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.