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!