I am (baby) Groot!

One of the things I decided for 2016 was to try and do a cake a month, just because.  I wrote out a list of ideas and have been crossing them off.

This one is baby Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy .  "Who," you ask?

I like how he turned out.

Sorting Hat Cake

Just because I wanted to see if I could do it, I attempted a sorting hat cake.

I love how he turned out!

Frozen Figures

My niece was having a 4th Frozen birthday bash.  They live several hours away, and I wasn't in the mood to drive a cake that far, so I asked my sister to please buy a plain blue sheet cake, and I would take care of decorating it.

I started in late May, just to give myself some time, as the party was mid-July.

Anna and Olaf heads

Anna & Olaf completed in June.

Elsa's Body.

Olaf!  Her head!  Let It Go! Let It Go!

The Final gum paste figures.

At the fabulous Frozen Birthday Bash.

And You Wonder Why I Don't Make Wedding Cakes?

In March, my nephew married his long-time girlfriend Jessica.  They were not having a church wedding.  In fact, they invited anyone who wanted to come, down to the courthouse to watch.  It was a Tuesday (they wanted to be married on the date of their first date) so I had to miss the ceremony, but I was able to drive down after work (2.5 hours away) for the evening get-together at a restaurant, spend the night & drive back for work the next day. LONG DAY.

I offered to make them a small cake for the dinner party. I was making our daughter's "Attack on Titan Cake" at the same time as prepping for their cake, which had to be delivered 3 days after Isabel's skate party.  It was a busy week.

The figures were for the AoT cake, the flowers for the wedding cake.

I finish up MONDAY NIGHT and take this picture.

I am pretty proud of my work, considering it's the second wedding cake I've ever made.   As I go to move this very top-heavy cake plate for a better picture, it starts to topple to the right. I see is falling in slow motion.  I grab it with my hands before it hits the table.  And then I just start to panic.

It's 8 p.m. and I have to deliver this cake the next day!

This is what I had to fix.  I was in a panic, but worked through to 10:30 p.m. fixing what I could.

I drove it to S. Florida, met them at the restaurant where (TWO HOURS LATER -long story) we were seated and I set up the cake with their cake topper.

Attack on Titan Cake

Our daughter's been really interested in a Japanese Anime show called Attack on Titan.  It's kind of creepy, actually.  Huge monsters, Titans, attack the world and people live in walled-in cities, so the Titans don't get it.  It's creepy, but I've watched all of them with her too.

She wanted an Attack on Titan cake with the main 3 characters (she actually wanted 5, I talked her down to 3.)

These guys.

But in Chibi form.

1. Chibi (ちび or チビ ^?) is a Japanese slang word meaning "short person" or "small child". The word has gained currency among fans of manga and anime. Its meaning is of someone or some animal that is small.

The design she wanted was very simple, thank goodness, so I got to work making the characters.

Mikasa

The flowers are for *another* cake.

OH NO! The Titans got them!

Sweet 16 Cake

I was asked to do a cake in November for January.  Sure, I said,  Give me the details.

Due to family sickness, travel, etc. on their part, the party date was changed like 4 times (January, February, March, back to February), the color scheme changed twice, the party theme changed at least 3 times.  In the end, I was just not happy.  The cake came out awesome, but it took me 19 hours to make.  I work full time and it took me 19 hours of time that I could have been with my own family (One Saturday, David took Isabel out flying and they were gone a total of 6 hours while I sat at home.)  They were given a DEEP DISCOUNT because they're fellow church goers.  This cake, due to the number of servings, would have cost them about $250-$320 dollars.  I won't tell you what I charged them. It's my own fault.  In trying to be nice, I made myself unhappy.

I've resolved to only make cakes for my immediate family; sisters, nieces/nephews, my kids, etc.  That's it.  Unless someone wants to pay $250-$300, I am done undervaluing myself and making myself miserable.

On with the cake!

 Two 6 x 3 inch cakes and two 8 x 3 inch cakes; 64 servings.   The average for fondant cakes is around $4-$5 a slice.  $256 - $320.

Her 16 favorite things, all around the cake.  I didn't take a picture of the back, but you can see above all the things I made for it.

More Christmas Cookies

Peanut Butter Kisses cookies

Swedish Wafer Cookies

Cookie overload. Sugar cookies still needed decorating.

Some of the decorated sugar cookies.

Bouquet for Isabel's teacher.

Sugar coma

After 8-hours of baking & cleaning.

Christmas Cookies: Gingerbread Men (and a few Ladies)

Harry Potter Book Cake

I'd purchased a book cake pan off Ebay over a year ago. The idea was to make a Harry Potter book cake. I'd seen many ideas/pictures, and being a HP freak, I really wanted to try it.

Slightly too-soft MMF

I made he mistake of making the scarf the day before.  I hardened, which I wanted it to, but then I realized I could not then shape it to the book, so it cracked at the sections where the colors meet.  Oh well, lesson learned for future use.

Owl Baby Shower Cake

I made this cake over 4 days for our pastor and his wife, who are almost ready to welcome their second child, Isabela Grace, into their lives.  Combined total of 12 hours, tons of eggs, sugar, flour, marshmallows, and love later, I presented the cake as my gift to them at the shower.

Hulk Smash

This post should really be titled "Kaaren Smash."

I had one day to make a cake. Well. two days but I work one day, so like a day and a few hours of the next evening.  I was asked to make a Hulk cake for a 4 year old's party, in 2 days time. It seemed easy enough and I really liked the lady asking me for it for her grandson, so I decided to do it all in one shot. Mistake.

The cakes, which I thought were cool enough, were NOT, in fact, cool enough and melted the MMF I had made.  I was COMPLETELY upset and embarrassed.   I could not make more MMF or bake more cakes. I was out of time. I came *this* close to calling my friend and telling her she needed to go to a grocery store and get one.

I put the cake in the fridge to cool down and worked on it the next day, patching it (literally, patching it with extra pieces of leftover fondant) and trying to get it presentable.

I texted my friend and told her it was horrible.  She texted back that she loved it.  I sighed.  She can't see how bad it really is.

She came the next day and picked it up. She told me how great it was.

Then, nothing.  For two days, nothing.   I was in a panic. They hated it.  It tasted horrible.  They're too embarrassed to say anything.

Almost at the end of day two, she calls me for a couple of reasons; one being a church thing and the second being:

(paraphrased)

"Oh my gosh, Kaaren. They loved the cake.  Everyone loved the cake.  My mom said it was the best cake she's ever tasted.  It was such a hit!  All the boys loved it and the birthday boy could not stop staring."

I had patched up the cake in this picture below, but had not yet made the border around the top of the pants, nor had I made the number 4 or the mini-Lego Hulk out of fondant. I just forgot to take a final picture.

My friend is a photographer, so I am hoping she will send or post pictures of the cake at the party soon.

More PPG..

..because I purchased a cake pan on eBay and wanted to try it out.   Old-fashioned, 5-hour star-tip piping.