Cavie Cake

My friend Kori had a birthday last week and since she loves her pups so much I made her a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel birthday cake.

Jackson, her dog, was the inspiration for the cake. They sort of resemble each other, except I think the cake also looks a bit like a bunny!

Leaning Tower of Crepes

I poured...and I flipped...and I stacked...for almost an hour! Sometimes it's true that good things are worth waiting for (and working for). When my one of my closest friends, Ryan, suggested that we make a crepe cake to help celebrate the move into his new house, I wasn't too sure what I was doing. Not only had I never made a crepe cake, but I had never heard of one either. It was a lot of work, but so worth it. The cake was about 25 crepes tall with a mascarpone cheese filling between each layer and then topped off with a nutella sauce. DELICIOUS!

Happy Turkey Day!

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving with lots of turkey and family time!

Cakes & Cut-Outs

So I have been really inspired by the latest Anthropologie catalog because their styling, photography, and overall mood is beautiful. I love their creative, nostalgic sets, and going through their catalog always makes me want to do a studio shoot. Although I’m not a supporter of copying a photographer’s style, I think that you can be inspired by their technique and occasionally incorporate certain elements into your own style. The below photos were inspired by a lot of different photographs and ideas. It was a mix between Anthropologie, favorite cookbooks, Sharon Core’s work, and ideas that have been hibernating in my mind. Initially, I wasn’t sure what the sets were going to look like, but I did know that I wanted something fresh, clean, and pretty. I wanted all of the elements in each picture to really showcase the cakes, not distract from them. So I started off by decorating the cakes and used them to kind of direct the set from there.

I think the photographs look better as a triptych because the images, compositions, and colors play off each other nicely.

And here are close-ups of the individual shots.

Jaws!

When I think of horror/scary movies, one person always comes to mind; our friend Bryan Wynia. He's obsessed with gore, guts, and overall disturbing special effects in movies, so it was natural when he announced his wedding date as Friday the 13th of November. It was also not surprising when he wanted me to make a Jaws-theme groom's cake for his wedding. Bryan is an extremely talented animator and sculptor, so I felt really intimidated by his request. So I took a day off work to devote to the monster and regularly asked Douglas for advice on the construction of the cake. After much deliberation, I decided that even though the cake was for a wedding, this was not a typical groom's cake and I should throw out any desire to make it look pretty or cute. I went all out and made the shark extra nasty with blood and a gross mouth. I think the cake was a hit and when the bride and groom cut into it, everyone was surprised by the shark meat (red velvet cake). Congratulations Bryan and Rachel and best wishes for a beautiful life together!

Knock, Knock. Who's There? Lemon Square.

I don't know what it is. Maybe it's the cooler weather or a need for just good food in general, but all of the sudden, I have the strongest urge to bake and cook everything from scratch. FROM SCRATCH??!!! Fresh fruits and veggies at the farmers' market have been calling my name and I've used that as an excuse to cook like crazy! I feel like a 1950's housewife...before you know it I'll be wearing pearls and heels in the kitchen! Although I am by no means a self-proclaimed chef, I can follow a recipe like no one's business, and occasionally I'll add my own little spin on it.

I found the lemon bars receipe on a neat blog called Cannelle et Vanille, but originally it's from Magnolia Bakery. Mmmm...Magnolia Bakery! I will say, it will be a LONG time before I make this again. Even though it was so delicious, it took me all afternoon to squeeze/zest the lemons and make that flakey crust. On the plus side, it made a ton of bars and it made the whole house smell like lemons!

Sinful Crepes

Occasionally, I'll wake up early on Sunday morning and make a big breakfast for me and my hubby. Last weekend I had the perfect reason to get up and get cooking! Kate, from Warm Olives and Cool Cocktails, was doing the neatest give away. Due to her enormous collection of cookbooks, she was giving them away to her blog viewers. This generous gesture did come with one stipulation; once you receive a cookbook, you have to make a recipe from it within 30 days and post it on your blog. I got my book, "Tempted: 150 Very Wicked Desserts", on a Thursday, and tried my first recipe on Sunday morning. Although I had a very hard time deciding what to make (everything looked delicious), I finally decided on chocolate and almond crepes. These were extra special because the recipe called for a brandy sauce, which I added raspberries and homemade whipped cream to. Although I don't typically eat chocolate for breakfast, this was absolutely DELICIOUS!!!! This cookbook definitely lives up to its name...the crepes were sinful! Thanks, Kate, for sharing your love for cooking and spreading around the love!

Money Cupcakes

When my co-worker asked her son what type of theme he wanted for his birthday party at school, he said one word, "money". I had to ponder this theme for a while and think about what type of money theme would appeal to a 10 year old. After all, I have never had a request to do any type of edible money treat. But after searching my favorite cake supply store, I found the cutest little dollar sign and money bag candy molds. The molds worked perfectly and here are my first money cupcakes!

Shower Cake in a Flood

The weather situation in Atlanta this past week has been a little scary. After over a week straight of rain, flash floods wreaked havoc on a number of people's homes and made driving anywhere not only dangerous, but time-consuming.

On Saturday, as I waded through ankle-deep water, holding a cake in one hand, and an umbrella in the other, I thought to myself, "This can't be good". Transporting multiple tiered cakes is never an easy task and is always guaranteed to be stressful, however, the torrential downpour and flash-flooding that has been occurring in Atlanta the past week definitely didn't help the situation! After squinting through a rain covered windshield and avoiding a wreck on the side of the interstate, I finally made it to my destination, cake in tact! Miracle of miracles! I was so thankful that the cake made it safely because not only was this cake meant for a bridal shower, but the shower host was my boss!

Cake Weekend

It rained both days this weekend, which in my opinion, is the perfect weather to make cakes. There's just something about hearing the rain, baking, and decorating that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy! Here are two cakes I worked on this weekend.

The first cake is key lime. Just a note to anyone that likes experimenting with ingredients. DO NOT use frozen juice concentrate to flavor your cakes! I don't know exactly what the culprit was, but I think that the corn syrup in the frozen lime concentrate made the cake have a raw texture. No matter how long I baked the cake, that texture just never went away! I didn't think it was possible to burn a raw cake, but I managed to do so. I ended up tossing the first cake and re-baking it with actual lime juice...WAY BETTER!

The second cake is a coconut cake (my favorite!) with rolled fondant. I used a tool to make the football texture and used white fondant for the rest of the details. Although I am not a football watcher, Douglas had football playing in the background to give me inspiration for this cake! Hehe!

Cake Storm

As cliche as the phrase is, it's funny how sometimes when it rains, it absolutely pours! In my case, it was a torrential flood of cake-making! In addition to working at SCAD and teaching my cake class, I made 4 cakes in the past 6 days! Although tiring, they were all so much fun and I was so happy to do them. So here we go....

Cake 1: I made a fun poker cake for my co-worker (and the SCAD mother hen), Theo. I posted that cake in my last blog.

Cake 2: Our friend, Jackie Lewis, had a birthday party over the weekend, and of course, I had to bring a cake! What's a birthday without a birthday cake??? I made her a little personal-sized 4" round cake with roses....simple and sweet!

Cake 3: To help my co-worker, Raymetta, celebrate her one year wedding anniversary, I made her and her husband a two tiered "wedding" cake. It was a white cake with hand-made light blue lilies and pearls. I loved that it was reminiscent of a little baby wedding cake!

Cake 4: I'm not sure how I have spent so many years living in the south and I have never come across "7 Minute Icing". Somehow, this delicious treat has slipped through my hands and only presented itself to me this past week. My supervisor wanted a 7 Minute Icing cake for her mother's birthday. Having never heard of this type of frosting, I was a little nervous to make it, to say the least. After all, the perfectionist in me wanted it to be flawless! I had no idea what it was supposed to look or taste like, but I forged ahead with my mixer in hand. I have to say, this frosting is absolutely delicious. I think it's best described as a mix between meringue and marshmallow fluff...how could you not love it? I decided to not be too ambitious with my first go around with this shiny icing, but I think overall it came out ok! I just decorated it with my left-over lilies and pearls, and voila!

Poker Cake

This week, one of my favorite co-workers, Theo, asked me to make a cake for her son's birthday. She was so sweet and let me do whatever cake my heart desired! Knowing that her son likes card games, I thought I would do a poker themed cake. Everything on the cake is edible and handmade. No cardboard playing cards or plastic poker chips for me!!!

Joe & Meghan's Wedding Cake

My good friend, Joe Spann, and his wife, Meghan, got married this weekend. I was able to give my favorite wedding gift to the couple...a wedding cake! 2 tiers were white and 2 were coconut, and by the time I left the reception, the cake was gone!!! Yum! I also had the pleasure of being their wedding photographer, so stay tuned for pictures!

First Blog Post!

Although I resisted for some time now, I figure it's time to start a blog! Living away from family and friends makes it hard to keep in touch and even harder to show people what I have been up to lately. I hope you enjoy the blog!!!

So I thought I would start with the most recent news. Last quarter I taught a cake design class at SCAD-Atlanta. Although I love both making cakes and photography, the two passions have never really crossed paths. So I thought, "Why not combine my two loves?!?". So I ended up creating an "art gallery" cake which features photos that I took in my cake class. My students were SO talented and I jumped at the opportunity to show off their work!

The cake was photographed for the SCAD archives and I thought the image would be stored and never be seen again. I had forgotten about the cake until this past Monday. When you go to the SCAD-Atlanta website, my cake image is the second slide that pops up! How fun! And today, I got a call from the SCAD printing department stating that SCAD wanted to use my image on their yearly issue of birthday cards! I thought that once my cake was eaten, it would never be seen again...guess I was wrong!