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

Second Wedding Cake Order... plus new Equipment!!!

So I delivered my second wedding cake today. I loved the way it came out! My client Hong wanted a cherry blossom wedding cake because they were having a pink and white wedding. Him and his fiance are Asian and wanted something to reflect the heritage. So I made them a 4 tier round wedding cake in white fondant with pink/white cherry blossoms. The branches are brown colored vanilla buttercream.

I was also recently blessed with the money to bought some much needed equipment to expand my business so now I can do edible images and more complicated scroll work. I was able to get a Agbay cake leveler (which is a godsend because I get my cakes perfectly level now), Cricut Cake, Food Color printer ink and dedicated printer and a KitchenAid Artisan stand mixer! Now I would have given my left arm for the mixer itself, it makes baker so much quicker and easier. So you can imagine I was doing the happy dance all around the house when I was able to get everything else... it is Christmas in June for me!

 My beloved new mixer and its purple!!

So look forward to more cakes coming soon. I will be doing my family cake for my cousin Gensis's first birthday. It is going to be a candy themed cake (so much fun). Until then... Peace & Blessings

First Wedding Order Done!

Last weekend I had my first wedding to cater and it came out beautifully (with the help of the hubby)! The couple I had the pleasure of catering a dessert table for Jessica & Steven wanted a yellow and green nature themed table along with wedding cake. The cake was 3 tiers carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. The cake was covered in green fondant with yellow cherry blossoms. They wanted simple yet elegant and I think I achieved that look.

The dessert buffet was for 200 guests so I made a combination of brownies, cupcakes, cookie truffles and cake pops. The brownies were plain chocolate with a hint of vanilla and cinnamon which is my signature brownie. The cupcakes were cinnamon bun with cinnamon cream cheese filling and vanilla buttercream, lemon with lemon-lime buttercream, strawberry with lemon-lime buttercream, carrot with vanilla bean cream cheese buttercream, red velvet with vanilla bean cream cheese buttercream and chocolate chip with chocolate buttercream. The cookie truffles were chocolate oreo and golden oreo truffles. And the cake pops were strawberry, banana/chocolate, and white chocolate. Yummy!!!

 I will be blogging again on Saturday after the delivery of yet another wedding cake! Vanilla and raspberry cherry blossom... Until then peace and blessings!

Slow Period..

I haven't been blogging much lately because business has slowed down over the past two weeks. I really didn't have much scheduled but next week the rush starts again :) So this week I had a baby shower cake (my first request) and a candy buffet to do. The baby shower came out really cute though I really wanted the fondant accents to come out better.. oh well don't have to worry about that once I get my Cricut Cake! That thing looks great and will make my cakes look much better and will make decorating cakes go a lot faster. So the baby shower cake was pink with a baby bottle, safety pin, baby carriage and rattle on the top. The cake was lemon with strawberry filling and strawberry buttercream.

The other delivery I had today was for a candy buffet and cupcakes along with a small personal cake for a 5 year old. It had to be delivered to a skating rink. When I got there they didn't have an extra table for me to set up the buffet :( But I made it work nonetheless.. and I think it came out really cute. All the candy was blue, pink or purple to coordinate with Abby Cadabby (which is the birthday girl's favorite character right now). I also made goodie bags and personalized cupcake toppers. I used foam crowns and butterflies to add to the overall scheme of the table. This is my second candy buffet I have done so far and I learn from each one. This one took me longer to set up because of all the jars and candy involved. I can't wait till I get another order. I have a wedding with dessert buffet coming up so that is going to be so excited. Other than that nothing much is going on. Peace & Blessings. 

Bridal Show, More Orders & the Little Munchkin.....

I just got finished baking a pineapple upside-down cake and man that cake looks sooo good! It is for a customer's husband birthday tomorrow. He is from New Jersey :) and he misses the bakeries there so she contacted me! I felt so proud. Here is a picture.

Now don't that look delicious!

There is sooo much to talk about this week that this might be done in two parts. I'll start with today and work my way backwards. As you can see from the cake above that I was baking today. I also a friend of mine pick up a cake for her bridal shower. She wanted lemon and vanilla bean and she wanted it to have two tiers. She also wanted the cake to be a topsy turvy cake. Now I am a wiz at regular shaped cakes whether they are round, square, heart, etc.. this was my first topsy turvy cake. Now I have seen enough videos to know how to do this cake.. but with everything new something always goes wrong the first time. I made the top tier taller than the bottom tier which you would think doesn't matter but with these kinds of cakes it does. So I put the cake together got it fully decorated, go to bed last night and guess what happens when I wake up this morning... the cake shifted during the night so the weight was sitting all on one side of the cake. Of course I was not happy about this at all and was quite surprised because this has never happened to me before. I am perfectionist (being a Virgo and all) and it is my nature to work on things until I get them the way I want them. Well I was so disappointed because there was nothing I could shy of starting over and I just didn't have that kind of time. But at the same I realized that what I think are complete disasters.. other people don't see it or just don't care because the cake looks so good. So I told my friend what happened and told her to let me know how everything goes at her bridal shower. Here is a picture below:

Purple, White & Silver Topsy Turvy Cake

Going backwards.. this past Sunday I participated in a local bridal show in York. It took me three days to get ready for this show and even then I still felt like I needed more time because I didn't do everything I wanted to do. I did take pictures of what I did do and I am very proud of myself. I think my tables looked nice. I got lots of comments about my mini candy buffet and on my mini cupcakes I made as samples. I made strawberry with lemon bettercreme, pound cake with chocolate truffle and chocolate pound cake with white chocolate truffle. I also did two table raffles (for 6 cupcakes and 16 cake balls) and entered a 3 tiered cake into the show's raffle. The cake with chocolate cake with chocolate truffle filling  and vanilla bean with white chocolate truffle filling. It was very pretty. My hubby came along to help me and we even brought Jayden. He behaved himself for the most part, mainly I think because it was so much stuff to look at. I bought us t-shirts with my business name on them to wear and I also made my own table decorations and dummy cake to show off my cake skills. I got a chance to network with other local businesses and even got some interested brides as well :) It was alot of work to get ready for but I will definitely do it again. 

Big Giveaway Cake 

Mini Candy Buffet 

Mini Cupcake Tower

One side of Vendor table

Hubby & Jayden

Other side of table

Me @ my table

Going backwards once again... I had two deliveries to do last Saturday. One was for a 30th birthday and the other was for a bridal shower. The 30th birthday cake was chocolate cake with peanut butter buttercream. My client ordered the cake for her boyfriend and she wanted skulls and stars on the cake ( I just do what the ask) and she also wanted the cake to be covered in black fondant. At first I thought the combination of things on the cake would look crazy, but once I was done it didn't look to bad. The other cake was for my client's aunt was getting married and she wanted a simple yet blingy cake. So I suggested rhinestone banding around the tiers which the client absolutely loved! The cake was chocolate with mocha buttercream and pound cake with honey-cinnamon buttercream. When I dropped the cake off she was very happy. I feel so proud when my clients are happy with the cakes that I make for them. 

On the Jayden front. He has managed to roll over in whatever direction he sees fit. It is kind of funny. And he doesn't cry anymore when I give him tummy time. He used to cry all the time now, but I think he sees it as an opportunity to try to move which is what I want. He is also trying to sit up on his own. The little man really thinks he is grown because he wants to grab everything from my glasses to the television remote. Like today I had to get an oil change, so while I was waiting I was talking to one of the ladies that worked there and in the middle of my conversation he decides to snatch my glasses clean off my face. I fear that he may start walking sooner than I am ready for him. We haven't baby proofed the house yet because he isn't crawling but I know sooner rather than later we will have to do. He is also only waking one time during the night for a bottle and he is sleeping in his crib with no problems now! I thought he would never get to that point. A lot of people told me that once you let your child sleep in the bed with you, they don't want to leave. I didn't have that problem at all, Jayden decided one day that he wanted his own space and went right to sleep. Baby grow so fast, it seems like every week something new happens. He now laughs at me all the time and his laugh makes me laugh. I think I will stop here and pick it up tomorrow. Until then peace and blessings :)

Lots of Updates!

Once again I have fallen behind on my blogging :( It seems when I start to get into the groove I get busy and then I forget to blog. The main reason for my lag in blogging a little guy name Jayden. He has finally learned how to roll over so now I have to watch him whenever I place him down because he will just roll. I used to be able to place him on the couch do a couple of things while checking on him, now I can't do that anymore or the little man will end up on the floor. Bad for mommy and baby. He is also trying to slide around but mostly in a circle. He went from being non-mobile to the beginning stages of crawling like over night! He is also more vocal now, especially in his dislikes (i.e. when Mommy leaves the room)so I have been trying to find ways to keep him entertained while trying to clean the house, conducting business and baking cakes. But the big news is that he is finally sleeping on his own! Yah! Yah! And he is sleeping mostly through the night too! So it won't be long before he is sleeping all the way through the night.

On to the cakes:) So I have lots of pictures today since I haven't been blogging. I will post them below. So I finally have the picture of the shamrock 1st birthday cake. And I have a picture of the cute little munchkin it was for. She really loved her cake. I also have the picture of the little cake I did for my hubby's friend. Also in March I have pictures of the dessert buffet I did for my friend's bridal shower. Other pictures include cupcakes for my site. I am constantly making updates and revisions to my website as my business changes and I come up with better ideas to promote my business and to bring in more clients. So I have decided to start a new gourmet cake line for the more adventurous customer who likes exciting flavors combinations. In conjunction with the new line I am also running a cake giveaway for a 6" cake for the person who comes up with the most unique cake flavor combination. The giveaway ends on the 24th and the winner will be announced on the 25th. I am getting more and more local calls which is great and I think the bridal show that I am participating in this Sunday will bring in more customers. I have so much in my head that I will be blogging over the next couple of days to get it all out. So tomorrow I will be discussing my participating in the bridal show and what I plan on doing since this will be my first one. Today is all about my past cakes and cupcakes orders. I recently did a cupcake tree for a 7 year old birthday. The theme was hearts with lots of bright colors. So I made the cupcake tower, cupcakes and cupcake topper in the theme the client requested. The other big cake I got to do was for my sister in law. She turned 16 and we (hubby and I ) decided to surprise her with a big cake. I liked doing this because I had free range to do what I wanted to do so I made it square and round with zebra print and circles on it. She absolutely loved it and was soo surprised! I also made Oreo Truffles for one of my hubby's co-workers. Below are the pictures of the cakes/cupcakes. Enjoy!

Little Jayda enjoying her birthday cake.

 Shamrock 1st Birthday Cake

Dessert Buffet for Bridal Shower

Oreo Truffles

Heart Themed Cupcake Tower- 6" Strawberry Cake, Inside Outside Peanut Butter, Triple Vanilla & Red Velvet Cupcakes 

Sweet 16 Birthday Cake- Top tier Dark Chocolate and Vanilla Bean with Vanilla Bean Buttercream, Middle Tier Dark Chocolate and Peanut Butter with Chocolate Peanut Butter Filling, Bottom Tier White Chocolate Pound Cake with White Chocolate Truffle Filling and Chocolate Chips

America's Oreo- Chocolate Cake with Oreo Buttercream 

Triple Vanilla- Vanilla Bean Cake with Vanilla Bean Buttercream and Golden Oreos

Inside Outside Peanut Butter Cupcake- Peanut Butter cake with Chocolate Peanut Butter Buttercream topped with a Reese Chunk

Carrot Cupcake- Carrot cake with White Chocolate Truffle Buttercream 

Red Velvet Cupcake- Red Velvet cake with White Chocolate Truffle Buttercream