The Cake So Good...It Ate Itself

One of my favorite women turned 50 this month and I was asked to make something simple and elegant to help her celebrate this milestone birthday.  After throwing a few ideas around we settled on this layered velvet cake covered in rosettes of cream cheese icing.  The cake was light, moist and delicious and the icing was absolutely divine.  Unfortunately, it was so delicious it decided to eat itself i.e., collapse and I had to remake it in just a few hours.  

After a few tears of disappointment from me and a little rushing, the cake was delivered directly to the restaurant, in order to make it in time for dessert.  Everyone enjoyed the cake and I was told, "That cake didn't stand a chance!"  Check out all the photos below.

Original Cake

Once it started to eat itself...

The Remake

The remains...

89th Birthday Cake

Last month my grandmother turned 89 years old and I had the pleasure of making her birthday cake. I chose the coffee cup because for as long as I can remember she's collected coffee cups and the colors are bright and bold, just like my grandmother.

Rainbow Cupcakes

This assortment of cupcakes included vanilla, sweet potato and strawberry cupcakes. They were made for a baby shower with a primary color theme, so I swirled a little color in the icing.

Happy Birthday in Blue &White

This simple birthday cake was made with red velvet cake, frosted with cream cheese icing and trimmed with blue and white cream cheese. Simple but tasty...

Snowman with Penguins

This is a cake I made for my very first cake competition. The mountain mountain was carved out of coconut cake and covered with homemade marshmallow fondant. The penguins were cake balls covered in chocolate with the eyes, beak and bows piped with icing. The snowman was carved from coconut cake, iced with cream cheese icing and coated in coconut. The original intent was for the snowman to have a hat, but the hat didn't make it.

Baby Grayden is Coming!

The theme of this shower was centered around feet and booties and I'm sure when baby Grayden makes his entrance into the world it won't be long for the happy parents hear the pitter patter of his little feet around the house.

This two-tiered cake was strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting covered in blue and white homemade fondant. The cake was then accented with fondant feet and hearts, trimmed with blue and white striped ribbon and topped with blue fondant baby Chuck Taylors.

Fall Wedding Cake

After 15 years my sister-in-law, Tameka, and her now husband, Kenny, decide to make things official and jump the broom. They had an intimate ceremony by a lake, then invited friends and family to their home to help them celebrate their union.

I was honored to make the cake for this event. This four tiered cake is iced in cream cheese frosting and decorated with fall colored silk flowers. The design was simple yet very elegant and the colors went well with the autumn weather.

Congratulations and good luck to the happy couple.

New Birth Celebration

Last year my mom was diagnosed with lymphoma and had to undergo a series of treatments.  A year ago tomorrow, she received a stem cell transplant and today, she lives a cancer free life.  The New Birth was a celebration of her renewed life and the love that exist for her.  Fortunately, my mom's bone marrow was healthy enough that her own could be harvested and a donor was not needed.  Unfortunately, many people diagnosed with lymphoma, leukemia, and other diseases await bone marrow matches that could potentially save their lives.  Becoming a donor is easy.  All it takes is to register and have your cells check with a quick cheek swab.  Check out http://www.marrow.org/Join/Join_the_Registry.aspx for information on how you can register to be a bone marrow donor and potentially save a life.

This past weekend I had the honor of making the cake for my mom's New Birth Celebration.  This cake was vanilla pound cake and chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting.  The cake was decorated purple and lime green, the colors of Hodgkins and Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma awareness.  Around the middle tier are the words survivor, faith, courage and strength.  Each of these words describe my mom and what it took for her to survive her journey with cancer.

Key Lime Cupcakes

Yum...key lime cupcakes...the perfect combination of sweet and tart.  These key lime cupcakes turned out great.  I think I've got a recipe that I'll write down now.  A little less lime juice and little more milk.  I kept the same key lime cream cheese frosting and topped them with a cute little lime zest curl...We have a WINNER!

Strawberry Cupcakes

These strawberry cupcakes are a nice tasty treat.  The strawberry cake is made using fresh strawberries then topped with strawberry cream cheese frosting and garnished with fresh strawberries.  This is one of my favorite desserts to eat.