Ian and Nick

My friend Nick, whom I have known since he was 3, has also graduated from high school this year, and I was asked to make the cake for him and his friend.  Nick and Ian's school colors are silver and blue, and wanted a vanilla cake....so here it is!  Congratulations, guys!

Flower Cake

I was asked to make a cake for a 50th anniversary celebration...50 years!  What an honor to make a cake for such an event!  This cake was a blast to make because it was only for 10 people, so the bottom is 8 inches and the top is a little 6 incher!    Its a vanilla cake with apricot filling and swiss meringue buttercream frosting.  Yum.  I was told that the flower for the 50th anniversary is the violet and the color is gold.  SO I made little fondant violets and put them all over the cake like they were spilling over from the top.  I also put a gold ribbon around the bottom of each tier.  I really enjoyed making the cake!

There it is!

Jungle Cake!

A friend of mind had a baby shower today and I was asked to make this cake!  A jungle themed cake to welcome little Evan Robert into the world!  I had so much fun making this cake.  It was the most fondant work I've done on my own and I just had a blast.  I didn't get a picture of the inside of the cake but when you cut into it, each tier is cut into three layers and the frosting between the layers was colored too.  One yellow and one green, and chocolate cake.  This made it not so hard to take apart and cut into after all my hard work, because I knew the inside was pretty too (and delicious, if I do say so myself).  So I took a bunch of pictures so you could see all of the elements and details.  Here they are, and congratulations, Cassie!

The CAKE!

 The BACK of the cake

The TOP of the cake, snake and all

 Mr. Giraffe

Monkey!

They call him the King of the Jungle.

The elephant is my favorite.

The tree on the back of the cake.

And the whole thing one more time...just for fun.

Isn't it fun!?!?

many cakes.

hello!  these are a bunch of cakes....some from class, some from orders.  i'm a little behind on uploading, so...prepare yourself.

This is a Chocolate Caramel Cake from class.  

Terrible writing..it was one of my first.

 Lemon Meringue Cake from Class

Chocolate Raspberry Cake

from Class

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Fondant Carrots

from Class

Vanilla Apricot Cake for a Baby Christening Order

3 Cakes for a Graduation Order

Diana and Lindsey's cakes are Chocolate and have blue frosting in the middle

and Nick's cake is vanilla with yellow frosting in the middle.

The graduation caps are made out of fondant!

Dummy Cake from Class

Fondant Airbrushed Flowers!

SO fun!

k i guess that's everything!  sorry for the backup!  these cakes have been keeping me busy!

read if you really want to, but don't expect much.

well, i guess i should blog about something. 

i have no one to talk to at the moment, but am feeling like i need to get some stuff out...so...here goes nothing.

sometimes i feel like i just say the same things over and over....my mind does that a lot, so that's pretty much just what comes out.  over....and over.......... i apologize.

well, my phone is dead.  it worked for a day.  then died completely.  also, my old phone is just sending texts in the middle of my typing them.  gosh i hate that phone.  i'm dwelling too much on this, i know.  but really.  the ONE phone i've ever liked.  ah, my brain.

my friend marcus has FINALLY arrived.  he travels a lot, so we only get him for a few months at a time once a year if we're lucky.  last time he was here was last summer for tracy and josh's wedding when piper was little....by little i mean younger than she is now, but way fatter.  she was a little leery of him for the first couple of days, but now loves him again.  thank goodness!  we're really glad that he's home.  we miss him when he's gone.  its nice to have a friend who always feels like he belongs.  you know what i mean?  sometimes you have friends that are just a lot of work.  you're always worried about them feeling awkward and not entertained enough or...whatever.  he's not like that though.  he just fits.  speaking of people that fit... uncle alex is on his way home!  he's had a rough end of the semester and we're really looking forward to welcoming him HOME.  he will arrive on friday night after spending some time in jersey for God knows what reason.  so....summer is here!  let the games begin!

i have a lot of cake orders coming up at the end of the month for graduations and baptisms and 50th anniversaries....7 cakes total, with some cookies and brownies and whatnot thrown in the mix.  woohoo!  i'm pretty excited to make them all, but i'm really having trouble organizing my time so that its not a HUGE deal for me to make a cake.  yes, its an art and it takes quite a bit of time...but i think maybe i'm in the wrong mindset about the whole thing.  i started my own business so that i could spend more time with piper (who is very close to walking...many many steps have been taken...just not a lot in a row).  BUT having your own business is a lot of work, and therefore takes a lot of time.  so i can't just expect that i'll have enough time to do all of my work when piper is asleep...its just not realistic.  i need to have people help me when i need help...i need someone to watch piper while i bake, or even while i just get myself organized!  i just need to accept the fact that i am only one person and i have kind of a lot going on.  i'm a single mom and i own my own business for starters.  i need help, and i need to learn how to ask for it and accept it because i just can't live like this anymore.  i'm tired of doing everything half way.  i need to do life well.  i just feel so unaccomplished, even though i'm getting things done.  i just know there is so much more.

okay i feel a little better.  now i just need to DO what i just decided for the hundredth time.

phew.

really!?!?

so i have this great new cell phone...got it about a month ago, after 2 years of the cell phone from hell.  its a really great flip phone...takes movies and everything.  i love it.

so i got back from being out all day, gave piper dinner, gave her a bath, read her a book, put her to bed around 6:45...the usual routine.  then, because i didn't have a chance to go on a run this morning, i got ready to go on a run.  since there were a pile of clean clothes on the stairs with my running clothes in it, i decided to just take of my clothes and change right there at the bottom of the stairs because it was easier....at the same time my mom came in the room to put some laundry in the wash, so i said...oh, here are my clothes.  thanks mom!

went out on a run...which was actually really great and i probably could have gone for another mile if i wasn't afraid of being outside in the dark (yes, i am from new hampshire, and i know i shouldn't be afraid of such things, but what can i say.).  i think the run went so well because i was afraid that i was going to be attacked by a bear the whole time, so the adrenaline kept me moving.  but seriously...running through the woods when the sun is setting is scary.  also, i swallowed a bug.  blagh.

got back from my run, got some gatorade, spilled some on the floor, wiped it up, went outside and walked around, stretched, came inside, decided to go down to camp to make beds so i didn't have to do it tomorrow morning, looked for my cell phone so that i could make a quick phone call first..........where is it?  oh no.  its not in the diaper bag.  its not in my room.  it was in my shorts.  my shorts are in the washer.  oh no.  yup.  i washed the only cell phone i have ever liked, and its probably ruined.  i of course have no insurance on it.  nooo...i'm too cheap for that.  also, i've never needed insurance on any of my other phones (all of which i hated, except for that one that made the cool noise when you opened and closed it...).

so.  my poor little phone was sitting under a heat lamp for 15 mins until i read something that said don't do that....right after i read something that said DO do that.  anyways.  now its in a baggy with rice...hopefully drying out.  if this doesn't work, i guess i'll have to switch back to my old phone.  also known as...the worst cell phone on the planet.

and it didn't make me feel any better when i read an article that said that 2000 people wash their cell phones every day (mostly men).  now i'm just lumped in a group with 1999 other idiots of the day.

oh, hey!

sorry, guys.  i've been busy.  and right now my computer is being lame.  BUT i just wanted to post a picture of the cake i just did for the owner of a fabulous burrito shop in downtown laconia called Burrito Me.  His wife had a surprise 30th birthday party for him and asked me to make the cake!  She wanted Happy Birthday Aaron to look like the Burrito Me logo, so i took my first venture into fondant lettering...which btw is a pain in the butt.  but does look nice.  basically i found a font that was similar to the burrito me font, printed out "happy birthday aaron" on the computer, cut those letters out of the paper with an exacto knife, THEN cut the letters out in fondant and let it dry before i put it on the cake!  the swirlies are also a part of the logo.  top layer vanilla, bottom layer chocolate, chocolate and vanilla swiss meringue buttercream for the frosting and the filling.  it was quite delicious if i do say so myself!  here it is!

and check out the Burrito Me facebook page to see their logo so you can compare!

I had a ton of fun doing this (with a little bit of frustration and a very little bit of sleep), but the end result was totally worth it.  Thank you, Mandy, Aaron, and Remy for ordering!

p.s. this is a sample box I put together for someone...

spicy chocolate brownie, chocolate dipped shortbread, 

vegan chocolaty chocolate cookies, and lavender heart cookies

(half dozen of each cookie, and 3 brownies)

A custom sample box with 4 things in it like this costs around 30 dollars, depending on what you order.

thats all for now!

ALSO, piper is wearing pigtails and took 3 steps all by herself!  :)