Anniversary Cookie Bouquet

My Aunt Debbie recently shared a photo of a cookie bouquet she ordered for my cousin's birthday and it reminded me that I never showed you this bouquet!


I made this one for my in-laws' 30th wedding anniversary a few weeks ago. The bouquet featured 2 champagne glasses, 3 red roses, 1 "Happy Anniversary" heart, and 1 bottle of champagne displaying the year 1981.

Then, my mother-in-law Leona wanted me to take a good picture of the 2 of them. Before you see the pictures, it's important for you to know that we were eating at Malio's Prime Steakhouse in Tampa. It's a fancy restaurant with spectacular food!

Ok, ignore my lack of camera skills in less than ideal photography conditions...

But I picked up the camera, counted to 3, and this is the shot I get:


Ok...let's try again...


Not a horrible shot, but why must we always pose with our alcoholic beverages? And J-Dawg (that's what I call my father-in-law) looks less than thrilled to be there. Third time's the charm, right?


Hm...maybe not...Ok, let's try ONE more time. We give Leona a little pep talk about calming down and looking "normal." I pick up the camera again, assured that this will be a good photo!


But, now we've lost J-Dawg...

I give up.

Diaper Bag Baby Shower Cake

Last weekend, Adam's mom threw us another baby shower! There were so many people there to talk to and so much good food to eat that I didn't take a single photo at the shower. Whoops! I can't believe it! So I have no new baby bump photos to share with you, but I do have a gazillion photos of the cake!

It's the first official cake for Mikaela from Mommy! In other words, I made it. I spent almost all day Friday working on it because I wanted it to be just perfect for her.

The cake itself was shaped like a giant diaper bag and had a layer of chocolate cake, a layer of vanilla cake, and guava filling. The baby shower was held at Cafe Nuevo in Tampa (yum!) so I thought it was appropriate to have guava filling.




I made a tag for the bag and wrote "Mikaela" on it so it looked like we were ready to drop her off at day care. Although, I don't know if she'll ever go to day care with 2 sets of grandparents dying to babysit. *wink*


And I made a couple of pairs of shoes using cutters from Cakes N'Supplies by Ximena. Love them! I made these late at night on Thursday so they came out a little sloppier than I'd hoped...I think my eyes had started going cross-eyed...but the cake wouldn't have been complete without them! In fact, Taylor, who came over to help me deliver the garbage truck cake & cookies, helped me by making the buttons and cutting out the Converse logos. Perfectly done!


Then I made a key teether set using another cutter from Cakes N'Supplies by Ximena. So cute! And I had to make some safety pins to represent the fact that we're going to use cloth diapers for Mikaela.


And after we finished putting all the accessories on the board, Taylor and I noticed a blank spot towards the back. Oh no! That will not do! But Taylor came to the rescue and made this adorable baby rattle to fill the spot!


My due date is only 7 weeks away now and we can't wait to meet Mikaela!

Contests: 1 To Enter, 1 To Help Me Win!

I've got a couple of contests to tell you about today!

First of all, if you've ever dabbled in cake decorating, enter your beach-themed cake into an online contest on Cakes We Bake by August 23, 2011. The rules of the contest can be found here. I just entered a cake Debbie and I did for a friend's wedding in early May:


After all the entries have been received, you'll have a chance to go back and "favorite" the ones you want to win! Good luck!

Secondly, I've entered a contest that I would LOVE to win! The contest is hosted by Elise Kersey Photography, and I had to submit my idea for a "dream photo shoot." Of course, mine involved our future baby, Mikaela, and baking!

Here's my idea:

"I just opened a custom cake shop, and I'm my happiest when I'm in the kitchen elbow-deep in cake batter or powdered sugar. The only thing that can top my fun time in the kitchen is spending time with my husband and our baby girl, Mikaela. I would love to capture some photos of me and Mikaela working on some sweets together in our home kitchen. I'm thinking they can be shot with a sort of vintage, home-style feel. Picture some old 1950s photos of women working in the kitchen...but we'll modernize it by adding some subtle color, softening the focus, and - of course - using my KitchenAid mixer! We'd have powdered sugar on our cheeks and noses, bare feet, matching aprons, and you can hear our giggles coming through the photo."

To help me win, just "like" my idea on the contest page on Facebook. Share it with your friends! The idea with the most "likes" gets extra entries in the random raffle drawing to choose the winner.

Garbage Truck Cake & Cookies

Last week, I had the privilege of making a cake and cookie favors for a very cute little boy's birthday.

Apparently, West is really into garbage trucks! He gets excited when they come to pick up his family's trash or recycling. In fact, the week of his birthday, they even let him help dump the recycling in the truck! How cool is that?!

So when his Mom contacted me to order his birthday cake, they (of course) wanted a garbage truck. We designed the cake based on photos of cakes she liked as well as photos of their local garbage truck. There were a few specific requests though. West wanted to make sure the cake had a front-end lift for garbage pick-up, not the traditional back loader, since that's what their local truck has. And he also preferred 3 wheels rather than 2. In addition, they wanted a yellow caution light on the top of the cake near the back, a number 4 somewhere on it, and "Happy 4th Birthday West!"



And you see that awesome logo "West Waste"? West's father made that logo, resembling their local trash pick-up company, to coordinate with West's Halloween costume last year. So the logo was a MUST on the cake!


The wheels were made of Rice Krispies Treats covered in fondant, but everything else you see is CAKE! The cake was covered with green or white buttercream and the decorations were done with fondant. And the cake flavor? Vanilla cake with Bavarian cream filling - yum!

West's Mom also ordered some garbage truck cookie favors for each of the party attendees. They were mini versions of the cake and were personalized with each person's name.


Look, it's like a momma truck and a baby truck!


Happy Birthday, West!

Redfish Groom's Cake

Here's a cake I decorated while still working up at Ms Debbie's Sugar Art earlier this year. And it was actually delivered to Clearwater Beach!


The cake was hand-carved, covered in fondant, and then airbrushed to add the color and detail typical of a Redfish.

Lego Pirate Cake

I posted another sneak peek on the Facebook Fan Page last week. Did you see it?! I thought the photo was a little more cryptic this time, but you guys were still able to guess! I'll have to get a little more creative in my photography in the future...


So, yes, it was a pirate ship cake. But not just any pirate ship! It was a Lego pirate ship made especially for Adam's youngest cousin, who just turned 7 and is absolutely obsessed with all things Lego.


The ship was carved out of cake and "wallpapered" with wood grain-printed edible paper fresh from my new PhotoFrost edible printing system. Now, before you all ask me, "Where did you find the amazing wood grain image???" Here's a secret: I just googled it! Here's the one I used, which came up with a search for "wooden planks."


I made a special mold using real Legos so that I could, in turn, create edible ones for the cake. And all the decorations (anchor, Lego people, sails, treasure map, etc) were made of gum paste.


In fact, Noah specifically requested that his "squid man" be driving the pirate ship. Now, I wasn't about to try to carve that detailed, tiny character from red gum paste so I simply made a mold of the real thing! The one you see in the picture above is made from gum paste. I am now in love with molding putty!

Noah's party was held at the local skating rink. I used to spend all day Saturday at the skating rink when I was growing up...*sigh* those were the days. And you know what? They still use the same fluorescent carpet on the walls! When we arrived at the party with the cake, the staff put it on a counter so skaters-by wouldn't damage it. Noah stood there staring at it for at least 15 minutes.


Then some random little boy walked up and Noah announced, "That's my birthday cake! My cousin made it!"



I think he liked it. What do you think?

Firetruck Cookies

A couple of days ago, I posted a sneak peek on Facebook of some cookies I was working on. It looked like this:


Did you guess what it was??? Yea, I guess it wasn't too hard to figure out...


The firetrucks were made for a sweet little boy's birthday. They were labeled with each party attendee's name and shipped out of town (arriving today). Happy Birthday, West!

Did you like the Sneak Peek game? I had fun with it! But maybe next time I'll make it a little more challenging...and maybe every once in a while I'll run it like a contest. I'm thinking the first correct guess wins a dozen cookies shipped directly to them. How does that sound? These Sneak Peek games and contests will only be announced on my Facebook Fan Page so be sure you "like" it so you can play!

Disney Wedding Favors

I've been a bad blogger. With trying to get Ph.D.-serts & Cakes set up for business, blogging just hasn't been on the top of my to-do list! But here are some photos of goodies I did a while ago for a friend's Disney wedding.

The Disney chefs did the wedding cake itself (and it was gorgeous), but I was honored to be asked to do the party favors!

Of course, there were Mickey Mouse cookies:


And Minnie Mouse cookies:


Here's the cute couple now!


And then they wanted cookies that said "...and they lived happily ever after." To make these, I covered the cookies with white Satin Ice fondant and let it harden. Then I wrote the message with edible food markers and piped a tiffany blue royal icing border. But the last step was probably the most important...a little sprinkling of Pixie Dust (aka Disco Dust)! Can you see it? These cookies looked magical!


But that's not all! They also wanted chocolate-dipped pretzel sticks - yum! Each guest received a pretzel dipped in white chocolate, milk chocolate, and dark chocolate. Is your mouth watering? All of a sudden, I'm craving one dipped in dark chocolate...


Oooo! I almost forgot! The last treat the guests got was Chess Bars!


If you've never had Chess Bars, I feel sorry for you. They are rich, decadent, sweet, and irresistible. I can't share my recipe because it was a family recipe I talked my friend into sharing, but I know you can find a similar recipe online. Oh, look! Here's one you can try! Hmmm...maybe I'll make some this week...


Wouldn't you love to be a guest at this wedding? Not only is it at Disney, but then you get pampered with all these goodies!

Congrats, Chris and Kate! "All you need is faith, trust, and pixie dust."

A Rainbow-Themed Baby Shower!

Last weekend, my Mom and sister, Robin, threw me an amazing rainbow-themed baby shower! The food was great (Pizza Gallery & Grill in Viera, FL), the games were fun, and the company was irreplaceable!

I have never been able to choose a favorite color because I love all colors! Colors are meant to compliment each other so why would you want to choose only one??? So when my sister picked the rainbow theme for the shower, I couldn't have been happier. One of my favorite parts of the decor was this rainbow jelly bean bar.


My crazy sister actually carried all these jelly beans on her flight with her from TX. HEAV-Y! But, oh so yummy.

My cousin Heather volunteered to make the shower cake, which turned out adorable and was also quite yummy! She even used the new Wilton edible paper decorations! And, since everyone was bringing me gifts, I felt like I should provide the party favors. Here's a shot of our colorful cake/favor table at the shower:


The favors included:
-Cupcakes topped with mini doughnuts (I bought this new Wilton pan at the annual Tent Sale.)


-Rainbow macarons (Not to be confused with macaroons, of which I have recently been guilty. Tutorial coming soon!)


-Baby candy sticks using this Wilton mold but I mounted them on Tutti Fruity candy sticks from Cracker Barrel instead of pretzels


-And lots and lots of decorated sugar cookies that looked like cupcakes, ice cream cones, lollipops, and dot strips


The table decorations were so cute, and I loved the Whirly Pops in the sequined Jelly Belly jars!


I have to tell you about the games we played because they were actually fun!

Birthday Cards for the Baby:
-While we were waiting for all the guests to arrive, we all made baby Mikaela birthday cards! Everyone was allowed to choose whichever year they wanted. The idea is that they were supposed to share a fond memory of themselves and/or me at that age. Or, they could give Mikaela some advice for that age. At first, it was hard to figure out what to write, but I'm so glad we did this! Mikaela now has birthday cards from her baby shower from age 1 to age 24! And they're all sealed so it will be fun to read them together as the years go by.

Gift Bingo:
-Robin pre-made bingo cards with things from our registry: diapers, swing, bouncer, Boppy, onesie, mittens, etc. While I opened gifts, the guests all played Bingo! I really liked this game because it kept people from focusing all the attention on me. I'm not a big fan of opening gifts in front of a crowd so this was a nice distraction. And, BONUS, one of the guests gets to win a prize!

Guess the Girth:
-And, of course, we played the Guess the Girth game. A ball of yarn was passed around and everyone cut off a segment they thought would fit perfectly around my baby bump. This game is always a fun one!


Amazingly, those are the best baby bump photos we got during the shower. Whoops! But here are my other 2 favorite photos from the day:

Grammy (my Mom), me & Mikaela, and Mimi (Adam's Mom)

And a photo with my beautiful sister, Robin.

*All photos without my watermark were taken by Julie from The Little Kitchen. Thanks, Julie! You're awesome!