It's a piece of cake

Bear & Bow Baby shower cake

2012-01-21T22:43:00.002-07:00

My daughter dropped my camera and now it won't focus right. Time for a new camera. Unfortunately this cake has been consumed and this is the best picture I could get of it.

Angry Birds Birthday Cake

2011-12-22T21:28:00.003-07:00

I've discovered modeling chocolate. It is not fondant, but it certainly has it's place.

Red Rose Buttercream Wedding Cake

2011-12-17T10:06:00.004-07:00

This cake was done for the daughter of a lady I worked with years ago. She wanted nothing to do with fondant so it is all done in buttercream. As I was decorating it I was wishing for the satiny smoothness fondant gives, but got it as smooth as possible. I have heard about a paper towel method to use on buttercream. I shall try that on my next one.

Blue VW Beetle Cake

2011-12-01T11:10:00.002-07:00

My son celebrated his half birthday at preschool because his real birthday is in the summer. This is a tiny cake only 8" long 3.5" wide celebrating his 3.5 birthday.

Thanksgiving Turkey Cookies

2011-12-01T11:05:00.004-07:00

For Thanksgiving this year my kids brought cookies to their teachers to show their appreciation. Somehow, my 3 kids have 5 teachers, but they are all amazing. The turkey feathers are maple leaf shaped sugar cookies I dipped in colored sugar before baking
Wait, those turkeys don't have a wattle. Good thing I noticed before they went out the door.
There, that's better. Happy Thanksgiving.

OREO cake

2011-10-15T01:15:00.003-06:00

I made this cake with my SIL for her roommate's birthday. It is covered in a chocolate ganache. This is the first time I had success with ganache without whipping it. For this, I chilled the cake and made the ganache with 1 part cream to 2 parts milk chocolate chips heated on a double boiler. The second picture is a better indication of the color. To make all of the details, I softened tootsie rolls in the microwave for 8 seconds, kneaded it together, then rolled it out like fondant. So yummy. The cookie is a 10 inch round and the filling a 8 inch round. Next time, I'll make a 10 inch round cookie with a 9 inch round filling.

Red and Teal Soccer Flower Brithday Cake

2011-10-03T00:39:00.002-06:00

Moon Cake with astronauts

2011-09-14T10:10:00.003-06:00

This was for my son's 10th birthday. He wanted a space party. At the party, Mission Control sent a message that the moon had spun out of orbit and the earth was flooding and it was dark at night and people were scared. So we traveled to all the different planets, solving puzzles, playing games and getting clues where to look. When we finally found the moon it was made out of cake so we ate it. This is a chocolate fudge cake with white chocolate chips covered in buttercream.

Pirate Ship Wedding Cake

2011-08-23T16:48:00.004-06:00

My sister-in-law solicited my help in making a pirate ship wedding cake. I traveled 850 miles to help create this masterpiece.

Star Wars R2D2 Cake

2011-08-18T12:04:00.004-06:00

Once in a while a cake comes along that merits more than one picture. As I was researching R2D2 cakes I wish I had pictures and dimensions and blueprints. I used a 6" cake circle for the body of this and rice krispy treats for the arms. The top is marble cake, the middle is lemon on the lower half and chocolate on the upper half. The light is a little ring I got in a package of 3 from Reams for a dollar.

And, just so you know this really is cake:

Brooke's Wedding Cake

2011-08-18T11:55:00.001-06:00

Flag Cupcakes

2011-08-18T11:53:00.001-06:00

These were made for a Boy Scout Court of Honor.

Scripture Baptism cake

2011-03-26T16:29:00.002-06:00

CTR Baptism Cake

2011-03-26T16:26:00.003-06:00

Valentine Heart cakes

2011-02-11T00:03:00.002-07:00

So it's February, time for Valentines Day. I have 2 sisters-in-law who are auctioning off cakes to raise money for their choir tour. These are the ones we made.

White Shirt and Tie Cake

2011-01-01T22:28:00.002-07:00

My neighbor is turning 12 and will be ordained a Deacon. This is the cake I made for the occasion. The cake is 11"x15" and made out of chocolate cake with cookies and cream filling. On the tie are temples, sacrament trays, the letter "J" for his name and a treble clef because he is very musical.

Monkey Baby Shower Cake

2010-12-30T09:06:00.003-07:00

I made this for my sister-in-law's baby shower. If I were to do this one again, I think I would make the cake look like a bed to go with the nursery rhyme 5 monkeys jumping on the bed.
This was frosted with buttercream and decorated in fondant letters and buttons.

Purple and black scroll square cake

2010-12-30T09:01:00.002-07:00

This was made for my cousin's wedding.
I took a picture of the cut cake so you could see what the cake looks like inside. This is red velvet with cream cheese filling.

Spiderman Building cake

2010-12-30T08:57:00.002-07:00

The base of this cake is an ice cream cake. The buildings are yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Because the bottom is ice cream, I made the road, sidewalks and skyline silhouette out of chocolate. I couldn't assemble the entire cake until just before we ate it.

Black ribbon Purple flower cake

2010-12-30T08:54:00.002-07:00

I was bored one day so made this cake just for fun.

Skiing Cake

2010-11-21T15:17:00.002-07:00

Eagle Scout Court of Honor Cake

2010-11-07T22:30:00.003-07:00

Scout rank advancement badges. Scout, Tenderfoot, Second Class, First Class, Star & Life. This time I made the badges a slightly different color than the background and trimmed them in gold. These took about 3 hours for all 6. All cut by hand. No cookie cutters here.
Chocolate molds for the fleur de lis. This was the easiest side of the cake.
I was asked to make another Eagle Court of Honor Cake. This time I didn't have a wedding cake to do at the same time. I made the rank advancement badges out of fondant instead of frosting which made them look much cleaner, but took a lot longer. I tried a new cake flavor too. Cookies and cream cake. Usually I make chocolate cake and fill it with cream cheese icing loaded with Oreos, but this time I made a white cake loaded with Oreos and filled it with cream cheese icing loaded with Oreos. It was a hit. I should start taking pictures of what the cake looks like cut.

Halloween Candy House

2010-10-26T21:37:00.002-06:00

Soccer Ball Cake

2010-10-19T21:13:00.002-06:00

This was my first attempt at making a cake in the shape of a sphere. Never again will I do this. In the future all spheres will be made out of Styrofoam or rice krispy treats. Well, I may try again, but spheres made out of cake sag and roll. In all though, I was pleased with the way this turned out.

Purple and Teal 16th birthday cake

2010-10-09T21:21:00.002-06:00

Square green & purple wedding cake

2010-10-01T10:26:00.001-06:00

70th birthday cake

2010-10-01T10:24:00.002-06:00

Camera Cake

2010-09-11T21:17:00.002-06:00

Pikachu Cake

2010-09-11T21:16:00.003-06:00

I used sprinkles this time instead of colored frosting. I liked the way it turned out.

Cascading Daisy Cake

2010-08-13T18:00:00.003-06:00

A bride to be gave me a picture of this beautiful cake as a reference for the cake she wanted.
However, her colors did not include yellow, they were blue and dark pink. So she wanted me to do a blue cake with white daisies and fuchsia dots. Here's a picture without the pink dots. (Deep inside the part of me that likes to mimic pictures exactly wanted to put blue dots on this.)
And here is a picture of the finished cake. I cut the centers out of fondant, then dipped them in pink sugar sprinkles so they wouldn't be so flat.

BYU Oval Y Cake

2010-08-07T10:58:00.004-06:00

There is a family in our city who just lost their oldest son to a car accident. A bake sale was held to help the family out. I don't know the family or the son, but I don't often pass up a chance to participate in a bake sale. Here's the cake I made for it.

Hunting, dirt bike, water skiing, Lego, Xbox, fishing cake

2010-08-07T10:52:00.007-06:00

This is a cake I made for a 12 year old boy who had leukemia. He has finished all of his treatments and his mom threw him a party to celebrate his life. Here's his cake showing all of his favorite things. This is a carrot cake and took 11 hours to complete

13th birthday cake

2010-08-07T10:50:00.001-06:00

Diamondback grooms cake

2010-08-03T22:56:00.003-06:00

I got to do a grooms cake along with the ivory and green cake shown below. The groom played baseball in high school and was a huge Diamondbacks fan.

Ivory and green wedding cake

2010-08-03T22:53:00.004-06:00

This cake was entirely lemon with lemon cream cheese filling. It had flowers added to it, but I left before the florist was ready. I'll try to get a picture of the finished cake and add it.

I have a picture with the flowers. Here it is.

My favorite cake

2010-08-03T22:49:00.002-06:00

I had a birthday this month and received a cake made by my favorite decorators....my children. (ages 2, 5, 7 & 8) They pulled an extra cake out of the freezer and used some leftover frosting still in piping bags in the fridge and came up with this. It's beautiful.
It was a very happy birthday.

Lion Cupcakes

2010-07-04T23:08:00.003-06:00

The girls in our ward went to girls camp this last week. We went up on Wednesday and brought them Pizza and cupcakes for lunch so they didn't have to eat another meal with bugs and ashes from the fire. The theme for the week was "Be of good courage". Here's the cupcakes I made for them.

Boy Scout Eagle Award cake

2010-06-19T17:32:00.005-06:00

I told myself I wouldn't do 2 cakes at the same time. It's too hard, but I had to make an exception. If you know me, I am a fan of the scouting program and our cubmaster's son was getting his Eagle award along with 4 of his cousins. They had to have a nice cake to celebrate with. This cake and the ivory cake following had to be finished on the same day so I could take my kids camping.
Everything you see here is edible. The topper is a sugar cookie painted with gold airbrush color and the Eagle and banner are rolled fondant painted with silver airbrush color then hand piped on with black frosting.
These colors look a little washed out here. I'm going to blame the lighting and my lack of being able to take a perfect picture. Just imagine them as looking amazing and you will get the idea. The other two sides of the cake had the Scout motto and the names of the boys getting the awards, but my picture for that is really washed out as well.

See.... I promise in person you can read these white words on the scout shirt colored background. Here, they all sort of blend together. Again, imagine something amazing.

Ivory and White Wedding Cake

2010-06-19T17:25:00.004-06:00

Another wedding cake in buttercream. I wrapped the bottom of each tier with fondant and painted it with a pearl luster. The flavors are white with raspberry filling, carrot with cream cheese and Lemon.

Red and Blue wedding cake

2010-06-11T15:21:00.002-06:00

This cake was requested to be all butter cream. I've never stacked butter cream tiers before. It is a bit trickier than fondant, fortunately, butter cream can be fixed with a little more frosting and a spreader. I need to whip my frosting less so it doesn't get all those little bubbles in it. Other than that, it wasn't too hard to get it smooth.
The bride provided the flowers, the ribbon and a picture of how she wanted her cake.

Popcorn movie cake

2010-06-09T16:24:00.003-06:00

I made this for a girl who loves popcorn and movies. The film strip around the bottom tier has all of her favorite things. I thought it would be easier to pipe the film strip rather than make or buy black fondant. I was wrong. It would have looked much better in fondant and would have taken less time (except for the trip to the store)
Left side
Right side
Close up on the dog.
The popcorn was made out of mini marshmallows that I snipped with scissors. Then I took a brush and dotted on watered down yellow food coloring.

Handbag and shoebox

2010-06-06T09:32:00.003-06:00

Springville High School Graduation

2010-05-26T13:11:00.003-06:00

Springville High School graduation is this week. Here's the cake I made for one of the graduates.

Home of the Mighty Red Devils.

Blue and Cream Gerbera Daisy Cake

2010-05-24T12:45:00.000-06:00

Cascading Green and Purple Orchid Wedding Cake

2010-05-18T20:11:00.003-06:00

Mothers Day Rose Cake

2010-05-09T23:10:00.004-06:00

For mother's day I had a request for 3 flavors of cake. Banana Walnut, Carrot and Lemon. She didn't want fondant, but wanted it frosted in butter cream. I thought it was time to practice some fondant roses so here's what the end product was.
I added pearls to the two side cakes, but forgot to take another picture. Here's a close up of the center cake
She didn't want fondant, she wanted butter cream. I really like working with fondant. Trying to make butter cream smooth.....well, it's just harder than fondant. But, I don't blame her. It does taste better.

Pink and Brown Cake with a bow and Gerbera daisies

2010-04-29T17:42:00.003-06:00

This cake was made for our Relief Society birthday celebration.

BYU graduation cake

2010-04-25T09:56:00.003-06:00

Doreen and Jared are both graduating from BYU. Here's the cake I made to help them celebrate. Notice there is no bead along the bottom of each layer to hide cake boards or uneven fondant bottoms. But try not to notice the BYU logo is crooked.
And here is a view from the back
And here is my daughter at Los Hermanos swiping her finger through the logo which was piped out of buttercream frosting. The graduation cap is easier to see in this picture.
Good times. This was a fun cake to make.

Tres Leches

2010-04-17T09:28:00.003-06:00

Tres leches cake is a super moist super yummy cake that I didn't think could be stacked and decorated. Once baking the cake, I pour a total of 5 cups of sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk and whole milk over the cake. When you get a slice, a small pool of yummy milk forms in the bottom of your plate. I thought this cake would sink in on itself or all the milk would drain out and it would be sitting in a small pool. Jamie told me it could be done and has done it before as seen in her blog here.

So here is my attempt. It turned out pretty well.
There was a tiny bit of milk seepage in the bottom, but it made it look more appealing. The cake didn't slide or sink. I frosted it with whipped cream and decorated the outside with chocolate shingles I made. I stacked fresh sliced strawberries between the layers. It was yummy.

Easter Basket Cake

2010-04-05T10:38:00.002-06:00

It is time to put my love affair with fondant in check. I love working with fondant and I love how it looks, but I think I use it too much. Most people prefer a good buttercream over fondant. So I thought I would step away from it for Easter. This is a white cake with a raspberry filling. I just used raspberry jam but I think it is my favorite raspberry filling so far.

Topsy Turvy Cake

2010-03-23T11:07:00.003-06:00

Over the Hill Birthday Cake

2010-03-15T11:32:00.002-06:00

Red and Black Wedding Cake

2010-03-12T19:49:00.003-07:00

I love this cake. It turned out great and was a lot of fun to put together. I love the uneven tiers and the way the ribbon looks.

Dirt Bike Cake

2010-03-10T11:06:00.005-07:00

For those of you who know anything about dirt biking and motocross (which up until now I thought was motor cross), you know what a "whoops" is. Me, I thought it was what you said after an accident. So I get a request for a whoops cake. Thank heavens for google. For those of you like me who know nothing about this sport, a whoops is a series of bumps and jumps you take your dirt bike over, like so.
The person requesting this cake wanted a crash, and the rider in a hospital bed all bandaged up. Here's what I put together.
To make it look more like a crash my husband said I should brake the bike in two. After all that work making a dirt bike I didn't want to brake it in two. It hurt my feelings to think about it, but ultimately I thought he was right.

Sigh.... I like to think this little rider (I call him Greg) is thinking: "That was awesome, how long before I can get back on my bike?" Note to self. If wanting to put tire tracks in fondant, do it before the fondant hardens.

Jeep Cake

2010-03-02T10:48:00.003-07:00

Cub Scout 100th Birthday Cake

2010-02-23T21:27:00.002-07:00

The Boy Scouts of America celebrates it's 100th anniversary this year. For our Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet I made this cake to help celebrate.

Here are a few close ups of the other sides.

The beads along the base are gumballs and they were the first to go.

Christmas Cookies

2009-12-26T18:13:00.002-07:00

For Christmas this year, I invited the kids in the neighborhood over to decorate cookies. Here's the ones I did.

Ice Cream Pug Cake

2009-12-26T17:57:00.003-07:00

Carol has a cute little pug dog named Harley so for her birthday I did my best to replicate a pug in cake form. This is made out of mint ice cream and crushed Oreos.

The exterior of the cake is crushed graham crackers and crushed Oreos.

I scream zombie cake

2009-12-26T17:52:00.002-07:00

For Pat's birthday I made this ice cream cake. The inside is vanilla ice cream with toffee pieces. I frosted it with colored cool whip. The eyes are white chocolate truffles. For those of you who don't know, the way to kill a zombie is to shoot it in the head, hence the phrase "frost the head and the body will die."

Christmas Grinch Cake

2009-12-04T12:20:00.003-07:00

For the 14 years they have been married, Lisa has asked her husband to put the lights up every Christmas. And every year Greg has found one excuse or other and has never done it. She's been calling him the Grinch for over a decade. Her birthday is near Christmas and her husband ordered this cake.

I tried to make it look like something in a Dr. Seuss book. I love the rake and boat on the tree. The cake on top says Happy Birthday Lisa. It is really hard to sculpt figures and have them look like what they are supposed to. But I thought the Grinch's folded arms and fingers turned out great.

Elk Hunting Birthday Cake

2009-11-27T22:20:00.003-07:00

I was asked to do a 60th birthday cake for someone who likes to hunt and fish. Here's what he is getting.

Here is a close up of the sleeping hunter.

And the elk that has found his birthday cake.

I find the irony in this cake hilarious. It turned out cute. The cake is carrot with a cream cheese filling. The elk I purchased at a toy store. The table is made from chocolate. This time I used royal frosting for the trees and it worked so much better.

Silver & Blue Wedding Cake

2009-11-25T10:45:00.005-07:00

When I made my first wedding cake, I said I never wanted to make one that big ever again. It was difficult and stressful. So what do I do? I make one that's bigger and more difficult. Julie wanted something completely different from the first one I made. She wanted a square cake with no flowers. Square corners are harder to cover in fondant and flowers are really nice for covering up flaws. However, it wasn't as stressful (probably because it wasn't my first) and it turned out beautiful.

Layer 1 (top) is 5" Banana Walnut with a cream cheese filling
Layer 2 is 8" chocolate with a chocolate ganache filling
Layer 3 is 12" Carrot cake with a cream cheese filling
Layer 4 (bottom) is 16" white with raspberries and pastry cream

This cake weighs a whopping 65 pounds. One of the reasons why this cake weighs so much is because the first and 3rd layers are quite dense.

Some of the ingredients in this cake:
10 cake mixes (only in 2 of the layers and are easier to work with in large cakes)
25 carrots
4 dozen eggs
8 cups of oil
20 pounds of powdered sugar
half a gallon of half and half and cream
2 pounds of cream cheese
5 1/2 cups of nuts (makes the cakes lumpy and hard to tort but sure are tasty)

I take 3 days when I make a cake this size. Here's my game plan:
Day 1: Make fondant, cut and cover cake boards, make fillings.
Day 2: Bake (My oven was on for 10 hours straight to make this cake)
Day 3: Fill, frost, cover in fondant, decorate and add dowels for structure.
Day 4: deliver and stack, add ribbons and topper.

Ok, I know that's 4 days, but I don't count the 4th day because it doesn't take very long to set the cake up when all the work is already done. Here's a closer picture

These pictures aren't the best. Pretend the scroll work is visible and all those dots are really shiny. I wish I had Jamie take the picture. She does some amazing work.

Before I take all the credit for this cake, I had help. My cakes always turn out bigger and better when I have help. Ana came by and helped with a lot of the grunt work in assembling these cakes. Plus it is her exquisite sense of style that encouraged the scroll work on the 2nd and 4th layers and the little bows in front. And on top of all that, I don't think I could get a 26 inch slab of fondant onto the bottom layer by myself without it tearing. By the end of the day we were both covered in powdered sugar. She better be careful though, I think she caught a slight hint of the cake decorating fever.

Bachelorette Party Cake

2009-11-20T10:02:00.004-07:00

So we had Julie's Bachelorette party this week. We went to dinner, had (virgin) margaritas, and I made this cake.

We partied it up as only mothers who have to be up early to get their kids ready for school in the morning could. Yee Haw ride that saddle Julie.

I asked julie what her favorite cake was and she said the cake doesn't matter as long as it has funfetti frosting. And lots of it. The cake is funfetti with 2 tubs of funfetti frosting. Funfetti frosting is lumpy because of all the candy bits and it left the fondant on top of the bed a little lumpy. I could have smoothed it out a little more, but I liked the way it made it look more bed like.

It came together fairly quickly with the exception of the (frustrating) hollow chocolate nightstand. That took 2 hours alone. I think the everything else combined took me about 2 hours.

I covered the cake board in fondant then textured it with a piece of rough sandpaper thinking it would look more like carpet. It actually looked a lot like tile when I was done with it.

campground cake

2009-10-24T15:51:00.003-06:00

My neighbor turned 40 and I was honored to be able to make her a birthday cake. In my mind I pictured tombstones and being over the hill, but her husband had a different approach. Susan really likes to go camping and he wanted to focus on what she likes rather than focus on her getting older.

This cake was a lot of fun to make. It makes me happy when a cake turns right. I think my favorite thing is the picnic table made out of chocolate.

I made the trees with buttercream frosting. If you attempt to make these trees, don't use buttercream. Use Royal icing. The tree on the left had half of its boughs drop off one side. After I fixed that, the tree on the right in the back had it's boughs sink all the way to the ground. Originally the tree on the right had a trunk showing like the tree on the left, but after it sank, I had to fill it all in. Still, I love the way the trees look.

Here are two of Susan's daughters, Ally and Emily. I had to redo all of the people because the first set of people I made were as large as the trees and there was just no way I was going to fit 6 people that big on this cake.

Susan and Tom standing on top of the hill. Or maybe you could say they are coming over the hill....

And here's Nathan and Haley hanging out by the fire. I was thinking about having the them holding a stick with a marshmallow and putting graham crackers and chocolate on the table. I was going to grind up graham crackers and cover the path in crumbs so it had texture but I had to call it quits some time.

I think it's funny that there are waterfalls on both sides of the river. The camper in the back is a little top heavy because it is made entirely out of fondant. I love the bugs too. You can't go camping without bugs.

Mary's Birthday

2009-09-27T14:08:00.002-06:00

It's Mary's birthday. Yes, the very same Mary from the first entry in this blog. The one who got me started. Here's her cake.

It is a chocolate cake with a Bavarian cream filling. The outside is decorated with chocolate and butterscotch disks and flakes. To make them I melted chocolate and spread it thin on a piece of wax paper. I let it set up (not too soft, not too hard) and cut out the circles. To make the flakes on top I melted the chips and spread them as thin as I could on the wax paper. Then I stuck them in the freezer to make them nice and hard. I took them out and broke them apart to make the flakes.

My Mom's Birthday

2009-09-20T13:35:00.003-06:00

Ok, so what's the deal with everyone wanting coconut pecan frosting?!? I can't decorate with coconut pecan frosting. There's only one thing I can think to do with Coconut Pecan frosting... make it look like dirt. My mom's favorite cake is German Chocolate and I know she hasn't had it for a while. I guess I can make it for her this year. Plus of all the frosting that exists in the world, this is one of the tastiest.

Yes, this looks familiar because I made the same thing for my husband's mother. Basket weave around the German chocolate cake and sugar cookie flowers. This was a lot easier the second time around. No stress. Looks a lot like spring. If I could go back I probably would have done more fall colors like orange and red, but it looks nice as it is. If you ask for coconut pecan frosting, this is what you're going to get. Well, I might try a porcupine or hedgehog one day, but I'll have to wrap my brain around that for a while.

Faith in Every Footstep

2009-09-20T12:46:00.006-06:00

My husband teaches Sunday School for the 17 year-olds and they have been asking when I'm going to make them a cake. If everyone attends there are 14 kids in his class. This week the lesson was "Faith in every footstep". I got this great idea to make Sunday shoes on top of a shoe box. You know, symbolizing church attendance as an important part of our faith. I found this example I wanted to mimic.

Plan A

No, I did not make this cake. I found it online. Amazing right? Well, I thought so too. I am still determined to make a cake like this one day. Of course I would do men's dress shoes for the guys but women's shoes are just prettier. I tried shaping shoes out of fondant and here's what I got.

Not amazing. The fondant kept sagging and cracking when it dried, plus 5 of the shoes never even made it this far, the heels broke off. I was going to embellish these with Silver airbrush paint, bows, ribbons, dots etc. but it just wasn't working for me.

On to Plan B

Well, I can't make shoes, but I have a foot shaped cookie cutter. I 'll make some sugar cookies and decorate the squares of cake and put the footprint on top of the cake and write "Faith" in the footprint. Faith in every footstep right? Here's what my footprints looked like.

Was this a baby shower attended by the Swamp Thing? Aaaaah those poor little babies must have been so terrified. I just wasn't happy with these feet either.

On to Plan C

I'm frustrated, I don't know what I'm going to do I need a break. I watched BYU lose the football game to Florida State. Now I'm even more frustrated. Then I chatted with the family for a bit. Ah, I feel better.

What am I doing?!? I need these treats for church tomorrow. Jonathan has worked them into his lesson and is counting on them. How is it already 10:00 p.m.?

Well, the lesson about "Faith in every footstep" is about the pioneers who crossed the plains. Many had not much more than their faith to go on. Some had wagons, some pulled handcarts and many just walked. I thought about this and decided I would try to make handcarts. Here we have the final product.

For some must push and some must pull as we go marching up the hill.... Oh, was I humming again. I hum a lot when I decorate cakes and this cake just made me think of so many pioneer songs. I took the square of cake that was going to be the shoe box and 2 piping bags and shaped the main part of the handcart. Thanks to Kathleen I got this amazing sugar cookie recipe that doesn't have to be chilled. It makes perfect dough that is easy to work with and tastes amazing. 32 minutes later I have wheels. Jonathan cut the Kebab skewers for the handles and I raided the pantry for things I could fill the handcarts with. Let's see, tootsie rolls, granola bars, fruit snacks, Laffy Taffy, yep that will work.

Did I mention there are 14 kids and 2 teachers? That's 16 of these babies.

I got to bed by 1 a.m. and the Sunday School class got a nice sugar buzz at church. Can't ask for more than that.... Well, maybe a glass of milk.

Hawaii cake

2009-09-12T22:58:00.003-06:00

Our church had a Hawaiian themed party. I thought what a great time to practice piping. My goal was to make a cake that looked like the pattern you would find on a Hawaiian shirt. My brother lives in Hawaii and while I was piping all these patterns I was wishing I was in Hawaii.

All four sides were piped basically the same as this. I wanted to get a little hula doll to stick on the top. Maybe one of those little bobble deals. That would have made a great topper. But alas, I ran out of time so what you see here is what it was.

This is a yellow cake with a mixture of vanilla pudding, crushed pineapple and cool whip as a filling.

Book Cake

2009-08-27T18:29:00.005-06:00

My husband's Uncle David is turning 59 today and I had the honor of making his birthday cake. I was told he likes to read and write so what more fitting than books?

I had fun with this cake. You would think books would be easy because they are flat and have right angles. Well, I still ran into a few surprises. Like getting the fondant to stand up to look like the book covers. I left the pages buttercream because it tastes better and would look just fine if I stopped bumping it as I did the rest of the cake. The cake actually runs horizontally even though the books make it look like I stacked them vertically.

I modeled this little guy to look like Uncle David reading a book. I thought his hands came out great as did the book.

With this cake I also tried chocolate fondant for the first time. Let me tell you, it was tasty. It reminded me of eating a tootsie roll. I added 1 ounce of unsweetened chocolate melted and 1 Tablespoon of cocoa powder to my marshmallow fondant recipe. All the brown you see here is chocolate fondant.

Scooby Doo Cake

2009-08-27T18:24:00.002-06:00

For Jared's birthday Angie requested a Scooby-Doo cake. This is a frozen frosting transfer. My chocolate frosting doesn't transfer as well as the buttercream so I'll have to play with that. I covered the board with foil then with colored Seran Wrap. My board was just a little too narrow otherwise I would have had the message next to Scooby rather than above and to the side.

Mary and Jared's wedding cake

2009-08-20T22:48:00.006-06:00

Well, I finally did it. My first wedding cake and it was a big one. This cake is 4 tiers totaling 21 inches high and weighs 41 pounds all together. And that's before the flowers were added. The bottom layer weighed 21 pounds just by itself. In this cake you see 4 dozen eggs, 13 cake mixes, 12 pounds of powdered sugar, 5 carrots, 4 pounds of marshmallows (in the fondant) 2 pints of raspberries, a bag of chocolate chips and one lemon.

Each layer is covered in marshmallow fondant and has it's own flavor.
Layer 1. (top) Lemon cake with a lemon curd filling.
Layer 2. Carrot cake with cream cheese filling
Layer 3. Chocolate cake with a chocolate ganache filling
Layer 4. White cake with pastry cream and fresh raspberries.

Here's a view from the side.

It was a lot of work, but I learned a lot from it. (mostly it is quite difficult to get fondant on a 16 inch cake that is 5 inches high) The wedding colors were yellow, orange and blue. Doreen helped pick out the flowers and by that I mean she did everything. I couldn't have done it without her. Mary and Jared, thank you for letting me do this for you.

BYU Lavell Edwards Stadium

2009-08-17T11:29:00.001-06:00

My husband's birthday was coming up and I knew I would have to make him something fabulous. He is a very big BYU Football fan so what better than Lavell Edwards Stadium? Unfortunately, it was a very busy couple of days and I only had 3 1/2 hours to do his cake. I did the field and baked and cut the cake the day before, but everything else had to be done after church and before scout committee meeting.

The field was a frozen frosting transfer. There's no cake under the frosting, I just put it on a piece of cardboard. Notice on the West end zone the fans are in rows, but on the East side they are scattered. I should have just sprinkled them all on and used the time I had left for finishing touches on the cake.

When time is short, it's the details that suffer. I had some fabric covered florist wire I was going to shape into goal posts for the field. I was also going to make the scoreboards for the north and south end zones. They were going to be frozen frosting transfers on sugar cookies. I also wanted to do the access ramps in the 4 corners.

The two elevator shafts are made from a giant pixie stick straw. Time was up so I couldn't smooth the frosting like I wanted and I didn't get a bottom border done.

And Here's the Birthday Boy. Happy Birthday Jonathan. I love you.

Bachelorette Party Cake

2009-08-17T11:27:00.000-06:00

Mary is getting married on Thursday and we threw her a bachelorette party. Here's the cake I made for it, but it isn't really cake. I made the top layer of this out of Rice Krispy treats and the bottom layer is Styrofoam. It is hard to get Rice Krispy treats smooth without cutting them which is why the top layer is a little bumpy. I really wanted to practice making and using fondant before the big wedding cake this week.

In general I do not like flowers made out of frosting. But this was a novelty cake not meant to be taken seriously. It was a fun cake.

Ethan's Birthday

2009-07-27T22:32:00.001-06:00

Everything I know about Pokemon stops with a little yellow Pikachu. So, I did some research. I asked various children all under the age of 10. They seem to be the experts.

This cake was done with a technique called a "Frozen Frosting Transfer" or "FFT" I can't draw, but I can trace and mimic. I blew up a picture of Infernape. Put him under a piece of wax paper, and traced him with frosting and filled in the colors. From there I froze the frosting on the wax paper for about 45 minutes, then flopped it on the cake and peeled off the wax paper.

A few notes worth mentioning. If you are going to cut the cake out to the shape of your FFT, remember to cut it out in a mirror image because it will be backwards when you flip the frosting onto the cake. Or, if you are like me and cut it wrong, flip the cake upside down too. Worked like a charm, perfect fit. Of course, this cake is now frosted on the bottom as well as the top and sides. Heh heh heh.

FFT's are easy, but I would practice them once before you had to do a big one. Also on this cake I would have left out the shading. I tried to make it all cool and put in all the shaded colors. All it did was require three times as many frosting colors, and in some places it looks like it has water stains or something spilled on the cake. Although, in other places, it looks right and does have a neat effect.

Just so you know, the names of the Pokemon shown here are Pikachu, Piplup, Infernape, Bulbasaur, Chimchar and Turtwig.

Mary's Shower Cake

2009-07-20T13:26:00.000-06:00

Here's the cake I made for Mary's shower. I learned that it takes a long time to do flowers, and even longer for them to dry. I was not able to attend the shower because we were out of town. The top layer of this was white cake with pastry cream and raspberry filling. The lower level was chocolate with a semi-sweet chocolate ganache filling. Next time I make a ganache, I will make it with milk chocolate. It is frosted in buttercream and all of the flowers are made out of fondant mixed with a little gum-tex.

Hamburger cupcakes

2009-07-11T16:44:00.000-06:00

I saw these cute hamburger cupcakes on bakerella and had to make them mine. All I needed was something to make them for. Our bishop was released and we are having a thank you party for him and his counselors. "What? you want me to make a dessert to bring? Well, if you twist my arm, I suppose...."

The are made from a cupcakes, frosting and brownies cut into circles. The tops I brushed with water and sprinkled sesame seeds on. The french fries are sugar cookies sprinkled with sugar.

2009-07-09T17:18:00.000-06:00

While I was in Washington we celebrated my Dad's birthday. I had nothing to do with the making of this cake, I just got to eat it. Mindy made it, but it is so cute I thought everyone needed to see it.

Trip to Washington

2009-07-09T16:05:00.001-06:00

Over the 4th of July weekend I got to take a trip to Washington State to visit my family and I was lucky enough to be there for a couple of cakes. This first one I helped Mindy (my sister-in-law) make for her friend. This was a fun cake to make, but even more fun to work with Mindy. I make reference to her every once in a while because she really is the one who inspires me and makes me want to decorate cakes.

Here's a close-up of the details. The cake was a yummy chocolate cake with chocolate frosting covered in homemade fondant. The makeup was fondant mixed with gum paste.

Ok, so there's a little story behind this cake too. It was supposed to be pink with a white handle. Very girly and cute. Well, I didn't want to do a stark white handle so we mixed a little beige into it. Mindy went upstairs to put her baby to bed when I decided it wasn't dark enough so I mixed in some black. Aaaack! I ruined it. It turned a blah gray. Not something you would want on your purse. I got caught when Mindy came back down and we mixed in brown to get the color shown. The red was supposed to be pink, but again, I thought it was too bright (especially since I had already foiled her plans of a pretty pink and white purse) So we mixed in the rest of the brown fondant and ended up with the colors shown. I really like them, but there were a few times during the making of this cake I really thought "I've ruined all Mindy's plans and now she's never going to let me work on a cake with her ever again." But, we worked around everything that was unexpected just like the pros we are and turned a pretty fabulous cake.

Mindy did the compact and seemed to just be able to pull it together without any problem. I on the other hand made the lipstick and had all kinds of trouble seeing how to put it together without it falling apart. Just so you know, It's easiest to make a snake out of the red, wrap 3/4 of it in white, then wrap that in black. We painted the white with edible silver airbrush paint. The compact is held open with 2 safety pins we cut the heads off of and stuck in each side of the compact.

Jungle Cake

2009-06-25T16:17:00.001-06:00

Usually I know what I'm going to do for a cake days in advance. With this one I had a hard time coming up with a good idea. Tim just turned 19 and will be going on a mission to Brazil. I finally settled on this cake with the amazon river, piranhas, jungle monkeys, a cayman and a snake on top. I realize the snake is not native to Brazil, but I had to work with what I had and Brazil has it's own big scary snakes, so take the cobra on top as a symbol for all those scaly scary things slithering around

This one didn't turn out to bad for having to throw something together in one day.

The monkeys were cute. Sherie suggested doing a layer of the cake in rice krispy treats. But when I went to frost them, I couldn't bring myself to do it. I don't like frosting very much, but I love rice krispy treats. So, I left them as the riverbed.

Congratulations on your mission call Tim. We love you.

Chef Cake

2009-06-25T15:23:00.001-06:00

I love this cake. I found a picture online but it had no directions or details. I had to make it up as I went along. It took a long time to do because of all the detail work, but it came out far better than I expected. Brady is a caterer and owns Greenhollow catering in Provo. He makes some pretty spectacular stuff so when his wife asked if I would do his cake, I knew it had to be pretty cool. Usually I beg people to let me do their cake for them so I can get the practice, but Carol asked me to do this one. Thank you for the confidence.

The little chef man is made completely out of fondant and is edible if you can stomach fondant. The cake is covered in fondant, all the details on the cake are fondant. I think my favorite part is the little wooden spoons. I had a handle over the basket, but it broke. I thought about putting an oven on the side of the cake too, but I ran out of time. Can anyone guess what the pink stuff in the pot is supposed to be???

And here you see the cute plaid pants the chef is wearing. Believe it or not I had to hand sculpt the chef without a pattern. Dangerous territory for me I know. I did look up online what a chef coat should look like. The floor is yellow cake with chocolate frosting and white chocolate tiles on top.

I really need to work on my backgrounds when I take these pictures. The bags of chips in the background were for Brady's birthday party that night. Angie, thank you for letting us invade your house.

The Twins' Birthday Cakes

2009-06-25T14:49:00.000-06:00

Here's the 2 cakes I made for Karen and Cindy's birthday. They are twins and work at 7 peaks water park as lifeguards. Apparently I can't make people out of frosting that are not fat. I'll work on that. The lifesaver is Jennifer's sinful chocolate cake covered in fondant. The pool cake is funfetti with a cookies and cream filling.

Aubrey's Birthday Cake

2009-06-25T14:43:00.000-06:00

Aubrey turned 4 this year. Here's the cake I made for her princess birthday tea party. The towers, doors and windows are a kit. I frosted the tops with royal icing. The pink flowers are from fondant I made ahead of time so they would dry. It looks very complicated, but was fairly simple. I just made an 8 inch cake and a 10 inch cake, frosted them, and stuck all the towers and flowers on. Aubrey LOVED it.

Jackson and Grandpa

2009-06-23T16:49:00.001-06:00

Jackson and Grandpa Call have birthdays one day apart so we had a double birthday party for them. I was privileged to make their birthday cakes, however I couldn't have done it without Mindy's help and sound advice. She is the one who made the boat and had suggestions for everything. I was quite pleased with the way this turned out.

The fisherman on the water with fish. Mindy found the fisherman doll. She also made a pattern and shaped the boat. I can't imagine trying to make him out of frosting. I thought the fish were very cute and the edge of the cake came out quite nicely. The boat was made out of tootsie rolls and the bottom edge is rock candy. I learned that if you have tootsie rolls stuck to a plate and can't get them off without ruining the shape, you put it in the freezer and it pops right off. Thank you Mindy yet again.

The Shark cake. This one was difficult because it had to be hand carved. I made a cake in a loaf pan then cut away everything that didn't look like fish to me. Once again, Mindy made the fins and mouth. They were made out of homemade fondant that we covered cardboard and popcicle sticks with. What would I have done without her..... As I was working with this cake, it started sagging in the front and back where I had cut away the shape of the fish. It made it look more like a whale than a shark, however, I am pleased it looked like it came from the sea

The shark looks better from the front. I loved his buggy eyes. Even though the fisherman has him on his hook, it looks like the shark has found lunch rather than the fisherman. I love a cake that makes you grin. :-)

Mom's Birthday

2009-06-23T16:45:00.001-06:00

I thought this was such a pretty cake. I wanted to make this for my mother-in-law's birthday. The flowers and leaves are sugar cookies stuck to lollipop sticks with white chocolate. This is actually 2 cakes made in loaf pans. The one on the left is a yellow cake with chocolate frosting and Oreo crumbs on top. The one on the right is a spice cake with coconut pecan frosting. The whole thing is surrounded with a basket weave of chocolate frosting. This is one of my favorite cake designs.

Birthday Party Cake

2009-06-23T16:39:00.001-06:00

My sister-in-law Annelisa turned 21 in March of 2009 and I wanted to make a special cake for her. After all, 21 is a big year. We didn't have enough people to eat this much cake so the bottom layer is Styrofoam. The letters and cake toppers are sugar cookies. It is a very festive cake. I

This cake looks just like the one above it, but was made for Mary's friend Kim. Unlike the first cake, both the top and the bottom layer of this are made of cake. I decided I like the challenge of making a new cake. While making this cake was easier the second time around, decorating these cookies a second time got a little tedious, and there's a lot of cookies in here. Anyone want to guess how many?

Sunflower cupcakes

2009-06-23T16:35:00.001-06:00

My sister-in-law Mindy makes some amazing cakes and has been an inspiration for me in my endeavors. I saw these cupcakes on her blog and wanted to try them. They are so cute. I don't think my piping skills are as good as hers, but I thought these turned out well. The centers are Oreos surrounded by layered green, orange and yellow petals made with a leaf tip.

Julie's Cake

2009-06-22T23:27:00.001-06:00

Here's Julie's birthday cake. I was very pleased with this second attempt. I liked the colors and the bow. I did square cake for the first time and learned edges and corners are difficult but if they are kept straight they make the cake. I also wanted to play with fondant a little bit so I did the top layer, ribbon and bow in fondant. I used fondant off the shelf at the store and I couldn't get it smooth like I wanted and I thought it tasted like corn syrup and sugar...very sweet with no flavor and chewy.

This cake didn't have very many places for candles and when the candles were lit, they started to burn the fondant bow hanging over the edge. Mmmmm caramelized fondant.... Isn't Julie adorable?

Anna's Cake

2009-06-22T22:59:00.000-06:00

Here is my first cake. Made in March 2009. I thought I could just wing it and create my own design. As you can see, it wasn't the classiest cake, but I learned a lot from it and immediately wanted to make another one to see if I could do better. The biggest lesson I learned was that I shouldn't try to create my own designs. Mary, thank you for the confidence. I owe most of this to you.