Going Out In Style

I aspire to retire one day.  So you can understand why I take great pleasure in helping coworkers who have so deservedly reached that milestone celebrate.  Linda Gore is one of the finest 4-H Youth Development Extension Agents in the state of North Carolina as well as a good friend.  When another incredible 4-H Agent asked if I would do the cake I was honored, and needless to say jumped at the opportunity.
I have to admit retirement cakes stump me.  Finding a cake that represents that time, effort, and incredible impact a person has had at their career is difficult.  So I will say I turned to my new friend Pinterest.  After searching several retirement cake designs I combined several ideas to come up with this cake.  Since we were planning for 200 I had lots of opportunity to express what I needed to, but I also had to remember it was likely much of administration would be there so nothing too funny.  So in my mind I planned out the perfect cake, hoping I would come close to what I saw in my minds eye.
About three days before the event the number of folks in attendance was dropped to 100 which made this cake at least one tier shorter and a little easier on me figuring out how to get all the layers into the freezer at one time.  Frozen and base coated I loaded up the cake and headed to Moore County which is about a ninety minute drive.  Once there I worked to construct the cake and finish decorating it.  That included a couple of last minute additions and deletions to my design.  A 4-H clover was added to the side to cover the start and end of the ribbon on the second tier.  The hanging clovers from the top were a whole other issue in patience as the plan I had in my head had to be re-engineered to work.
In the end the three teir off white cake was made with three two layer butter cakes.  The writing on the front, "Linda the end is just a new beginning" was done in pure white to let it stand out from the base off white.  A green ribbon and floating clovers helped accent the cake.  As far as the lady of honor, well she cut her cake and shared it with the masses there to honor her and celebrate her special moment.  She enjoyed the cake and there was just a bit left for her (and anyone else) to take home to remember this special event.  

The Sweet Taste of Retirement

  I am starting to really enjoy the edible image printer I have and so are other folks.  It is amazing that I now get more orders for folks wanting edible image cakes which is how this order started.  A colleague called and asked if I might be able to make an edible image cake for the retirement of one of her husband's colleagues.  She had designed the invitation and wanted the invitation as the image.  No problem there.  So a quick e-mail later we had the custom image ready to go.  A butter cake to feed about 100 in the colors on the invitation.  Sounds simple right?  It would be except for one thing, Mother Nature.
Thanks to a predicted ice and snow storm the retirement celebration had to be postponed a few weeks.  Fortunately, I had some sort of sixth sense, and an unscheduled trip halfway across the country, that kept me from baking the first cake.  So two days before the rescheduled event the baking began with about a pound of butter, flour, granulated sugar, eggs, vanilla, powdered sugar, shortening, and other baking goodies.  After freezing the butter cake it was time to ice it.  After successfully placing the edible image on the cake it was time to fill in with borders.  The cake made it to the party and I have no doubt after this send off, retirement was really sweet.

Dancing is Just a Little Sweeter

  It's that time of year again around here.  Time for the United Way Dancing with the Robeson County Stars.  The annual event has become quite the fundraiser for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library which United Way of Robeson County coordinates locally.  The first year they found that the big night which includes dinner and bidding was just one of the big attractions.  The dress rehearsal without all the luxuries became a big hit and they were able to sell tickets to that as well.
  To thank the dancers for all their hard work practicing and raising money, United Way tries to make the green room (room where the dancers are until it is their turn to take the stage) a pampered event.  There is food and drink, and of course cake.  For the last several years I have been honored to make the cake for these events.  They never ask for anything too exciting, just a United Way edible image cake each night.  Needless to say, the cakes for each night are not identical because that just wouldn't seem right to me.
Each cake is our popular butter cake.  Making sure the edible image is the most important thing we did a simple white background on a sheet cake and then highlighted the dress rehearsal cake in gold and bordered the cake for the night of the big even in blue with a little writing.  No doubt it will be a great night.  To find out all the step by step information you can check out United Way of Robeson County's Facebook age or follow them on Twitter.

It's a Pack Kind of Thing

  I love getting a call asking if I can make a particular cake and knowing I have the perfect pan to do it in.  That's how this cake all began, with a phone call from this birthday's girl's mom (who I once had the privilege of working with).  She said her daughter needed an N.C. State cake, and knowing that I am quite the Virginia (as in Wa hoo Wah!) fan and wanted to make sure I was willing to do this.  For those of you who know me you also know that my main paycheck comes from NCSU so years ago I made a deal not to pull against NCSU, unless they were playing Virginia.  My main focus in my missionary work (as my father used to say to folks), is to convert Tarheels to Cavilers.  So I have nothing against NC State and have made one or two items associated with the school.  So needless to say, I knew I had the perfect pan to make a cake for her daughter and it would be appropriate for a wolf packer of any age.
  This is a traditional butter cake baked into the shape of the block S logo that NC State is recognized by.  The thing about these logo cakes is that most are done in a silicone baking pan which does not always leave the cleanest edges behind when they are pulled out.  That was the case this this cake.  So what I did was a smooth N and C while doing a star tipped pattern to fill in the S and hopefully elevate some of the rough areas on the surface of the cake.
  When it was all said an done a young lady had her name added and it turned into quite the party.

A Sweet Goodbye

  Sometimes the right cake can make things a little less bittersweet.  That was the goal with this cake.  You have seen this cake before, it is the butter rum cake with chocolate rum icing.  It is a cake that melts in your mouth and one that I truly only make for special occasions.  Having mentioned that before one of my co-workers who has no aversion to rum (or other alcohol's as I could tell) thought this might be the cake for her.  For a almost a year I have been saying, "maybe one day," on fixing one of these cakes for her then the day came.  She told us she was leaving for a colder part of the world, where she would be closer to family and had a pretty sweet job.  With a sigh it was time to wish her well, but not before we gave her a proper send off.
  With a couple of ingeniously creative co-workers it took no time to come up with a lunch farewell for her.  Baked potatoes and chili were on the menu with a few helpful sides and additions.  Enough to please any and every one.  Now you know I could not pass up a chance at making a cake and I find retirement and goodbye cakes the most difficult ones to do.  After much up and down I decided it was finally time to make the infamous butter rum cake.  Then, with my brain working overtime, thought I better come up with a teetotaler option as well.  So besides the cake that day were a dozen butter cupcakes with white icing.  Nothing exciting just a little something to please everyone.
  After the small tokens of our appreciation and a good meal we did bid ado later in the week.  Still can't bring myself to say anything other than good luck, definitely not good bye.

Paw Patrol is on a Roll

  It is such a good thing I have friends with young children or I would know nothing about pop culture.  For example, when this friend came to me and said her sone wasn't sure what cake he wanted this year but they were leaning towards Paw Patrol.  I must admit this is my first brush with the patrol but I am might impressed.  I have learned about all our puppy superheroes and which ones are each person's favorites and why.  I unlocked an entire sub culture working on this cake, and I must admit it was fun.
  Since I could not do one specific Paw Patrol member, and sort of had to create this one from scratch I was thrilled for my edible printer, which keeps me off the cake wrecks blog and Facebook pages.  I found a picture with all the members of this elite team and printed and edible image that should make everyone familiar with this team happy.  Having found one of their famous sayings it took nothing to finish this cake off for Jackson on his birthday.  Just hoping he had a great birthday and the opportunity to, be on the roll.

Edible Art

I must admit I have a neat job and some really neat hobbies that let me meet interesting and talented folks.  I met this gentlemen a long time ago in a previous career when he was painting a mural for the city and offering art lessons for kids.  Years later I met him through his wife who volunteered in the program that I am blessed to be a part of.  Not only was he painting (one of his landscapes actually hangs in my home) but also writing.  He wrote a series of science fiction books inspired by his son.  I must say I was honored when he asked me to edit the Jack Ryder series and throughly enjoyed reading them.
What brings us to this post and ultimately the cake, is his most recent medium of spray can art paintings.  Only limited by his imagination Jim Hurst has created a series of incredible paintings using, not paintbrushes, but spray cans.  Not only have I seen him adjust his craft and hone it over the years now I get to see him achieve a level of success not many artists achieve.  Today Jim is opening up his first public exhibit at the Carolina Civic Center.  The Carolina Civic Center is a historic theater in downtown Lumberton, North Carolina.  A Mecca for performing artists for more then a century this theater is pleased to offer a venue for visual artists as well.  You can read more about his work and this exhibit in the local paper that spotlighted his exhibit.
When Jim's wife asked if I would do a cake for the opening of the exhibit I was so very honored.  The instructions were simple, a butter cake which would appeal to all segments of the cake eating public. Then they asked me to make an edible image cake utilizing any of Jim's paintings.  Although there were many paintings I loved, getting the images downloaded to print caused me some challenges.  I was finally able to get an incredible painting he did utilizing the Cape Hatteras light house.  I was struggling how to make this a Jim Hurst original cake (customizing it with more than the painting image) and as an artist realized when I am done with a painting I make it forever mine by signing it.  So I did my best to emulate the Hurst signature at the bottom of each of his paintings in icing.  I utilized the same black icing to create a rope frame around the photo and voila!  Jim had his own work of art for his art opening.  We hope he has a successful exhibit and enjoys the success that this talent artist deserves.

Three Cheers on your Birthday!

You might recognize this cake.  I have made it before but I am very select on making it because it is so moist it literally is like placing cotton candy on your tongue.  This is what is known as my infamous butter cake soak with a rum syrup.  Then it is topped with a chocolate rum sauce.  It is a cake that has an octane level that gives it a little kick.
This one was made for a wonderful lady with a heart of gold.  I thought I was going to get to see her on her birthday, but when life popped up and changed my plans I decided the least I could do is change her birthday cake from a more traditionally decorated cake to this special cake that will spread some warm birthday wishes.  I hope her birthday was wonderful, and that the cake was like chocolate icing on top.

Apologies Neccessary

  I have been beyond slack.  Two of my favorite pastimes are baking and writing.  I could give you a long list of reasons (not excuses but reasons) for my absence but at the end of the day the point is still the same....I have not paid attention to this blog or my readers for over a year.  I have missed you.  I have missed telling the stories of the cakes.  I have continued to bake and have missed the low fat, no calorie step where I get to share this with you.  My apologies.
  So we are starting some new ideas and new communication methods in 2015.  To begin you may have noticed the redesign of the blog.  A new logo, new look, for new energy in 2015.  Not only that but we now have a Facebook page.  After sharing the photos on a personal page (by my most wonderful supervisor) I have decided it was time for just a cake page.  You can find us on Facebook at Custom Cakes 4 You.  Depending on comments and request we may add an Instagram page, I am still trying to decide.  So feel free to chime in and let us know what you think.  I hope you like our simplified logo and new look.  As always, just like we like to listen to you about your custom cake from inception to final serving, we would like to hear from you about our social networking.
  We also guarantee not to change some things.  The high quality cakes, custom designs and of course sharing the stories behind each and every cake.  We hope you will enjoy every aspect of our newly energized hobby and enjoy the sweet smell of every cake delivered.
 

Shea Cake Strikes Again

If I ever go into baking full time two things will have to happen. First, I am going to have to charge more. Second, I am going to have to change the name of my company from Custom Cakes 4 You to Shea Cakes. It seems that the tag my coworkers have tagged my cakes with has stuck. I am honestly grateful that they often talk about their Shea Cake and how much they enjoy its to other people. they have done it so much that people are now asking for a Shea Cake. Something I find absolutely amusing, because it honestly seems to have taken off.
Point in case...one of my incredible coworkers daughters came home from college a couple of weeks ago and asked if I would make a small birthday cake for her boyfriend. Mind you she is San N.C. state student. In other words she lives in Raleigh,the Mecca of food and bakeries in this state. You know the big city. However she came home and asked me to bake the cake, because her boyfriend had asked her if he might be able to try a Shea Cake that he had heard so much about from her. Besides the fact that I am enameled with almost all of my coworkers children and would help them out with any baking project I can, this story I couldn't resist. Apparently the cake recipient is a Minnesota Vikings fan. This made it even easier.
Essentially I made an 8x8 butter cake with an edible image on top. Searching for the right image wasn't a problem. Finding one that would fit on a square cake....well that was a little more difficult, but obviously not impossible. A little purple icing border and the cake was ready for delivery to Raleigh. We will see what the recipient thinks.

Happy Birthday America!

I admit it.  I have a problem (no snickering from the peanut gallery please).  I hate to say no to anyone.  If it something I don't want to do or honestly can not do I will and can say no.  However often times if someone asks me to bake a cake (which you know I love to do) I just can't say no.  Sure enough this morning a friend asked me if I had the ingredients for a cake.  Silly question, of course I have the ingredients for a cake.  The next question was, do you still have that flag cake pan?  Once again, silly question, I have never gotten rid of a cake pan.  This was all just a prelude to the real question of, would you bake a cake for me, for today, for fourth of July?  My friend had to work and thought it might be a nice surprise for others in the same predicament.  So I said, of course I would love to bake a cake.  It was nothing too special just a butter cake aptly decorated as our American flag.  It twas a rush job so I have to admit I took some shortcuts to make sure it got done quickly.  However no one complained about it, and apparently the entire cake disappeared, which is the highest honor I can receive for a cake.
Happy Birthday America!  Happy Independence Day to all Americans!   

It's a Rosey Birthday

  A few posts ago I spoke of a co-worker, Janice.  I had made a cake for her daughter Catie's birthday.  Guess what?  Janice's birthday was right around the corner from Catie's.  So when I got pulled aside by two of the people who report to her saying they wanted to do something extra special for her birthday, and would I please bake her a cake, there was no way in this world I could say no.  However on her actual birthday she was working out of the office so I convinced them to wait until Monday when she would be back in the office.
  In the meantime I wanted to come up with something extra special for Janice.  Something elegant, but casual.  Something I have never done before.  After spending a little time on Pinterest, I found it.  A cake decorated with hombre roses.  Now I was not sure I could do this, because I had never done it before and decorating on the sides of a cake can be, well, tricky to say the least.  So I baked a ten inch two layer butter cake.  After the normal prep, I dirty iced the center, sides, and top and went to work on the roses.  It was actually amazingly easy and the overall effect is gorgeous.
  Knowing that Janice had a day camp that day and would be early I made sure I was actually extra early so I could deliver the cake to my coworkers without Janice seeing it.  However part way through she saw it.  So one employee, let's call her Tamika played it off like the cake was for her daughter.  Janice apparently gazed at it saying what a pretty cake it was and how good it would taste.  After an entire day of this, around three the entire staff came together to sing happy birthday to Janice.  She was stunned and it took awhile for her to realize that the cake was actually for her.  As it turned out one of the children in the day camp also had a birthday and a teen volunteer had turned 17 the day before.  So in the spirit of birthdays and fun, Janice shared her cake with everyone.  I have to admit I cut it in such a manner so that she would have plenty to take home and share with her family.
  After we got done with all the days events, Janice said she was touched by the cake.  She said she could not remember the last time anyone had made her a birthday cake.  The fact that people had wanted to go the extra mile for her, just made her feel so special that day.  That is what this cake was all about.

Fishing for a Cake

"What are your plans this weekend?" is often an opening line, not for a date, but a request for a cake.  One of my coworkers, lets call her Denese was going to the beach with her family.  She wanted to surprise them with something sweet while they were there so she decided she wanted a, "Shea cake."  I promise I did not come up with this term but it is one that is used by many of my coworkers, and I am finding it seeping into my vocabulary.
  I digress.  After the opening line Denese asked about a cake for the entire family, since she had to travel she preferred a sheet cake.  Knowing Denese fairly well I knew that she was not a laying on the beach, toes in the sand, kind of person.  So this left me a little befuddled until she told me this was a fishing trip.  Now somewhere in all my stuff I was sure I had a guy in a boat fishing.  However when I went looking it was not there.  Plan B.  I went to the store and found the seaweed, turtles, fish, and star fish that would work.  A little blue gel, brown sugar for the sand, and we had a great fishing/beach scene that the family could devour.
  One of the great things I have learned thanks to a previous cake for Janice in this blog is that sheet cakes fit perfectly into a long flat rubber made tote.  I packaged it up for Denese and sent her to the beach.

A Birthday Fit for a Princess

  I love the random call on a day when the world is just full of questions asking for a cake.  It sort of brightens my day and gives me something to look forward to.  That is how this cake started.  A mother in search of a special cake for her daughter.  She was looking at the photos we have posted and after a little talking back and forth decided to go with the castle.  Her daughter likes flowers, butterflies, and peace symbols so I went with the flowers flowing up the sides of the castle wall with this design.  It was a basic butter cake for the inside and just enough to feed about 20 people.  I hope this helped make this little girl's birthday something special.

A Picture Perfect Birthday

As you may have noticed, it is not often that I have a photo of the cake recipient to post along with the cake.  Catie is the daughter of one of my wonderful co-workers, Janice.  Actually Janice has two daughters for which I have had the pleasure of creating cakes for.  Now mind you the two are as different as day and night.  I do not point this out to say it is a bad thing, I mention it because it makes this story all the more special.  Catie's sister, Ally, is the planer.  She starts months before her birthday and plans each detail of the cake.  All I have to do is interpret her design through icing and baking to make it come true.  Catie on the other hand is as quiet and unassuming as a person can be.  She does not mention birthdays and is just thrilled if others remember the day.  So when Janice came to me and asked for a birthday cake, I had to throw the typical questions out there, of what does she like, how big should it be, what flavor, because unlike Ally who usually has a big custom design with bright colors, Catie is very different.  As I started firing off the questions like a sub machine gun, Janice just looked at me with her eyes getting bigger and bigger.  I stopped and backed it up and said chocolate or butter?  "Butter" she replied.  "Lots of people?" I asked.  "Just the four of us, Catie likes small celebrations," she replied.  Now for the big one, "What does she love?" I asked.  "her family, her job, oh, oh...." her eyes suddenly got bigger, "N. C. State.  She loves N. C. State."  Well that I knew I could do.
The other thing about this cake was that it was one to be done by the next day.  Normally I would not do that, but for Janice and Catie you bet I would do whatever I could to make her day even more special.  I got home and went to work, baking like a wild women.  The baking was fairly uneventful but when it came to decorating, I have to admit this was the messiest cake I have ever decorated.  I realized as I went to decorate I was out of bags.  For those of you who say run to Wal-Mart or use a Ziploc with the corner cut off, well I thought of that.  At two in the morning I found found that travelling to Wal-Mart by myself is not my favorite thing to do.  By the way I did try the Ziploc but it could not handle the pressure needed to squeeze the icing out and split in several places.  So plan B.  I had some parchment triangles and thought I would use those.  Although they worked it was difficult at best to them folded into the right shape to get a coupler attached and I did end up with icing all over me.  In the end however it all worked out and the N. C. State cake looked just like the block S it was supposed to look like.
I delivered it to the office and imagine my surprise the next night when these photos were shared on facebook for me to see.  There is Catie blowing out the candles when the family went to dinner to celebrate.  Also a shot of Catie and Ally as she cut her birthday cake.  I have to say the photos made my day and made me feel included in the family celebration.  Catie really seemed to enjoy her cake and her special day.  Happy Birthday Catie!
Oh, and one other side note, that I think Catie might like me to mention.  Happy Birthday N. C. State which turned 125 years old this year.        

Don't Say We're Chicken

  I love special requests.  One of our wonderful 4-H Volunteers and a fellow Master Gardener came to me and asked if I could do a cake for her.  She was having a working get together.  What I mean by that is she invites friends and family out to her farm to help do maintenance, build pens, help repair fencing, and she feeds them for a days worth of work helping her out.  I have to brag on this for a moment.  In September she really started working at marketing her farm, where she sells fresh chicken and eggs.  It is a great start up small business and she has more than quadrupled her sales in the last 8 months, which is really impressive.  That being said, every little bit of help she can get on the farm is essential, hence her working invitation.
  The request for the cake was to make it look like a chicken, similar to the invitation she sent out.  We decided to go with a butter cake and a fudge cake to please everyone who might be coming to help.  So my plan went into action.  I made the nest out of chocolate cake and hollowed out the center to place the chicken.  I admit my chicken is a little fat, that's because I carved it from a rubber duck cake mold that I have.  Now the tricky part was not making the nest look nesty but making the chicken in the design on the paper.  I took a little creative license and made the white icing fluffy to look like feathers then implemented as much of the design as I could.
  When I delivered the cake, the recipient seemed thrilled that I had actually gone further than making a chicken, but tried to copy the paper design.  I understand that the chocolate cake was a big hit and the chicken didn't last much longer than the rest.

Going a Little Nutty...Coconutty That Is.

  Sometimes I like to surprise people.  Surprise them with nice surprises like a cake.  A friend of my mother's mentioned on Facebook that she likes anything involving coconut.  Specifically that day she was in need of a coconut cream cake.  Living 5 hours away it's not like I could make the cake that day and deliver it.  So I did the next best thing.
  A couple of weeks later I was visiting my mother, as part of a multi-cake/ multi-event weekend and thought I might try my hand at making a coconut cream cake.  Having never done this before it was going to be a new and exciting experiment.  Add to that, that I am now used to baking in a gas stove and my mother has an electric oven that does not get much use, and I knew that it would either be a recipe for greatness or disaster.  I started by baking a white coconut cake (two 9 inch layers).  After letting them cool I poked them full of holes then drizzled a mixture of sweetened condensed milk and coconut milk.  I placed the cakes in the fridge overnight (so it could absorb all the milky goodness that I had poured over it and into it) and then had the difficult task of getting them out of the cake pans.  My trick to this is to put the cakes into a warm oven for a few minutes (which will loosen up the edges) and it should fall right out.  Needless to say this is a heavy (weight wise) cake.  I made whipped cream (which a small amount of sugar in it) to ice the cake with (between the layers and on the outside).  Of course it is not truly a coconut cake without coconut which I placed on the top.  My biggest concern was that this 6 inch tall cake would be too sweet.  As it turned out, the recipient said it was not too sweet and she was kind enough to share it with neighbors and friends (I must admit that it was a really big cake).  I was hoping it ended up like my butter run cake that was so moist it dissolves in your mouth.  However I think the cream vs a rum mixture would make it a little heavier.  Overall I think I might try this one out again.

A Special Birthday Delivery

  According to my Daddy the perfect birthday cake was round, chocolate, two layers, with white icing and yellow roses.  To that end all traditional birthday cakes that I make tend to look like that, although I can't say I ever made one like that for my dad.  So when my cousin's bridal shower (see previous post) and my Daddy's Aunt Betta's birthday fell in the same week I could not help but bake an extra cake to celebrate.    This was her 97th birthday, so I made a butter cake (because not everyone loves chocolate, go figure).  When it came time to decorate all I knew was that I was to include flowers.  So in a moment of chanelling Daddy the cake had yellow roses.
  We presented the cake to Aunt Betta at the bridal shower (with the bride to be's blessing).  She seemed tickled with it and I promised something bigger and better for next year, thinking as we get close to 100 we need to get bigger and better.  Happy Birthday Aunt Betta.

Traditional Bridal Shower 2.0

  My cousin is getting married.  I guess technically she is a second cousin, but when it comes to picking relatives I will promote her because she is a pretty awesome person.  At Christmas word had leaked out that she was officially engaged, to a pretty terrific guy (I say this because he survived a family gathering at my mother's house around Thanksgiving and did not run out screaming-he even appeared to have a good time which in my book makes him a good guy).  So now that we know that my perspective is slightly squewed and that I most definitely have my fathers sense of humor, let me carry on with the story of the cake.
  So with news of the impending nuptials my mother offered to throw a bridal shower, complete with cake from me.  Now you know it takes nothing for me to make a cake.  I love baking and decorating and making people smile when they put something sweet in their mouths.  However this cake came with some challenges shall we say?  The shower was for female relatives and being held at the Commonwealth Club in Richmond, VA.  This is about an hour from where my mother lives in Virginia.  So that meant baking cakes in North Carolina, driving five hours to Virginia with the cakes.  Decorating them at my mother's house, then driving another hour, to put them together at the venue site.  No pressure or anything.  The cake needed to feed 25. A typical cake feeds 20.  So I was going bigger and better (kind of like Tim on Home Improvement, with more power).  Putting my I pad to good use and the Wilton cake app on it to better use I found a combination of cakes to use.  Now the original cake would feed 65.  I made it smaller so this cake would feed about 40.  I baked the butter cake layers at home and transported them everywhere.  The plan was to assemble and decorate on site before the party.  However one element did not happen.  I made two big Es (for Elizabeth) in color flow to place on top of the cake.  However when I got there the Es had melted due to the humidity so I had to plan B.  Fortunately I took a large amount of icing with me and all my cake tips.  I made a big E on top of the cake, not exactly the effect I was going for but not a shabby plan B.
  When it came time for the party I had done a little decorating, everyone arrived, had a good time.  Lunch was some kind of fabulous, and the bride to be walked out with lots of items to stock her new kitchen.  All and all I would say it was a successful day and I hope the happy couple much happiness together.

Trying Something New for Retirement

  Most people who retire are ready to sit back and enjoy all the things they haven't had time to do.  Rarely does that list include house cleaning, laundry or mowing the yard.  Usually it is things like traveling, taking up a hobby, devoting time to church or other organizations.  For this lady, I have no doubt retirement means just devoting time to other areas of her life that bring her so much happiness.
  Not long before this post I had a retirement celebration cake post for this person.  So when her sister asked me to make a cake for her for another retirement celebration that her family was throwing for her I was a little befuddled because I put my all into that last cake.  When this sister called me and asked me to do the cake just like the last one but not tiered and no clovers, I was once again befuddled.  So I went with the old standby, what colors are you decorating in?  She said orange and green.  So I had to ask, dark, bright, pastel?  "I don't know it's orange and green.  Not 4-H green not evergreen just green."  With time being of the essence I said OK and starting trying to figure out how to do this cake.
  I did three cakes again of different sizes but did not tier them.  Knowing my pallet was green and orange I threw in a little white to balance things out and went to work.  The first cake I decorated with a white base and orange and green polka dots.  The next cake had an green base with orange polka dots, and the last cake had a orange base with green polka dots.  Mind you I still had two issues.  The first was that I still didn't think these cakes said, "Aggie." The second problem was that I did not know exactly what shades of green and orange I needed to match the decorations, so it either matched or clashed.  I had no idea and no way to fix it at this point.  Since there was no way to address the second problem I went straight to the first.  To make this cake more Aggie like I worked with a new medium, color flow.  Essentially it is an egg white powder that you mix with water and confectioners sugar to make a writable and edible objects to put on cakes.  I decided for my first time out to make an A and a R, the retirees initials.  Now please don't think that I am so talented to do this on my own, I printed out the letters and placed wax paper on top of them so that I could trace them with the color flow.  It take 24-48 hours for this to dry and then you peel it off the wax paper and place on top of the cake.  So I waited until the next day and packaged up the letters in a Ziploc with instructions to place on the cake.
  Believe it or not this was a particularly busy weekend for cakes, so this one I delivered to my office for the family to pick up since the party would be on Saturday and I had to travel to Virginia for the rest of the weekends cakes.  Now here is the other kicker.  I was told the party was a surprise.  So when I got a call at 5 pm on the Friday before the party saying the cake had not been picked up, I was slightly panicked.  We could not call the honoree because she did not know about the cake or the party (I found out later that she knew about the party, but not the cake) so who would we call?  the sister who contacted me did not answer at the number I had.  Fortunately, our receptionist at the office, thought to call another sister to come get the cake.  Unfortunately the letters got left behind when the cake got picked up so the final Aggie touches were never put on the cake.
  After the event, I was told that Aggie was tickled with the cake.  As a matter of fact her daughter apparently walked in after the celebration program and took the small cake and put it away for herself and left the two larger cakes for the rest of the crowd.  As it turned out the colors on the cake matched the decorations to a T.  Aggie had no idea about the cakes until she walked back and saw them, and I was happy to add to her special day, again.