Tinkerbell Two

It's been a slow month for cakes, which I actually don't mind. I've been fighting a bout of shingles (did you know you can get them WITHOUT the rash? Just the nasty, horrifying pain?), so it's been nice to be able to take it easy.

My third cake of the month (of three) was a request for a cake I had already done. The customer had found my page, looked at my cakes, and then requested this one! That was a first for me - normally I get requests to copy other baker's cakes, not my own!

I think the second version turned out better than the first. Although that could be because I lot more experience under my belt now.

Oil Rig Cake

Whenever a customer brings me a photo and asks me to recreate it, I always, always try to find the original baker. That way, I can give credit where credit is due.

My customer this week brought me a picture of this cake for her husband's birthday. I had seen it before, but never had cause to find the owner. But once I did, I had a new favorite cake artist to follow! Go visit Christie's Cakes to see the original oil rig cakes, and tons of others I'm now in love with.

Monster High

It would be fair to say that my daughters and I really ♥ off the wall cartoons, like Ruby Gloom, The Corpse Bride, and of course, Monster High. I guess not everyone is as obsessed as we are, since this is the first Monster High cake I've ever been asked to do. We were all delighted, naturally.

The only thing that would have made it better? A bigger, more detailed order :-)

Fairy Cake

I didn't have any cake orders this weekend, which gave me the chance to do this cake. I've had the idea stuck in my head since I bought the doll for my daughter six months ago!

As you can imagine, I have TONS more photos of her. But sometimes one is just right. :-)

TGIM

"You know you're a cake baker when you love Monday, and dread Friday"

I personally love Monday because that's when I get to post pictures of my cakes from the weekend! 

This weekend I did two cakes, one of which was for a new friend of mine, who LOVES birthdays as much as I do, and insists on day long party festivities for the ladies she works with. This one was for her boss, who is also the local veterinarian. They told me "Do something pretty. With pink, purple and blue. And brownie." 

The brownie part is a funny story...a few months ago she ordered a cake from the grocery store where I work, and I ended up being the one to do the order. But being new, I didn't realize that the brownies we sell come in half-sheet sizes, just like the cakes. So I made her "cake" out of solid brownie. They ended up falling in love with it though, so now all of their cakes MUST be brownie! 

PS - if you've seen this cake before, I suspect it's because Corrie from CorrieCakes invaded my body while I was decorating. You'll notice this is not my usual style...

The second cake of the weekend is now my new favorite cake of the year. Partly because I had a topsy-turvy cake finally turn out with the right dimensions, and partly because of the content:

The Nightmare Before Christmas!!

(One of my most favorite movies EVER)

This is the original cake, from Cassandra Bakes Cakes: 

 And here is my cake:

You'll have to excuse the grainy, blurry, tiny photos. This is the best one - thank goodness the customer not only took photos with a good camera (in contrast to my phone camera), but was also kind enough to send me copies!

So use your imagination with the rest. Normally I take photos at home, before the cake goes anywhere. But...Jack and all those pumpkins were NOT riding on the cake all the way from my house to where he was delivered! 

(30+ miles on my lap while my long-suffering husband drove very slowly and carefully )

 Look at those sharp corners and tipsy angles!!

I resisted wearing my Nightmare Before Christmas shirt to the delivery. That seemed a little over the top.

Happy Birthday Dutch!

 I know what you're thinking

"Oh no, not another superhero cake"

But this one is special! (I know, I say that about every single cake)

This one, though, was for my friend's son Dutch, for his 3rd birthday. His mom, my friend, has been a firm supporter of my cake habit since the very beginning. She ordered Dutch's 2nd birthday cake from me, even though at that point I had only done six cakes, and later on a graduation cake for her intern.

I hope I get to do Dutch's cake next year too! (And the year after that, and the one after that...)

Plus...it was my first Spiderman cake :-)

Teaching

I know I said the last baby shower cake was my favorite of the year, but now it has to share top honors with this one. I just can't stand how much I love it, from the perfectly spaced polka dots and stripes (which my obsessive nature just adores), to the pretty letters, to the google-eyed alligator that my cake minion husband made. (If you missed it, he's a fondant animal genius.)

And one of the best parts is that as I made it, I was teaching a friend how to do it herself. She wanted to learn how to decorate fondant cakes, and I wanted a new friend to bond with over cake. So when she agreed to help plan a baby shower for a friend of hers, a beautiful opportunity for cake awesomeness was born.