How long has it been?

Okay everyone...it's been quite a while, so I have a lot of cakes to show ya'll. The reason I'm even on here is because I'm totally stressed out!! This is the end of my 1st semester of culinary school and a lot of stuff is coming due and a lot of tests are needing to be taken. We're getting ready for Christmas which means dishing out some cashola on gifts so I'm trying to take any order for cakes and cupcakes that I can. It's just busy. Tonight I'm trying to get 4 cupcake flavors baked for an order for tomorrow and the kids are CRAZY!!!! I just am at the end of my rope and I see no light at the end of the tunnel for a while. Sooooo...I decided I needed to vent and have some "me" time. Well, that's how I ended up blogging tonight.

Here are some cakes that I've done. I've done quite a few more, but didn't take pics of them.

This was a quick LV purse that I did in one of my classes. It didn't get to do a lot of detail because of time. I wish I could have done this better, but it's a good start.

This is a pink camo cake for a little girl that lives near me.

This is another cake I did in class. It's not perfect by anymeans, but I just didn't have the time.

This is Pooh Bear for Jonathan's 1 year cake. It's made from rice cereal treats and covered in fondant

This is the finished cake. It's a beehive with gumpaste bees, pooh and a hunny pot "smash cake".

This is my final cake I did for one of my classes. It's fondant covered with royal icing snowflakes stenciled on it and the piped royal icing snowflakes. I pretty much love this cake. You can't see all the glitter on the snowflakes, but it was really pretty

Okay, so there are the ones I've taken pics of. Hope it's not so long until next time.

Cakes galore!

Well, I haven't posted in a long time. I've been very busy with cakes and cupcakes for the past few weeks. I haven't taken pictures of all of them, so when I got this order YESTERDAY, I made sure I took plenty of pics.

I really enjoyed doing this cake. It made me more confident in my abilities because the customer called yesterday and wanted the cake this afternoon. That's not very long to do a 2 tiered, fondant covered cake. I was a little nervous and panicked. To add to the stress, my aunt was coming down for a visit and to take my kids for a couple of days. Fortunately, she took the boys after just a few minutes of arriving without me even asking or telling her my plans.

The cake the customer wanted was like the "Diva" cake but with a few changes. I learned from that cake, that I have to cover cakes with fondant if I'm going to stack them. I don't want to risk my cakes falling or collapsing. Little Rock is the closest place I can get Satin Ice fondant, so I had to make a trip. It's only about 45 minutes away, but it was time I didn't want to take, but I had to. I finally made it back home and started baking. I was up until 1 am and then had to get back up to stack and finish the cake. I can't believe that I did it in such a short amount of time, but I'm sure that not having my kids around helped a lot. I could just get in the "zone" and knock it out without someone needing a drink or having to give baths or everything else that comes with being a mom. So, here's the cake finished at the customer's home.

The finished cake

Grant and Anna. They're cousins and grankids of the birthday girl.

Hotlanta, here we come!!

OKay, most of you know that I'm going to audition for American Idol. Well, MeLinda, Kelly and I are leaving tomorrow around noon. It's going to be about a 10 hour drive, but I'm really looking forward to it. It's going to be a time where I can be a fun girly, girl. Well, we'll probably end up being giddy litte school girls that get into trouble for being to loud or too mean. I'm wanting to make sure that no matter where I go, I have a positive attitude and show God through me. I want to lift people up and keep my eyes on Jesus. I am wanting to sing positive songs for my auditions. No sleezy lyrics or anything negative. I want to be different and give God praise, honor and glory as often as possible. I don't want to come off like the "crazy Bible thumper" because that's not who I am. I just want to be a different kind of "Idol". I probably won't even make it to Randy, Simon, and Paula, but please pray that my friends and I show the love of Christ everywhere we go this week. I'm super nervous about the whole audition process, but I'm going to have a great time and have wonderful fellowship with some great women. I'm so blessed to have such great friends in my life and I thank God every day for the people He has placed near me. Thanks so much for reading all this. Until next time

Music to my floppy ears

I have an unusually busy week this week because I'm leaving on Monday for Atlanta to audition for American Idol. It's just for the experience. I've wanted to do it since the show began, but never really could or was too afraid of rejection. Anyway, I don't want to look back and wonder "what if".

I just got this order on Tuesday evening for 2 carved cakes. They were pretty ambitious on my part. I think I pulled them off, though. I had an order for a guitar cake and a cake that looked like a favorite stuffed animal. Here they are. The guitar has more pics because I was so focused on the animal I forgot to take pics until the end.

The carved body of the guitar

The tuning keys and other "nubbies"

The finished neck

The finished guitar

The stuffed puppy all done

Well, I have to go to bed now. Thanks everyone for looking at these blog posts. Please let people know about my blog and about my cakes. I'm really hoping to get enough business here to be able to open up my own bakery one of these days. Thanks for spreading the word.

Until next time!

Cupcake pops!!

Okay, it's been such a long time since my last post. I know that all 5 of you have been anxiously awaiting my new post, so here it is.

I have done cake balls before, but they didn't ever turn out well. I don't know what I was doing wrong, but I think I was adding liquid instead of just icing. Then I saw Bakerella's blog and how she did such cute things with cake balls. So I started practicing and I think i have it down. Cake balls are just baked cake and icing mixed up then formed into balls and chilled. It's really easy and they are super yummy. Okay, so here we go...

I started out with chilled cake/icing mixture. Formed them into a small star cutter I have and made my "cupcake". I chilled them again while I got my stuff ready to dip them in. I dipped the bottom first then the top. I then put on an M&M then sprinkled little sprinkles on them. Stuck them in the floral foam to dry and then wrapped them. I made some for a fundraiser for church this past Sunday, but forgot to take pictures of the process, so I had to make some more. Oh, well, I'm sure they'll get eaten.

Tank you very much!

Okay, so I haven't posted in a super long time...I've been busy. This past week I had a "tank" cake to do. I had never done a tank, but I saw some pics online and thought I could do it. This cake was for the same lady I did the "diva" cake for a few weeks ago. Well, I was a little worried since that cake fell into itself once it went across town to the pizza place. I didn't know if I wanted to try something so ambitious, but I did NOT want to just try and draw a tank or something lame on a sheet cake...that's just not what I do. I like to go big and beautiful (just like me LOL). Soooooo...I said I would do the tank cake an actual 3-D cake. I knew I was going to have to use fondant just to make sure the cake stayed together. I have learned my lesson. I didn't take pics along the way because I lost my camera for a couple days, but found it the day of delivery (thank God).


This cake was a huge undertaking. It was a week long ordeal and I was up to my elbows in fondant. The cake was monsterous and I had to spend aan entire day just baking. On Wednesday, I was chilling the cake getting it ready to carve when a neighbor calls and asks if I can do her daughter's birthday cake. I need the business, so I said "Sure, when is it?" She lets me know that it's this Saturday. What??!!! We talked about it and it was no biggie. She wanted a cowgirl themed cake for about 25 people. I let her know that I could do it as long as it was simple. We decided on a cow print cake with a paisley print bandana. I told her she was in charge of what else to put on it. I didn't have any time to shop for a topper. So, I had 2 cakes this week, which I am sooooooooo excited about. Misty (tank cake) said that everyone loved the cake and she gave out my number to a lot of people. I'm hoping I get a lot of business from the cake. So, no more waiting...here they are:
They put on the hat, boot and #7.








Chase and his cake.

Store Stories

Okay, so the last couple stores I've been in, strange things have happened. The other day I was buying some groceries to make Matt (hubby) a nice dinner and I was at the express checkout. I was by myself because my parents were visiting the kids. I was just kinda looking around while I was waiting in line. I saw this guy waving at me and he was about 10 feet away, so I just smiled politely and turned back and looked forward. Next thing I know, he's right next to me saying, "Hi, your hair is beautiful." Okay...kinda freaky. So, I said thank you and turrned back around hoping he would catch a clue. But oh no..."Hi, I'm John." I wasn't even looking at him!!! ME: "Nice to meet you." (turned back around)
JOHN: So, what do you do?"
ME: I'm a stay at home mom. (turn back around)
JOHN: Oh, so you're married?
ME: Yep. (turn back around)
JOHN: Your husband is a very lucky man.
ME: Yes he is. (turned back around)
JOHN: Well, (shakes my hand) thanks for having an open mind.
ME: okay, no problem. Have a great day.

In my head: What the heck??!!! What just happened? Are you kidding me? Open mind? Why did he think I had an open mind? Did he think that I even, for a second, thought about dating him?? I was just being nice. It's not like I'm gonna just tell him to get away from me. Then my mind goes to thinking that he might be targeting me for something. I mean, who just comes up to a single lady in the grocery store?? It really kinda freaked me out. I just pictured him following me to my car and killing me or something. Well, nothing like that happened, so I'm really glad. Once I realized that he wasn't following me, I thought, "huh, I just kinda got hit on. Too bad that it was by a 35 year old that didn't own a razor and probably still lived with his mother." Oh well. At least my hair is cute. Now, onto my second weird store story:

I was getting gas at a place that didn't have pay at the pump. I'm glad that I didn't have my kids with me because I hate to take my kids in. Anyway, I'm waiting in line that had 3 other people in it. I saw something on the shirt of the guy in front of me out of the corner of my eye. I looked and it was a HUGE spider!!! I freaked. I startedbreathing kinda hard and I said "Hey! There's something on your shirt." By this time, the spider had crawled to the collar of his shirt. He thought I said hat, so he took his hat off. I just grabbed his hat out of his hand and started hitting him really hard with his hat. He was turning around and looking for it while I was hitting him. Then the lady behind up said that she saw something fly off onto the floor. We found the spider and it was still alive!!! The guy didn't want to kill it, so the lady stepped on it. I said I was sorry for grabbing his hat and hitting him so hard with it. He told me thanks for telling him. We just laughed about it and that was that. It was much more crazy than I can explain, but how many times do you get to hit on a total stranger? I guess more than I used to think because both of these stories is really all about hitting on total strangers. LOL OKay. Until next time. I have to watch the weather.