Hot Wheels Cake

Hot Wheels cake for Nathanial. Half-sheet vanilla cake with vanilla icing.
Images are Frozen Buttercream Transfers.

Tie-Dye Cake

Half-sheet of white velvet butter cake with vanilla. Vanilla buttercream.

Charis' Carnival Celebration

We had Charis' party the weekend before her 6th birthday. My friend Melissa, whose twin girls' birthday is a few days before Charis' birthday, asked us to celebrate Charis' big day with them, too, since they always do a big bash (the dad's birthday is the same day as Charis', too).


But before the party, the girls had to have a game of Twister.








Melissa took care of the majority of the planning and preparations for the carnival-style party. I took care of the cakes. All four of them.

Brenna asked for chocolate cake with vanilla icing. The cakes are 1/4 sheets (9x13) and the princesses are color flow.

Alexis wanted chocolate cake with chocolate icing.

Charis wanted strawberry cake with strawberry icing.

Randy's cake was vanilla cake with chocolate icing. We all joked I should have made a princess to go on his, too! (Carol finished up the border on this one for me while I went to do the million things I needed to accomplish!)

At the party there were balloons, a popcorn machine, games ...

And caricature drawings ...

Charis waits patiently as Emily has her caricature drawn.

And face painting ...

Esther went subtle with a flower on the cheek. All the other children did full-face images.

We laughed that Zoë's butterfly looked more like a voodoo mask.

There was a ring toss game ...

And potato sack races ...

Alexis, Charis, Brenna and Autumn prepare for the big race.

Esther "won" the potato sack race for the group of girls who wanted to participate. I say "won" because she got to the line first, but didn't know to cross it!

Can't forget the photo banner!

I think we'll join the circus after the kids go to college.

And cake ... lots and lots of cake ...

Charis, Brenna and Alexis -- all turning 6 -- blow out the candles on their cakes.

Our caricatures:

Charis' caricature.

Esther's picture.

I think Zoë's picture really captured her sassitude.

Mark's parents, Wendell and Carol.

Ours. One of the partygoers said mine makes me look like Felicity Huffman. I guess I have a new doppelgänger for Facebook!

Moving Up

The last few days have been a whirlwind of activity.

Amid everything else I was doing Wednesday (deliveries for Mark, baking, All-Star Reader Celebration for Charis), we were able to tour the school Esther will attend next year. It's a regular public school in our district, but it will be closer to the charter Charis and Zoë will be attending, it starts 25 minutes after the charter (instead of 5) so I'll have ample time to take all kids to school, and she'll be at the same school as a friend from the orphanage. Esther and her friend will have different teachers (which I think is a great idea), the ELD teacher seems very supportive, and the school supports our decision to retain Esther in third grade.

But we have a lot of work to do this summer to get her ready. I am SO GRATEFUL she was getting some schooling at the orphanage, but realistically, she's about two years behind. But she's a smart girl and will catch up.

Esther's last day of school was Thursday. She told me she was supposed to dress up as a super hero. OK. I'll buy that. (However, she had told me the day before she was supposed to bring blankets to school to make a tent. I happened to pick her up from school that day and saw no one with blankets. But no biggie.) So Thursday, Estee went to school as ...



Super E!

Thursday's schedule was another insane day. After taking Charis to school, I took Zoë to the dentist to have her third cavity filled. At first the dentist thought he'd have to do a pulpotomy (alternative to a root canal on baby teeth) on two of them, but thankfully the dentist was able to just fill them normally. Zoë handled it like a trooper! (It doesn't hurt that there was a TV on the ceiling either).

Then there was a little party at Charis' school for all the kids with summer birthdays. Then we had lunch at Chick-fil-A, where I ran into a friend and her daughter. Then a birthday party at the park for another friend. Then gymnastics. Then home to meet Esther off the bus.

And then there was caking to be done for Charis' graduation ceremony. I'm glad I waited until evening since we seemed to have skipped spring (we set a heat record for that day and we don't have A/C).

But cake, complete with a frosted Kinderbear, was made and stored in the chill chest. Half-sheet lemon cake with "Congratulations" written way too small. But at least it's spelled correctly and I won't end up on Cake Wrecks.



And then Charis' big day arrived. Kindergarten graduation. It seems like it was only a few weeks ago that I stood in her classroom, trying (and failing miserably) to hold back sobs as Mrs. Wright read "The Kissing Hand." Now my big girl is a first-grader. Sigh.






Esther, Zoë and Charis after graduation. (Esther fell off her bike a few days ago and and did a good job scraping up her arm).



Family shot

40th Birthday Cake for Sonja

Today is the 40th birthday of my sweet friend Sonja. Her husband Mike wanted me to make a cake for her -- grays and blacks and drab, with the words "Oh no, the big four-oh!" But I had to throw in some roses, so, of course, they're black. The lettering, leaves and trim are in gray with a hint of green.

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And, of course, they put 40 big black candles on the cake -- complete with fire extinguisher nearby!

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The cake is lemon poppyseed with raspberry filling, which was Sonja's request. It is two 9x13 layers stacked.

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This was my first cake since the girls have been home. Esther is very interested in what I was doing, so I'll get her involved when I'm not making a cake for someone else.

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(As a side note, Esther saw the "40" and said, "Oh, that's old." "Really?" I asked. "Is Mommy old?" "No," she said. So I told her that I'll be 40 at the end of this year. She laughed, ran outside, and yelled. "Yeah, that's old!" Turkey.)

Wedding Cakes for Larissa

These were for a friend's sister. It was my first wedding cake.


This is what I delivered (the florist was going to add the flowers before the reception). It's two layers of 12" chocolate cake and two layers of 8" chocolate, all covered with fondant and shimmer dust, with a brown ribbon. The cake board was covered like the cakes.


With the flowers.



White velvet 1/4 sheet with vanilla buttercream as a side cake. I don't know if the florist did anything with this one.

BIG Baby Shower Cake

That's big cake ... I don't know how big the baby is :)

I received a call Thursday about doing a last-minute cake for a baby shower. At first the woman I talked to thought it was for 15. No problem. Nope. Later she called back to say it's actually for 50! Yikes!

She wanted me to do something like the plates:

So we have two 12" rounds and 2 8" rounds of chocolate afterburn cake with vanilla buttercream. Accents are fondant and gumpaste.

It took me 15 hours to make this.

Happy Birthday, Captain Luke (arrrggghhhh)

The latest cake I've made for Emily and her family:


For her son, Luke, who recently turned 5, and who loves pirates.

Here are some of the cakes I have made for her kids this year:







And I expect I'll be making one for Noah when he arrives home from China, as well!

Speaking of China, Emily heads a foundation to help orphans in Henan Province. Emily wrote on her blog: Henan Kids International's purpose is to raise money and awareness for the orphans in Henan. The money raised goes for a variety of purposes: buying formula, training foster families, buying rocking chairs so that babies can be rocked, paying for surgeries for cleft lip and heart babies, buying winter clothes.

Please visit their site and see how you can help!

Sleeping Beauty Cake

Today I finished a Sleeping Beauty cake for my friend Emily's daughter, Amy.

The cake is white velvet with vanilla buttercream. Sleeping Beauty (dressed for Christmas, of course) was created with color flow (creates a hard image after drying several days). I then brushed her dress with shimmer dust. The roses are buttercream with white cake sparkles (like glitter flakes).

Caking

I was caking yesterday and this morning. Caking is a good description (whether or not it truly is a word) since it's so much more than just decorating. Baking. Cleaning. Cutting. Cleaning. Concocting. Cleaning. Cooling. Cleaning. Decorating. And a lot more cleaning. Especially when a certain little person is involved (and believe me, I need no help in the mess-making arena).

Charis always has to help me when I bake. I was supposed to have three paid cakes this weekend, but ended up with only one. But then I was asked to make dessert for our Friday night Bible study.

I was trying out a new recipe that, because of ingredients (spice, not alcohol), would not be appropriate for the children, so we made two cakes for Bible study. Charis added her ingredients, cracked her own eggs and decorated her cake. All I did was measure the ingredients, stack and frost the cakes.

She did everything else.

All in a tutu.


My camera battery was completely dead, so I took these first shots with my phone.

Charis and her finished product. It is a two-layer chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream. She added frosting apples and mini M&Ms.

Below is the spicy chocolate cake, which I am calling "Chocolate Afterburn," because that's exactly what it is. You get this nice sweet chocolate taste, then a few seconds later, the spice kicks in. It's really yummy. The vanilla buttercream tones down the spice, so I torted the cake (cut each layer in half) so that there was more frosting (but the reviews are mixed on whether or not that tamed it too much). The guinea pigs at Bible study Charis' teacher loved it. It's a keeper.

I was trying some techniques I learned a long time ago and haven't used (what better practice than on a free cake). I was doing a ruffle on the bottom border, but couldn't find the right tip (which later turned up in the same place I was looking -- don't you hate that?!?!?). And I was trying to do string work (that dark brown mess on the side). My icing was NOT the right consistency. More work to do. But it tasted good!

Below is a birthday cake I did. It's a three-layer chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream. The animals are FBT (frozen buttercream transfer). I haven't done FBT in a while and again, I am not pleased with how they turned out. I may go back to using candy melts.

There was a zebra, too, that I somehow managed to not get a picture of. Oh well, I REALLY didn't like how it turned out anyway. :)