Jack's 1st Birthday

O how time flies....this time last year, I was moving into my new apartment, back in Indy after being in Bloomington for 7 years.  And, one year ago today, little Jack was born.  Jack is my boss's son, he and his wife's first child.  After seeing some of the other cakes I had done, Heather (Jack's mom) asked me about doing his first birthday cake.  Of course I said yes, and the theme....Monkeys!  Monkeys have been a bit of a theme for the first year of Jack's life, so it only seemed appropriate to have a monkey theme for his first birthday.

I started looking online to try and get some ideas, and the main ideas I saw just sort of fell short.  Most of what Heather and I found was based on one flat, character type pan, which was cute, but I knew I could do better.  Thanks to a little help from the Wilton forums, and a little creativity, we came up with a plan.  Here's the pics!

 To make the monkey, I used the Wilton stand up bear pan.  I moved the ears down a bit,  and added a cereal treat arm and banana which was covered in melting chocolate to give it a shine.  The face, feet, and belly were fondant.  

 Every baby needs a smash cake for their first birthday, so I used the mini bear pan and added fondant arms and legs to make him look a little more monkey like.  Moved his ears down too!

 Set-up at the party

 Happy Birthday Jack!

Angela's Baby Shower

Angela wanted her baby shower cake to not be too overly "baby" so we used some brighter colors, and kept the design playful, and added some edible glitter to make it sparkle a little.  It doesn't seem like it was that long ago, but in January I made little Layla's first birthday cake!  Pics to come soon of that one!

White cake, with white buttercream icing and marshmallow fondant decorations. 

Mom's 50th

This is a cake I made in 2009 for my mom's 50th birthday.  We went to Hawaii in August that year, and I think all of us were enamored with the beauty of everything there, especially the vegetation.  We planned a surprise 50th birthday party for mom, and decided to go with a tropical theme since her birthday is on New Year's Eve when it's usually colder than heck out.  It was a chocolate cake with buttercream icing, colored piping gel for the waterfall, graham cracker crumbs for the sand, and lots of orchids and palm-like vegetation.

Chris and Hannah's Wedding

In early February, my long time friend Chris called me somewhat out of the blue.  I didn't think anything of it at first, because we frequently just randomly call each other to check in and catch up.  After a few minutes of getting the skinny on recent happenings, he said " the reason I'm really calling is to see if you might be interested in making Hannah and my wedding cake."  I was a bit surprised at first.  Sure I worked in a bakery for years, and made several wedding cakes while there, but this was different.  This wasn't a template based cake that the customer just gets to pick a design and the colors, that gets made production style and sent off to a destination that I would never see, for people I have maybe met long enough to consult with to get the essential details.  This was one of my best friends, that I have known since we were about 6.  This would be for a wedding that I would be attending, 2 hours away, responsible for getting the cake there in one piece and making it exactly what they want.  I was very flattered that they asked me, and asked him to send me sort of what they were looking for before I committed to doing it.  After several emails, texts, and phone conversations, a plan was in place.  The design was simple and elegant.  After many hours of planning, baking and decorating, the cake was completed, transported, and set up.  The only thing left to do was wait to see if they liked it.  After the beautiful wedding, we headed to the reception hall, and anxiously awaited the arrival of the bride and groom.  Because I was sitting towards the back of the reception hall, I was one of the last through the receiving line.  Before I even got up to Chris and Hannah, Hannah saw me, rushed over with a huge smile on her face, gave me a big hug and said she loved the cake, it was exactly what she wanted.  I made it up to where both were standing, and got a big hug from Chris as well.  I was so happy they liked their cake, because again, this was my first wedding cake for a friend.  Below are some pictures!  

The Happy Couple

The Main Cake

The Full Set-up

A view from the top

The main cake was carrot with cream cheese filling.  The others were chocolate and white.  All had 3 10" layers, and were frosted with white buttercream, and decorated with black buttercream, ribbon, and artificial roses.