Grads and Fireworks

Celebrated the graduation of my cousin from high school as well as the 4th of July this weekend.  I can't believe by little cousin- who I baby sat over the summer when she was 3 month to 6 month old is now graduating from High school.  Yikes. 

The bad news about the cake is that during the transport I had my second cake wreck of all time.  I guess that isn't too bad of a track record considering I drive about an hour every time I go to a family function...
The good news is that the leopard print on the inside of the cake worked!  yeah...
Here are pictures of the cake, the cake wreck and the aftermath...

This is the only before picture I have...

The after...

 

 

 My attempt at leopard print on the inside...  Thanks to mycakeschool.com

 

 Good thing I made cookies too...

Polka dot baby cake

Getting ready to meet Juliet's little girl... Doesn't Jules looks great!  Love that the cake's polka dot's matched her dress...  Great minds think alike! 
Here are some pictures of baby bradley's first cake...

 The mostly completed cake... Just needs the flower on top.

 Thanks to the tutorial at Corinna's Cake I learned how to make this super cute flower for the top of the cake.

 Looking forward to meeting Baby Bradley in a few months...

94 Years Young

My beautiful grandmom turned 94 this week.  She is still moving and shaking, still crocheting and still enjoying her family. I made this cake to help celebrate her special day. 

 The inspiration came from this cake on pinterest.

Here are some pictures of the assembly:

Gone With The Wind

To celebrate a special birthday for one of my sister's friends, I attempted to make a replica of another cake artist's interpretation of a Gone with the Wind dress...  How is that for round about...  Here is a picture of the original cake, which I found on pinterest (but can't find the original artist).  Here is a picture of the GWTW dress.   Below are pictures of my process. 

My first attempt at Key Lime cake didn't go so well...  I adjusted the recipe and the rest of the cakes turned out o.k.   This one had too much oil, you can see how it didn't really cook- Kinda gross...

I bought myself a new "tool"- It is called the Mat.  It is food safe plastic that helps roll the fondant easier and helps control placement over the cake.  I don't usually use fondant,but needed to for this cake and this new tool was really helpful.

Covering the cake

 The initial assembly. Discovered that I needed more support on the bottom cakes as it started to sink about an hour of being assembled.  I added a bunch of straws and ended up putting a plastic cake seperator under the hourglass cake.  Lesson's learned...

 The dress prior to laying it over the cake.

 Didn't quite make it big enough... oops.

 Holes for the lace.

 Mostly done...  You can see it starting to cave in the bottom... Agghh.  Cake assembly is stressful.

 All finished.

 

Mother's Day and a few birthdays...

Made these quick cakes to celebrate Mother's day and my dad and brother's May birthday...

I tried making Daffodil's similar to I am Baker, but they just didn't turn out the same... I will keep trying...

 Lawnmower Birthday cakes...

Bonnies

The Jersey cookies above represent the fabulous ladies of the St. Bonaventure women's softball team.   You can check them out here:  http://www.gobonnies.com/sports/w-softbl/index

 After two days of doubleheaders... Here is The team enjoying their cookies and Wawa...

Had lots of fun making them... Here is the process....
Night One- Make the cookie dough
Night Two- Cut out and bake the cookies, make the royal icing
Night Three- Flood the cookies (Add the base shirt design- white, brown, yellow)
 

Night Four- Add the names and numbers to the Jersey's

Here's to more sweet success for the team!  Go Bonnies!!!! 

1st Holy Communion

 

Today was a big day for my  niece, her 1st communion.  She was nervous but did a great job. She looked beautiful.  I'm such a sap, got a little teared up when she entered the church.  She is growing up so fast... Were has the time gone...  She and I looked for cake designs on the internet together.  We found this cake which she loved but wanted me to change the colors to dark brown and blue- no problem...
Here are some pics of the cake and the day...


 

 

What a great looking family...

 The dynamic trio...