Cake, cake, and more cakes!

September is an extra special month because it's my birthday month, too. Unfortunately, I have to leave the crazy, fun 20's and move on to the big 30's. Yup, I turned 30 this past week. I was such in a denial why do I have to turn 30?! I know its going to get better, fun and more challenges ahead.

Want to know how I spend my birthday?

I had the honored to make this special cake for this little boy, Luke. His mom contacted me the week ago about the theme of the party and send me the birthday invitation. Luke has been in the hospital due to digestion/intestine issues. It's just break my heart, how could one little body handle all the IV's, needle, and those medicine....

You can follow more about him on his parents' blog The team of the cake is Superhero Luke, here is what I came with:

  

This two tiered cake serves 30 adults. It's a 6" and an 8" round cake. I covered the cake with buttercream and fondant decorations. I also did a mini smash cake for Luke with similar theme, black, red dots and super hero logo on the top.

The next cake was my very first 3D Lakers cap! Crystal came last week and wanted to surprise her boyfriend with his favorite basketball team. I never make a cap cake, but I thought why not! It's a 10" round base - 3 layers of them. I also added in one layer 8" round and 1 layer 6 " round on top.This was a chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream. I crumbed coat the cake, let it sit a few hrs and then covered with fondant. I was getting frustrated with the purple fondant. At first, I didn't get the purple color that I wanted it. I just can messed up Lakers color!

It's such an iconic  team, everyone knows the exact purple color. I am pretty happy with the result, but next time I am going to use air brush instead of painting. What do you think?

Another challenge this week was damask cake.. word.. I bought the stencil last Summer break, but I haven't get a chance to make any cake with damask design.  It was a 1/2 sheet cake, serves 50 and covered with white fondant.  One thing that worried me was the white fondant and the black icing combo. It does look classy and elegant, but... I just never did this before! In my heart, please please... this black icing better be the right consistency, other wise I will have a zebra cake instead of damask at 2 AM in the morning! Hahah 

The inspiration for the cake was the baby shower invitation. It's a marble cake inside ( vanilla and chocolate) with vanilla buttercream icing.  Welcome Peanut Lawson!

This next cake was actually from the week before. Leslie came to the shop for a cake consultation. Her friend Monica is expecting a baby boy. I asked her if she has any particular design that she had in mind. She said no. So I asked her what are the party theme? Toy, duck, dots,...? and She said no there was no any particular theme, but she brought in the images of the party platters. I asked her which one was her favorite. She said crocodile. And I said... what about a crocodile cake? She said yes! 

Here is the cute "crocodile" cake:

This cake serves 30-35 adults and it was a chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream. It was covered with fondant. Don't be scared! Our fondant taste good, no it doesn't taste like rubber :)

On the side note, I hate turning down custom cakes order,... but I can only do so much in one day, in my tiny 300 sq ft kitchen.  My next wishes is to have a bigger kitchen.. no matter I have more assistants, but there wasn't any room to work. Oh I would also love to have freezer, dough sheeter, walk in cooler, personal office, proper working AC, and the list goes on!

I know I always want more and more! Is that a part of getting older?

Back to school and a little break

It's been hectic since school is back in session. I finally feel I am catching up with all the daily routine. This coming week, we are going to have a little BREAK! Yeahhhhh It's labor day weekend, and we had  a family event so we will be closing early on Saturday, September 4 at 2 PM. We will back on Tuesday, September 7,  2010 at 12 PM.

Here are few of my favorites from our last creations. The first one was "It' s a small world" baby shower cake and cookies.We used the baby shower invitation for the inspiration.The cake was a 10" round lemon and cream, covered with fondant. Some of you may ask why we are starting to cover our cake with fondant? Our fondant is yummy, it tastes like marshmallow, almost like the white part cream filling of oreo cookies. I promise you will like it. It's not Satin Ice Fondant. It's a little bit more expensive, but it taste delicious.

We put the hot air balloon on top, Oscar and Emmy (the couple's dog) are waiting patiently, a little Korean and Vietnamese girl are playing on the side of the cake. Love all the color combination on this cake, it's just too cute! We also made 50 hand iced cookies for their party favors. Congratulations Tammy and George! We can't wait to meet baby Gabriella.

The next one is "Party Animals First Birthday Cake." This was a two tiered cake (6" and 8") serves 30-35 adults, vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream and black bottom cake (chocolate cake with cream cheese and chocolate chip baked in and cream cheese buttercream). I love all the bright colors dot, stripes, cute animals inspired from the birthday party plate. Happy Birthday Watson!

Last but not least, Elmo is back! We made a few version of Elmo birthday cake in the past, so far this is my fav! It's simple, clean, and everything is edible. The cake was a 6" round red velvet with cream cheese buttercream, covered with yellow fondant. Happy Birthday Sienna!

Hope everyone had a good week and looking forward for the first UT football game this weekend!

Under Pressure!

Last week was a total whirlwind. My whole body was dying from baking, stacking, icing cakes and racing the time. Totally underpressure like the Queen lyrics! " Pressure pushing down on me Pressing down on you no man ask for Under pressure - that burns a building down Splits a family in two" Nah.. Ben and I still together :)

Ben always told me that I shouldn't over promised, but I told him I love challanges especially on the cake that I never made/know/ think about making it. I took a topsy turvy graduation cake order  that served 200 guests for the first time. The only thing I know about topsy turvy is "slanted" cake. That's it.

So what did I do? I researched on you tube, watching many topsy turvy tutorials and read cake blogs about topsy turvy cake. On top of all of this,  the cake will be picked up and delivered to Giddings which is one hour away from Austin. It has to be sturdy! Oh.. I also have to covered this cake with fondant. Mmmm,  I never covered cake with fondant bigger than 10" round and this 200 serving cake will have a 16" round. Anyway.. the more I think on how doing this cake the more streess I became. Honestly, I never seen pimple on my face since my teenager years! Guess what? I produced four this past weekend.

So, did I survived? Yeah.. I am pretty happy for the first time result. Will I do it again? Yes!! yes!! Now I know how to do it. Here it is:

From top to bottom 6" round strawberry shortcake, 10" round devils food chocolate, and 14" & 16" round red velvet with cream cheese frosting.

I am so glad that last week went well considering the all nighter, aching body, and last but not least my finger got stuck into pastry tip while washing it. I'll be back with this coming weekend celebration cakes (wine bottle, willy wonka, and fiesta cake).

Almost back to school!

Two weeks away before UT students and football seasons begin and I am already feeling the anxiety for this up coming school year for charity events, birthdays, weddings, baby showers and so on.... I do love challenges but too much .. is no fun! especially dealing with the heat, scheduling, and meeting cake deadlines - trying to remember every little details on what I need to put on the cake, delegating tasks for my assistants, do logistics for weekend delivery,  looking for the tape for cake box, and of course ruler and scissors are nowhere to be found when you need them. This week went by very fast and I am thankful that all cakes got done on time even though I was shorthanded.

Without further ado, here are few of my favorite cakes from this past week:

Paige's first birthday cake - it's a strawberry shortcake, vanilla cake with strawberry buttercream and fresh strawberry.

Yo Gabba Gabba Birthday cake for Carson and Foley - It's a vanilla cake with cream cheese and covered with classic American Buttercream

Cullen's first birthday cake, it's a 10" round (serves 30), 8" round (serves 20), and the tent (serves 12). I never made this cake shape, so I was a little stressed out. I am pretty happy with the final result! of course I always hope that I had more time so that I can do...this  or add that..

Layla's birthday cake was a 1/4 sheet chocolate cake (serves 20-25) with vanilla buttercream. I love the clean look and simplicity!

Luci turned three and had a cowboy theme party, so I thought a cute pink boots on top will be cute for her! I added farm animals around the side of the cake. Thanks for looking! I am anxious to make my first topsy turvy cake for 200 serving this weekend!

August is here finally !

This past week our calendar was full of fun birthday cakes. At least we got 16 birthdays on July 31st! My husband theory is parents want their babies to be born in July, so that they don't have to miss school calendar in August! Is that right? I think he was bias since his birthday is in July :)

Here is a few of my favorites, let's start from baby shower cakes:
The Truelove's is expecting another grandchildren. They are so sweet for sharing the special day with us.  The future grand dad came pick up the cake on Saturday and said, "Let me take the invitation back, so I can show how awesome the animals are on this cake!" Welcome blessing!

Monkey baby shower cake design's was inspired by the invitation. The cake was chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream and decorated with fondant accent.

An owl birthday cake for Kline was a blackbottom cake - a chocolate cake with cream cheese and chocolate chip baked in and cream cheese buttercream . Happy first birthday Kline!

A fiftieth "sorghum" birthday cake for Karl.  It's a red velvet cake and cream cheese buttercream. Do you wonder why sorghum?

Thanks for looking! I hope everyone starts with a fab Monday.

Hot hot hot!!

No doubt that the heat is killing me and the girls in the kitchen. My hubby even put a portable AC! I can feel the buttercream and fondant screaming in front of my face, " It's hot and sticky!"

It was a space shuttle for Taryn, the second we put the fondant on the cake... There you go fondant acted up! It looks like fondant has been running two miles with me outside in 100F!  I couldn't wait for nice cool fall weather.

The cake was devils food cake with chocolate buttercream. I just love the color combination. Taryn, we hope you had a great birthday!

Toys, Animals, and Sea Shells!

Well July 4th is over, we had a nice one day break and back to making fun birthday cakes! The first cake was for Hudson. It's a toy story theme, and he specifically requested for woody, buzz, slinky dog and pig. We didn't use fondant for these character, but we used the edible sugar paper instead to get the exact same look for the character - of course it's more economical and less labor intensive. Here is what the cake look like:

We absolutely love making first birthday cakes!  Both clients wanted somewhat elegant/modern cakes, but still with a fun animal  theme!

The next cake was for Maddy. It's a lady bug theme, an 8" round cake and a mini 2" round cake. We've been getting so many request for this tiny cake. Just come and ask us, we'll make it one very special cake for you son/daughter!

Next, a summer theme/beach birthday cake:

Last but not least a surprise birthday cake for one of our client! sssh she's going to be 87! Happy Birthday!!

Thank you for stopping by!