Wow! (Part 2)

To continue yesterday's post, I will start off with a Halloween order. For a little girl turning 3, I made a cute little 6" double layer cake with a bat just for her. Her Mom wanted a cutesy bat, nothing scary. I think she's pretty cute :)



Since Tristyn got a cake all for herself, I made a plateful of chocolate dipped pretzel rods, decorated with Halloween colors, and added some of the leftover pumpkin candies (from the pumpkin patch cake orders) to make it extra cute.



I also made LOTS of cake ball truffles!! They were having an all day birthday party, lots of people coming and going, so she wanted enough to feed everyone.





There were at least 80 on this plate!!




The next order was for a friend's anniversary. She wanted to surprise her husband with a small cake. When she first ordered it, she said she wanted something cute and simple, and I quote, "Like a 6" cake, half chocolate half pinapple cake with bright pink cotton candy icing, a fondant monkey on the top and little cake golf balls around the edge of it. Oh and can it say 'lets go boating'?"...I thought she was serious LOL!!! So, this is what I made instead...and by the way, it's red velvet, not half chocolate and half pineapple!




With the leftover batter I had from the red velvet cake, I tried something NEW. I had no idea how these would turn out, or how they would taste, and that's the important thing! But really, how can you go wrong with chocolate?!



They were a big hit! They tasted great and looked beautiful! I have made them a few times since, and even filled some with cream cheese icing, and WOW were those good!!


Next, I made a little girl's first birthday cake and smash cake. I had made this one before, only in boy colors. They are to match a party napkin, plate and decor set you can order. They turned out so cute! And the little girl completely demolished her smash cake!!





Next I did a set of pink and green cupcakes with the pretty little pearl candies on them for a baby shower! Those little candy pearls are popular! And I love them!




When I worked at Kroger, we did many, MANY Sponge Bob cakes, it almost became monotonous. Airbrush a cake yellow, slap some flotsam arms, legs, face, and the pants on him and call him D-O-N-E! So I was really excited to make one without the luxury of an airbrush machine or plastic pieces to complete Sponge Bob's square physique :) I was a little stumped with what I'd do about his nose. I thought about that for at least a week, and still didn't have a plan even when I started decorating the cake. Then it hit me like a ton of, well, pretzels! I colored some melted white chocolate yellow, and dipped a pretzel in several times, and, VOILA! I had a nose!



And lastly, I made another set of cupcakes for a girl at our church. She just had a sweet baby girl, and they had a Sip-n-See baby shower for her. These also had the pretty pearl candies on them, and sadly, I ran out while finishing the cupcakes! Only one sad little cupcake went without the pearls, so I guess it was ok :) You can see the invitation in the top part of the picture, I did my best to match the colors from it. They were pink, aqua, orange and green.




And now I think I am all caught up. I will be taking December off so I can spend my down time with my family and enjoy the holidays. I do have a few orders, but they will be the only ones I am taking for December. I will be back as of Jan. 1, 2011. If you need something, book a few weeks in advance because my weekends book up quickly! Thanks so much!

~Sara

Wow!

Has it really been 2 months since I last posted?? My goodness, time flies!! Well, I have been super busy, and I am anxious to show you what I've been up to :)

First, I made a little girl's first birthday cake, but it wasn't your ordinary theme! I loved her Mom's idea of something fall/Halloween-y themed, but not scary, so I came up with a pumpkin patch, and I used the little candy pumpkins and pretzel sticks to complete the look. It was great! And I even got an order a week later for the SAME cake for someone else (pics of that one will come later)! We joked that she started a trend :)



Next, I had a friend want me to make her girl's each a cake of their own for their birthdays, and cupcakes to share with the rest of the party. The girls are not twins, but their birthdays are close together. Such sweet little girls, too, and they are growing up way too fast!

The cakes really are both the same size, they just don't look like it here!






Here is the other pumpkin patch cake I made, (the second order I mentioned above). This one I added a bat to one corner.




The next order I had was for a set of 3 cakes for a bridal shower. My friend sent me a picture of the napkins that they would use at the shower...




And these are what I came up with...









They were a labor of love, I tell ya! I was really proud of how they all turned out; probably some of the most detailed work I've ever done :)



The next order was very, VERY special. A dear friend and her husband have been working on adopting for about a year. They had finished up all their paperwork, jumped through all the hoops they were told to jump through, yadda yadda yadda, and they get "the phone call" telling them that they were finally getting their little girl. My friend and I were already friends, but since I am adopted, I feel kind of connected to her somehow, just from the other side of things...I really hope that makes sense! Watching her become a new Mommy has been nothing short of amazing. Even though her circumstances were not the same as my parents circumstances, and her daughter's situation was not the same as mine, it gave me a new insight into what my parents went through, and how they felt. So, after her daughter was finally here, her friends had a baby shower for her, and since the little girl's favorite things are Mickey & Minnie Mouse, that's what kind of cake she wanted :) In the picture, the figurines were not placed on the stars because I didn't want them to fall over in transport, just use your imagination! (The name has been edited for privacy).



They also had some yummy chocolate dipped pretzel rods to go with their cake :)






Ok, that's got you updated to about the middle of October LOL! I will have to continue this post another day. Until then, thanks for checking in!!

~Sara

Some of my most recent cakes

Hi everyone :) Here's what I've been busy with the past couple of weekends!

First off, my little girl turned 3!! I can't even believe it - I'm a little sad. She is growing up SO fast, and I know as she gets older, the time will fly by even faster! I had a hard time deciding between Hello Kitty and Miss Spider and the Sunny Patch Kids. Hello Kitty won :) I was a huge Hello Kitty person when I was a little girl, so I made her the cake I would have loved to have as a child. It was a strawberry cake - pink, to match the colors of the cake :) She LOVED it!! It was a small 6" one layer cake since it was only the 3 of us celebrating this year. I have been so busy, I dropped the ball big time in organizing a party, but really, it turned out rather nice with just the 3 of us!!




A sweet friends of mine, Jeni, from Jeni Hendricks Photography wanted me to make a small cake for her daughter's 6th birthday, and some cake ball truffles. There was no theme or anything, just something cute. In the pictures you won't be able to see the entire cake, but it has flowers and a moon and stars on it. I thought it turned out really sweet :) **The third and fourth picture are ones that she took, and I love them!**











The next weekend I made a cake for one of my dearest friends for her baby shower. The baby's room is decorated in a Hawaiian / surfer motif, so she had a tropical baby shower. The top layer of the cake was pineapple flavored with a strawberry filling, and the bottom layer was vanilla flavored with strawberry filling. A hibiscus on top with a "grass skirt" (icing skirt LOL). All of the colors in the cake matched the colors in the nursery, too.



And here is the beautiful Mommy-to-be :)





A lady I know had seen some picture's of my daughter's 3rd birthday cake (the Hello Kitty one from above) and wanted me to make one for her 6 year old granddaughter. She went with the Hello Kitty traditional colors. Just before I took the cake to her, I ended up putting some edible glitter on the hair bow, and it was really cute! Made it sparkle :) I have not uploaded those pictures yet, or the ones of her granddaughters enjoying it, but if I get to it in the next day or so I will update this post with them. The cake was vanilla - that is my favorite flavor of the cakes that I make!!




I hope everyone has a nice weekend!! Thanks for checking in!!


~Sara

Lots to post! ~Picture Heavy~

I am a terrible blogger LOL! I thought that this blog would be easier to keep up with than my personal blog because I only write a small bit about each cake, but I was WRONG! Sorry it has been a while, thanks for sticking around :)

I have lots to show you! I have been very busy this past month or so, so this post will include everything I have done, lots of pictures.


1.) First off, FROGGIES! The one of cutest little guys I know turned one year old, I can't even believe it! He had a frog themed birthday (Ribbit Robert!). His sweet Mommy had seen some cupcakes I had done a year or so ago, and wanted some like those. Instead of piping black icing for eyes, I used M&M's, and they turned out great!





His little smash cake was decorated to match. As cute as it was, he HATED it! LOL! I guess when you are the birthday boy, you can decide that ice cream is better than cake...especially if you have never had sugar before!





2.) Next, I had the pleasure of making a wonderful friend's anniversary cake. She sent me a picture of their wedding cake, and wanted it to look like the top tier. (The roses are actually a deep purple, but my camera insists that they are blue!)



The next day, I delivered two baskets of cake ball truffles and chocolate dipped pretzels (the colors even matched their anniversary cake!) to her husband at his work. Her message to me that evening was, "My husband (the diabetic) could NOT put them down!".







3.) Next up was a baby shower. Lots of cupcakes! Some vanilla cupcakes with chocolate icing and colored sugar sprinkles on top, and chocolate cupcakes with colored icing and those wonderful sugar pearls that I love so much!!













4.) And then, I got to make the cutest Curious George cake and smash cake for a precious one year old little girl!





I just love this picture :)






** All of the above EXCEPT the Froggy cupcakes were all done in one weekend! As much as I love doing this, as much joy as it brings me to make people happy and see their faces when they see their cakes/treats, I will never do that to myself again LOL!! That was one stressful week and weekend! I am very proud of myself, though, it all got done and it was the quality type work I would have served to my own family. I lost some sleep, sure, but I'm a Mom...when do I NOT lose sleep :)



5.) The last one I'm going to post tonight was kind of a special order, something I wouldn't ordinarily do - a single smash cake. Since this lady is such a great customer of mine (not to mention, her little girl is gorgeous!), and has been such a pleasure to work with I made an exception. Thanks J, for letting me use this picture!


Thank you, also, Michael Frady Photography for the above picture! Great work!! If you are in the Houston area, you should give him a call :)

Hope you all have a wonderful Labor Day weekend! Stay safe!!

~Sara

P.S. I almost forgot to add...If you have not already, please visit my Facebook page, The Sweet Life ------> CLICK HERE :) Thanks!!

For my Sister-in-law

I made my sister-in-law's baby shower cake. Needless to say, I was just a little nervous about doing it. I wanted to make something that really made her special day *SPECIAL*. This was (part of) my gift to her. We don't have much, so we couldn't give her much, this was the least I could do. I wanted it to be perfect! The top tier was carrot cake, and the bottom tier was french vanilla, both with cream cheese icing.





~Sara

Skateboarding Half-Pipe Cake

This is one of the first cakes I made after Raia was born, when I started doing them from home. Not the best, I'll admit. I look back at this and see just how far I have come, and see how I would do it differently now. The half-pipe is made of mostly icing...yeah, that was tricky. The tall parts of it were two layers of cake, and all of the middle section is icing. I don't know what I was thinking LOL! If I were to do this cake today, I would either make the half-pipe out of Rice Krispie Treats, or I would carve it out of a frozen cake, and ice it quickly! Then I would eliminate that awful yellow stripe down the length of the half-pipe, or at least make it look better than that!




I really don't know why in the world I am posting this cake, other than to show how far I've come. It is one of my least favorites. If you were to order this cake, what would YOU want done differently about it?

~Sara

P.S.
If you could keep me in your thoughts and prayers this week, I'd appreciate it. First off, I am playing single parent this week while Nathan is in Canada for work. Second of all, and cake-wise, most importantly of all, my sister-in-law is having her baby shower this weekend, and I am making the cake. Please pray it turns out fabulous! I also have one other order (for the same day!), so I am going to be busy this week - and this kinda goes back to the single parenting thing. Pray that I can get it all done and that Raia will let me!! Thanks so much!! xoxox~