Hi all!!

It's been a while since my last post so I thought I'd upload some of the cakes I worked on in my "blog" absence... LOL... Hope everyone had a really nice Valentine's Day =)

I've been pretty busy with cakes, family, the shop... Life, this year, has so far been a little hectic, but, thankfully we are taking a little well deserved time off the next couple of weeks to relax and decompress... No more cakes until March... I don't know what I'm going to do with myself for the next two weeks not having my hands in cake batter or buttercream, but, I think I'll manage somehow... Until my next post, enjoy just some of the cakes I did over the last few weeks...


Cinderella Inspired Birthday cake with matching cupcakes...



One of our Valentine's Day Cakes...



Chocolate Fondant 70th Birthday Cake...



Princess & The Frog Inspired Birthday Cake done for a very loyal repeat customer...



A Birthday/Baptism Cake-Completely edible gumpaste/fondant bow, buttercream stencil and solid chocolate picture frame...



My very first "special effects" cake... Done for a Groundhog Day 70th Birthday boy who always seems to have a broken cell phone... That is why this cell phone says "ERROR" and is smoking... LOL... Completely edible details...




Anyway, thanks for looking... HAPPY BAKING EVERYONE!!!

Happy New Year!

Ok, another short post, only because I am exhausted from all the holiday hoopla... For our family New Year's Eve party I was inspired, by SugarBelle's again, to make some adorable NYE cookies and then I threw some Key Lime cupcakes in for kicks... They all were a big hit!!

Well, without further adieux, here they are...

Jumbo Key Lime cupcakes with handmade 2012 Fondant toppers... YUM-O!!



SugarBelle's inspired sugar cookies with royal icing decoration (Both recipes are from SugarBelle's)
The recipe for the sugar cookies is probably the best I've tasted aside from the Ukrainian Sugar cookie recipe that I used for the St. Nicholas cookies last month... But, the biggest difference and greatest convenience is that you don't need to refrigerate the Sugarbelle's recipe at all!! Love that!



Well, anyway... January is light so far (thankfully!) I need a little time to recover from December's craziness... And, take some time for myself to get back into my training schedule for the half marathon... May 6th is fast approaching and I need to be ready!!

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season! Thank you for looking and HAPPY BAKING EVERYBODY!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Merry Christmas!!

I'll keep this short since I'm about ready to start wrapping Christmas gifts, but, I wanted to try and at least post the last post of 2011...

The last cake for the year went to The Ronald McDonald House, today, for their Annual Christmas Dinner... It was inspired by a Sharon Zambito design (Have I mentioned how much I love that lady?!?! She is freaking amazing!) I had a very light cake schedule this last week or so because I was busy baking cookies and a birthday cake for family... I didn't want to over do it because this is right around the time I'm usually hit with bronchitis, so I decided not to take too many orders... But, it is great that the last cake of 2011 is another donated cake to one of my very favorite charitable organizations!

Well, here it is... Almond cake (marbled with red and green on the inside) and fondant detail...




I'll call it the Oh Tannenbaum Cake... =)



Anyway, thank you for checking out the Chrsitmas cake... Hope you all have a blessed holiday season! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!! See you next year!!! =)

HAPPY BAKING EVERYBODY!!!

It's the Holiday Season...

Well, this passed weekend I had a bunch of stuff in the oven from Christmas sugar cookies to a great birthday cake for my Sister-in-law, Linda... First up the Christmas sugar cookies... I happened upon a great blog, SugarBelle's, featuring all kinds of sugar cookies and the most beautiful ways to decorate them... So I figured I'd try my had at detailing my cookies even further than I ever have... The result? Adorably cute cookies!!!


All plated up & ready to pack into tins:





Up Close of Santa's cute little face...




Once I had finished making and decorating the cookies (which took a few days because all that royal icing had to dry in segments to apply all the cutsie details!) I made my sister-in-law's birthday cake... Linda loves red wine so I wanted to make her a cake that I knew she would just love... I ordered a candy mold from, SugarEd Productions, so that I could make a wine bottle and then just went to town doing details of a cake wine crate, fondant grapes and a gumpaste magnolia... Well needless to say, Linda went nuts for her cake! I loved how it turned out so well that I almost didn't want to cut into it last night when she and my brothers-in-law came over for cake and coffee... But, all who were here, loved it! Inside was an almond pound cake, vanilla buttercream and a homemade raspberry filling... To die for!!


Chocolate wine bottle, gumpaste magnolia & fondant grapes... The only thing inedible is the glass--haven't found a sugar mold for that yet, but, I'm working on it...




Wine crate was completely edible... Happy Birthday, Linda!!!




I also did the Icing Smiles, Inc. cake this week for a very deserving family... I was put in contact with Karen Lemieux, the adoptive mother of 3 chronically ill children, who asked for a very specificly designed cake to celebrate her children's adoption. I was truly honored to be asked to make this cake and can't even imagine the endless, limitless love they have for these great kids! Thank you to Tracy Quinsberry for asking me to make this family a cake!


Karen (the mom) asked me for a 2 tier cake with all the family's names on it and a topper to represent the children that she and her husband, Charles, adopted... The result... the bottom (yellow) tier to represent Karen & Charles, the top tier to have 1 blue side and 3 pink sides to represent their 4 biological children and the topper, of course to represent their adopted children... I found the ribbon with all the colors that Karen wanted then based the design off of that...

When I went to deliver the cake up in Grove City, Karen & Charles met me with open arms and broad smiles! What a great couple! I wasn't able to meet with their children because they have been in and out of the hopsital, a lot, recently, so they said they would take lots of pictures of the kids with the cake and email them to me... I can't wait to see them! Anyway, here is a picture of the finished product... I'm so very excited to have been able to make this for this family! God bless them and keep them happy and healthy!!!





Anyway, Up Next: Christmas cakes for The Ronald McDonald House Christmas Party, A Christmas cake for our dinner and a New Year's Eve Celebration cake... Thank you for reading, HAPPY BAKING EVERYBODY!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
GOD BLESS YOU!!

Incredibly Busy Weekend... Thank Goodness It's Over...

I had 2 pretty labor intensive cakes this weekend, plus cookies for my son's pre-school class...

First up my neice's "Tangled" themed birthday cake... This cake took 3 days to make and was a stacking challenge... It was the first time I ever attempted to stack a smaller cake under a larger cake... After about 3 hours of going over the stacking process in my mind, going to Lowe's for sturdy wooden dowels and nerves of steel, I stacked the cake in about 25 minutes, sweating and holding my breath for what felt like the entire time... The result? An almost 2 1/2 foot cake of awesomeness that my neice (and her birthday party guests) loved! It was completely edible for the exception of the small piece of cardboard holding the RKT and fondant tile roof...






Second cake for the weekend was a golf themed cake I was commissioned to do from a fan in Chicago who was coming into Pittsburgh for the weekend. It was for his father's 60th birthday and I was asked to make a standing golfer figurine... Not something I'm used to creating, but, was able to accomplish is pretty good fashion. The cake was a fun one to do because I was finally able to do this theme. I've seen some really cute golf themed cakes online and I've been itching to make one... And, it turned out incredibly cute! I already received 3 emails from the clients and the recipient thanking me for such a fun, delicious cake.







The cookies I was asked to make were to be delivered to my son's pre-school class for their class on St. Nicholas. They have been learning about the St. in preparation for the holiday and the teacher wanted something to snack on during today's class... She gave me the specific cookie cutter she wanted me to use and a wonderful Ukrainian Sugar Cookie recipe that I am going to go to everytime I make sugar cookies from now on. The dough didn't puff up too much while baking and it held it's shape really well... The surprise ingredient in the mix was sour cream! Who knew.... but, it was a yummy cookie. I made some royal icing and decorated the cookies how the teacher asked me to and she was thrilled with them--and according to my son, so were his classmates =)



Up next, a "Dream Cake" for a deserving family with the Icing Smiles organization. I'm very excited to be doing my very first cake for Icing Smiles. Then another very special birthday cake is in the works for my amazingly wonderful sister-in-law, Linda... Shhhhh... the design is a secret, and will be the first of this design that I'm going to do, but, one I've been wanting to do for some time and now I have the opportunity to try my hand at it =) All I can say is that the one special request my brother-in-law had was to have raspberry filling inbetween the cake & buttercream layers... OKIE DOKIE!! Yummy!! This is one cake I actually get to enjoy myself... making birthday cakes for family does have that perk =)

Anyway, Thank you for looking, HAPPY BAKING EVERYONE!!!

Thanksgiving was extra special this year...

I am thankful for so many blessings in our life... My wonderful husband, our 2 wild, crazy & adorable little boys, our awesome families and friends, the fact that my dad's lung cancer is gone! So many things, how could I not give back to those who need something to lift their spirits??? When I started my cake business a few years ago I wanted to allot time every month to give back to one very special organization. The Ronald McDonald House Charities of Pittsburgh.

They offer wonderful support, a home-like familly atmosphere and most of all love during very difficult times in people's lives. They house the families of chronically and termanilly ill children, for free, while their loved one is being hospitalized. Where I come in is in the form of a monthly cake donation. It's a very small way to give back for all the wonderful things they did for the patients of the hospital I worked in before I became a stay at home mom... Once a month I take a cake for them to enjoy during their monthly family dinners... It is such a great joy to me to bring cakes & cupcakes to them that even my 5 year old son, Stephen, asks to come with me on the deliveries. This Thanksgiving, not only did I have my son, but, my wonderful sister-in-law, Linda came with me... Doing something for others truly made our Thanksgiving that much more special.

For their dessert I was thrilled to get inspiration from my cake mentor, Sharon Zambito. She had a 5 part Thanksgiving installment on her blog of different Thanksgiving dessert ideas and the Pumpkin Pilgrim Cake was an instant inspiration for The RMHC Thanksgiving meal... While Sharon made a mini version of the pumpkin cake, I did a full sized bundt cake version--let's just say that flipping a 10 pound cake to cover it with fondant takes nerves of steel, people!! =) But, the end result turned out absolutely adorable! And, the folks at the RMHC loved it so much they already sent their thank you note! Today is Sunday-3 days after Thanksgiving, and the note came in yesterday's mail... It just warmed my heart at how much they loved the cake...

Ok, drum roll... I know you've patiently waited to see how he turned out... FYI, I lovingly named him "Pilgrim Pete"... His little face just reminded me of my 2 1/2 year old, Pete, so much, that I had to give him a name =)


Ta da!!! May I introduce Pilgrim Pete... =)



2 full sized bundt cakes and 1-10" round cake made up the body...



Gingerbread cake with Cinnamon Spiced Vanilla Buttercream, covered and decorated with fondant/gumpaste details...



All in all "Pilgrim Pete" weighed in at about 15#'s! He was the cutest little thing and so freaking fun to make! Now I just have to come up with an even more amazing cake for their Christmas Party!!!

Hope you enjoyed this entry... If you want more step by step information on how to make this cake (mini or in my case HUGE!!) visit Sharon Zambito's blog @... http://sugaredblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/pilgrim-pumpkin.html

You won't be disappointed and this cake would make any Thanksgiving (Or Halloween, for that matter) centerpiece amazing!

Thank you for reading!! HAPPY BAKING EVERYBODY!!!

Another busy weekend!! Just got done with the cakes!

Well, it was another busy baking/decorating weekend with a Penguins Themed Groom's cake and an Angry Birds birthday cake (due on the same day!) I don't normally double book days, but, since my mom was in town and both my brother & my son have birthdays 1 week apart, we figured a little birthday party for the two of them would be nice so my mom could be here to celebrate them both...

Needless to say I'm exhausted from all the work-we are having a birthday party 2 hours after I deliver the groom's cake and I still haven't even started to clean up the house yet!! People will be arriving at 7pm and, oh boy, do I have a lot to do before that!! LOL... Well, at least it's just family coming and I know they don't care if the kid's toys are lying around or if my house isn't spotless... (even though I do!!)

Anyway, to the point... THE CAKES!! Well, I think that both of them turned out smashingly well!! Don't know which one I like better, so I'll just say they are both my favorites for the weekend!!! But, I'll let you guys be the judge =)

Angry Birds Birthday Cake...



Totally Edible elements...



Pittsburgh Penguins Groom's Cake Delivered to Heinz Field...



Everything is entirely edible, even "Iceburgh"... =)



Well, I have a few days off over the next couple of days... I'm going to rest up and get ready for a Golf Themed 60th birthday cake and my very first IcingSmiles.org Dream Cake that I'm doing for a very deserving family. I am thrilled to have been asked to donate my time and talents to such a wonderful organization! Cannot wait to meet the family and put smiles on their 2 children!!!

Anyway, thank you for checking out the latest cakes, hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!
HAPPY BAKING EVERYBODY!!!