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.

Puppy at the Beach

If you follow this blog you will notice that I make many of my cakes for people I work with. An earlier post was a cake for a co-worker that was leaving and sure enough so is this one. You could almost say that this blog could serve as a future job listing sight. However, I digress. Once again a co-worker came to me and asked if I could make a cake for someone who was leaving our office, lets call her Mandie. Mandie worked as a tourism agent and although that might seem like a wide open area to make a cake from, non of those ideas quite seem to fit her personality. However in her spare time she enjoyed camping on the beach, her dogs, and of course her boyfriend. Having not ever met him it made it difficult to include him in the cake, however the dogs who I have heard story after story about (they really are quite cute in the photos) so that was really a no brainer. We also know how much she enjoys her beach time and camping.
So the cake was to be a 3-D dog on the beach. I baked the normal butter cake and went for it. You would think since I had done this before it would be easy however mother nature decided to mess with me this time. It was humid and just starting to rain as the cake was cooling so the moist cake ended up with a neck break when I went to freeze it. I wasn't too worried because icing is a little like super glue it can fix anything. When it came time I decorated the cake got it fixed but was worried it would not hold, so I put it in the refrigerator. During the night it finally rained, and rained and rained allowing things not to dry like they needed to. Needless to say when I opened the refrigerator the cute, adorable little pup that I had shoved in there the night before, was headless. I examined the situation, loaded icing bags, tips dowel rods and my pipe cutter (to cut the dowel rods) and headed to the office (I admit I did brush my teeth, shower, and dress before I loaded up and left).
At the office I began again. Used two dowel rods to stabilize the cake, icing, and a lot of prayer. I got the cake up and spread brown sugar around it to make it look like the pup was on the beach. However I could not help but notice that the head was starting to slide forward. I fixed it again and took photos but at this point there was nothing left to do. The head broke into several pieces as it slid off the body and make it look like the pup had buried his head in the sand. Of course I told Mandie that he lost his head because he was so upset over her leaving. Although it was not the most beautiful outcome, the cake still tasted good and we were able to give her photos of what the original intent was. Next time I will check the weather before deciding to cook at 3-D cake when it is raining.

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.

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.