Wedding Madness Week!

Hello,
I have had quite a week this week! I am still recovering from Saturday. WHEW!!!!! Somehow I managed to book 3 weddings on one day! I know I think I might have lost my mind for a second. After I recovered from the initial shock of it..I had to really sit down and think about to schedule this day out. Not to mention I had an additional 5 cake orders for Saturday and 1 cupcake order for the following Sunday! So I got to work..put on "my girl panties" as Caroline from Real Housewives of NJ would say and made it work! All of the cakes were delivered on time and I am quite proud of the way the dessert buffet for wedding number 3 turned out:) I learned many things from this weekend that I will most definitely be double checking and reinforcing the only 2 wedding cakes per day rule and that having extra people on hand is a HUGE plus. I would have never been able to pull this off if it wasn't for my 2 interns, my assistant and my dear hubby. Being a superwoman does have limits and cake deliveries is one of them. You physically can't be in 2 places at once, learn to lean on those around you when you need to and thank them for their help! 

 Vintage Inspired Dessert Buffet: 2 tier cake in Neapolitan flavor, chocolate dipped strawberries, cake pops, mini cupcakes and dessert shooters (dark choc. raspberry, grasshopper, smore and key lime pie). Delivered to Regent's Glen in York, PA.

 Close up of Wedding Cake

White & Blue Wedding Cake- 4 different flavors delivered to Heritage Hills in York, PA.

 Rock Em, Sock Em Wedding Cupcake Tower- Lots of different cupcake flavors. The cutting cake is Gluten-free White Chocolate with fondant made toppers made to look like the Rock Em Sock Em robots in the background.

Star Wars Groom's Cake- Orange Creamsicle cake flavor. 

Black & White Coach Purse Cake- Vanilla cake with Strawberries/Cream filling. 

 Over the Hill Birthday Cake- Top tier is vanilla and bottom tier is chocolate.

Over the Hill Cupcakes- Chocolate cupcakes with Peanut Butter Buttercream. 

Gluten-free Birthday Cake- Chocolate cake with Milk free Vanilla Buttercream. A lot of clients that are gluten free have diary/milk allergies so this buttercream was made with flax milk instead of regular milk.

Also if you haven't checked out my new Etsy store please do. I will be adding some angry birds toppers tomorrow. I will be adding more toppers over the next couple of weeks. My website will also be getting an overhaul thanks to my web designer, Sharvon of SP Photos! Please go check out her site.  She does website work on the side and is very reasonable so if you are looking for a new web designer, she is your gal!

Until next time...
Peace & Blessings

More Graduation & Celebration Cakes!

So as I stated in my previous post that its graduation season so I have gotten more orders for graduation cupcakes and cakes. I recently got an order for a topsy turvy graduation in the next 2 weeks! So I am really excited about that cake because it fully custom for this particular client. This up coming week is going to be the week from bakery hell in the shop because I have 3 yes! 3 weddings on one day and will be vending at the York City Juneteeth Celebration as well as my regular cake orders. So starting tomorrow I will be spending some long days at the bakery and my interns will probably be cursing me in their sleep! LOL!!!

Father's Day is also coming up and I have decided not to do any classes because I will just be tooo freakin busy to fit them in and also I would like to do something special for my hubby this year so I don't want to doing cake deliveries on Sunday. I think most people don't understand how hard it is to be a small business owner and juggle family at the same time especially when you have a young child like I do. Jayden is 19 months and doesn't understand that mommy is busy and can't come home to play which makes me sad when I come home and he is sleep :( But I do it because I love making cakes and one day I won't have to work so hard. It is also a but frustrating when clients don't want to understand why you can't fit them in or stay later to make it work. I think they forget that cake decorators have families and responsibilities outside of their shops. Or they just don't care. Luckily I don't have to turn down clients to often but I have a feeling that if anyone calls last minute this week (someone always does) that they will be getting a no. And other decorators out there don't be afraid to say NO! If you can't do it, you can't do it... Don't stretch yourself thin and not do a perfect cake because you don't want to make someone a little upset.

I don't know when my next review is coming because I haven't had the chance to get a new cake toy recently, though the hubby and I will be making our first cupcake stand this week. So I will try to remember to take lots of pictures and so you all how I made it. So without further ado... ON to the CAKES!!!

Tuscan- Grape Theme Sheet Cake- This cake was for Scissors & Sun Hair Salon in Red Lion, PA. They were celebrating their 15th anniversary. I felt honored that they asked me to make their cake for such a special day. Basket weave technique on the sides with strawberry-raspberry buttercream tinted light brown. Grapes are made from fondant with royal icing flowers.

Whale Theme 1st Birthday Cake- This particular client wanted a cake to match the invites for her granddaughter's first birthday. She only wanted pinks on the cake so the star fish and whales are all in shade of pink. I know the cake is quite bare compared to my other cakes, but she wanted it to be very simplistic in design. Sheet cake is Apple Pie flavored and smash cake is vanilla. 

Under the Sea 1st Birthday Cake- I loved working with this client! She was so nice and knew wanted she wanted for her son's first birthday. She had personalized invites with his picture on them, under the sea themed. So I will designed the cake around the invite. All of the sea creatures are made from fondant. Cake is vanilla with oreo buttercream and chocolate with vanilla buttercream. The smash cake is vanilla. 

Purple Floral Birthday Cake-Vanilla cake with vanilla whipped filling. 

Graduation Cupcakes- This order was bigger than my normal cupcake orders, this one was 5 1/2 dozen in various flavors. This client brought in a graduation napkin and wanted the cupcake toppers to match the napkin, which I did.

Elmo Sesame Street Birthday Cake- This cake was made for a previous bride whose youngest son turned 2 a little bit before her wedding. She didn't get a chance to have a party for him before she got married so they had one after :) Vanilla cake with Strawberry Jam filling. 

Purple & Zebra 15th Birthday Cake- This client saw a picture of a cake I did just like this one a while ago for another sweet 16. Her daughter wasn't 16 yet but she still wanted something special so I did the same design with some minor changes. I think this one looks before the first one :)

Jungle Babies- I have been venturing out into the world of 3-D figures. Normally my assistant makes most of them but I have decided to dive right in and see what happens. These cuties are first 3 of a set of jungle babies. I still have to make a zebra and the set will be complete. I will be selling these and other things like cupcake toppers on my new Etsy store!

So that is it for now..off to bed for an early morning!

Until then..

Peace & Blessings

Mother's Day, Communion & Graduation

Hi All,
     So I have been busy then not busy then busy again... and as always blogging gets put at the end of the list of things that need to be done:( Sighhh.. but since I have so many new photos of cakes and things that are going to be happening soon that I need to get on the ball and blog more..Plus I know you are dying to see more pictures of cakes right??? So I will begin with my Mother's Day cake class..where I taught a mother-daughter duo to make cakes that look like flower pots. They had soo much fun and were quick learners too..its nothing like the banter between mother and daughter that makes me smile...especially since this is the 6th Mother's Day that I have gone through without my own mother. Their cakes were vanilla with vanilla buttercream frosting and they dyed there own fondant a terra cotta color to cover their cakes with after I showed them how to carve their cakes. The class took about 2 1/2 hours from start to finish so  I say that is a success. Below is a picture of the class with their cakes:

Other than Mother's Day and wedding season.. it is the season for graduation and communions besides the birthday cake orders I always get. I have also been working on some display cakes for the bakery in order to show off the different types of designs I can do. Below are some pictures of display cakes as well as some graduation, communion and birthday cakes over the last couple of weeks. 

White & Black Wedding Display Cake 

Jungle Birthday Cake - Chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream

Communion Cake- Vanilla cake with Strawberry Mousse filling 

Lime green & White Zebra/Heart Cake and Cupcakes- cake is Oreo Overload and cupcakes are Butterfinger 

15th Birthday Cake- cheesecake flavored cake 

Burgundy Calla Lily Wedding Cake- delivered to the Stone Mill Inn in Hellam, PA

Purple & White Heart Wedding Display Cake

Sea Theme Display Cake

Purple & Blue Birthday Cake- vanilla cake with oreo buttercream filling 

Purple & White Coach Purse Cake- Red Velvet cake with vanilla buttercream filling. Shipped to Bloomfield, NJ. 

Cupcake 1st Birthday Cake- Berry Overload cake flavor and the smash cake is Peanut Butter and Jelly.

Louis Vuitton Suitcase Cake- cake is chocolate with peanut butter buttercream. Hand molded handle and hand cut out Louis Vuitton symbols. 

Pink Graduation Cupcakes- Cupcakes were in a few different flavors: Dark Chocolate, Red Velvet, Vanilla & Peanut Butter. The cuppies were for a York, PA graduation and picked up at my bakery.

Well that is it for now, don't want to overload you guys on the goodness of cake so I will be posting again tomorrow with more delicious pictures of cakes including more graduation pics. 

So until next time..

Peace & Blessing

The Perils of Delivering Big Cakes!

Hello Again,
So as you can tell from the title of this post that I had some trouble with a big cake. Well I did indeed have some trouble. That is the problem when you run a business by yourself for the most part, you don't always have the help in the form that you want or need it in. So this past Saturday I had to deliver the biggest wedding cake to date, a four tier square cake covered in white fondant. Yes! White fondant! For those of you who don't understand the the problems with white fondant, let me just tell you this white fondant shows every little mark or dent or even lint that can be in the air..so I get a little paranoid when a client asks for a cake in white fondant. I have to use very clean gloves, wear short sleeve shirts and make sure that my working area is extra clean in order for the fondant not to pick anything up. So I had to be extra careful with all 4 tiers. You can imagine my stress level over this cake. So because the hubby was unable to help me deliver the cake, I had to ask my best friend for some help. With a cake that big and heavy its hard to move by yourself.

So I put the 2 heaviest tiers together and the top 2 tiers together, that way when I got to the venue I could just stack them, put on the flowers and go. If only it were that easy! Well when she comes there were extra people in the car that I didn't account for so I had to have someone hold the top 2 tiers that I put in a box (never have cake newbies hold cake, they don't know what they are doing or just don't care) while I held the bottom 2 tiers and the sugar orchids. Well when I get to the venue Heritage Hills in York, PA (which is a gorgeous outdoor space for a wedding), the person holding the cake didn't hold it right so my purple buttercream dots one side of the cake was smashed! Arrrgghhhh!!! I did bring extra buttercream so I was able to fix that problem. Then the cake table that was provided was lopsided! Lopsided table makes for a lopsided cake stand which makes a lopsided cake..see where I am going with this.... so I had to move the cake around until I got in as level as I could. It looked nice once I put the flowers on but I was soo upset over what happened I couldn't enjoy my hard work :( 

Once I got back home and looked at the pictures, I was proud that I was able to get it to look so nice even with all of the issues I had. Wedding season is great for business bad for the blood pressure. Any whooo here is the cake and some other back pictures that I haven't shown yet. Enjoy!

4 tier white wedding cake with purple buttercream dots and green orchids. 2 tiers are devil's food with butterfinger filling and the other 2 are vanilla with fresh raspberry filling. Delivered to Heritage Hills in York, PA.

50th Birthday Cupcakes- pumpkin spice, whopper, spiced apple, orange dreamsicle flavored cupcakes with the name and age of the birthday girl and pink/brown flowers. 

Star Wars Cupcakes- Oreo Overload, Chocolate, Red Velvet & French Vanilla flavored cupcakes. Toppers were based on some toppers that my client saw on another website. 

Gluten free & Diary Free Chocolate Cupcakes- I provide cakes and cupcakes to children and adults that have food allergies. These are one of many orders I have done. 

Well my lesson was learned and if I can't get the hubby to help me deliver then I will just deliver myself.  Oh and I am getting interns in about 2 weeks! I am soo excited to have the extra help. 

Until next time, 

Peace & Blessings

Kima

Pictures & More Pictures!

Hi Everyone!
So I figured that I would blog early in the week while there is quiet instead of trying to get it in while its busy. So my little man has been spending all this week at my mother in law's in New Jersey and I miss him like crazy! This is the first time he has been away from me since he has been born and I am having a tough time. He misses me too which I knew he would, so we will both be happy when Saturday comes and my hubby goes and gets him. I have a wedding cake this week that I will start working on tomorrow as well as a huge muffin order for the same client for her guests. I also have a big cake decorating class with a bunch of teenage girls so this is going to be an interesting weekend. I figured that this post will be catching up on pictures of past cakes instead of another product review. I am in the process of finding another product I want to try, so when I find one.. you will hear about it :)

Sooooo on to the cakes!

 Almond Cake Pop Bouquet

 Jungle Theme Birthday Cake- vanilla and chocolate tiered cake with vanilla buttercream. Fondant accents and 3-d hand molded figures. 

 Mini Dummy Cake- I have been making more display cakes or "dummy" cakes for the shop this is one of them.

 Easter Cake- Chocolate cake with fondant accents and fondant 3-d bunny. 

 Red & Black Polka Dot Cake- Red Velvet cake with Vanilla Cream Cheese Icing. 

 Chocolate Dipped Marshmallow Peeps

 Bowling Ball & Pin Cake- lemon cake with vanilla buttercream filling. 

 Mario 25th Birthday Cake- White Chocolate Pound Cake with vanilla buttercream filling. Fondant accents and 3-d hand molded Mario. 

Bird's Nest Baby Shower Cake- vanilla and chocolate tiers of cake with vanilla buttercream filling. Covered in moldeling chocolate with moldeling chocolate accents. 

Until next time...

Peace & Blessings

Kima

My First Product Review!

Hi All!

 So I went out last week and got the Cake Pop maker by Babycakes, so as promised I will be giving my review of it. So I like the fact that it comes in an adorable purple color. Second, it heats up in no time! I mean I had it on maybe 5 minutes and it was ready to go. Now the down side is that since you can only bake 12 cake pops at a time, your cake batter will be setting for awhile, while each batch bakes. So you can imagine after a couple of batches the baking powder in the batter starts to active which isn't good:( So I guess the key is to make smaller batches of batter. Also I would use a denser cake batter because once the balls are baked up, you have to pluck them out of their little cavities. Recipes that bakes up light and fluffy will be noooo good because you will end of smooshing the balls like I did with my first batch. Sorry didn't take a picture.. I was too upset trying to figure out how to get the second batch better. All in all I think it is definitely worth the $25.00 it cost (unless you get it on sale like I did and paid $22.00!). It ends the hassle of having the bake cake, mix frosting then chilling the balls before you dip them. I am giving the Cake Pop Maker a B+ for the ease of use but I would love it if it was a little bit bigger to make more at one time.

These are the cake pops that I made with the cake pop maker- Cherry Limeade Cake Pops

Now on to some pictures of past cakes:

Well, these aren't cakes but they are something new Chocolate Chip Cookie Sandwiches. 

So everyone once in awhile I will get a request for a weird cake or something really cool and I think this falls into both of those categories! 

Zombie Cake- Vanilla cake with Strawberry jam filling. All of the parts are edible and made from fondant.

I love how I made him crawling towards the intestines like he wants to eat them. LOL!

What's a zombie cake without part body parts like brains, eyes and hanging limbs. 

So that's it for now. I will be blogging again this week because I have a lot of fun cakes this week...I will give you a sneak peak one involves a sport, another is a cartoon character and a baby shower cake. 

Until then,

Peace & Blessings

Kima