Bling Queen

Lil Miss Rylee had one cute cake! This was my first "free reign" cake, and honestly, I was lost! I've thought all along that being able to pick EVERYTHING about the cake would be easy. Boy howdy, was I wrong!!

I knew that Shane & Kaylee, Rylee's parents, had total trust in me to come up with something cute, but it was more nerve racking than having someone have something in mind, and wanted it exactly like that!

All in all it came together smoothly and I was very proud of my work! I think Rylee did too :)

How do you train your dragon?

Well, according to the movie...it can be done! This cake was for Dustin, which you will remember his sister Kym from a previous cake! Apparentley the movie is pretty cool...so cool that Dustin wanted it as his theme for his birthday cake!

The volcano on this cake looked pretty cool! Wish I could have seen it in action.

All the way to Chisolm Trail Park...

is where this cake traveled to. And survived with a few bumps! But was still in tact when I took it out of the box!

This cool cake was for Bekah, my crazy neighbor next door. Bekah's Mom, Gail, tells me all the time that Bekah is obsessed with my cakes, and couldn't wait until her birthday. She's told every friend she has about me, and has even tried drumming up some business. Bekah has been looking...and looking...and looking for the perfect cake. She FINALLY found it. She showed me what she wanted, and immediately I knew that it was perfect for her! She did good!

Bekah's party was at a lake outside of Waurika, Ok. Gail wanted me to deliver it, because Bekah would be so surprised. So that's what I did! Anything for that girl!! Tim and I made the drive and arrived and this really nice campground area. ( Chisholm Trail Park, look it up if your a camper) I think we totally caught them off guard when we came walking up the drive looking for them. Once I opened the box, Bekah went crazy! It was just what she wanted, a little different, but pretty much what we both had in mind!

Thanks Bekah for letting me make your foo-foo cake :)

Skull & Crossbones...

What can I say? I loved how this cake turned out! Very cool for a teenage girl!

Kym's Mom, Carie, contacted me via email about a cake for her 15th Birthday! Ive had this cake on the books for a couple of months, and couldn't wait to get it started!

This theme is very popular right now, so finding ideas for it was a Peace of Cake!

Thanks Carie for letting me make Kym's special cake!!! It Rocked!!

Avatar & Transformers

..is what Rayghan & Mason wanted!

I work with their Dad, and he mentioned to me that Rayghan wanted an Avatar cake. Neither of us had seen one, and wondered who he would get one from. So I offered to make the kiddos birthday cakes, that way they would both get what they wanted.

I searched for hours on end to find ideas for the Avatar cake, and came up empty handed. Thanks to Dylan for finding some Avatar figurines and to Tim for getting me a Air-Brush gun, the cake rocked! I got the color effect I wanted and turned out how I wanted it to!

Mr. Mason wanted Transformers! Peace of Cake, since I just did a Transformers cake a couple of weeks before. Mason liked the Bumblebee Transformer. So, his cake was yellow and black with a Mask airbrushed on the top of the cake. It's crazy how those guys are still kickin after all these years!!

I'm sure their cakes were a tasty treat after all that swimming they did at their party!!

Tyrannosaurus Rex?

No, but close! This one is for Rex who wanted a Transformers cake...again, according to his Mom!

Rex is Mackenzie's big brother. Jennifer tried and tried to persuade him into not having another Transformers birthday, as he did the year before. But he wasn't having any of that! He knew what he wanted, and went for it, and Mom finally gave in! Sound familiar? Sure does to me!

This was right up my alley! Dylan loved to play with Transformers when he was younger, and luckily still remembered the Auto-bots! For the life of me, I couldn't remember....hmm...seems to be happening more as I get older, but that's another blog :)

He picked a simple cake. Or I thought would be simple. Until I got to the masks. Looks easy, but looks are deceiving. After practicing night after night with gumpaste & fondant, I decided to draw em out. I did just that, and totally surprised myself. They turned out really good, and went well with the cake!

Rex loved the cake, just mentioned that he wanted it bigger! Haha!! Sorry to let ya down Rex , but Mom did have a say in that!

Can you do the Hula?

I can! Peace of Cake style!

Ms. Bentley, Dylan's homeroom teacher, sent a note home with a pic of a cake she was needing for Kyla. It was cute! Almost to the point where I didn't think I could pull it off. I studied that pic for weeks. Finally got the plans in my head and knew that it would turn out just the way she wanted it!

It's a 2 tier, fondant covered cake on a stand, giving it a 3 tier cake illusion. It's a Hula-Girl, complete with a fondant bikini top! Too cute!

Rock-A-Hula-Baby!

Lil Ladybug

Facebook is wonderful!! Not only for catching up with old friends, but as well as having people see your work and asking you to make a cake for their lil ladybug!

Its a small world! We all know that. Jennifer grew up with Tim, lives 2 houses down from his parents, and we went to high school together. Her and I are FB friends, and she hit me up to make Mackenzie's cake. I was so excited. It was pretty much the first girly cake I got to make! Having 2 boys, I never get to do girly stuff! So I was pumped, and I LOVED the cake we picked!

This cake was made to match Mackenzie's invitations and party stuff! Matched perfectly!!

Jennifer's lil ladybug loved it!

Like Mother.... Like Son

That's not how the saying normally goes, but in this case it does!

So its a school night and Dylan comes and tells me that he has a project due the next day. No problem right? Considering I have craft supplies galore, we could make something up quick. But wait.....this project had to be edible! Hold up! Its 8pm, and we have to make a project thats edible. Oh the joys of being a parent to a 5th grader!

We decide that all we have to make up quick is a cake. Had to be edible, State Fair theme and Dylan had to do it all on his own!

So....off he went! Mixed up his cake, made his buttercream, fondant and decorations! He did it all on his own, and did it better than I could have! I offered tips, but he had it in his head what he wanted this cake to look like. I found my place in the kitchen real fast.....sitting back and just watching.

His cake was a Picnic Table with a Blue Ribbon on it. Turned out AWESOME!! I was so proud that hes watched me enough to know what to do, and how he wanted to do it!

He took it to school the next day, and everyone goo-goo'd and gaw-gaw'd over it. He even got his pic in the 5th grade cookbook!!

Dylan never ceases to amaze us! We are so blessed and proud!!

Great Job Dylan!! I may have to hire this boy someday!!

Take it to da bank!

And thats just what I did with this cake!

To make someones day, all you need is to hand deliver them a cool cake to share with their co-workers!

I made Belinda, my mother-in-law, a Zebra-Initial cake! This was my first try at the Zebra print theme, which is SO popular right now. And I loved it! Almost put a C on it and had it for myself!

Belinda had no idea that I was making her something special. So on her birthday, I ran home on my lunch break, picked up the cake, and headed for the bank, where she works. I figured she would be on her lunch, but you know, nothing ever pans out the way you thought it would. I got off the elevator and looked through the glass doors and saw her sitting at her desk, just workin away! I walked in, and she double took me. She was totally caught off guard by me being there that she didn't even notice I had a cake in my arms! She finally saw it and was so surprised ! The look on her face was pure excitement! I'm so glad I had a part in making her day special!!

Hippity, Hoppity

Easter's a comin! Although I do try not to go overboard with my boys about the Easter Bunny, and make them realize the true meaning of Easter, we still needed a Easter Cake. Gotta have dessert right?

I made this for Easter Dinner with Tim's parents, and just to work with Gumpaste a little more!

I hand sculpted the Easter bunny. Wish I had a pic of my first bunny. He looked EVIL! So, a re-do was in order. This time, the lil guy turned out cute!

Stegall Shin-dig!

My lil cousin Derek got married! Finally he found someone that would put up with him! haha!! I love my cousin Derek, we were together all the time when we were younger. We'd stay at Grandmas house in the summer and fight over the chalkboard and who would get to sit in the middle in the front seat of Grandmas car! We'd sweet talk Grandma and Uncle Rufus into taking us to Lamar Park to play, or to Dairy Queen for "Nanner Splits". I'd say to this day, we are both pros at sweet talking! As you all know, we all grow up and we all grow apart! But with Derek and I, no matter how long its been since we've seen each other, I still consider him close, and always remember the "old days".

He can play guitar...I mean play....really good. He inherited the musical talent that I didn't from the Stegalls! And, I'm jealous. I can sing, play piano by ear (sorta :-p), but Ive always wanted to play the guitar. So yes, I'll admit, I'm jealous! :)

Long story short, his wife Jessica, picked out a cake she wanted. 3 separated tiers, heart shaped cake with "C" scrolls on the sides of the cake. Peace of Cake.....right? Sure, until I delivered the cake....to NOCONA! The Friday before the wedding I'd say the temp outside was a nice 70's. We had the house AC running because my ovens were working overtime! That night, a cold front came in. And we're talking COLD front! Saturday morning I woke up to sleet & freezing cold air! No bueno! So, we went from running the AC, to switching it over to heat all within a matter of 12 or so hours. By the time I got the cake to Nocona, my piping began to fall off. Literally, you could watch the cake, and watch it just fall! I was devastated beyond belief! I just wanted to hide in the bathroom and cry! But, I took an extra bag of black icing, and just re-did it. I wanted it to look as good as it did the night before, or at least as close as I could get it. Jessica and Derek liked it, and it did turn out the way she wanted it!

Derek is hard headed, and stubborn....and will always be that way. Jessica and I talked about a Grooms cake, and Derek was against it. So I did what I wanted to and made him a Fender Guitar cake. It turned out pretty cool. But the weather had its way with that cake as well! The strings wouldn't stay in the Royal Icing, I didn't have time to recover my cake boards, my fondant cracked.....but I just have to remind myself, that these are things that really I only noticed. My family loved everything and realized that I could really bake! haha!!

Congrats Derek & Jessica Stegall!!

Birthday fit for a Princess!

This is the order I got from Howmet. Ms. Jackie Jones' daughter was turning 1, and she wanted her a pink & purple girly cake! And she got it!

Downfall to this cake, buttercream only! I was just starting out, and hadn't mastered the Buttercream technique.....yet! Thanks to some emails back and forth to my Buttercream Queen, Tracey, I made it! Could have been better, could have been worse. But from what I hear, Jackie loved the cake. Topped it off with a Princess crown and viola, had a cake fit for a Princess!

Thanks Jackie! And thanks Tracey!!!! Buttercream Queen Lifesaver!!

Jade

Peace of Cake! Really! Jade wanted a cake with a peace of sign. Her sweet grandmother, Tommie, sent me a pic of a cake Jade had found and wanted it for her birthday! I tried to keep it as close to the pic I could, without copying someone elses work. And it turned out pretty close! I'm sure Jade had a great birthday judging by the pics I saw!

Thanks Tommie & Jade!!

Monday Night Boredom

This cake was just a cake. Tim & I were bored on a Monday night, and decided to make a cake. Didn't have any occasion or special event, or heck, anyone to eat it either! After making so many cakes, him & I don't even eat a bite of anything having to do with cake! Crazy huh?! Well, it wasn't hard to find someone to eat it! My father-in-law, Tim Sr. came to my rescue! Picked it up and hauled it to the feedlot...a.k.a. Howmet! Those folks will eat anything, especially something as yummy as cake!

Even paid off in the long run for me! I got a cake order out of it! Thanks Pappy!

Oh Brother...

is that really what you want?

Yep, my brother Greg wanted a Texas Flag cake! Peace of Cake!!

He LOVES German Chocolate Cake, so that's what he got! And a Texas Flag, he got that too! Not much to say about this cake except I played around with the idea of doing a harder, more intricate cake for him, but the more I talked to him and Mom, the more I learned he just wanted a plain Jane cake. Greg's a simple man, so this fit him perfectly! Oh, and his bathroom decor! Oh brother!

Baby Girl

This is a cake I did for a friend from High School. Her hubby races cars at the Drag Strip that Tim & I like to take the boys to! And...her hubby has a fast car, that my hubby drools over!

Anywho, she was throwing a Baby Shower and asked me to make a cake, just something simple with baby carriages.

I honestly have to say, that I was so caught up in the previous cake, that I really hadn't planned this one out. And by the time I got to her cake, everything had gone to crud. The fondant was dry, a couple of the corners had gotten water splashed on them, nothing was going my way. But it turned out simple, and cute! She seemed to like it. But definitely will think ahead of time, next time.

I have so many ideas for Baby Shower cakes right now, its insane! Hopefully someday, Ill get a chance to show em off!

60 Years and Counting...

This was my very first cake that people would eat. Not that all the others haven't been eaten, but this would actually be eaten by "other" people. By that I mean, other people than family! This cake was the cake that pretty much started it all! Tim's grandparents, Bro. Buddy & Jeanene Bryant were celebrating their 60th Wedding Anniversary! It was a surprise party and it turned out great!

We started this cake at 5:00 Friday evening, and finished about 6:00 am Saturday morning. Many shakes, shot nerves & tears later, the finished product turned out beautiful! I remember having to make a Wal-Mart run for Clear Vanilla & Chocolate Cake mix at about 1:30 am, and having a breakdown in the middle of the baking aisle because they didn't have the Clear Vanilla. I'll never forget the look on the lil night stockers face when he told me they didn't carry it. Poor guy probably thought about calling the State Hospital on a crazy lady in Powdered Sugar coated clothes, crying over vanilla! Luckily I found some in the Wilton section....so we were all good!

Finally got to bed, only to get up early to deliver a baby shower cake to Britany Schmidt! (Which is the next blog).

Anywho, my in-laws came to pick the cake & I up to take to the party location. My mother-in-law was taken back , I think anyways, on how great it turned out! Felt bad that we stayed up SO late working on it, but it was totally worth it! The guest's of honor loved it, friends and family all oo'd and aw'd over it!! I was honored to just be a part of their celebration! Here's to 60 years and counting!