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.

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.

A New Twist on the Fairy Tale

"Can you make a tangled cake?" Of course the first thing that runs through my head is a Johnson and Johnson shampoo commercial about less tangles and no more tears. Then a flash of inspiration hits me as the person placing the order, let's call her Penny, is talking about her niece's birthday party and how she loves the Disney movie Tangled. Of course being a fairly new movie I do not have a cake pan for that, but I do have an edible printer.

The cake needed to feed about 25 people so I made a simple rectangular sheet cake with the Tangled main character on it. Apparently the birthday girl is partial to purples and pinks which is good since that was fairly easy to incorporate with this design. I also added some flowers to add to the embellishments on the printed edible design.

Overall the birthday girl seemed as happy with her cake as she was with her tremendous birthday party with her siblings, cousins, and friends who came.

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.

Excellence in Families

I have often said how much I love my job. This cake is just another reason why. Robeson County Cooperative Extension delivers a program to families with youth between the ages of 10 and 14 called Strengthening Families. Families meet at the Cooperative Extension office one night a week for six weeks in a row. During that time they have the opportunity to have dinner together, then parents work in a group on discipline, communication and gaining a better understanding of their children. The children work on understanding their parents and gaining respect for them, communication and receive tools on how to handle tough topics like peer pressure, drugs, and sex. To date the program has been held three times with more than 10 families taking part in the program. About a month after the sixth session the group comes back together to meet, go over topics, talk about what works, and finally graduate from the program. Now needless to say, I always volunteer a cake but this time I did not know what to make. Finally the night before it came to me, make the kale like the certificate they would receive that night. Since we make the certificates it was nothing for me to save the certificate as a photo and print it out on edible paper. The cake was a butter cake and when I baked it it was much thinner than I expected so I cut it in half and made it a two layer cake. I already had an inkling that my audience liked icing so I was sure an extra layer of icing would not hurt any one's feelings. I printed the image on edible paper and then cut it down to fit the cake. It took less than a second to choose red for the border to highlight the red in the image. My other issue was that I could not find my traditional cardboard base to put the cake on. It so happened that the cake was the perfect size for my grandmothers cake plate/stand that I have yet to find a place for so it has been sitting on my dinning room table. Voila not only did we have a neat looking cake for a wonderful graduation for our families but I was able to kick it up a notch when I presented it. Which is exactly what tout families deserve. Congratulations to all of them on their graduation.

Cake Designer Meets Baker/Decorator for Dream Cake

I love people who know what they want. This cake is all about that. The Leadership Academy cake has made a splash with a lot of people. Especially one person who just turned 17. For her birthday she had asked for a party, down on the farm, with her friends and family. She planned a bon fire, chicken bog, and just fun and conversation. To make it right she needed a cake and she told me exactly what she wanted.
Let's call her Ally. She started off saying it was to be exactly like the leadership academy cake, which had her mom a little hesitant knowing that nothing is exactly the same each time, especially when you bake. However what Ally wanted was a little different. She started by designing her own edible image. She had her mom take the photos, then edited them together into her overall image design. She sent me a text to make sure it would work then sent the image, via her mom (who is such a good sport by the way) on a SD card so I could print it out. I was also instructed that two sheet cakes were to be used in tiers with the bottom one being my butter cake and top one being a chocolate butter fudge cake. So I had baked and had an image I just needed the rest of the vision. Once again, via her mom, she sent me a drawing showing the scroll work she wanted and the colors. Of course black and pink go with the image she designed. Now due to space I had to take a little liberty with the design. That always makes me a little nervous.
I delivered the cake at just the right time, right before the party was to begin. She was tickled with how it turned out and I must say that she did an excellent job of designing her dream cake. I gave her all the credit for how it looked because she was truly the designer for this endeavor.

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.

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.

The Reason for the Season

I am not surprised when people come to me right before Christmas to order a birthday cake. It seems a lot of people have birthdays right before Christmas and parents especially want to make sure the child's birthday is celebrated separately from the big holiday so their child does not get gipped. So when I got the request from one of my co-workers for a birthday cake I wasn't shocked, I just couldn't remember any of her grandchildren having a birthday in December. When I asked how she wanted the cake decorated she said sort of Christmasy with lots of green and red. Now I was stunned and just looking at her questioningly asking what she wanted on the cake. She nonchalantly replied, "Happy Birthday Jesus." Well that cleared it up for me.
She went on to explain that they youth at her church decided they wanted to have a birthday party for Jesus this year in place of a Christmas party and what would a birthday party be without a cake? As we talked she gave me permission to jazz it up from a regular sheet cake to something with a little more pizazz, that could still feed 50. HMMMMMM....now this deserved some special thought and a little something extra.
Now you have to know Aggie to know that creativity was necessary, especially when she decides the cake needs to be devils food. We agreed on a baby cake and whatever else might work. I must say I have never done a birthday cake for Jesus, so this is a first! I started with a sheet cake so we could feed a whole host of people and then a cake that I use primarily for baby showers, but with a little nip and tuck, thought it would work here. Adding a manger, tree, and star...I think we had it all.
I delivered it to her church and was greeted by young ones and adults all dressed in red tops and black slacks or skirts. They were decorating for a big birthday bash. The kids had made birthday cards for Jesus and they were being hung around the room. It was a very festive atmosphere, and different from the traditional Christmas party. These kids knew what they were doing and they were so excited to do it. One little boy ran up to me and gave me the biggest hug. He asked me if I had a son because I hug like a mom, I told him no, but I sure do like to hug. Everyone seemed tickled with the cake (even though I had to do a little patch work thanks to the pot holes between my house and the church). I have no doubt they had a great celebration of the season...for the right reasons.

A Visionary Cake

Baking and decorating cakes is great relaxation for me. It is something I enjoy doing especially in the wee hours of the morning when most people are asleep. I will be standing over a mixing bowl or peering into an oven with a little smile on my face enjoying the smells baking is generating in my kitchen, So as you can imagine being nervous about a cake would be contra-indicated in this situation. Alas, here I was baking and decorating, actually nervous about this cake. Ally was turning 14. As Ally's mom told me, she is very particular about what she wants. She had a vision and it was my job to translate her vision to cake. Of course there is a little twist...I have not met Ally. Her vision has been translated to me by her mother, who I am so happy to work with. I can't say I was nervous the entire time. When we talked originally the cake was to be a big sheet cake (fudge marble cake) with hot pink edges, black zebra stripes, and have a white box in the center with hot pink writing. As Ally's mom continued to explain her daughter, party, etc. I realized a simple sheet cake was not enough, she needed something a little bigger and bolder without changing the concept. I suggested two tiers the bottom being hot pink with black zebra stripes and the top being white with hot pink accents and writing. Mom thought that sounded like a good idea. A week before the cake I got an e-mail asking me to consult before I start baking. Usually, this is not a good sign. However, when mom and I talked it was more about questions and changes in flavors of cake (we ended up with a butter fudge bottom layer and butter cake for the top tier). She kept repeating that her daughter had a vision for her cake and is very particular about this vision and the zebra stripes needed to look like real zebra stripes. Okay, I have to admit there was some pressure here because I knew in my head that zebra stripes look like zebra stripes on a zebra, not on a square cake...but hey, I am game for anything. So I baked and started constructing the cake. Starting with the bottom tier laying out zebra stripes and putting a black dot in them so I knew where I needed to come back in and fill in with black icing. I must admit I went big also...my thinking being after hearing about the parties and possible as many as 75 of Ally's closest friends attending we needed a cake that would feed them all and be big and bold enough to fit her party and vision of the cake. After getting everything filled in all that was left was the top layer and I was not as nervous about that. Once I got everything in place I placed it on a board because it was rather heavy. Thanks to technology I also snapped a photo and sent it via MMS to mom in case she saw any last minute changes and could call me back. Ally's dad came and picked it up. Once we got it loaded in his vehicle to transport to the party there wasn't anything I could do. I must admit I waited with anticipation Monday morning to see if it passed. First thing Ally's mom came in and and let me know it passed, it was huge and she will be eating cake forever, but it passed. I think there was a sigh of relief as I then concentrated on our staff meeting that morning. Happy 14th Birthday Ally!