Gage’s graduation party and cake were a huge success! He plays the piano and his mom gave him her piano as a graduation gift so that was the inspiration for his cake.
Gage with his cake and awards
Me with the cake
Dan worked so hard on the backyard I had to throw in a few photos of that! He got all this done in a week.
So I’ve complete just stopped making cakes, as you can tell from the tumble weeds blowing around on the blog. The first part of this year has been emotionally hard for me. Coming to terms with the fact that I wasn’t going to open up a cake shop was really harder than I thought and I just stopped making cakes. Some people reading this I’m sure are grinning with pleas. I know that if there is one thing people love more than success, it is seeing other people fail. Failure or not, I’ve survived and I’ve got a cake in the oven right now!
There have been some positives to not making cakes. First, I’ve lost over ten pounds and going strong. I never learned how to make cake and not eat it. Also cake is so time consuming when I was busy with cakes, I wouldn’t exercise and I would eat crap because I really didn’t feel like cooking. As I come out of retirement, that’s something that I have to work on. That being said, “Fat Friday’s” are officially dead. I’m going to try to focus cake business posts and practicing skills on smaller cakes (that I can take to work for other people to eat). Hopefully that strategy will help keep the pounds coming off. Second, I put all of my energy into getting a job and I landed a great one! I’m working at Georgia State University as the Social Media Ninja. It is a new position and there is lots of work to be done!
Actually, I was so burnt out on cakes that I made cakes last fall that I didn’t even post to the blog! Hopefully over the next few weeks I can get my act together and edit the videos of some of those cakes. As for the cake I’m making right, it is a graduation cake for Dan’s nephew Gage. We are having a graduation party for him this weekend. Dan has really gone all out fixing up our backyard. It looks awesome! We have a nice little oasis out there to relax in now.
So I’m back! Hopefully for a long time and I’ll you’ll be getting more cake related post!
Last week I made four cakes, yes four! The first one was the baby shower cake for my c0-worker Kimberly. This cake received mixed reviews. Some people thought it was adorable, some though it was creepy. Fair enough for my first attempt at a new technique. There are pictures of this cake under the photo tab at the top of the page if you haven’t seen it yet.
The second cake was for my co-workers daughter. She was graduating from her pre-school program. This was my first customer! I really struggled with this cake a little and it didn’t turn out exactly how I wanted it. I’m still trying to get the hang of gum paste. At first I wanted to make the little graduation cap out of gum paste, but I think it was the humidity that prevented that one. Then I tried to use a cup cake as the base and cover gram crackers with fondant as the cap. The fondant was home made marshmallow fondant and I really couldn’t get it spread thin enough. So the gram cracker top became very heavy. The cupcake base just looked too small and just not right. In the end I pulled the base and just had the cap flat on the cake. It looked cute and my co-worker liked it, but it just wasn’t what I had in mind. Even if it didn’t turn out the way I wanted it too, I’m sure it tasted good. It was yellow cake with a chocolate pudding filling and covered with chocolate buttercream.
Graduation 2009
Congratulations Ari!
The other two cakes I made can be seen on the photo page. My favorite cakes so far actually. For my mom’s birthday I made the chocolate covered strawberry one. It was very rich and delicious! It was chocolate cake, with two different fillings of chocolate mouse and strawberry jelly, then it was covered with chocolate buttercream. I melted some chocolate and spread it on top of the cake and let it drip down the side. Then I filled the top with the chocolate covered strawberries and topped it off with a sprinkle of edible glitter! Very simple and elegant with a VERY rich taste.
The last cake I made was the flower basket. This was for the class I’m taking at Micheal’s. I was so happy with the way it turned out, I absolutely love the basket weave. Even though there is a picture on the photo page, I think it warrens a second.
Basket of Flowers
This weekend I will be practicing more with Fondant! I’m very excited about this and I love the way it looks when it works. It is not easy to work with so if you can hear me screaming from my kitchen where every you are in the world, you will know why!
Have a great weekend everyone 🙂
rogerdanielstevens
tconigl1
Sweetie Cakes & Pies 