Treasure Chest Cake

Well... it's been a while! But I got a request for a treasure chest cake and thought I'd take a 2nd stab at making cakes with 3 little kids. And I must say, it's still a little crazy. But I had fun making this cake and trying new things. My neighbor makes AMAZING cakes and uses modeling chocolate (which I had never even heard of before) and I decided to try it out. I LOVE it! It's pretty easy to work with and tastes way better than marshmallow fondant. The chocolate flavor reminds me of tootsie rolls. Yum!

Obviously it's been a while since I've made a cake and I think my skills are a little rusty. There are a few spots on the cake that turned out way below par, but I think overall it turned out pretty good. 

This cake took me a while to make... I worked on it Saturday afternoon (baking and crumb coating, then freezing overnight), Sunday night (frosting, covering with chocolate), and Monday night (finishing touches and assembling). It's 3 layers (two for the base and one for the lid) of white cake with a rich chocolate frosting covered in the modeling chocolate. And it weighs a ton!

Coming up next month: My kids' birthdays! I'm thinking a John Deere logo cake for Toren and a Hello Kitty  cake for Ayda. We'll see.

Twin Smash Cakes

A while back (before cute baby Miles was born) I was asked to do 2 small cakes (2 layer, 6"rounds) for a 1st birthday for cute little twin girls. I thought, sure, we'll see how it goes. I'm glad these were fairly simple cakes because I'm not quite sure we're ready to be making any more cakes yet.  It's a little tricky trying to work around the schedule of a baby who thinks he needs to eat every 2 hours.. And another reason I shouldn't be doing more cakes yet? Severe lack of sleep! I got the cakes posted and then the girls' mom called and said I spelled Sofia wrong ! (I spelled it Sophia... Whoops!) Luckily I saved some of the leftover fondant for my kids to play with later on today, so I got it fixed... and you can't even tell I messed up.  So for now I just need to get a little sleep so my brain can function... but someday we'll be back open for business! :) Eventually... I'll let you know.

P.S. For anyone that hasn't seen yet, this is my cute little bald bundle of joy, Miles. :)

Graduation Cake

Simple Birthday

I was asked to do a birthday cake for a family gathering that would be celebrating their May birthdays.  I was told the cake would be for kids-boys and girls- and adults, and I wasn't given much direction on how to make the cake other than that.  So I decided to make something simple that reminded me of a cute birthday card.  It felt SO good to design this cake myself and not have to worry about making it look exactly like "something".  I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out!

Leavitt Group Cake

I got an order to do a birthday cake for my husband's boss, Dane Leavitt (CEO of The Leavitt Group).  My husband and Dane's secretary designed it- they wanted to display things that Dane loves.  We decided to put the new Leavitt Group logo on the top.

This is the Leavitt Group sign outside of Headquarters.

  And this is my edible rendition of it.

One thing Dane loves is going to his cabin and ride his Polaris Ranger.   These mountains are the view he has from his cabin.

And this is the fondant version of the mountains that my husband made. (He stayed up late with me (on our 6th anniversary) to help get the cake done! AND he cleaned up the mess after we were done! What a great husband!)

This is the Polaris Ranger Dane got as a surprise at a company holiday dinner a few years ago.  He was so excited!

+

And this is my version of his cabin that he loves so much.  We've heard many stories of him sitting on the porch for hours on end enjoying the view of the mountains.

..

Even though this cake took 12 hours from start to finish (including breaks and dinner and such) and I was SO ready to be done with it, it was fun to do the tiny details like the marbling on the rocks and the paneling on the front door (that you probably can't even see in the picture).

Unfortunately, this is the last intensely intricate cake I will be able to make for a while... Baby #3 is due in just 6 weeks! 

P.S. This cake is 3 layers- 2 yellow and one chocolate, and filled with super yummy chocolate frosting.  I covered it with buttercream and all the decorations are edible (marshmallow fondant)!

Butterlicious Soft Pretzels

Alright, so it's not a cake, but I made it (from scratch) and I've been wanting to try this recipe for a while.  And I am SO GLAD I did.  I cannot stop eating them (I'm on my 3rd one right now!).

These were so delicious and easy to make.  They browned beautifully and after they got out of the oven, they took a swim in melted butter. Oh, and that chunky kosher salt adds that perfect pretzel saltiness!  YUM!

If anybody wants me to make them some then I can figure out a price- somewhere around $10 for a dozen... or less.  We'll see.

 I think I'm ready for pretzel #4 now... Hey, I'm pregnant, I can justify it.  Right? :)


If you want the recipe, I got it here.

UNC Basketball

I was asked to do a birthday cake for a teenage boy who loves North Carolina Basketball, so this is what I came up with.  It's pretty simple and to the point.

It's a white sheet cake and the ball is chocolate cake- all covered in delicious buttercream frosting.

 AND, this is the first fondant-free cake I've decorated in a while and I'm pretty proud of the way it turned out!

I also think the way I made the hand grip stuff on the ball turned out awesome!

P.S. Thanks to my awesome neighbor for letting me borrow her basketball so I could actually know how to make a basketball! :) haha,  I'm still extremely pathetic in the sports department!