Where Do We Start?????

My last post was about a baby shower for a coworker of mine, let's call her Kerrie. As part of an office celebration we decided once again to focus on the joy of the new baby (jellybean) coming into the world versus losing a valued coworker to a new position. So it was time to make another cake. However after talking with several groups we realized that we would have a few extra guests at our social so I decided we needed more than one cake. Since we needed more than one cake it meant I could do more than one flavor cake and more than one theme. Multi-tasking in baking terminology, which makes me a happy baker.
So the first cake was to be a traditional baby shower type cake. After going through my pans I decided to use one that I had not used in years. I made a teddy bear cake out of Kerrie's favorite cake, Funfetti. Once again I must admit I feel bad about cheating and using a box mix for this but since it is her favorite I went ahead and used it. Once baked it was time to decorate. I decorated it in the colors that Kerrie and her husband plan to use for his (yes, the jellybean is a boy) nursery. The letters on the block represent the baby's name. On the side I have a J and a B for jellybean (I couldn't resist).
The second cake was my traditional butter cake. I know we have many people coming who like the butter cake so I fell back on the old standby. Kerrie is a horticulture agent so I thought a flower, okay a sunflower, would be appropriate. It made decorating very simple. When it came to the message I thought of many but still can't say goodbye so I just wrote her name across the center of the cake. I was thinking about using chocolate chips in the center to add to the texture, but several people I work with are afflicted with a terrible allergy to chocolate, so I decided not to risk it. However that is an option for the future.

We Shoot, We Score, We Surprise!

Got to love when you can every once in awhile plan and implement a surprise for a person who so deserves it. I often speak of my coworkers and one is getting ready to move west (okay not California west, but western North Carolina), as well as have a baby. Actually the timing is pretty cool because instead of saying goodbye we are having baby showers so we can concentrate on the upcoming celebration rather than being sad about her impending move.
As part of that this rather, incredible group of women that I have lunch with frequently decided we should have a baby shower. Each of us planned through facebook messaging when and where and planned to bring something as well as gifts. One of my other coworkers who is part of this group asked the guest of honor if they could go to lunch, a final goodbye luncheon as it were. So plans were in place.
As you can guess I offered to make the cake. It is one of several cakes I will be making for this person and her soon to be child that we affectionately call jellybean. So I wanted to make it something different. I did think about making a jellybean with a nut border (yes, its a boy) but decided that might be in poor taste. So I went with the next best choice which is a baby cake and give him a Clemson themed hat (yes, mom and dad both graduated from Clemson). I must admit I do feel a bit guilty about one thing. She loves a funfetti cake, which of course is a box cake mix. So yes, I used the box mix to make her cake and then decorated like I always do. It didn't take me maybe two hours from start to finish for decorating, and everyone seemed to enjoy it. But I am jumping ahead in my story.
On the big day we had planned to have lunch at one of our usual places. When I asked my co-worker if she was going she said no and went into great detail about how she wanted to but our other co-worker might not appreciate a last minute change, and by the end of the tale she was about to shed crocodile tears. This is one of those moments where you have time to seriously mess with someone or not. If you know me I do love sarcasm and having a little fun with others so you might be surprised to find out that I just shrugged my shoulders and walked away from this one, deciding not to add an extra layer of torture on her. However when she got to the destination, she was quite surprised and even gave a brief lecture on how sneaky the group was. Lunch which ensued was devoured as well as the cake. The presents were opened the the soon to be lucky tike had quite a travelling haul. Stay tuned more jellybean cakes coming soon.

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.

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.

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!

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.

A Party for Baby Boy Shooter

I love where I work because we are like a great big family. When one member of our family is celebrating we all celebrate. Recently our livestock agent, let's call her Michelle, found out she and her husband were expecting. Being avid outdoors people they were even more thrilled to find out that the baby was to be a boy.

So as part of our office celebration there was a baby shower complete with gifts, food and of course a cake. We have a committee that designates how such events are handled and when they came to me to do the cake I was excited. I knew I had the baby carriage and was thinking about an N. C. State theme. However I was later informed that the room had a jungle theme and I needed to include that theme with the cake. So I did what does not come naturally to me and decorated the cake in Carolina Blue....I mean baby boy blue. However to go with the jungle theme I add vines to the design and added a welcome baby Shooter to the cake. I must say this was not the only cake at this party. Two of my creative co-workers created two diaper cakes (tiered cake creations made of diapers-not edible but highly useful in the future), one that matched the cake, the other with an N.C. State theme. All in all it was a wonderful event.

The best part of this story however is that I can announce that Jackson, arrived a few days early and very healthy at 8 lbs 11 oz. Mom, Dad and baby are doing great and I just want to bake another cake to celebrate.

Giving Birth to Baby Cupcakes

Apparently I have a problem saying no. Imagine that. Which is why I often do several cakes or take several orders at one time as a matter of fact I find it very relaxing to decorate so this past weekend I must have been relaxed. A friend of mine, former co-worker, current 4-H volunteer, and all around good egg, let's call her Missy, called me to see if we could come up with something fun for her cousin's baby shower. We started off with cake squares which I quickly shied away from due to issues with other cake square orders I have had. So after talking up and down and sideways we settled on cupcakes. We started talking about pink cupcakes (according to all reports the baby will be a girl) but not pink cake. As a matter of fact we have butter cupcakes with white icing and pink feet. As we got closer to the date the order grew and the instructions melded into a new form. We wanted pink icing but not baby pink, so I suggested hot pink (which is soooooo easy to create) but we settled on pink with a hint of orange. We also dropped the feet and I added my cupcake trees to hold the 40 plus cupcakes that were needed. To add to the texture I decorated in two ways one was flat the other was cone shaped coming up in the center to add to the drama of the tree.

As I was in route to deliver the cupcakes I realized as Missy and I were discussing the color that they were really grandma pink not baby pink or orange pink. So I was not sure how that would work out. Missy showed me the roses she got to decorate with and one batch was orange with pink edges the other were a deep pink. I did not put them on the stand for photos however I do have a photo of them strecthed out on racks after being iced.

As the report goes the cupcakes matched the color scheme perfectly and the mother to be downed three cupcakes in a row. Although one report says she ate one whole, and then had two more that were eaten more carefully I am going with the thought that she really enjoyed them and I know she had a great baby shower. Now we just have to wait for the big day...maybe we will need a welcome cake for the big event? Just a thought!