Thank Goodness for Friends

Ever watch the T. V. game show where you have the opportunity to call a friend if you are stumped on the answer for a question? I often wondered who I might call, and of course each time it depends on the question.
Often I will have a customer who will have a variety of occasions to ask me to make a cake. On this occasion it has become one of my favorite clients because she gives me a topic and lets me go to town creatively. Recently she asked me to make not one, but two cakes for her daughters birthday. Her daughter just turned three (and is absolutely adorable if you don't mind me saying so) and was in need of a cake for her pre-school celebration and her family celebration. Both cakes were to be the same character but different if possible. Both the cakes were to be ready for pick up on the same day. Of course when asked if I could make a cake with her favorite cartoon character Kai-Lani I said, "yes, of course." Confession time. Sometimes I say yes, before I realize what is needed.
Needless to say I do not spend a lot of time watching cartoons since my parents informed me in fourth grade that I was too old for them and there for not allowed to watch them anymore. I thought how hard can this be? I googled the character's name and voila, nothing. Slightly panicked (and of course I was doing this the night before the pick up so there was no way to call anyone to double check) I sent a text message to a dear friend of mine who is a cartoon guru and who happens to have a magnificent seven year old daughter who would know if mom did not. After explaining my situation the magic response came to look for ni hao kai-lan, the name of the show. Sure enough that did the trick and a boat load of images came up. Needless to say I saved the image and used my edible image paper and printer to create two very different cakes. On one of them I even found out how to write happy birthday in Chinese to add to the oriental flair of the cake.
When mom picked them up the next day she seemed please with the final product and her daughter could not wait to see the birthday cakes and dig in.

Choo Choo Birthday!

I have often talked about my day job and the wonderful people I work with in and out of the office. Many of them have asked me to make cakes for some of their most important milestones. This cake is no different. One of my co-workers, let's call her Michelle, asked me to make a cake for her son's second birthday. One of his favorite things? Choo Choo trains. So what could be more perfect than a Thomas the Tank Engine?
I started with my traditional butter cake and went from there. The cake was done in traditional colors. When decorating a popular character for a two year old I have found it best to stay with what the child will recognize. When I was done I made the number on the tank a two in honor of his second birthday, then added a Happy Birthday and his name to the board to make sure the world could know whose birthday we are celebrating.
Apparently the cake was such a hit that when mom went to cut the cake the birthday boy was crying that they were tearing up his cake. I later got a photo of what was left. This is one of my favorite photos because it says that they enjoyed this birthday treat.

Happy Birthday the Disney Way!

It has been a long time since I have done a Mickey Mouse cake. So long as a matter of fact that when Penny asked me to make one for her 16 year old's birthday I had to stop and think about what Mickey pans I have. I have a few, by the way. After a brief discussion she settled on the standing Mickey Mouse, traditionally decorated with a sheet cake under it to make sure they had enough food to feed the crown coming to his party. I made a butter cake and decorated the backgrounds in white so that they would allow Mickey to literally standout. The border was done with white swirl drops with red and yellow drops added in every other drop. It all made it pop, and pop for the birthday boy who was thrilled with his Mickey themed party.

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.

Bilingual Cake

It is not often that I get to make a cake that translates into any language. Okay I lied, I do make cakes that translate into any language. But a Dora cake is bilingual because the character speaks both English and Spanish. This one is for a very special young lady.

My secretary has a large family and this one is for her niece. This niece is the daughter of my coworkers youngest brother and this special little girl has the nickname of meanness. She has an entire family wrapped around her pinkie and she is a girls girl. Of course any young lady who has seen TV has seen Dora and her pal Diego. Apparently this birthday girl was able to speak to her cake in two languages. Who says we don't learn from TV? Happy Birthday to Kensley, who is the apple of so many people's eyes.

Who Lives in a Pineapple Under the Sea?

If you yelled out Sponge Bob Square Pants you are so right. Each year there seems to be at least one Sponge Bob that turns up. He is becoming a character like Scooby Doo and Bug Bunny, taking his own place in cartoon fame. So when my most incredible and wonderful secretary came to me and asked if I could make Sponge Bob for a relative I of course said yes.

This is a butter cake and feeds up to 20 people. Apparently he was so cute it was tough carving up this cartoon character. All children however know that cake can be eaten and the character will live on as does Sponge Bob Square Pants.

Birthday Pikachu

Well I have to admit it's been awhile since I posted to the blog. Work like has been a little wide open as we say here and cakes have not been in my scheduling. However last week one of my coworkers sons had a birthday. He said all he wanted for his birthday was to go to Fayetteville and play laser tag. So with laser tag and pizza in the plans I couldn't help but volunteer to make a birthday cake. I told my coworker that what ever her son wanted I would create so they hit the blog and checked out the slide show in the introduction section and the next day I was told it was narrowed down to Sponge Bob and Pickachu but Pickachu won out. So I baked a yellow cake and Pickachu was created with icing and love. She picked it up after the pizza so they could have a little family party at home.

One other little thing I did...I must admit to it. I could not resist throwing in some candles for this cake. Of course they were not your traditional candles. They were tall sparklers that relight when you blow them out. I figured since Dillon is a big 12 years old right now it was a good time to have a little fun. I told mom she could blame me for it and she promised she would. Do you think I should worry?

Scooby Snack!

Scooby Scooby Doo, where are you? Not too long ago he was making a special appearance for a young man's birthday party. How he got there is a neat story.

Often I take photos of the cakes I make to my office, or sometimes the cakes themselves go there so people can come by and pick them up. On such an occasion I was showing photos and one of the people who work in the building was talking about his grandson who loves Scooby Doo and was wondering if I could make a Scooby cake. Well I sent him to the blog and he found and printed the Scooby cake (which if you know him that was a great feat managing the Internet that way because it is not he favorite thing to do). Next thing I knew he came in and needed a Scooby cake. Now I do not want to be gender discriminatory but most times when I start asking men questions they have no idea what is involved in ordering a cake. Question number one is what flavor and he just looked at me like most men who do not realize cakes come in different flavors. He said he would have to ask. I asked how many the cake would need to feed, he looked at me again. So I wrote down my questions and he laughed and wen to make his phone call to the woman who could answer the questions. A couple days later he was back and we worked it all out.

On the official day of the cake I brought the finished product in to him and he asked if I had someplace safe to keep it. I put it on a back table and every 15 minutes or so he would come in and check on it to make sure it was okay. I have never had such security for a cake. When the little boys mother arrived to pick up the cake I understand she was pleased as well. Later reports say the cake was a hit, and did not last long so I would say everyone enjoyed this Scooby Snack.

Multi-Cultural Explorer Birthday

You know her from cartoons and marketing and today she made an appearance at the Lumberton bowling alley. That's right Dora made a brief but special appearance to help ring in Miss Jailyn's Birthday. Her aunt ordered the cake for this growing young lady, and said it had to be Dora. When it comes to cartoon cakes everyone has a favorite and children are especially opinionated about their favorites. So it is nice to know that you can bake their dream come true. Jailyn's aunt, and three cousins came to pick up the butter explorer cake. The youngest came in the door saying one word over and over...cake. She seemed a little confused that the cake and Dora were the same but I have a feeling that when it came time to cut into it the confusion would be cleared up and she had her cake in front of her, and even got to eat it too.