How the Grinch Stole Christmas

"The Grinch hated Christmas - the whole Christmas season. Now, please don't ask why; no one quite knows the reason. It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight. Or it could be that his head wasn't screwed on just right. But I think that the most likely reason of all may have been that his heart was two sizes too small." or maybe, he knew not how to bake and no one had ever given him his very own cake!!! (yeah, I went there, haha)

I had a blast making this cake. Have I mentioned I love Dr. Seuss? Designing a cake after one of his books is never boring. The cakes are iced in buttercream, all decorations are hand sculpted out of fondant. The features on the Grinch and max (the dog) are hand painted with a food pen.

Forgotten-Forgive Me

I'm here! I'm here!

I wish I would of thought to post a note here sooner, alas' I decided to take a break from cake decorating back in January and never thought to post an explanation.
I started taking a handful of classes at my local community college (web design and creative writing!!) and trying to juggle life, school and my many hobbies was proving to be a tad difficult.
Forgive me for not providing an update sooner.

I checked my email today, the first time in over a month (I'm horrible! I know!) and realized I had let many fellow cake lovers down. Forgive me!!!!

I do have a few more pictures to update the blog with and I will get to posting those asap.
I am also taking cake orders again and will slowly begin to post here along the way.

Thank you for the sweet emails, comments and words of encouragement along the way. Thank you for continuing to support this crazy hobby of mine!!

GO GAMECOCKS!!!

This cake was a LOT of fun to make largely because...well, I'm a South Carolina Gamecocks fan!

This cake was actually a birthday cake, made for a guy that loves Gamecocks and Ralph Lauren Polo.
His daughter requested that I find a way to mix the two.
At first I thought it might be a bit of a challenge, but I was actually very pleased with how it turned out!

Here's a little peek into the "before" process of a cake:

Cocky (the Gamecocks mascot) was hand sculpted out of RK's, fondant and gum paste.

Cocky is always holding up the #1 sign! So this mini replica was no exception.

The polo images were actually hand painted on gum paste discs that I cut out and then allowed to air dry before drawing the images on. I actually looked at the image on a polo shirt that I own and just free handed it with edible markers (a very cool tool by the way!).

I used a toothpick to hand carve each of the feathers.

Birthday Bugs!

The birthday boy that received this cake is a bug fanatic!
He loves his insects (knows them all too).
So what better cake to make than one covered in bugs?
The bottom layer was yellow cake and actually my first attempt at a square cake! (Shocking, I know).
The tree stump layer was chocolate cake.
All of the bugs were made out of fondant.
The "ant hill" was crushed vanilla wafers and the spider web was gum paste.

My Little Pony Birthday Cake

I do not typically use any plastic toys on any of my cakes, in fact, this was the first time.

However, this cake was for my goddaughter and I wanted her to have the ability to keep the ponies after her cake was gone. Kind of a way to have her cake and her birthday present too.

The cake was chocolate and all decorations were fondant, royal icing and disco dust (besides the ponies of course).

Cake Wreck!!!!

I'm getting ready to post pictures of the latest cakes that I've made...and was going to just stick to posting the pictures and adding a little briefing about what materials were involved. You know, basically just do what I've been doing.
Then I remembered why I started this whole blog.
It really wasn't to showcase my cakes, nope. It was to showcase what I've learned, the trials and errors, the masterpieces and the epic failures, it was to blog about the journey this messy hobby takes me!
I've got to get back to my blog roots....therefore....
I've got to blog about a cake wreck I had over the weekend.

I took on the challenge of making two cakes and twenty four cupcakes last weekend, mistake number one (please remember, this is my hobby, I also have a full time job, a dog, a husband, and household chores!). I thought I had a pretty good head start come Wednesday. I had the fondant colored and ready. I had the cakes drawn out and designed on paper. I had all of my baking and decorating materials laid out. Thursday was looking good, I got started on the fondant decorations and had all of the cakes baked and in the freezer (one day I'll explain that whole process). Then Friday came around, my plan was to run to the supply store on my lunch break and get the boxes for the cakes and cupcakes, I also needed a color I did not have in disco dust. However, Friday was the day my work decided to treat us to lunch and I was unable to run my errand. This left me rushing to the cake supply story after work, rushing home to start the decorating process and packing my bags to drive over an hour to the upstate. Did I mention the cakes were for individuals that lived over an hour away?

I completed the cakes at...midnight! Packed the car, secured the cakes, and took off up the road. I did NOT pack any emergency cake fixing materials, mistake number two. When we arrived at my in-laws it was close to 2am. I was exhausted. I placed the cakes in a secure spot, high on a shelf, in a cool area, and went to bed.
We woke early Saturday morning to deliver the first cake. As I walked upstairs, groggy and sleep deprived, my sweet husband met me with a smile and then said the words I DREAD hearing "Uhmmm, a huge chunk of your cake fell".

"WHAT!!"
I ran over to survey the damage and he was correct. On one of the cakes, a my little pony cake, I had piped huge, white, fluffy clouds, out of butter cream icing. Apparently the icing, the drive and maybe the temperature were enough to cause the butter cream to actually slide right off of the cake. The cloud and all of the icing it took along with it were in a pile on the bottom of the cake box. I think I cried, I can't remember.
I also DID NOT take pictures...sorry.

We went to deliver the first cake, the whole time my mind was racing on how to fix my cake disaster, and on our way back it hit me. I had my husband run me to Michael's and I made my way to the cake section. I grabbed up a decorating bag, a coupler, and two different kinds of white icing (Wilton butter cream and duff's decorating icing in a bag). We rushed back to the cake and I did what I could to repair and save the cake. Thankfully, the cake that bit the dust was my best friends, little girls, cake. Therefore I was able to admit to my epic fail and then warn her that one cloud was not going to taste exactly like the others...because of course the rest of the clouds were made out of my homemade butter cream icing and the repaired cloud ended up being a mix of both icings I purchased at Michael's.

I learned a few lessons from this and I've actually started supporting my cakes a little differently now. I'll post about my new support structure later...until then, it's back to the kitchen for me! I have a cake due next week. I'll post pictures of both of the cakes I made last weekend asap.

Pink and Purple Dancing Monkey

The girly monkey was sculpted entirely out of fondant and gum paste. The cake was chocolate with homemade buttercream icing. The #1 was gum paste and disco dust. I also used disco dust on the crown and around the edges of the skirt.