Wordle

Made a word cloud using the text from my blog at wordle.net. Try it out, it's pretty cool...
Thanks to howtoeatacupcake for the link.

SNA + J

The School Nutrition Association (SNA) National Meeting is taking place in Philadelphia this week. I had a few colleagues over for dinner. Sarah is my drink inspiration. Over the years she has given me a number of drinks that are my standard- Side Car, lemon drop and Sweet Makers Manhattan. After a few rounds of drinking made by Sarah, (with the vodka I inherited from my Grandmom... Who knows how old it really was and some beverages we picked up at the food show), We made this joint cake. It is truly a work of art. Everyone contributed... Sarah made the green pearl boarder and wrote the initials of each of us around the outside of the cake, Norma wrote "eat me" (adds a touch of class that is very fitting to our conversation...), I made a few roses and made the smooth coat of icing, and Jill made roses and leaves. So it's SNA plus J- Sarah, Norma, Amy Plus Jill for the SNA (School Nutrition Association) meeting. We are sooooo clever....

Here is a pictures of the girls in action:

Diane's Farewell

A Victorian Tea Garden (or something like that...)
Naked Cakes :)

Another co-worker is leaving... Diane is moving on to bigger and better things in the " MW" that's Mid-West for those not in the know... :)

Diane is one of those people in your life that makes you feel richer just for knowing her. Not monetary rich but rich in friendship and life. I don't want to get too sad but I'm going to miss her positive spirit in the office and in the lunch room...

I wasn't able to attend the work party they had for Diane today but I wanted to contribute. Diane likes her caffeine. The theme of the party was Tea or most things caffeinated, so I made some cupcakes for the tea party...

The cake flavor is strawberry ( added 10oz pureed fresh strawberries, 1/2 c. applesauce, 2 eggs and a little bit of water to a box of white cake mix). Made mini and regular sized cupcakes and covered them with buttercream flowers. The inspiration came from Janek on cakecentral. I have issues with roses and this attempt was just as frustrating as previous attempts. The buttercream I was using wasn't stiff enough. The centers kept falling over when I was adding the leaves. A few fell off the nail as I was making them... I've been playing with fondant a lot recently and haven't really made a lot of buttercream flowers. I'm hoping to change this... I found a few new videos on Utube and will be practicing on future cakes.

4th of July

Happy 4th. Made this cake for a family picnic.

It's buttercream with marshmallow fondant accents. Cake flavor was vanilla.

I made stings of blue and white fondant and rolled them together to get the varied colors of the flowers which were cut from a gum past daisy mold. I was going to try to figure out a cake topper that stood up on the cake to make it a little more dramatic (which would have impressed my brother) but ran out of time and energy. For the next family cake, I'll give that a try...

Overall, ate too much food and had a great time hanging out with my family...

Reba Mac's Big B!

It's Reba's Birthday! Had a lovely dinner with lively conversation with Rebecca, Jules, Stacy, Jeff, Paul, and Steve.

I might have been commissioned to do a grooms cake in the shape of a butt... I'm not sure if that was the wine talking or if it will seriously happen... I'll keep you posted.

This cake design was inspired by a cake from the pink cake box. They are by far my favorite bakery. I read the blog regularly... One day I will be able to make cakes like that....