Return Missionary Cake: Washington Mission

My camera is seriously going to die on me!  I tried so many times to get a good shot of this cake and my camera just wasn't working.  Just try to pretend it looks good in pictures. 

 I love making return missionaries cakes because they are totally personal to that missionary.  I try to include as much personal stuff as I can!  In this case the missionary went to Washington State where he took a lot of pictures with Navy soldiers.  Thus the sailor hat, dog tags and neck ribbon for the Navy.

 Shape of the state of Washington and the cake was decorated to look like the state flag.  A scripture bag, tie and missionary name tag finished this bad boy off.

If you look really close you can see what I wrote on the dog tags.  Spencer, M. (His name; Spencer Memmott.)  The social security # is the date he came home plus some zeros.  I just put a random blood type and his religious belief is LDS.  Welcome Home Spencer!!  

Happy Birthday Monster Cake

This cake was super fun to make for my little birthday boy!  His request was simple. Do exactly what he wants and don't try to change the colors or monsters or amount of eyes and no tail or pointy teeth!  He's not picky at all, except when it comes to his birthday cake.  And he's only 6!!!  I looked online for some little monster clip art pictures and let him choose 2 he wanted.  He picked these 2 adorable little monsters and he made sure I drew a picture of what he wanted exactly!

 I wanted to do two pointy teeth on the green monster, but he said it would look evil if we did that...

 I wanted to give the blue monster a tail, but he said 'no way!'...

 I wanted to do yellow spots on the blue monster, he said they had to be light blue...

I wanted to do 3 eyes on the green monster, he said it had to be ONE!  See, my little guy's not picky at all!!  RIGHT!  It was really a joy making this cake exactly as he wanted it.  And he couldn't have been happier with it!!!  Happy birthday Ronny boy!  

We love you oodles and oodles!

Lace Piping White and Red Wedding Cake

This photo is NOT good quality, and I'm bummed you can't see all the detail in the piping on this cake, but this was the best my camera would do.  It's really starting to shut down on me.  This wedding cake was based on the lace on the bride's veil.  It took quite a while, but it was worth it in the end!

Purple Rose Swirl Smash Cake

I love doing 'smash cakes' because they are little, and adorable, my friend takes amazing photos of them, and a cute little baby gets to demolish it!!!  I also love how simple this cake is to make.  Swirls of ombre frosting just couldn't be more elegant or easy!  Thank you, Brandi, for your amazing skills and opportunities to make such fun cakes for such tiny little customers!

Super Yummy Chocolate Strawberry Cake

Nothing too fancy on this one, just a whole lot of yumminess!!  Chocolate cake with fresh strawberry cream cheese frosting and freshly cut strawberry filling.  Chocolate ganache and chocolate covered strawberries.  This is one of our all time favorites at our house!!  Made this time for my friend's awesome husband.  Happy birthday, Ryan!!

White and Red Ruffle 'Dress' Cake

My daughters love to have the 'best' cake of the year.  They want the cake that everyone will talk about and rave about, so after doing my younger daughter's Hunger Games cake my older daughter kept saying her cake needs to be super cool.  I spent many hours looking at dresses and cake patterns trying to decide how I wanted to do her cake.  She wanted it to be red and white to match her dress she was wearing and I didn't want it to look like a wedding cake.  Well, I don't know if I achieved that goal, but here's what I came up with....

 She didn't want a big red bow, so we did the flower instead.  And yes, I LOVE making flowers so I was more than happy to not do a bow.

 The top of the cake kind of just evolved.  I had in my mind to do diagonal 'pleats' like the top of a prom dress, but I ended up loving the little ruffle that ended at the pleat so I kept it.  Then I added the little rose at the top for something extra.

 I think the back was almost my favorite.  The little buttons and the rose shape of the ruffles....so fun!

 Unfortunately Brandi was busy taking a crazy amount of insanely beautiful pictures of my daughter and her friends so I had to take the cake pictures.  I didn't really do it justice, but I tried, I promise!

 Seriously love making flowers!!!

 The ruffles were really fun on this too.  And guess what?  I only had 2 1/2 days to make this cake when usually I like a week.  Wow rush time but it ended up just how I wanted it!

This is a picture I took really quickly before we ate the cake, but I wanted to show those pleats at the top of the cake a little better.  I really loved making this beauty and I sure love my lovely daughter.  Happy birthday Rachel!!!!  We love  you so very much!!

Rusty Chevrolet Truck and Pigs Cake

I truly love being asked to make cakes that have very special meanings to them.  This cake was one of those kind of cakes.  Not only was it celebrating a husband's 2 year mark at his job on a pig farm, but it also represented the beginning of the wife's love of photography!  This amazing wife found a saving grace in photography and she has excelled at her skills as she earned her degree and started her own business.  Brandi, my amazing photographer, showed me the photos of a Chevrolet truck she took when she began her photography schooling and I knew I HAD to make her a cake that represented those photos!  Not only are the photos incredible, but she has such a deep love of what they symbolize in her life that I knew I had to do the photos justice in cake form.  I was just as nervous making this cake as I am when making a wedding cake!  She and her husband were so happy with the cake that it made my day when I delivered it!  So, do me a favor and go check out her website here: http://www.teuscherphotography.com/  and see her amazing skills in action!

 The little piggies love the mud and dirt!

 My favorite pig, just sitting back enjoying the sunshine!

The rust and dirt was all done with two kinds of cocoa, regular and special dark, to get more dimension.  This cake is completely edible and made with love!  We sure love you, Brandi, and your family!

Pearly Purple and Teal Mermaid Cake

This was one of the absolute funnest cakes to make ever!!!!  I love making cakes for these customers because they give me free reign over the design.  I was given the color palette and theme.  Purple and teal and mermaid!!  My daughter said she wants this as a wedding cake because she loves it so much!

And yes, Brandi took these amazing photos!  I would have cried if I hadn't been able to capture all the details of this beauty, and Brandi did it beautifully.  I tell her she's a magician with a camera instead of a wand!

 I always say how hard it is to make people, but I loved making this mermaid.  Her little flower and necklace and curls in her hair.  Mostly made out of modeling chocolate and gum paste mixed together.

 See, we kind of loved getting pictures of her cute little self!

 I wanted to kind of do an abstract mimic of a mermaid tail at the bottom of the cake.  Thus the ruffles and 'scales' pattern.  It turned out so fun!

 Beautiful aerial shot!

 The tail had to dry propped up against a bag of my fondant cutters and I curled each of those strands of hair around a wooden skewer. 

 The sand dollars and starfish were made out of white chocolate melted and then piped out onto waxed paper into the shapes I needed them.

 At the last second I added the little purple pearls and I'm so glad I did.  They gave it just the right finishing touch!

Happy birthday Addison!!  I loved your reaction when you saw your special birthday cake and I loved making this special cake for you!!

1st Birthday Boston Red Sox Baseball Cake

This was such a special cake for me to make.  Some friends of mine that I've had for years asked me to do this cake for their son's first birthday and I couldn't wait to make it super special for them!  I hadn't seen them in years and it was so great to visit with them and catch up when I delivered the cake.  That's the best part of making cakes for people.  The delivery and being able to see their happy faces and develop and carry on cherished friendships!

 I was not happy with the cake board, but I loved how the cake looked!  The little triangle banner was a last minute idea and I loved how it turned out.  Such a perfect addition for a little boy's birthday celebration!

 And yes, Brandi was my photographer again!  She's so skilled and I love that she takes time to showcase my cakes!

Happy birthday, Camden!  You have the most amazing family in the world and I love you all!

Lego Princess and Castle Cake

Legos....Princess.....Castle......More legos!!!  How cute is that?!

I used a little lego mold and made the legos out of melted vanilla candy (the Wilton kind) and the castle tower spires out of melted candy set up in little cone shapes.  I melted the bottoms of the legos on a hot pan then pieced them together to build the castle.  It took a little time, but ended up super fun and just how I wanted it!

 My sweet daughter helped me cut out all those tiny green circles to make it look like a lego board.  Took a while but we had fun together!

 My favorite part?  That adorable little lego princess!  She was so fun to make and I loved her little face.  Drawn on with edible markers!  Love those things.  And I LOVE the pictures Brandi took!  I'll never be able to do cakes without her pictures anymore!

Happy birthday, Ashlee!  I loved making your adorable little lego cake!!!

Purple Textured Frosting Wedding Cake

I've never done textured frosting and it was so fun trying a new technique.  Getting the color just right was probably the hardest part, but I finally got it right.  The ivory flower was my favorite part; I'm quite partial to making sugar flowers!  The bride was a dream to work with and was such a sweetheart!!  I've been pretty lucky to have such incredible brides to make cakes for!

 Yet again my fabulous photographer, Brandi, took these pictures.  She's really kind of spoiling me!  Here's her site if you ever need family photos or any other photos you can think of!  : http://www.teuscherphotography.com/

 The bride was so sweet and wanted to include her groom with this edible little Harley Davidson logo on the back of the cake.  Made with modeling chocolate and hand painted letters!

 Brandi is so awesome to get these unique views of the cake!  I love how she was able to capture the swirls I did on the top of the cake even.  I actually had to do the texture on this cake twice because the first time it just didn't have quite enough texture.  I was really happy with how it ended up.  Such a fun, rustic idea for a cake!