No D Day

It's that time again. Since I've been horribly behind in posting about the thing that we aren't supposed to post about today, I figured now was as good a time as any to get back to blogging. :)

There are so many things that I love and so many things that I love to do that don't have anything in the world to do with that thing we won't mention. I couldn't decide if I wanted to talk about music, or theatre (check out my other blog HERE), or something else.

I finally decided that cakes were going to be the way to go. Many of you know that I am a hobby cake decorator. It's something I find fun (most of the time), and it's about the only thing that I am talented at that deals with art. Want me to draw you a picture? Ha. But if you want me to put a picture on a cake... I can do that. :D

Here are some of my recent "adventures." I hope you enjoy!

Diabetes Art Day

Today my normal Thursday "Your Voice" post is being put on hold because today is Diabetes Art Day! :) Diabetes Art Day is the brainchild of fellow blogger Lee Ann Thill. Lee Ann blogs at The Butter Compartment and is an Art Therapist! How cool is that?!


Last year was the first Diabetes Art Day and I was a total slacker and didn't participate. This year I didn't want the chance to get away from me again. So I did MY kind of art... I work with cake. :) Sure, it's a little contradictory, but I love working with cake and it's where I'm my most creative.

I wanted to do the two major symbols of diabetes (at least to me) awareness. The grey ribbon for Diabetes Awareness and the blue circle to represent World Diabetes Day. I also did mini cupcakes for these because I though that the mini-size was nice for less carbs per serving. Fat lot of good it does if you eat five of them at once. :D

As an added bonus... I did some plan cupcakes with sprinkles. Cause I know how much my fellow D-OC members LOVE our sprinkles. :)

Also, not to promote myself too much, but I'm still looking for "Your Voice" submissions from non-bloggers. If you're interested in sharing your story, click on the hyperlink above for info on how to submit a post. Thanks everyone! 

M-I-C-K-E-Y

It's been a while since I've done a cake post for you guys. I'm not really in the mood to write a d-related post today, so I thought I'd bring you some of my "sweeter" and happier posts by posting pictures from my godson's 3rd birthday party, including the cake I made him.

This cake was one of my favorites that I've ever gotten to do!

I love Mickey! No matter how much I complain about MM Clubhouse. :)

As for the theme... let's just say I've seen enough episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse that I can hotdog dance with the best of 'em. :)

I didn't make these, but aren't they cute?? 

He was a little freaked out with everyone singing to him. :)

Cake Suicide

Well, I don't have a picture of it. My roommate told me I should have taken a picture. And put google eyes on it. But the Snickerdoodle cake I was to make for my job's Thanksgiving meal decided that it wanted to commit suicide right before I finished. At 10:00 p.m. the night before I needed it.

Just imagine a cake, face down on the kitchen floor....I'm sure you can conjure up a mental picture.

It was my worst nightmare come true. The only positive is that it wasn't an important birthday or wedding cake.

R.I.P. Snickerdoodle cake. R.I.P.

More Sugary Treats

These were for a friend's Halloween themed baby shower. If you notice, the cupcake papers have candy corn on them... so of course the icing had to match. :)

This cake was made for a friend's church. They were celebrating Pastor Appreciation Day. I made the tiny fruit out of gumpaste. All the icing is buttercreme.

The verse written on the cake is Galatians 5:22-23, which talks about the fruit of the spirit.

Sweet Fun

Cupcakes. :) Spaghetti cupcakes. With strawberry jam "sauce" and Ferrero Roche chocolate "meatballs" and white chocolate "Parmesan cheese".

Bumblebee from Transformers

John Deer with the help of my totally awesome roommate who cut out the deer and the letters. :)

Fun with Friends

So, I decided to enter a cake in the county fair this year. I've never done it before. The prize money isn't really worth the money you put into it (effort aside!). But I had a couple of co-workers that encouraged me to try and my friend wanted to help out, so we got to work decorating cake dummies (a.k.a. Styrofoam pieces).

The base was foam board that I glued black paper on, and my friend added the smaller black lines with a Sharpie. Then I covered it with saran wrap to make it food safe (even though the cake wasn't going to be eaten.

Then, my friend sat and cut out zebra stripes. First with and exact-o knife, and then with a pizza cutter (it went faster and made smoother cuts). As she cut them, I placed them on the iced bases using a little water and a paintbrush so that the fondant would stick.

Here's my friend's contribution of a little heart...and we were almost done. It was nearly midnight and we were sooooooo tired!

The inspiration for the whole thing came from the topper, which I found in the floral section of a hobby store.

I ended up winning first place, but not best of show. That went to a loaf of blueberry lemon bread. But we had fun and I got some experience that I didn't have before. :) I hope you guys enjoy it all.

A Brave New World

So, I've not really been baking much of late. I haven't had anyone to really bake for. I've made a few tasty cakes (not the decorating kind, just the kind you eat for fun). But nothing worth photographing. But in the next couple of months I have several things on the list. So, be ready for more pictures. :)

One of my oldest friends (we met the 1st day of kindergarten!) is having her second child in November. A little boy is going to be joining their family. This will make 2 boys for her and her husband. I joked with her that at least she knows what she's got to expect this time. :)

The let their older song pick the theme for the baby's room. And having just seen Toy Story 3, that's what ended up going as the theme for new little brother's room.

This has bleeded over into the baby shower. I'm throwing the baby shower and Toy Story seems to be the choice. Well, let me tell you, you can find lots and lots of birthday stuff online for Toy Story. But no one has apparently ever thought to throw a Toy Story baby shower. So, I'm improvising. :)

That being said, I'm getting ready to venture into a side of baking that I've never entered into before. Cake Pops. I first discovered cake pops through Bakerella's website. If you like baking (of any kind) in the least little bit, you'll love her website. She has step-by-step (with pictures!) directions and recipes on her site and she has give-aways all the time.

I'd never been brave enough to try to make cake pops. But her website gave me some inspiration that I think I might need to try. These:

Aren't they the cutest? I'm thinking for party-favors for the baby shower. But believe me, I'll be making a practice batch or two before the actual shower. Lots of details and I don't want to mess it up. :) Wish me luck everyone. And I'll post actual pictures after the shower (in early October).

Repeat...Sort Of

A friend of mine had her lovely daughter's 7th birthday party this past week. They had been at my house when I was making the strawberry cake with strawberry icing for my nephew. M loved it. She proceeded to inform me that very day what kind of cake she wanted for her birthday. :) I have no problems with this, as I normally make the cakes for both her and her younger sister. It is my gift to them. And a pleasure to do so as both of the little girls, along with their mother, have made my world a better place on more than one occasion.

When I found out that M would be having a pool party, I made a quick decision to switch from a cake to cupcakes, as it would be easier to deal with at the pool, and would require less work for her mom.

So, for my "chick-a-dee," M, I made these:

Happy Birthday M!

More Sugary Treats

Here are some of the things that I've been working on lately. Enjoy.

Strawberry cake w/ strawberry icing at the request of my nephew.



A birthday cake for a friend's fiance. He's a cop. Obviously. LOL The coolest thing was that he chain actually turned out like a chain. It moved and everything.



A birthday/graduation cake for a friend's step-daughter. She loves muddin' (that's what we call it in the South anyway...).

My favorite part was all the "mud" I got to put on the jeep! :)

Caking Wednesday

So today is my birthday. I also share this day with the lovely Karen over at Bitter-Sweet Diabetes. She's turning 29 with me today. :) Happy Birthday Karen!

And along the lines of birthdays, we usually have cake.

This isn't my birthday cake, but it was one I made recently for the child of a friend. He's 7 and is obsessed with the Civil War. And military of any kind actually. He will sit an explain things to you that I didn't even know kids that age could know. But he does. And he's adorable.

When I heard one of his birthday presents was a Union soldier uniform, I knew what I wanted to make him for his birthday: the hat.

It was my first real attempt at carving a cake. The carving part turned out not to be so hard, as you can see below.....



But the part where I cover it in fondant? Well, that left a little to be desired. I still haven't gotten down the whole covering a cake in fondant thing...

I saw every mistake, like I always do. But I have to say I was pretty proud of it considering it was a first attempt. And the birthday boy loved it, so that's all that matters. :)

Oh, and at the last minute, he told his mom that his classmates needed some of "Cara-Bell's" cupcakes (this is his mom's nick-name for me). So I threw together a couple dozen cuppies with icing that matched the hat and some colorful sprinkles.


Enjoy!

Birthday Cuppies

Fourteen years ago, my life changed forever. I spent the first 15 years of my life with only a MUCH older brother in the sibling department. My half-brother was 19 years older than my and had already left the home when I was born. But fourteen years ago, as of Monday, I was blessed with a baby sister.
Rachel and I are as different as night and day. With so many years between us, we often disagree. And with so many years between us, there is a fine, fine line between sister and parent for me, which drives her exceedingly crazy.
But she blesses me so much. I'm so crazy about her. She's growing into a fine young lady. She has her moments (what 14 year old doesn't?), but overall she is smart, funny, out-going, and truly cares about people.
When I asked her what she wanted for her birthday cake, all she would tell me was that she wanted light blue and light pink and chocolate cake. So, I had to get creative. This is what I came up with:

My sister loves music.

She sings like an angel.

She has recently taken up bowling, and plans to be on the bowling team when she goes to high school next year.

And she ALWAYS has her crazy pink iPod stuck in her ears (and turned up WAAAYYYY too loud).

She loved the cupcakes and the other small gifts I got her. And I was happy I was able to make her birthday a little more special, just like she's made my life more special.
I love you, Rachel.

New Creation, New Method

You all know I live in the South. :) And while many of the things you hear about the South are nothing but myth (YES, we have indoor plumbing. And shoes. And some of us even have college degrees! LOL), other things you may hear lean more toward being truth, than myth.
One of those things (at least where I grew up) is the plethora of camouflage that takes residence in the closets of most of us in the South.
Hunting and camo are pretty regular things in my area. I even had a teacher in 8th grade that actually took the first day of hunting season off work. Totally not lying about that. :P
Anyway, for sometime now, I've wanted to do a camo cake. I had seen some that I liked and some I didn't, but I'd never had anyone to make one for. Most of the people in my family aren't hunters. We have more fishermen.
A couple of weeks ago, I had an "emergency" text from a friend requesting a last minute cake for a child's birthday. And by last minute, I mean VERY last minute. It was about noon on Saturday and they needed it Sunday morning. Luckily, I had a free evening and the desire to bake, so I said yes and asked what kind of things the child was interested in.
As soon as the word "hunting" came out of her mouth, I knew what I wanted to do. Camo cake, here I come!

I understood the basic concept of getting the icing on there. I have learned almost everything I know about cake decorating from the website CakeCentral. I highly suggest it if you are at all interested in learning the art that is cake decorating.
I made my 5 icing colors (I am missing one of the bags in the picture) and got started. Basically, after filling the layers, and adding a crumb coat (a very thin layer of icing that you decorate over), I put the cake in the freezer for about 15 minutes.
When I took it out, I took the 4 camo colors and iced over the whole thing. This is what it looked like at that point:


Not very pretty, huh? I didn't think so either. LOL. I then used a method called the Viva method to smooth the icing out all over the cake.
And no camo is complete without hunting orange accents. So I took orange decorator gel with a small amount of red gel to give it the proper color. A put an orange border and letters on the cake and this is how it turned out:

It was surprisingly easy to make and everyone seemed to be really happy with it. So, mission accomplished. :)