Another Wedding & IPOD cake

Hi,
So this entry is going to be pretty short since I posted the majority of my projects for this week yesterday. I had 2 orders for today. One was an IPOD birthday cake for my pastor's son. The other is a cake and cupcakes for a wedding. The wedding cake and cupcakes were made with the reception luau theme in mind. The bride wanted flowers on each cupcake and butterflies on the cake.

Floral Wedding Cake/Cupcake Tower- 2 tier red velvet cake with cream cheese buttercream. Cupcakes are vanilla dusted with cocoa powder, triple chocolate fudge and lemon with key lime cream cheese buttercream. Various colored royal icing flowers sit on top each cupcake. Cake has wired butterflies and gumpaste flowers on top (orchid, lily, calla lily and jasmine). I made the cupcake tower as well. That was a big learning lesson and now the hubby and I know what to do differently.

IPOD Cake- Vanilla bean cake with White Chocolate buttercream filling. This cake was alot of fun to make. 

I was be posting Saturday night from New Jersey! Yeah! We will be picking up my sister in law for a couple of days before she starts school and visiting my god-daughter because she will be in another pageant! So I will have more pictures of 2 birthday cakes and my first event that I have planned (birthday party) plus cake and high heel cookie favors. I am sooo excited.

Peace & Blessings.

Weddings & Airplanes!

Hello once again,

So I have been able to blog more lately because I am learning to do my prep work for cakes earlier in the week so by the time I have to start baking cakes or cupcakes I have everything else prepared. It really helped me out last week with all of the orders I had and it also helped out a bit this week. For the past two weeks it has been really really busy for me and I love it! It lets me know that the local community is starting to find out about me :) So on to this week. First up was a cake I had to make for a couple that I did their wedding cake back in July. Due to the heat and having their wedding outdoors (which I warned them about) I had some issues with the bottom tier by the time I go to the venue and then the cake sat outdoors in the heat. Needless to say the fondant slid a little. I explained to her what happened and why the fondant slid. So because I am who I am and want all of my customers happy and coming back, I told her that I would do a smaller cake for at her choosing for free. So this is the cake, it was her husband who turned 25.

Butter cake with Vanilla Bean Buttercream Filling. The 2 & 5 were separate cakes that I attached to the square cake. 

The next cake was ordered from a repeat customer of mine. She is so easy to work with and gives me free reign as far as design is concern (which I love).

Strawberry Theme Birthday Cake- Strawberry cake with Strawberry Buttercream Filling. I made the strawberries on top from red fondant. The vines are dark chocolate with white dogwood flowers. This was my first time making fondant figures so I am really pleased with the way the strawberries came out. 

The next couple of pictures are from the order a customer picked up today for her sister's wedding. The wedding will be held in Maryland tomorrow. She preferred to take the cake and things down rather than have me deliver. The wedding's theme was red, blue and airplanes. This order was good size too one smaller cake (for the wedding party), sugar cookie favors and cupcakes for the guest. I love doing these kinds of orders because I am doing multiple things for one event and it shows off my skills. 

Airplane Wedding Cake- Triple Chocolate Fudge cake with Chocolate Ganache and Chocolate Buttercream fillings. The cake is decorated with blue and white compass roses on the sides. On top sits a little airplane that the couple wanted. A very talented fellow cake decorator did the plane for me since I am not that good with fondant figures yet. I had to put it together and think I did a pretty good job:)

Compass Rose Cupcakes- Matching cupcakes to the airplane wedding cake. Cupcakes were carrot, vanilla and chocolate. Topped with blue and white compass rose. 

Airplane Sugar Cookies- Vanilla sugar cookies decorated with red and blue royal icing. The cookies have the couples name and the wedding date on them. I made the favor tags as well. 

Cupcake Tower- I made this square tower to go put the cake and cupcakes on. 

I really wished that I could have set this up but I will have to wait for pictures so see how she set it up. I will be posting more pictures tomorrow after I deliver and set up a cupcake tower for another wedding. I also made some delicious cakes for my church's annual picnic for the baking contest. I also have a birthday cake to deliver as well. But I have GREAT news for everyone. Kima's Konfections is moving! Yes we have have been approved for a house in the city of York (we currently live in the township). It is up the street from a park on a quiet one way street. But the best thing to me is it has sooo much room! I will be able to have a dedicated room just for the business! Which means I can take on more customers! I am so excited and more updates will be coming soon with pictures. Move in date is set for sometime in October! 

Peace & Blessings

Updates & More Updates!!!

Hi!

Please excuse if this and the next blog entries are long because there is a lot I need to get caught up on. I have been super busy between all the orders for August I have and Jayden learning how to crawl and pull up on everything at the same time! I have been trying to bake and keep on eye on him at the same time. I also a wedding, birthday cakes and a huge muffin/cookie donation to a woman's empowerment conference last Saturday so this is the first time after recovering that I have been able to blog. So now before the rush begins for the week tomorrow, I decided to get at least an entry and some pictures up. So here we go!

Spongbob Cake- Top is Vanilla Bean with Chocolate Buttercream & Bottom is Chocolate with Peanut Butter Buttcream. Everything on the cake is edible except the wires shooting out of the top and Spongebob figures.A loyal repeat customer of mine ordered this cake for her daughter's birthday. Alix loved her cake.

Monster Truck Cake- Vanilla cake with Cookies-n-Cream Filling. A newer customer ordered this cake for her grandson's birthday. She was referred through the other bakery in York (we have a great working relationship with each other). I liked this cake because it was something different than the regular birthday cakes. 

A New Jersey customer ordered these cupcakes along with a matching cake for his daughter's birthday. The cupcakes are vanilla and chocolate covered in fondant in shades of turquoise and purple. I think added the fondant figures of necklaces, wands, hearts and flowers to reinforce the princess theme he was looking for. 

Little Monkey Cake- Red Velvet Cake with Vanilla Bean Buttercream. This customer wanted the cake to match the pattern on the plates and napkins she had for her son's party. So I made the fondant monkey and drew the face on with an edible marker. The monkey came out better than I expected and I love the challenge of trying to match birthday themes. 

Coach Theme Cake- Triple Chocolate Fudge with Chocolate Ganache Filling. My customer wanted a cake that represented her daughter's love of coach. Her daughter had a favorite purse that was purple with the coach signature on it. So I had came up with this design along with a design for an actual purse. She liked this one better. I think I will attempt this cake again in the shape of an actual purse once the wedding rush slows down a bit. 

Pink & Beige Birthday Cake- Amaretto cake with White Chocolate Buttercream. Another bakery referral (on vacation this time) client. She saw a similar cake I did for the bridal show I attended in the Spring and loved the look. I changed the colors to what she wanted and added the names of the birthday women along with Happy Birthday in Spanish and fondant flower on top. When I delivered it her and her daughter absolutely loved it!

This cake is my first cake covered entirely in buttercream. It was for a 50th wedding anniversary. They wanted to keep it very simple so I did. The flowers are dogwood in pink and white. The cake was chocolate with white chocolate buttercream filling and covered with chocolate buttercream. I still like fondant better :) 

Tool Box Cake- Pink Lemonade cake with Mango Buttercream Filling. This cake was made for my father in law's birthday. He is a handy man (quite good too) so my hubby wanted me to make a cake that included that theme and this is what I came up with. I am proud of this cake because it really came out looking like a tool box. The tools are made from chocolate. My father in law was quite surprised when he received on Saturday because he had no idea I had shipped him anything. I love surprises. 

So that is all for now.. I will be blogging again tomorrow night with pictures of cupcake creations. Until then..

Peace & Blessings.

Long Post Will Be Coming Soon...

Hi All!
I just wanted to let everyone that I will be posting a longer than usual post tomorrow due to all of the pictures I have to share over the last couple of weeks. I have been more and more local orders so that is where I have been... baking lots of things.... the next post after tomorrow won't be until Saturday night because I have a huge muffin donation, wedding and birthday due for Saturday.

Talk to you all tomorrow.

Peace & Blessings
Hakima

Cupcakes!!!

Hi Everyone!
I have been busy with weddings and booking weddings and cupcakes! I have been forgetting to take pictures of the last couple of wedding cakes trying to get them there on time. So I have to remember to take pictures before I leave for delivery. But I have been taking pictures of my new cupcake creations so I will be posting those. I also will be posting more pictures of some cookies I decorated, more pictures of cookies are coming they just take so much time to decorate. In other news.. I am a member of an online community called Cake Central where cakers and cake decorators get together and post forum posts about many different things. The one common thread I've seen lately has been clients either trying to negotiate on the price of the cake or coming with excuses in an effort to get some of their money back after they ate the cake. Now I for one think that this is crazy and thought it didn't happened but it does! I have read soooo many stories about how customers think decorator's cake cost too much and don't want to pay the balance and try to talk the price down. Now I understand cake is food but I'm pretty sure they don't do that to caterers in coming up with menus for their events or florists or even the photography.. so why do it to the cake decorator?? Our time is worth something just like everyone else and so is our art. Cake is edible art to me, it just burns me that everyone doesn't think that way and feels like we should be cheaper than what we are. I tell some customers that if they think I'm expensive call one of those bakeries where their pricing starts at $6.00 per slice or higher and then think how expensive I am. I know there are people out there they do appreciate good cake and the skill that goes into it. It's just a shame that everyone doesn't understand that.

I had to get that off my chest.. now for some pictures!

Orange Dreamsicle Cupcakes- Orange dreamsicle flavored cake with orange dreamsicle buttercream

Sample Cake Tasting- I always make cupcakes for tastings because it is easier and I can make extra for clients to take home. 

Tropical Breeze- Mango, Pineapple and Coconut flavored cake with a buttercream made of grenadine, mango, pineapple and tropical punch.

Rootbeer Cupcake- Rootbeer flavored cake with rootbeer buttercream

Vanilla White Chocolate- Vanilla cake with White Chocolate Mocha Buttercream

Raspberry- Raspberry cake with Lemon-Lime Buttercream

Chocolate Caramel- Triple Chocolate Fudge cake with Chocolate Caramel Buttercream, drizzled with Caramel Sauce and dusted with Cocoa Powder 

FYI: In Jayden news.. he is now crawling!!! Yes my 8 month old is crawling all over the house and pulling himself up on everything so he will be walking in no time. Time is flying by.. he is getting so big its crazy to think that just a couple of months ago he was so little and couldn't do anything. Babies are so amazing!

Peace & Blessings

Kima

Cakes & Cookie News!

Hello Again!
I have been a busy little bee trying to come up with new flavors, working on cakes and starting a new decorated cookie line. So I need to go back to last week with my delivery from last Friday when I delivered a groom's cake and matching sugar cookies. The bride to be wanted something that represented her fiance so she gave me a card from the game Magic The Gathering and wanted me to create a cake that looked like the card. Well I didn't disappoint and she was so happy! The cookies were a bit of a challenge in that up until this point I didn't do decorated sugar cookies. Well I was pleased with the way the came out but thought I could do better. So after checking on my favorite forum in the world..CakeCentral.com I decided that I could do cookies.. more about that later!

Vanilla bean cake with Chocolate Tuffle Filling

Sugar Cookies with Glace Icing and Fondant Accents

So now we fast forward to this week. I received two orders for July 4th related items and I decided to make some samples for my business class that I have been taking on Thursday nights at York College. I want to open up a shop at some point so I figure I should get as much knowledge in the business arena as possible hence the class:) The first order was for star sugar cookies. So I made 3 dozen little star cookies. The second order was for chocolate covered brownies. Then I baked up some mini cupcakes and chocolate covered strawberries for class. 

Star Cookies- sugar cookies with vanilla glace icing in red, white and blue. Decorated with USA, 4 and some dots. 

Chocolate covered Brownies- brownies hand dipped in red chocolate and decorated in red, white and blue glace icing.

Cinnamon Bun Mini Cupcakes & Chocolate/Caramel Mini Cupcakes- cinnamon cake with vanilla buttercream and sprinkled with cinnamon; triple chocolate fudge cake with chocolate/caramel buttercream and drizzled with caramel sauce

Raspberry Mini Cupcakes- Raspberry cake with Lemon buttercream

Chocolate covered Strawberries- dark and red chocolate covered strawberries in various designs

So now for the big news after some thinking and designing I am launching my own Konfection Cookie Line. Sugar based cookie (in various flavors) decorated to match a theme or event. I am working on some mock up cookies now so pictures will be coming over the next couple of days as I finish them. Also since summer is officially upon us I have some summer cupcake flavors that I will unveiling tomorrow. So until then...

Peace & Blessings

Kima

Birthday & Father's Day

Hi Guys!
So I have some orders last week that I waited to post until Father's Day because one order was for Father's Day. So the cake up on deck was the Father's day cake that my adorable god-daughter asked me to make for her father (my god-father). The cake is Lemon flavored with Vanilla bean buttercream filling. The cake is decorated in white fondant with yellow and copper colored circles. 

Next up is some cupcakes that I made for Father's Day. 6 were Cinnamon Bun Cupcakes and the 6 were Chocolate cupcakes.

   

Cinnamon Bun Cupcakes- Cinnamon infused cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream and topped with cinnamon 

Chocolate cupcakes with half chocolate buttercream and half vanilla buttercream.

Next is a birthday cake I made for a friend of mine. Her sister contacted me because my friend loves my cakes so she wanted to surprise her by having me make her birthday cake. 

Matching cupcakes- White Chocolate Cupcake with  Pink Vanilla Buttercream topped with Black Sprinkles

Pink & Black Fashion inspired Cake- White Chocolate cake with Vanilla Buttercream. Decorated with black fondant swirls, boots, handbags and high heel shoes. 

One of my repeat customers order another pineapple upside down cake for her husband for Father's Day since he loved the first one so much. I really appreciate it when customers come back and she is definitely a repeat customer because I will be making her daughter's birthday cake in July! 

8 inch Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

The order I made was a special one... for my husband who has been a great dad! I wanted to show him how much I appreciate him so I made him some handy man cupcakes!

Hand Man Cupcakes- Raspberry cupcake with Vanilla Buttercream topped with Blue fondant figures of hammer, screwdriver, drill, tape measure and the word handy man. 

Lastly I am trying to come up with different ways for packing. Here is one I am thinking about for specialty cakes; white tin containers. I also had a logo sticker made up. Please let me know what you think :) 

Until next time... Peace & Blessings