Aggies Do It Better

This year I went in a different direction and made different designs on each of the six cakes I made. They feature cut out hearts in an ombre theme. The inside is also ombre, but I went with a chocolate turning to vanilla instead of colors because I'm getting away from using food coloring. 

Here is a summary of the very small amount of cake-making I did last year. Balancing a newborn in the mix of everything else here did not allow for much! (See: No Blogging) But I did manage to eek out a few things.   First up is a small cake and cupcakes I made for a baby girl shower. The cupcakes were vanilla, chocolate chip cookie dough , and cinnamon latte.  The cake was carrot. These are little chocolate dipped marshmallows I made for Halloween. Franken-mallows!       This was the first  birthday cake I made for the baby. I've been wanting to make a cake covered in sprinkles for a while! Keeping in mind it was only 2 tiers of 4 and 6 inches, it didn't take me as long as I thought or as much sprinkles as I thought. I have lots left over!     The oldest turned 7 and request a Cowboys stadium. With the doors open, Mom. I didn't have much time to work on it and I would change a few things, but it turned out ok!     Another ...

This was for a little girl having her party at one of those salons for young girls...something I know nothing about so I had to do a little homework! They have different themes they can choose from....like sock hop, princess, and "glamour girl" like this one. The girls dress up and get their hair in "up do's" and then have a little fashion show on a runway. Fun!

Now that we have a child in "big boy school", aka Kindergarten, we are being introduced to school fairs and festivals (again). Tonight my son, who's school mascot is the "Lizards" is having their fall festival. They are having a "cake walk", and asked for donations of baked goods. So I figured I'd make a cake! This is smaller, 6inches round. The main dilemma I had was deciding on what type of lizard to use. They use 3 different kinds that I've seen so far! The one on the logo looks, to me, like a friendly version of the dinosaur from Jurassic Park that flares out his neck thingy. The car stickers I've seen have gecko shapes on them. And they have horned lizards in tanks in the school! How am I supposed to know what to use??? Haha. Quite the dilemma. And of course, I don't have cookie cutters for ANY of those types of animals. Nor could I get my hands on one in time. I was all set to start hand cutting out some geckos, and I thought I...

This was for one of my neighbors. I was really happy with the way it came out, especially for a non-fondant covered cake. (Well, the deco's are fondant, but, you know) I am getting much better at getting a smooth frosting coat! It takes alot of practice! Also, for the record, I watched two whole episodes of iCarly for homework on this cake. It reminded me of my Saved by the Bell days! For those other "grown ups" who don't know....iCarly is on Nickelodian, and it's basically about a couple young (9-10th grade?) girls who film a web tv show in their loft. I think they live with the older brother? A little confused on that. :) They have a remote that controls applause and laughter sounds that one of the girls always holds, that's what is on top of this cake. Did I get it right?

I am definitely deep into my "busy" season! This was for a combo father-daughter birthday. It was also a surprise for the daughter, which I didn't realize until her mom came to pick it up! I love surprises (and surprise cakes). I wish I could set up a hidden camera to see them! The daughter likes the Paul Frank monkey, and the dad is a drummer, so I put little drumsticks and music notes around the side for him. Here's a better view of the "front" with his name on it too!

Remember my neighbor that I made this cake for last year? Well, they moved a few months ago, far far away :( BUT, they were in town for her daughter to see Taylor Swift for her birthday, and she asked me to make her a surprise cake for her 14th! YAY! I love surprises! This was a 4 layer vanilla cake with 2 layers of vanilla buttercream and raspberry filling in the middle. Apparently it was a hit!! I even have 2 more orders for more girly cakes ***yay*** that came out of it....and they want the same filling. I guess I have a new top seller! I admit, it is pretty darn good. I also just have to say...I LOVE the look of multiple shades of the same color. It's modern without being deco, and very pleasing to the eye I think!

I haven't been baking a whole lot lately, it just seems like it comes in waves like that. I was super busy Feb-May and then it slowed down. Which is good, because I've been so pregnancy related/boys getting up early- tired! I made this last week for a friend of mine who's birthday was several months ago and I'm just now able to make her cake! We had them over for dinner--grilling out, yay--and I seized the opportunity. This is a smaller cake, about 6 inches round. It is vanilla with mocha buttercream. Can you believe I forgot to take a picture of the inside! I kept it spring-y because that's when her birthday was. I also made some chocolate cupcakes with strawberry filling last weekend, they were really good, but I didn't get a picture of those either! Ugh! I have a lot of the fresh-strawberry filling left and I don't really know what to do with it....I hate to let it go to waste.

Here it is! This is the Groom's cake I made for a wedding a couple weeks ago. They also asked me to make an anniversary "top tier" for the bride and groom that would go right in the freezer for them to enjoy next year. (I guess they were planning on eating the whole wedding cake, made by someone else, at the wedding?) This is a vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream frosting. I added a ribbon of purple fondant around the bottom so it would match the wedding cake (which had real ribbon). The groom's cake was supposed to be a surprise for him I think, I'm not sure if it wound up being one! He is a big Braves fan, and the bride wanted there to be a baseball hat on top of a chocolate cake. Here is a close up of the logo and stitching. The hat is made of rice krispies and covered with frosting and fondant. You can see the wedding cake there, it was beautiful, but I didn't make it and don't know who did!

This was in April for one of my husband's coworkers "going-away" party. She's moving back to TX (she's from there, and an Aggie to boot!). I'm a teensy bit jealous-I mix Texas alot! This is a 4 layer, dark chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream. It was huge, 10 inches square. I'm not sure why that front corner looks all FUBAR, I swear it didn't look that way in person! I think the light just caught some slight un-smoothness in the frosting just right. This frosting as to die for , if I do say so myself....

Hey Yall! Blogger is finally up and I finally have a few minutes, albeit while the boys are recreating the Indy 500 with their fire trucks in the playroom while I'm on my new mini-laptop (yay)....I'm gonna try to get some of the cakes I've made in the past month up! First up is the baby shower cake. It is half vanilla with vanilla buttercream and half chocolate with chocolate buttercream. I wonder how many pieces they had to cut to find some on both halves, because after I got the fondant on I had no idea where the division was! I asked for a picture of the bedding so I could have something to coordinate with. The only request was the cake flavors, so I could come up with anything! Here's the result.... I modeled the top like the bass drum and made panels around the sides to depict other scenes in the bedding. I'm pretty happy with my guitar...I totally free-handed cut that out. I've stated several times before...I'm not an artist, so that was a pretty big d...

Another 13 year old birthday cake...these are so fun! These are some of the colors the birthday girl likes, and I figured a way to incorporate them into something fun, whimsical and spring-y! I love how they are popping out all over the place.

Well, the big boy is 3 now. He requested a "Thomas" cake, and was quite adamant about it, as he is about everything. I looked around a little on the web and found 2 basic kinds: cakes in the shape of the train, and regular cakes with Thomas stuff or drawings on top. I decided to go with the latter. This one is one of my favorite ones I've made I think! (Do I keep saying that??) He really loved it. After I took these pics I wrote his name on the little sun with some food markers. I set the top tier back a little, which you can't really tell from the front, but you can from the back, so to make room for the train tracks and trains. I didn't really do anything special with the bottom, so excuse the cardboard circle! But this? This makes up for it. look at me gettin fancy with photoshop! I SERIOUSLY need to hire someone to teach me how to use ALL of it. I don't find it self-explanatory AT all.