A Successful Experiment

Happy Birthday Julie!!

I've been wanting to try to mail a cake for a while now and finally had a good reason to try! My girlfriend in Seattle (about 200 miles away) had a birthday last weekend, so I figured, she'd be my guinea pig!! :) - I knew she wouldn't mind getting a smashed up cake...it's the thought that counts - right! :)

I made the most compact cake I could think of - my flower pot. However, I used some different flowers this time instead of the roses I had used last time. I had some of the flowers (the white ones) formed so they stood up a bit from the cake. Those are the ones that didn't do so well. But otherwise, the cake made it almost completly in tact!!!!!! I was so excited to hear that!!! So, here are some before and after pics. Sorry, I got so excited and glued the cake into the container before I had taken pics of it on its own! :)

You can see there are a few white petals missing
The flower pot was vanilla cake with chocolate ganache filling (nice and stable for the USPS) and then I used chocolate modeling clay for the exterior of the pot to hold the cake together. I then glued the cake to the fondant covered board with some chocolate and whalllah - a shippable cake! I put the cake into a clear container I had graham cracker cookies in, slapped an address label on top and took it to the post office. Yes, you can mail things in clear containers! I figured that was the only hope of the cake making it...if they could see it WAS fragile and WAS a cake!! :) And it worked beautifully!! It was funny because when I put it up on the counter to mail, the guy picked it up, turned it over on it's side, then right side up again (even though I had stickers all over it say "Don't tip!"), then looked at me and said, "I don't think this is gonna make it!" HA - he didn't have faith in his own company! :) Although stressful, I might try doing it again. Next time I might make the flowers a bit more compact like the blue ones so nothing is sticking out.
All in all a fun experiement!!! Thanks for looking!

Happy Birthday Emily!

I had the privilege of hang'n with five wonderful girls this morning! Emily is turning 16 in just a few days and wanted to decorate cakes for her birthday! So, I brought over 6 purse cakes (that I had already crumb coated), all my decorating supplies, fondant, rollers, cutters, etc, and we went to town decorating some really cute purses! This was the first time I have ever done anything like this - especially since I still feel like I'm "new" at this myself and am still in learning mode!! It was really fun teaching them a few things I've learned along the way. And, I just loved how every one of the girls came up with a totally different design! It was so fun to see them get creative!! Happy Birthday Emily! Thanks for letting me come over and trash your mom's house this morning!! Enjoy those cakes!

Above: Here is the birthday girl Emily (on the right) with Casey

From left to right: Sara, Natalie and Kami

A collection and a surprise

This morning I had in mind to finish my little wedding cookies and get them up on the blog. What I wasn't expecting was a WONDERFUL surprise to enhance my little collection! :) My amazing and incredibly thoughtful sister-in-law showed up on my door step this morning to surprise me in all my glory (pj's on, glasses on, no make up, etc etc etc) with a beautiful cake stand!!! RED RED RED!!! Ooooh lala! I LOVE cake stands, and I particularly love my sister in law's style - she has an incredible eye for detail, color, graphics, etc! I swear I'm going to convert her to a cake designer someday!! :) hehe - or at least an event planner!! So, Kim, I changed my colors a bit just for you so that I could show the world my new cake stand!! Thank you thank you thank you for your thoughtfulness...I LOVE it! :)

Here's a close up of one of my favorites. This funky flower is inspired by my amazing friend Mindy who has been making these adorable and funky head bands for little girls. I love "nameless" flowers! :) So, here's to you Mindy! :)
I tried to "even up" the sides of the cookies (so they were straight on the sides and not spread like the first attempt) by trimming the flared edges a bit. It made for more crumbs and a few broken pieces, so I think next time I bake them I'll re-cut them right from the oven while they're still warm...that might give me nice edges?! We'll see - another day, another experiment! :)

Wedding "cake" cookies

I've seen these little guys before, but never really decorated. So, I decide to try making them myself. Two new things for me...making sugar cookies and making buttercream fondant. There is a trick to getting nicely shaped sugar cookies, so I'll have to work on that...you can see there is some spreading on that second layer. I wonder if I used a belt sander to sand those edges down?! :) LOL! Not really...I wouldn't do that...I'll save that for Duff on Ace of Cakes! :) The first trick is probably keeping your eye on the oven...I got a bit distracted vacuuming and whoops...a little brown on the bottom. But, for practise sake I thought they turned out cute. I used some fondant I had left over from Jordan's cake and Ben's baseball hat, so the colors are fun and lively! :) I have three more little "cakes" to stack and decorate, so stay tuned for more. I have a few more ideas on how to decorate them...we'll see if those ideas come to reality! :) I'm taking this one to the lady that cuts my hair as a little treat! She's prego so I'm sure she'll love it!
Thanks for looking!