My Happy 101 Award

Several days ago I received notification that I received a blog award from Sweet Elegance Cakes and Pink Little Cake. I have been super busy with a bridal show this past week, but I finally got a chance to sit down and figure out how to take care of my award's responsibilities.

* The rules of the award are:

1) Copy the award image into a post.

2) List 10 things that make you happy.

3) Tag 10 bloggers who brighten your day.

4) Put in a link to their blogs.

5) Notify the award receivers.

6) Recipients to link back to the sender's blog.

* Here are 10 things that make me happy:

1. My Husband

2. My Kitties

3. My Family

4. Watching Birds

5. Making Cakes

6. Making my customers happy

7. Working in my yard/garden

8. Cooking for my family

9. Going on Cruises

10. Making my house pretty

* 10 Blogs that ALWAYS Brighten my day!!

1. Cake Wrecks

2. Sweet Things

3. Pink Little Cake

4. Sweet Elegance

5. Crazy Cake Company

6. Cake Fixation

7. Fresh Local and Best

8. My Creative Way

9. Rafael's Cakes (this guy's only 16!)

10. Bakerella
 

Thanks so much for reading and for bestowing this award to my little blog! Pop back in on Tuesday for more cake action!

Sweet 16 Cake

It's been a while since I did a Sweet 16 cake, and I had big fun making this one! Sam and Kelsie were having their big bash together, and I got to provide the cake!

This one was fun all the way around. Tilty-wonky cake with swirlies, harlequin pattern, and funky retro circles. Some fun little hot pink fantasy flowers made everything really pop!

Discussion question for all the bakers out there: You'll notice the crystals on the curled wires (sometimes we use fondant balls on the end). I know I'm not the first to think of or use these, but do they have an official bakery name? Around the shop we just call them crystal (or fondant) "doomies".

Well, y'all have a great week, K?

Any Volunteers?

Last weekend I got the chance to do my first stadium cake. The groom wasn't looking for a scale model replica (thank goodness!) but he did want a visual approximation of Neyland Stadium, home of the Tennessee Volunteers. They wanted to make sure that all of the "fans" were orange and gray and guess what? I couldn't find a single vendor that could get me JUST orange and gray quins. So I put my poor husband to task with a piece of orange and gray fondant and a teeny tiny circle plunge cutter. He cut out circles for over 2 hours!

Carving out the "bowl" wasn't the easiest thing I ever did, but it wasn't as hard as I expected.

Speaking of hard, Chad and I are gearing up for a big wedding show in Chattanooga this Sunday. So much to do and so little time to do it in! If you're thinking about getting married and you're in the Chattanooga area, stop by the Chattanooga Trade Center on Sunday January 24th between Noon and 4pm and we'll give you a little snack!

Dogwood Branches and Lovebirds

This weekend we took this lovely cake to a new event hall. The Loose Cannon Art and Events Hall is a very nice little spot near downtown Chattanooga. Their style is very eclectic... I could totally see Chad and I having a party there!

This bridal cake is all buttercream with buttercream piped branches and gumpaste dogwood blossoms. I even molded the birdie toppers using one of my ceramic birdie knick-knacks.

I delivered a Tennessee Vols groom's cake along with it, but we'll save that one for next time, OK?

Have a great week!

Why So Curious?

This past weekend I made a cake for Tucker. You see, Tucker was turning one year old and he needed a very special cake. As I've said before, I LOVE making a child's first birthday cake.

As I look back on this picture, it would appear as though I reached deep into my bag of tricks on this cake. The hat is made from rice crispy treats, covered in fondant. The blue tier is buttercream with a modeling chocolate harlequin pattern. Curious George is also made from modeling chocolate, but isn't completely 2D... I used a technique I blogged about some time ago. A border of fondant pearls complete the tier.

For the bottom tier, we have the buttercream icing and the fondant pearls, but we also have balloons made from modeling chocolate with buttercream streamers. Chad found a Curious George font online and made an edible image that suited the cake quite well.

I think Tucker is starting his birthday celebrating on the right foot, don't you?

Rhinestone Wedding

This bride and groom (the same ones that wanted the upside down cake in the post below) had varied ideas about their bridal cake. They liked many different styles and designs. We decided to incorporate everything the bride like into one awesome wedding cake. We have square, round and octagonal cakes as well making use of quilted patterns, piped panels, and stripes. We even added some circles to compliment that crazy groom's cake!

But the bride also wanted some bling on this cake. She purchased the initial topped, but wanted a little something extra. Now, I like for everything on my cakes to be edible, but sometimes it just isn't technically or economically feasible. In this case, I found some rhinestone trimming in the ribbon section of my local hobby store. I used it as the border between tiers and it looked awesome!

As always, thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

Do Not Adjust Your Sets...

This post weekend I visited the fine folks at the Chattanoogan. This time my bride and groom had a very clear idea of what they wanted for their extreme groom's cake.

They wanted an upside-down cake!

Luckily, I had a whole year to plan and get ready for this one. Did I use it all? Of course I did!! I had my brother make another of his soon to be famous cake stands. A rod screws into the base and runs through the center of the entire cake. Small clamps attach just above tier 1 and tier 2 to provide about an inch of clearance, as well as supporting the weight of tier above.

The topper was made using triangles cut from modeling chocolate and dusted with various luster dusts. I think it turned out really cute, don't you?

The Poppies... The Poppies!

Happy 2010 Everyone! I rang in the New Year by delivering this cake to a happy couple that were getting married just as the ball dropped at midnight on New Year's Eve. What a special time to get married (I imagine that husband will NEVER forget their anniversary)!

This cake is a simple 3 tiered buttercream wedding cake, simply decorated with copper fondant bands and red gumpaste poppies. It was very elegant and striking. I plan on making a dummy cake based on this design for an upcoming bridal show.

It's another busy week here at the bakery so I'll keep this post shorter than I would like. Stop back in soon to hear more of my cake adventures!