not leave a lot of room for design so I wanted to make this different than your traditional sheet cake design.
I started with two sheet cakes made of every one's favorite butter cake. The bottom cake was a 13x 19 cake while the top cake was a 11x13 cake. The cakes had a base icing of white with a red shell border. In the center on the top cake was the logo for the leadership group. The cake was cut at the final lunch which included certificates for the graduates, a slide show and friends and family as part of the festivities. It was a great day of celebration and appreciation for all those involved.

A Monster of a Birthday

As I started my previous post I explained that it the frilly birthday cake was for a little girl and this cake is for her brother. When asked about his birthday cake he didn't want a stylish cake, as a matter of fact his response was that he wanted an ice bream cake. Although I have done ice cream cakes, they are not a speciality and I feel others can do it better and more inexpensively than I can. However when it came to this cake order there was a small issue. The place where the cake came from would not put the one thing this child wanted on his cake more than anything else. That's right, he wanted the logo from the Monster energy drink on his cake. The only other thing he wanted was his name in black. That's right he wanted his name written in black on his cake. So when I got the call about this cake it was a compromise. I asked Chandler's step mother to purchase the cake from Dairy Queen and I would decorate it. She did and I used the edible printer to print an image that I carefully placed on the cake, decorated around the edges and then, in black wrote the birthday boy's name. It was exactly what he wanted for his birthday and that is really what it is all about.

A Frilly Birthday

I had an interesting cake order the other day. I was asked to create cakes for two children (a brother and a sister) who have birthdays a week apart but were celebrating together. This post is about the little girl's cake, let's call her Casey.

Casey's step-mother came to me wanting to create a small but spectacular cake for this special little girl. They had looked on line at different photos and found some cakes that they liked but did not like the colors. So when the came to me they were looking for a butter cake with zebra stripes, hot pink fringe and bright colored flowers. They also wanted a big C in the center for Casey. They wanted a two-tiered cake, however only enough to feed about 10 people which made this an interesting mathematically conundrum. So an 8 inch square cake with a six inch round cake is what the shape of the cake worked out to be. Each tier had black zebra stripes while the edges were laced with hot pink fringe. I added yellow and pink daisies to the top along with a yellow dot border to highlight the letter in the center of the cake. It came out to be a special and spectacular cake for a special and spectacular young lady. Happy Birthday Casey!

Testing a New Image

I love toys. I especially love toys that involve technology. A couple of years ago for Christmas my mother gave me my own edible image printing system. Problem is I have not had a place to set it up until recently. When I received an order that would require me to use the new system I made it a priority to get it set up and try it out.

However not only it was it an edible image cake order, it was an edible image cake order for an ice cream cake. Not sure if there would be a temperature issue with the edible image paper I decided I needed to test out the system and test it on an ice cream cake. So I used an image from our fair to print out and purchased an ice cream cake from our local Dairy Queen. I did learn an important lesson and that is that edible paper does crack. So as not to crack the image it is important to carefully get it away from the backing and then cut it down. After placing it on the cake I decorated the edges to make sure it would be a seamless transition between image and background.

Of course I needed someone to test this on to make sure it was not a funky taste or texture between cake and image so I took the cake to the office. My co-workers seemed pretty happy to try it out and give me their opinions. After rave reviews on the cake I had to ask about the image and decorating. They each asked, "You mean the cake didn't come that way?" That was good enough for me that the image had melted into the top of the cake making a seamless decoration for others and new toy, I mean tool, for me.

Kiss the Pig, Help a Child

Have you ever kissed a pig? What? This is not something you have aspired to all your life? Actually that's what the nomination crew behind the scenes at the Robeson County Partnership for Children is actually hoping for. They nominated a variety of people around Robeson County to kiss the pig, as a fundraiser for the organization. The person with the most votes would have to kiss the pig (did I mention each vote costs $1). That way there were concentrated efforts of vote for candidate A not me, or please vote for any candidate not me. As time drew near to end the contest, Tanya Underwood a program specialist for the partnership even offered herself and her supervisor, Amy Cox up for kissing the pig if $1,000 could be raised over the last three days.
After all the votes were counted there was undeniably a tie between Hector Miray, a local pastor, and Leon Maynor a Lumberton City Councilman. Even better Tanya and Amy were also in line to kiss the pig.
Now there was great question about the pig. You see Fairweather Robeson, the mascot for the Robeson Regional Agricultural Fair was already planning on being there and some thought that this meant he would be the pig. However, thanks to Agriculture Extension Agents Michelle Shooter and Kerrie Roach from the Robeson County Center of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service another pig would be the highlight of the event. Petunia, as she was named was a piglet that would receive a diaper and tutu for the kissing event. She was kind enough to take four kisses and lots of cuddling.
Of course with such a celebration there has to be a celebration. What is a celebration without cake and punch? For such an auspicious occasion it was important to have not just one but two cakes. We had to have a pig and a set of lips. I know you have seen the pig before. This one was made with a butter cake. The lips are made out of a butter chocolate cake and were hand carved before being decorated. The nice thing about these cakes, besides they fact that they seemed to be enjoyed by all in attendance that day, is that it feed Tanya's cake need for another week or less. It is always nice to be able to provide cakes for an organization that is making a difference.

John Deere Green

So this cake just makes me smile every time I think about it. It is like any good story. It involved great people. humor, and ingenuity to make the whole thing come together and make a special day for someone who brightens many people's days.
Like many people I have a group that I like to eat lunch with. They are a unique group of women and you would have no idea that we fit together so well. You might also be shocked at some of the conversations we have but that is another story entirely. This cake starts with the story of a flamingo. To celebrate birthdays we purchased a pair of the tackiest plastic pink flamingos we could find and placed them in the birthday person's yard each year to let the world know that something was up at their home. Over time the flamingos took on new colors and themes based on the person and their personality. This time the flamingos spent time in a barn and became John Deere Green. So I really should not have been shocked when I got a text message from, let's call her Amy with a photo that said, "Shhhhhh.....John Deere Green." So when we all started posting "It's John Deere Green" on this birthday girl's (let's call her Tanya) facebook page. If I remember correctly it took a day before she went outside her house and found the rather green flamingos with John Deere stickers on them in her front yard.
I tell you this rather silly story to set up the cake. When it came time for her birthday lunch, we of course needed a cake. If John Deere green is the theme, the only cake you can make (besides a flamingo) is a John Deere tractor. Thus, in a butter yellow cake we gave birth to a traditional John Deere green tractor. When it arrived she looked, looked again and busted out laughing saying it was the perfect cake for the occasion. I happen to know she shared but then hid what was left at the office to snack on. It took less than a week for her to polish off the cake and seemed to be in need of another one...good think I happen to know one is on the way! Stay tuned for a sweet ending to this addiction.

Baby Blue Squares

As I have said not long ago in this blog there is something about doing a baby cake. So when a very nice lady I work with called to say she wanted a cake for a baby shower I was all for it, however the next step made me hesitate. I must say this cake is one that causes confusion. I was asked to do cake squares for a baby shower. In the past, or the world I grew up in, cake squares meant actual squares of cake that were iced on all sides. They are bite size and take an enormous amount of time to create. However this is not what they wanted. Here cake squares are a large sheet cake divided, with icing, into squares of cake. Each square gets a special decoration. This cake was for a baby boy and needed baby type decorations. So I alternated the squares with baby bottles, rattles, and baby booties. The cake was a butter golden cake and it was divided into 42 squares. The party was for 30-40 people so the cake should have been just right. We understand it was a big hit and very little was left. We hope the boy to be also enjoyed the cake.

Puppy at the Beach

If you follow this blog you will notice that I make many of my cakes for people I work with. An earlier post was a cake for a co-worker that was leaving and sure enough so is this one. You could almost say that this blog could serve as a future job listing sight. However, I digress. Once again a co-worker came to me and asked if I could make a cake for someone who was leaving our office, lets call her Mandie. Mandie worked as a tourism agent and although that might seem like a wide open area to make a cake from, non of those ideas quite seem to fit her personality. However in her spare time she enjoyed camping on the beach, her dogs, and of course her boyfriend. Having not ever met him it made it difficult to include him in the cake, however the dogs who I have heard story after story about (they really are quite cute in the photos) so that was really a no brainer. We also know how much she enjoys her beach time and camping.
So the cake was to be a 3-D dog on the beach. I baked the normal butter cake and went for it. You would think since I had done this before it would be easy however mother nature decided to mess with me this time. It was humid and just starting to rain as the cake was cooling so the moist cake ended up with a neck break when I went to freeze it. I wasn't too worried because icing is a little like super glue it can fix anything. When it came time I decorated the cake got it fixed but was worried it would not hold, so I put it in the refrigerator. During the night it finally rained, and rained and rained allowing things not to dry like they needed to. Needless to say when I opened the refrigerator the cute, adorable little pup that I had shoved in there the night before, was headless. I examined the situation, loaded icing bags, tips dowel rods and my pipe cutter (to cut the dowel rods) and headed to the office (I admit I did brush my teeth, shower, and dress before I loaded up and left).
At the office I began again. Used two dowel rods to stabilize the cake, icing, and a lot of prayer. I got the cake up and spread brown sugar around it to make it look like the pup was on the beach. However I could not help but notice that the head was starting to slide forward. I fixed it again and took photos but at this point there was nothing left to do. The head broke into several pieces as it slid off the body and make it look like the pup had buried his head in the sand. Of course I told Mandie that he lost his head because he was so upset over her leaving. Although it was not the most beautiful outcome, the cake still tasted good and we were able to give her photos of what the original intent was. Next time I will check the weather before deciding to cook at 3-D cake when it is raining.

Strolling to the Baby

Baby Shower cakes are all sorts of fun for me. Boy or girl, or not knowing leads to a creative cake which as you know can be fun. One of my coworkers, let's call her Tameka, asked if I would bake a cake for a shower she was throwing. She loves babies so I didn't think twice when she asked me to do this. After a day or so of looking at cakes she said she would like me to bake a carriage cake. The cake needed to have blue accents because they were pretty sure a baby boy would be on the way. After a little more conversation I found out that the mother to be was one of my former 4-H members who had aged out of our program, that made me extremely proud to be able to make her cake for her.
A few days before the shower the locations, Swank, a local restaurant not far from the house was the location to be for the shower. Since it was so close I offered to deliver the cake to the shower. The guest list was to include 20-25 people. An average cake will feed 15 to 20 people and I was trying to figure out how to make sure there was enough for everyone. So just to make sure I made a dozen cupcakes to place around the carriage cake. The cupcakes had little blue rattles on them to go with the theme of the party. Once I got it delivered and set up it was obvious that the mother to be as well as the shower participants were happy with the results. I was told later that there was nothing left, which to me is the biggest compliment ever. Good luck to the mother to be and her soon to be son.

Talk about being a HAM

As you know most of my cakes have stories behind them and that is one of the things I find so interesting about making some of these. However, very rarely do I share those stories outside of this blog. This cake however was different. One of my day job co-workers, let's call her Ava, is moving forth to greener professional pastures (in other words she has a new job). Of course, being the wonderful and humble staff that we are we had a little going away social for her. The sunshine committee (that is what we call the group who plans these events) asked if I would make a cake. Like I would ever turn down the opportunity to make a cake. I asked if there was a theme, color, something that everyone thought would be appropriate and they said no they were leaving it up to me (you would think after all of these years they would know better).

So this morning when she said, "I really appreciate this but I have one question. Why a pig?" I couldn't help but grin. I said several suggestions came up including high heels, a horse, coffee, things that represented small portions of you but I did not think captured your essence. Instead the pig was chosen because you were brave and not only wore the Fairweather costume at the fair but because you will always be remembered for telling people around here that they were a hot mess. More recently we believed the moniker of HAM fit Ava, and although I can not spell out what HAM stands for, because this is a family blog, I can say the H stands for hot and the M stands for mess. Ava would not tell everyone what HAM stood for but had to agree the logic for this cake was sound.

It did not take long for us to cut into the cake and get down to some sweet eating. There were a few squeals and maybe some tails curling as they ate the cake and enjoyed our last day with our HAM of a co-worker. We wish Ava all the best in her new position.

It's All About the Cupcake

Sometimes I wonder if my creative gene is just gone a little loopy or gotten lazy. Sometimes it doesn't turn on until a 2 am shower or in the middle of an important conversation. In other words at all the wrong or weird times. A friend asked if I would bake a cake for her daughter who was turning 15. Of course I said yes and asked what they would like. She wasn't sure but said you know my daughter I am sure you will come up with something good. Mind you I am finishing up summer programs at this point and a little loopy anyway so that might not have been the best idea.
15 is a tough age. At 16 you get your drivers license which makes it a lot easier but at 15 it is tough. So I searched my little brain and could come up with nada. Thank goodness for google. I started a google search for divine inspiration and intervention. Guess what, not so much out there for a 15 year old girl. There was one common theme that I kept tripping over and that was cupcakes. Everywhere I looked cupcakes were the big thing. Some were placed in a big design, others had very detailed decorations. It was all about the cupcake. Well knowing this young lady, let's call her Megan, she would like the popular theme but she would like it on a grander scale. Hence the cupcake cake. That's right, this cake is just slightly bigger than your typical two layer cake. It is baked in two pieces and decorated just like a cupcake, but on a larger scale. Megan's favorite colors right now are black and white. However mom did request a few other colors get thrown in for a girly outlook, hence the sprinkles.
Megan knew she was getting a cake but did not know what it was. She seemed thrilled with her trendy yet grand birthday cake and I was a little concerned that her dad might eat it on the way home. I have been assured that it made it home and was enjoyed by the entire family. Now that is a cupcake.

Daddy's Girls

My mother will tell you in a heart beat that I was most definitely a "Daddy's Girl." I will very quickly take that as a compliment and agree. So when I got a phone call from a friend in a neighboring county, let's call her Peggy, asking me to create a "Daddy's Girls" themed cake I must say I was intrigued. My first thought was great, this is right up my alley! My next thought was, how in the world do I do this on a cake??? So the questions ensued. I learned that this theme and cake were for a women's church conference. That sort of stopped me for a second as I worked at figuring it all out, thinking the typical little girly theme wouldn't work. Little did I know. The colors included pinks, blues and purples. It was very much a little princess type of party. About 50 people were expected at the conference, although I was told the cake did not need to feed 50. As we discussed a princess crown and other decoration she said, "have fun and go to town with it. A princess theme is perfect." Oh little did she know what would happen when she said that.

I baked an 11x13 yellow butter cake for the base. Then my plan was to use a crown cake pan. However apparently in my head I had that pan because I could not find it anywhere. So while I was looking a better plan B presented itself. I used my blue ribbon cake pan to create an actual crown wearing princess. I gave her red locks and wrote the "Daddy's Girls" theme on her crown. A couple of big bright pink cheeks balanced out with some freckles (yes, I am partial to them since I have a few of my own) finished her off.

I delivered this little princess cake to the church just in time for the conference. The ladies who were there seemed thrilled with the cake and said it was just perfect. I hope they have a wonderful conference and the cake helps them with their celebration.

Birthday Balloons

For those of you who do not know me let me make a small confession right here and now. I suffer from allergies. As an adult I know have this image of myself as a child being nerdy and constantly blowing my
nose. (Image popped right into your head didn’t it?) Now that might be a great exaggeration but one of my many allergies includes flowers, all kinds of flowers. So sending me flowers of any kind, although
beautiful, is less than an exciting proposition for me and generally just makes me miserable.
I tell you all of this not for sympathy, or to give you any ideas of how to make me miserable, but to explain my excitement over this next cake, I received a phone call from a wonderful lady that I have the privilege of working with, let’s call her Sandra. Her mother’s birthday was coming up and could I bake a cake. She was not really sure how many people might be there, but there were other people they
could share the cake with so going large was not a problem. She said simple would be best. A simple sheet cake would be great. When I asked her how she wanted it decorated, she said with bright primary colors, maybe flowers or balloons. When I started asking my normal questions about favorite colors etc., our conversation stalled out a little. So Sandra decided the cake should have balloons and be colorful, very happy. I must say I was excited about the balloons because as a child and even as an adult
instead of flowers for events I often received balloons. As a matter of fact there are photos of my high school graduation with pink and green balloons everywhere, with the April Hare was here, written on them but that is another story entirely.

With my order in hand I got to work. A yellow butter sheet cake (about 11x13) was baked. Then basic white icing was used for the background with colorful balloons in primary colors. A quick text message latter (what did we do before text messaging?) and I had my text for this simple, happy and fun
birthday cake.

A Birthday that is Candy Apple Red

I love people who plan ahead, even if I don't. I am one of those people whose ideas come to them at midnight or in the shower, never a week in advance. One of my co-workers, let's call her Denese, is very organized and plans ahead like no one's business. That is why when she asked me to create a cake for her Husband's 60th birthday she asked about a month in advance to make sure I could do it. Then she gave me time to be creative. We know her husband, let's call him Tommy, loves his cars. Cars, trucks, he loves his vehicles. However the most spectacular idea had not come to me yet. A week before the cake Denese brought me a photo album that Tommy keeps in his glove compartment. It has photos of all of his vehicles. We also went through the cake photo album and she really liked the race car. That is when the idea began to take shape.

I baked the race car cake. However this would not be the traditional race car. It was decorated with different elements from his different vehicles. To mimic his first car it was decorated Candy Apple Red (I checked with an expert on this color) with what is supposed to be a black leather top. The wheels are from a Ford truck. The number of course represents the age so we know which birthday it is. The checkered flag, well how could I not have a checkered flag on there for the race fan.

When Denese and Tommy arrived to pick up the cake the look on his face was spectacular. I don't think he could have been any more surprised or excited about the cake. I understand that the cake did not quite make it through the holiday weekend, but the photo will last forever.

Got Bacon?

Okay, I admit I have had some strange requests for cakes in the past. There was the toilet, the topless hula girl, and well this one. The call for the cake from my friend, lets call her Missy, was not unusual. The request however, was, well......let's say thought provoking. She wanted a cake for her older sister's birthday and wanted the cake to fit the theme. So you think theme party and start thinking things like super heroes, garden party, murder mystery, but oh no we were not going to be that humdrum. The theme of this party was bacon. That's right, you read it right, bacon. As in the ever popular breakfast food that is greasy, salty and ever so yummy. I had to ask clarification as to if it was a normal cake with bacon or a cake that looked like bacon. Although we thought about adding bacon to the batter we decided not to go quite that funky and just make it look like bacon. I can not say that I have every created a bacon cake. It was a challenge that I was willing to undertake.

I had time to think about how to execute this cake. My first thought was I should cook some bacon just to get a real model. However I knew that was pointless because I like to eat bacon too and the model would not last long, especially with the smell of freshly cooked bacon in the air. A suggestion was made that I make a pre-bacon cake. Of course I, like a fool fell for that and asked, "What is a pre-bacon cake?" The response, a pig. Duh! I have made a pig cake before so that did not thrill me as much as the bacon challenge.

My first two challenges, the wrinkles and bumps in a strip of bacon, next challenge coloring. I baked a yellow butter sheet cake. From that I cut three strips which was just over half of an 11x13x2 cake. With a melon baller I started scooping out sections from the sides of the strip and cutting them down to put on top to help with the bumps. Then I mixed the two colors (yes, one for meat and one for fat) and actually put them in the decorating bag together with a big tip on the end. As the icing came out of the bag it marbled to look like strips of bacon. I made two full strips and then one that appears that someone took a bite out of it which usually happens when you leave bacon just sitting around.

Missy seemed happy with the cake and her sister was thrilled as well. However the sister, let's call her Angie, had one suggestion to make it even better. You guessed it add bacon bits to the batter and make it truly a bacon cake. Hmmmmmm, maybe next time.

Baby K

There are certain things you automatically think of when you think baby; diapers, carriages, cribs, stuffed animals, pacifiers, rattles and of course bottles. So when asked to make a surprise cake, for a not so surprise shower a bottle (yes, baby bottle) definitely came to mind.

This is baby number three for this family to be. The mother, let's call her Stacie, has a very bubbly personality and is definitely a pink and green kind of person. Mom and Dad are already aware that this baby will be a girl. She will come into a family with two big sisters (pray for dad in a house full of women). So when I got the text message (honest to goodness it was a text message order) for a cake I was told I could be as creative as I wanted. The only instructions were that the cake feed 50 and it involved pink and green.

Immediately I thought of the baby bottle and got to work. I baked a butter yellow cake (since so many groups these days have people who don't like chocolate). Then it was time to get creative. I thought about making the bottle itself pink or green but thought that might get a little weird with people thinking there was nuclear milk or formula in the bottle so I went with the light touch on the colors. Since they are having another girl I made the top of the bottle pink and put green outlines on the bottle. I was not sure about what to put on the cake, especially since a name has not yet been decided on, to my knowledge. However, thanks to some recent Facebook postings and conversations with Stacie I know they are looking at the baby's name starting with a K. So right now she is Baby K to everyone until her name is announced and we are all waiting in anticipation for the big event.
I understand the shower was a wonderful event with everything draped in pink and green. I also heard there was just the right amount of cake for all. As one of my cake orderers (texters) texted back to me, it was AWESOME!

An Utterly Cute Cake

This cake might fall into the , "it's the thought that counts" category. One of my coworkers, who is a livestock agent is having a birthday. She is very big on birthdays and the group of people we eat lunch with wanted to have a surprise birthday lunch for her. Of course I volunteered to make the cake. I wanted to make her a cow cake but it needed to be different from the last cow cake I made for a colleague of hers. This was going to be a traditional brown cow. Of course I did make it a girl and even put a pink bow in the tuft of hair at the top. However when I got done, I wasn't sure that it didn't look more like a brown bear rather than a brown cow. Of course it was made with milk which would be the difference between a cow and a bear. :)

Maybe a Little Monkey Business

You know me. I love a little monkey business, it can be so much fun. So when the sister of a friend called me and we discussed a cake for a baby shower this cake just jumped into my head. She was describing the colors with browns, blues, pinks a little yellow and well there wasn't a theme but there would be a monkey or two because the mom to be likes monkeys. Suddenly my mind went from crawling baby to stroller, baby bottle and suddenly a baby monkey. How can you tell a baby monkey from an adult monkey? By the diaper, of course. The cake itself was a butter cake, because the dad to be (who yes, was at the shower) is allergic to chocolate. Although there were several suggestions of putting chocolate creme in the part of the cake with the diaper, I did refrain. However, now I am in the mood for chocolate creme. Go figure. I think the cake, which had stiff competition with Krispey Kreme Doughnuts was a hit. There was not a piece left by the end of the shower. Congratulations Missy and Jeff on Sami who should be making her appearance in June.

Chemistry Experiment or Cooking?

I am very excited to introduce my very first batch of root beer ever! I admit I did not come up with this concoction all by myself. I have a kit that came with all the ingredients (except sugar) and bottles. Actually I wanted to try this out to see if we could do this as part of the 4-H Summer Fun Program (Bio-tech Day Camp) next year. You see making root beer is more than following a recipe (which I am told is the only way I can cook) you have to watch temperatures and timing and then be patient.

After mixing all the ingredients and filling the bottles it was time for carbonation. This is different then the process that soda usually takes in factories. There is wine yeast in this recipe and the yeast eats the sugar in the soda to carbonate. This process takes place in a warm dark place. When the bottles are firm they go into the fridge for 24 hours and they are ready to be opened. Turning the lid the pressure lets off like any soda. When you pour it it does not foam up like mass production root beer. You can see some bubbles but it is not quite as fizzy. When you drink it you can feel the natural carbonation. Overall the root beer has a smooth and creamy taste. Whether you think this is chemistry or cooking the end result is the same, mmm mmmm good.

MMM mmm Good!

There is nothing like the smell of bread baking in the oven. You have heard of comfort foods, well this is a comfort smell for me. Thanks to my sourdough starter it is one that I will get to smell about once a week.

You may remember my post last year about the Sourdough bread I was making. Sourdough bread was a favorite of my dad's and something that has always been coveted in our family. The key to this is making sure the starter stays alive. If you don't bake with the starter once a week you must feed it (discard a certain about of flour and water and add more). Sourdough is not an easy bread to make. It requires patience. A great deal of patience. Usually what happens is that on Friday night after I get home from work and have dinner I get the starter out and start making sponge. By Saturday morning the sponge is usually ready and I am making dough. It takes all day Saturday for the dough to rise. Right before I go to bed I punch the dough down and put it in a greased bread loaf and let it rise overnight and most of Sunday. When it has reached the top of the loaf pan it is time to put it in the oven for an hour. After cooling in the pan, and dump it out on the cooling rack. Suddenly, I have a loaf of Sourdough bread. Doubling the recipe doesn't take much, it just requires twice as many ingredients and bowls for rising. Wait time can happen all at once.

I make this once a week, but don't expect a post every week concerning bread. Of course if it is an interesting situation I am likely to post about it. Just know that if you smell that most wonderful aroma of fresh baked bread over the weekend chances are it is coming from my little oven in between cakes and other baked delectable. If you are interested in purchasing a loaf of sourdough please feel free to contact me at customcake4you@aol.com. Time to go slice a piece and watch the butter melt on my fresh out of the oven warm bread. YUM!