Adele's baby shower

This was supposed to be a 2 tier cake, but one of the cakes didn't turn out, so I turned it into a double barrel.  It was only 7" so it wasn't super high, but plenty of cake for the small shower.  The top tier was vanilla with raspberry filling, the bottom was chocolate with caramel.  I love the ombre teal, the shower was teal and grey.  So cute!  The topper was a milk chocolate mustache.  I had to drive it myself to the party, I was so nervous!

Alisa's Birthday

Jeff's coworker Luis asked me to make a cake for his daughter.  He had no ideas what he wanted.  Just a nice cake...hmmm, that gave me a chance to try one of those drip cakes everyone is doing these days.  I make homemade sprinkles, and chocolate bark for the top.  She seemed to like it.  It was a double barrel chocolate.  That sucker was 9" tall without the topper.  It was a monster.  I was so nervous driving it to the restaurant!

My birthday cake!

We took a whirlwind trip around the island for my birthday, but no birthday is complete without cake!  I make the chocolate cake, and brought the frosting.  Jeff even frosted it for me in the hotel room.   I'm so lucky.

Jack's 4th Birthday

Octonauts!

Barnacles, Kwazi, Peso... doot doot doot do doot.....

Octonauts is currently one of Jack's favorite shows.  He likes to pretend to be Barnacles, a polar bear and captain of the crew.  He shouts "I'm Barnacles" and waits for you to respond with another name of a crew member.  Recently he's been crossing pretend worlds and he will be Barnacles and want me to be Sofia, or a care bear...

So naturally, for his birthday, we had an octonauts cake.  With a newborn, and PopPop, Uncle Nick, and Ingrid in town, I didn't get to work on it as much as I wanted.

It's 2 tiers, each with 4 layers.  The top tier was vanilla cake with strawberry filling and the bottom was chocolate, all covered in SMBC.  The GUP-A, and undersea decor were made from modeling chocolate, and the action figures were plastic toys that go to his new Octopod.  I let Jack help, I'm really trying to get over my perfectionism, and allow him to help me do things.  It's not the way I would have arranged things, but I want him to remember the times we baked and decorated together, not me telling him what to do, or making him watch.  I really do have a hard time striking a balance between perfectionism and quality time with my kids.  They always want to help, and usually make things harder, take longer, and more messy, but it's all about the memories, right?

Herndon, party of 2

I was so honored to make a wedding cake for my sisters wedding. She had a rustic wedding in a beautiful barn. Although she served cupcakes as the main dessert, I still think the cake was the star of the dessert show.

The bottom tier of the cake was 4 layers of vanilla pound cake with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream filling.  This was the best batch of SMB I've ever made. I'm not sure if it was the Kerrygold, or all the extra love, but it was gooooood! I think I scraped about 10 vanilla beans for this tier.  The middle tier was chocolate cake with chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream. I hid a pink heart as a surprise for the bride and groom. The top was a dummy. I crumbcoated with vanilla SMB and covered in Richs Bettercreme with an up and down pattern for a rustic look.  I wrapped backed burlap and lace (the same lace from the tables) on the top and bottom tiers, and backed burlap around the middle tier.  The flowers on the cake were actually from gifts at her bridal shower that happened to match perfectly. 

I torted, filled, assembled and frosted all at the venue which was 3 hours from home. I baked and wrapped everything at home, and transported it. 

Finished product. 

Surprise inside.