Happy Birthday Ray !!

Ray is a pilot, whose daughter goes to the same school as our kids. He's also a 49ers fan, so it only made sense to make him a 49ers airplane cake for his 40th birthday, right??
His wife said he was surprised and really enjoyed it, which is the best compliment I can possibly receive, and I have some more orders coming in the future from them too :)

Happy Birthday Ray !!

Happy 10th Tahnee!!

My wonderful niece turned 10, which made me feel so old. I don't know why, my daughter is the same exact age, but when my niece gets older I feel older. Hm.
Anyway, this year she wanted a Paris themed cake. She's the one who ordered the monkey cake a long time ago, which caught me off guard. So Paris, not too unusual.
She has always loved shoes, so I knew that a shoe box would be perfect for her. We were having a small family get together, so I couldn't go too crazy with size, anyway. But I also wanted to make her a cute handbag.
I made the shoe out of gumpaste, and on the box, I attemted to paint leopard spots for the first time. It's way harder than it looks!
Anyway she loved the cake, and I was really happy. Anything for my favorite niece!!
Love you T!! ~ XOXO

Harry Whoo's 50th

One of my husband's friends, Harry Whoo, turned 50. He's a very popular guy, a dj and an awesome photographer. A bunch of friends threw him a party in honor of his b-day at a park, with a hawaiian theme, who-aii 50, instead of hawaii 50, I thought it was really clever~
And although neither one of us could make it, I sent this cake with a friend to help celebrate.
This was the first "moving" cake I ever made, it took quite a bit of pre-planning, which is usually not my cup of tea. But, after a trip to Target and some brainstorming, I glued the cake board to the bottom of one of those spice turny thingees that i dismantled, and figured out how to create it.
This cake was huge, with enough for at least 150 to 200 people. It was two sheet cakes side by side, with a 14 inch round cake in the center. I cut out a hole in the center of the sheet cake rectangle first, then iced and covered it with fondant. Then I created the circular cake separately, and beveled the edge, iced and fondanted it. Then I drank a cup of coffee and stared at the two cakes for a while as I figured out how to macguyver the round one into the hole, finally settling on using loops of tooth floss to lower it down slowly. Hey, I never claimed to be a "good" structural planner. Besides, it worked!
The record, tone arm, and other buttons are all made out of gumpaste. Lucky for me, my husband is a dj, so I had a real turntable to use as a model. My hubby even signed the record too.
I heard that the cake was devoured, and that Harry enjoyed it :)

Andy's Cake

The last remaining member of the Foster cake family had his birthday, and Mandy, his wife, ordered a surprise cake. He's building a wine cellar in his office, so we thought it would be appropriate to make him a wine cake.
He loves German chocolate cake, so I had the honor of making that yucky filling with the coconut and pecans. It actually wasn't that bad. But the wine bottle is chocolate cake with chocolate ganache filling for the non-yucky filling lovers.
Happy Birthday Andy!! Hope it was a surprise!

Ravi's cake

Ravi emailed me and wanted a cake for his mother in law and very pregnant wife, Rashmi. He also asked that I include a stork with baby Ria in its pouch.
This cake was really fun to make, since I don't always get the chance to sculpt, which is my favorite thing to do in cake making.
I went to Google images and studied sari patterns, so I could paint the designs onto the pillows.
In the picture you can't really tell, the ladies' saris are different colors, one's more teal and one's more sky blue.
They were so nice, when we got there to deliver the cake they invited us in and gave us a soda, and talked with us for a while. Great people.
Congratulations !!! I'm sure little Ria has been welcomed into the world by now, and I hope you guys are having fun, hanging in there, and getting enough sleep in order to function :)

Congratulations Eric !!

My baby brother graduated from college. I still can't believe it!! It makes me feel so old, and a hundred times more proud of him. What a rockstar! Not only did he graduate, he moved out of mom and dads house and was living independently, paying bills, feeding his stomach, for four years! I feel as though the independence was more worth celebrating than the diploma.
Eric earned his B.S. in social ecology, which, when I googled it, sounded like an environmental kind of thing. Which is why I put the earth on the cake, and the little white dove.
Congrats Eric!! So proud of you !!
now go get a job ~

Kristie's 30th B-day

Kristie is my daughter's friend's sister. She's super nice, and a great teacher. I wish she had time to come to more school functions, because she seems like a really fun person to be around.
Anyway, Kristie's mom, Leanne, who is also super nice, asked me to make a cake for Kristie's 30th birthday. (I still can't believe Leanne had a baby 30 years ago, she must have been 10 when it happened).
Kristie asked for something pink with zebra stripes, and "girly".
I love the way this cake turned out, such a modern girly cake!!