Once Upon a Time

Upon upon a time, and I do mean a LONG time ago, I got an order from a client that wanted a castle cake.  She was on a very limited budget, so she decided on a castle shaped sheet cake.

Now granted, my little business was still very new, and I wasn't as experienced as I am now, but I also didn't have any other orders that week.  So I worked extra hard on her cake, and even had my friend Rita help me with it.  It's certainly not perfect, but at the time it was probably the most difficult cake I had ever made.

And then the big day came; pick-up day.  The customer came in and we basically unveiled it like it was a new line of shoes!  And she said "Hmmm... that's nice".  What - nice?!?  I charged you for a basic sheet cake and I gave you this 3D castle cake!  That's got to be better than "Hmmm..." right?

I was SO crushed, but I still give clients a little extra from time to time.  You just have to realize that not every customer will be wowed by your work, even when you've given them way more cake than what they were expecting.  To us it's our livelihood, the outlet for our artistic passions, but to some it's just a birthday cake.

Have a great week!

Pirate Princess Birthday

If you have read my blog even on a semi-regular basis, then you've probably heard me mention my good friend Amanda from Divine Designs.  You probably haven't heard about her awesome daughter Kaeley, though.  She is such an angel, and she has a style all her own!

When I first talked to Amanda about Kaeley's cake, Kaeley's first cake ideas were "Monster Truck Princess" or "Pirate Princess".  How can you not get excited about either of those ideas?!?  As you can clearly see, we went with the Pirate Princess.

I got a sample of the plates that would be used at the party and made a modeling chocolate skull and crossbones topper using it as a reference.  The rest of the cake was decorated black, gray, and light pink accents on a hot pink buttercream base.

We also made some sugar and fondant gems for her birthday "loot" and I piped her name in bone letters.

All in all, I thought it turned out really cute and I'm sure that Kaeley was the prettiest pirate princess ever!