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!