{stephanie mae}

a princess for a princess

2011-06-13T19:16:00.000-05:00

This weekend I got to make a princess Aurora cake for my new little friend Anaya.

She turned 4 last week and had a birthday party Saturday complete with a marching band, puppet show, and more yummy food than could be eaten.

On the way to Anaya's house, our Sleeping Beauty stopped at the salon and got a brunette 'do. That's right, unfortunately she was a brunette. But we survived and she looked beautiful anyway. :)

I believe the last time this pan and doll were used was at my own birthday party a long time ago... I tried to find a picture from our wedding video scans, but failed. So if you think our princess looks retro, you are correct. It was fun to tell Anaya that we kind of shared a birthday cake. :)

Happy birthday, Miss Anaya! You're a beautiful little lady and fortunate to have a wonderful Mommy and Daddy that love you VERY much!

giving credit where credit is due

2011-05-06T07:23:00.003-05:00

One of the creative quirks I got from my dad is a love for writing and for remembering. My hubs will graduate tomorrow morning. I took some time this week to remember the ups and downs of this journey with him.

Four and a half years ago one of my best friends asked me if I'd join him on a date. He turned my little world upside down with that simple question. As the next month unfolded, he walked through the steps of the early application process to the UNMC Physical Therapy program to discover he'd been wait listed. God wasn't leading to Omaha... yet. Or I should say He was leading us both, just not down the path my precious friend expected.

He'd led as He gave this young man a passion for athletics, for the movement of the human body, and for service. He gave him diligence in his studies and integrity in the work of his hands. He'd led as He brought me, a young, indecisive, and unsure young woman, to pick my last choice in a university and a summer experience I didn't want in China.

He'd led as my terrified heart opened up to the young man and learned to trust my old friend in a new way. He led as He gave both of us the courage to pursue our college dreams without giving up on our relationship. The young man was selected as the student head of the Athletic Training Department and spent early mornings and late nights working hard for no money at all. He traveled the Midwest with the baseball and football teams and learned what it would mean to be committed to the staff of a collegiate athletic program. He served athletes and coaches that were stressed and angry and still found little moments to grow his love for me and grow mine, in turn, for him.

God led again as the young man reapplied for the Physical Therapy program at UNMC, this time with an additional year of critical experience in Athletic Medicine. This time, God led to Omaha in the form of acceptance to not one, but two, schools there.

He led as I learned to trust that man with more of who I was and He led as that man asked me to be his wife.

From there He provided me with a job that would support that young man and allow us to do life in Omaha. He led us to spend a summer apart before we were married that gave him valuable spiritual training, perspective, input, service, and time with an awesome friend. He led as He provided a place for him to stay until we were married and me with a roommate for accountability, encouragement, and a whole lot of laughter.

He led his classmates to select him as a leader for them and provided study buddies, a basketball team, karaoke nights and other opportunities to build relationship. He led as He appointed bad grades and great ones, a test on the Monday after our wedding weekend, challenging leadership issues, encouraging feedback, long nights studying and a detasseling job at just the right time. He led through tough finances and hard friendships, high days together and tough ones on our own, date nights and a couple getaways, a precious church and precious friends. He led.

He led the young man in a special way through clinical selection and his clinical experiences. He opened career doors we knew were shut and opened our plans up to a city we had every intent on leaving.

He led through a rough 8 weeks apart, job interviews, negotiations and decisions. And He continues to lead.

When I ponder your graduation, Brad, I can't help but think about how our relationship has unfolded and grown around UNMC PT. I can't believe we're here and finally turning the page to the next chapter of our life together. I am SO proud of you and the man you've been and were becoming throughout the highs and the lows of this story. You've impressed me so much, babe. I love you. I'm proud of you. I cannot wait to see where He leads next.

feeling {bridal}

2011-03-26T17:45:00.003-05:00

This is my only post today that happened a reasonable amount of time ago to blog about, but that's the way life goes! And now I'm caught up on blogging about my creative time as of late. :)

This morning I made a red velvet cake for a bachelorette party. I am excited about how it turned out... simple, classy and elegant. The bride's colors are a pear green and chocolate brown, so that's the reason for the green!

I found the inspiration idea for this cake online. My favorite part is the white butter cream details. Lovely.

oreo cupcakes!

2011-03-26T17:26:00.000-05:00

In February I made these little guys for a Valentine's dinner and dance we went to with couples from church. They were yum-o. I love the whipped cream frosting instead of butter cream. It's simple, light and airy.

I made a few modifications, but basically followed this recipe at Annie's Eats (which is a fabulous food blog if you're looking for one!).

a little pillow makeover

2011-03-26T17:19:00.000-05:00

I wasn't a huge fan of the pillows on our couch so I decided to break out my NEW old sewing machine and make them over. I got the sewing machine for Christmas... it's Manly Man's grandma's machine from years ago. I never got to meet her, but have heard wonderful things about her, including the fact that she loved to create things. It's fun to use her machine to do the same thing! :)

And here's some photos... a before:

And an after. Please note the wrinkly grey one that my husband was lounging on while watching March Madness about 23 seconds ago until I made him and his "I-had-Kentucky-beating-Ohio-State-in-my-bracket-didn't-you?" behind move for a moment.

I made a few mistakes, but am pleased with my first pillow project since an enlightening 7th grade "Family Consumer Sciences" class with Mrs. Christensen. I like that the colors are more "me": light, modern, and casual. The large pillows I made reversible. The small pillow I made using an envelope pillow tutorial found by my friend Jenny, who is a rockstar crafter. So simple, I'll definitely do it again. I have a few more pillows to make for our Omahoma, stay tuned!

long overdue... another ELMO birthday!

2011-03-26T17:03:00.000-05:00

Beautiful Haven celebrated her second birthday months ago now and I have yet to blog about it! Fail. She also wanted an "Elmo cake" that we made a bit more girlie in purple.

Elmo is always fun to make, especially when there's an adorable kiddo who will get to enjoy the cake on their special day.

Happy birthday miss Haven!

perfectly {papered}

2010-12-20T22:49:00.000-06:00

I participated in a little sale a couple weeks ago and have a few lovely leftovers. If you are interested in any of the following, contact me at stephanie.creates@gmail.com

Christmas cards: $1/ea.

I also made some delightful 2011 calendars that would be great in an office or kitchen. I saw this idea on a blog I love to read and wanted to make one for myself at work. Once I got done, I loved them so much I decided to share them with anyone else who'd like one as well! Sometimes I think the best (and most practical!) art is just doing what you like for yourself and allowing it to overflow. :) One option for the calendar is excerpts from hymns and the other is just fun sayings. They are $6/ea, measure 4.25" x 11" and are printed on card stock. If you would like me to make a custom calendar for you with 12 of your own sayings, I can do that for $8.

Hymns excerpt calendar:
(1) and on him cast your care (2) take and seal it (3) it is well (4) sing ye heavens and earth rejoice (5) was blind but now i see (6) amazing love how can it be (7) arise my soul arise (8) love's purest joys restored (9) naught be all else to me save that thou art (10) tune my heart to sing thy grace (11) this our hymn of grateful praise (12) tidings of comfort and joy

Sayings calendar:
(1) here we go again (2) know love (3) take time to wonder (4) risen indeed (5) do justice love kindness walk humbly (6) all things new (7) fun in the sun (8) practice curiosity (9) go big red (10) fear not (11) full of thanks (12) love came down

Fun. Have I mentioned I love paper? stephanie.creates@gmail.com if you're interested!

happy birthday to {asher}

2010-12-20T22:01:00.002-06:00

Our friend Asher got to celebrate his THIRD birthday in style with a fun Elmo cake. I had so much fun making it, which was probably due to all his excitement for a strawberry "Elmo cake"! He helped me pick out and bake the Dora cake for Praja's birthday in October and actually fell off a chair in the kitchen as we were mixing the batter because he couldn't contain his excitement. :)

The stats: 9" round strawberry cake with buttercream and fondant icing. 3 year old kiwi with a serious sweet tooth. 1 sweet family and 1 fun Sunday afternoon.

We met the MacDonalds a year ago this week when God brought them to Omaha from New Zealand for Asher's big sister, Aria, to get a multi-organ transplant. You can follow them and the incredible story of how God is at work in their lives here.

Happy birthday, little man. Thanks for the joy you bring to your family and all those you meet!

praja's a{dora}ble birthday

2010-10-31T14:07:00.000-05:00

Praja's mom asked me to make a Dora birthday cake for her 5th birthday party today. I was a little nervous because it was my first attempt at making a character cake that people are supposed to recognize and I know from other art projects that these things usually go one of two ways... they're a huge hit or a major flop. Just google "Dora birthday cake" like I did for inspiration and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about!

Praja's cake is a strawberry 10" cake (yum) with white buttercream filling and icing. All of the decorations are in gumpaste and fondant.

My favorite part is the fact that it imitates Dora's actual logo. I like the little Nick Jr. logo turned into "She's 5!".

I had so much fun making it and am really excited about how it turned out! Happy birthday miss Praja. You are loved!

anika grace's {baptism}

2010-10-31T13:58:00.000-05:00

I got to make a fun little chocolate cake for the beautiful Anika Grace's baptism last weekend. It was just a simple 9" round butter cream cake. Joelle (mama extraordinaire) requested chocolate and that it would say "Anika Grace, child of God". Precious.

I used a really simple technique for this cake. After I frosted it in the white buttercream, I got out some flower cookie cutters and gently pressed them into the icing where I wanted the large and small flowers. I had a tiny cutter I used to outline the centers. I then outlined the flowers and centers with a small circle tip and filled the flowers in with a star tip. I used the same star tip for the edging on the bottom of the cake.

Pretty cute, huh?

And I just had to include some photos of the darling little one.... we got to photograph her when she was just a week or so old in the living room with mom and dad. Beautiful.

cozy mittens {for a cause}

2010-10-23T16:42:00.001-05:00

My friend Elaine is selling these WONDERFUL warm, adorable, and cozy mittens to raise money for her family's upcoming {adoption}.

They are handmade from {recycled} wool sweaters. Each pair is lined with fleece and is 100% machine washable. They come in kids ($15) and adult sizes ($25), as well as a "long" adult size.

If you are interested in any of the mittens please email Elaine at eandeolson@cox.net. Your fingers will be happy for a cause all winter long!

o {happy} birthday

2010-10-23T16:32:00.001-05:00

I made this cake for a friend of a friend a few weeks ago. It's just a simple 9" butter cream chocolate cake.

Happy. :)

when life gives you {cake} crumbs...

2010-10-23T16:29:00.001-05:00

...you make cake balls! Kudos to my cousin for the idea!

Chocolate and chocolate mint.

{congrats} to jesse and allie

2010-09-14T20:05:00.000-05:00

Allie and Jesse said their vows Sunday in a GORGEOUS wedding at The Fountains Ballroom. It is SUCH a beautiful wedding venue! It helped that God provided them with one of the most beautiful days of the summer to get married... I look forward to seeing sunset pictures. :)

Allie wanted a simple butter cream wedding cake. We weren't positive about what she wanted, so we spent some quality time on google and came up with an image we both loved. She also had an ice cream sundae bar (YUM), so the cake was only three tiers.

After my disaster Saturday morning was behind me, I rolled up my sleeves and ended up with a much more presentable cake! Abby spent the day keeping me company (thanks!).

And of course my wonderful hubs accompanied me early to Glenwood to set up the cake. He snapped a few shots of me at work.

The final product!

Had to include a couple photos from the wedding. Too beautiful.

Congratulations to the new Mr. and Mrs. Thanks for letting me make the cake for your big day!!!

life lessons...

2010-09-11T10:40:00.001-05:00

...this lovely creation will NOT be featured at Jesse and Allie's wedding tomorrow. I must say, though, I tried a few bites and it was pretty amazing. I just don't have it in myself to eat 100 or so servings of ugly-yet-amazing-tasting chocolate cake, so it's headed for the trash (sad).

For reference, here's a beautiful white layer that will top the happy couple's cake tomorrow. The kind I expect when I throw a pan in the oven:

And this would be the little {but still tasty} disaster we're dealing with:

Bahaha. I'm excited that I didn't have a meltdown. But, it's back to the grocery store for me. (Third time in 24 hours if we're keeping track).

P.S. Allie, if you have time to read this in your "day before the wedding" chaos. DON'T STRESS. It'll be amazing... not as beautiful as you on your big day, but beautiful nonetheless!

{congrats} to david and nicole

2010-09-06T09:27:00.001-05:00

All done! Wedding cake #1 of my life is a memory. It was a lot of fun, but I'm relieved. :)

David and Nicole got married in a gorgeous {outdoor} wedding in Nicole's parents' backyard. The wedding was beautiful and so much of it was DIY which I thought was very fun! Their colors were gold, ivory, and brown and we dreamed up their cake with a little help from the embellishments they chose for their invitations and programs.

I got prepped Thursday evening and my dining room table looked something like this. And for those who are concerned, the eggs made their way back to the fridge after their photo shoot appearance:

Friday morning baking began. I think I would have been much more overwhelmed with all the mixing, frosting batches, and cake crumbs, but a happy little elf stopped by on her way home from work and stayed ALL day. Thanks, Meg, you're the best.

By Friday evening, this is what we'd accomplished:

Saturday was devoted to the chocolate fondant ribbons on the sides of the cakes and painting Nicole and David's design in gold dust.

Sunday after church was operation "prep, deliver, and build this cake!" I found a dreamy guy I happen to know that made all of that go much more smoothly.

AND... the finished product! David's dad made the topper, which looked great! I was a little worried about the cake outside in the heat until the wedding, but it did just fine!

by the numbers...

2010-09-02T17:31:00.001-05:00

I must have Husker fever, because all of the hubs' "By the Numbers" articles on ESPN have inspired me to update on the status of my dining room table:

6 cake pans
10+ lbs of cake mix
10 lbs white fondant
2 lbs chocolate fondant
10 lbs powdered sugar
2 dozen eggs
4 cake circles
2 fondant mats
4 flavorings
2 dyes
2 paintbrushes
15 + fondant, frosting, and cutting tools

...and hopefully the next time I update, all of that will come together in ONE cake! (To celebrate TWO people becoming ONE.) Stay tuned. :)

look whooo's {one}

2010-08-30T20:46:00.001-05:00

My cousin's little girl, Gwen, has her first birthday party last week. She was welcomed into year two of life with an owl themed birthday party. I found cupcakes similar to these on one of my favorite blogs, Annie's Eats. Annie's cupcakes used Oreos, M&M's, and Runts for the owl faces, but I made them with fondant.

I love their eyes and the little feather accents. Too fun.

Gwen had a smash cake all to herself too:

All boxed up and ready to go! Happy birthday, Gwen!

happy birthday {zeke}

2010-08-24T20:40:00.000-05:00

I never had a nickname that really "stuck". My older brother was always "bud" to our dad and little sister somehow picked up "Alicia Smeesha Parley Boo", which is often shortened to "Smeesh", "Parley" or "Boo". But I just wasn't one of those people that got a nickname as a kiddo... and no, "Steph" just doesn't count. Recently, however, the hubsters has been calling me "Fern", which I quite enjoy.

The baby of my family's brood, however, has had more nicknames than I could probably remember. He turned 13 (yikes... the teenage years!) this month and I had to make him some tennis cupcakes that celebrate a few of our favorite names for him. So happy birthday Zach. We love you and I still remember the day you were born like yesterday. God has used you to heal our family every since you were a little babe in mom's womb.

to birthdays and fireworks

2010-07-05T22:27:00.002-05:00

This weekend marked some significant birthdays... in addition to the good ol' red, white and blue, my family got to celebrate my uncle and great aunt's birthdays too.

Aunt Betty has blessed our family with her creativity for decades. She's incredibly talented and has made the most beautiful quilts I've ever seen.

Sooo that explains the "Fourth of July Happy Birthday" cake I whipped up, complete with a little fireworks topper!

So much fun. My favorite details are the quilted cake board at the bottom and the fun fondant buttons. This was my first experience with painting on fondant and I'm loving the result!

{fun} in the sun

2010-06-11T17:33:00.000-05:00

Kudos to beautiful Abby for coming over last night and helping me with my latest cake project.

These are some fun summery cupcake-inis! They're for a woman who's turning 4 - 2 this weekend and they just turned out so fun!

I love all the bright colors, the variety in the little swimsuits and just how fresh and fun they are. They'd be really neat in a group of summer themed cupcakes with flip flops, sunshine, sunscreen bottles (Don't burn out there people! Your skin will hate you later!), beach balls, and other little poolside toppers.

I also enjoyed making someone else's creative vision reality and getting to do it alongside Abs! She had some great ideas to help me out... and has some mad bikini cutting skills.

spring {bridal} showers

2010-06-07T17:56:00.000-05:00

Last weekend included lots of grilling and enjoying the gorgeous weather for us. It was a pretty wonderful weekend for a party... which is good news, because I'd been busy working on some fun purple cupcakes and a fresh spring-y cake for a couple of bridal showers all week!

The first was for a bride I knew from college. Her summer wedding will feature a fresh green color, so naturally her cake did as well! Anna, who requested the cake, said to just have fun with it, so this is what I came up with (daisies are probably a surprise to no one...). The cake is a two layer 9" basic white cake with white butter cream and fondant. Something I've really enjoyed the last few weeks is some new cardboard cake boxes and display plates. Makes me feel official. :)

Here it is:

Next up were 4 dozen cupcakes for a cupcake tower at a bridal shower my friend from work hosted. The wedding's main color is a soft pink/purple, so we went with purple cupcakes in a variety of shades. Cupcakes are fun, fresh, and just delightful to look at. This was my first time using my new cupcake tip for the piles of frosting on top of these beautiful cakes, and I think I'm in love with it! Decide for yourself...

I especially enjoy the hued frostings on these cupcakes and the variety of different toppers. This is a technique I will definitely use again. The pearled sprinkles are so simple and turn out very elegant. Fun.

see {you} later

2010-06-07T17:48:00.002-05:00

We had a goodbye party for a family from church last night, which was probably more of a "See You Later". Their girls require a gluten-free diet, so that was a new challenge for me. It was also a good excuse to get some practice with my new sheet cake pan, and I think it turned out pretty well!

I bought a few gluten-free mixes and made a marbled cake. The mixes required butter, apple sauce, and water, so they stayed really moist, which was awesome since that's typically a challenge with gluten-free cakes. I was NOT a fan of the gluten-free frosting (from a mix as well, it's the white frosting on the cake... it was too runny and I had to add a lot of extra powdered sugar), so after about an hour of frustration (mad props to the hubsters for being nice to me during my mini meltdown), I caved and made my traditional icing, which I thought was probably still okay. The good news is that it passed the test! So while I WILL be using the gluten-free starter mix for special dietary needs in the future, I'm relieved that I can stick with my tried and true Wilton butter cream to decorate. :)

As an aside, I really enjoyed watching people celebrate a family that had given their lives away to their church family, friends, and community over the years. I want to live that way. We've been so blessed to meet some beautiful people during our time here that have added to our understanding of what it means to live with purpose.

a {colorful} little finish

2010-05-28T11:38:00.000-05:00

As of this Wednesday evening, I am "Wilton certified". That's right, I COMPLETED my fourth course and am done (phew!) for now with my cake-u-cation. Wilton is revamping it's classes, though, and rolls out new product in June, so I have a few more things to learn. Top of my list are gum paste calla lilies and mums. Gorgeous.

Here's my "class final" cake, which is a colorful whimsical birthday cake for the "June birthdays" for a friend. It's got some delightfully colorful gerber daisies, which, I must say, are probably one of my favorite flowers thus far. Too fun.

Boxed up and ready to go!

"On deck" for next week are two wedding showers... both with some delightful little daisies, I believe. One will have a cake and the other opted for a cupcake tower. Stay tuned.

congrats grad

2010-05-23T22:18:00.001-05:00

A friend of mine's daughter graduated from high school last week. We got together to discuss ideas for her grad party cakes. The grad party had a black/white/red accent color scheme. She wanted a vintage/elegant feel to the event and her fondant cakes and absolutely LOVES music. She has a heart "logo" she draws using the trebel and base clefs that she loves so we decided to feature it on her cakes. Here's the results!

carnations and daisies

2010-05-23T22:07:00.000-05:00

Gumpaste is such a fun medium to work with. Not as tasty as butter cream or even fondant, but it allows for some wonderful technique. This week I learned two new flowers, both of which are gorgeous. I'm especially excited about the daisies.

First are the carnations. They look SO real which is a lot of fun!

The other flowers are some adorable daisies. They'd be fun cake or cupcake toppers and gorgeous as gerber daisies too, which I hope to be able to showcase here soon!

a couple lil cakes

2010-05-16T16:15:00.000-05:00

Just a few things that have been keeping me busy lately. First, a quick cake for a friend's birthday after we learned some techniques in class. I wouldn't use the "draping" technique like this typically, but we were just practicing. Draping is absolutely gorgeous on tiered cakes, especially for weddings.

Next, I made up a batch of frosting and some little 6" cakes to decorate with my little sister after dinner one evening before she left for the summer. Here's our fun little spring creation.

Pretty cute, huh?

a happy little {wedding} cake

2010-04-29T12:03:00.003-05:00

FINALLY it's done! My first wedding cake! And I'm beginning to understand why these things cost so much. It was a lot of work, but I love it. And I learned a LOT doing it.

Here's the work in progress:

1. 2 layered cakes. 9" and 6". French Vanilla and Devil's Food with butter cream frosting.

2. Cakes + more butter cream for a crumb coat.

3. And... marshmallow fondant! My batch incorporated too much air, so it had some bubbles. :(

4. But I'm becoming more and more of a firm believer in the cake decorator's motto: "Butter cream will fix anything." SOOO due to the fondant bubbles I picked a cornelli lace design that turned out beautifully after a few hours of decorating! Here's the final product! Fun!

an indoor rose garden

2010-04-26T22:48:00.001-05:00

These little guys have dominated my evenings over the past week and a half... but as of last night, they are DONE and just waiting to decorate the wedding cake I'll make for class on Wednesday!

The roses are fondant and are in three blooming "stages". I used the colors from a friend's wedding last year and think they turned out so fun!

The green brings them to life:

And some leaves:

Tonight I whipped up a batch of homemade marshmallow fondant (yum) and four cakes: two 6" and two 9". It's all coming together for a gorgeous blooming wedding cake and should be done late Wednesday evening!

New beautiful blooms!

2010-04-22T12:48:00.000-05:00

I learned a few more flowers last night. These flowers are a lot more detailed and time consuming, but it's time will spent. Once finished, they {almost} look REAL!

I just made them for practice purposes. They're beautiful flowers for seasonal cakes and would be gorgeous for spring weddings (or Christmas if you like the poinsettias, which are my favorite!). They'd also be fun cupcake toppers. I would probably not combine them with other flowers, but do an entire cake in just one of them. They're about the size of an egg, which is why they're currently drying in an egg carton!

Here they are. Pretty pink poinsettias:

Petunias:

Easter lilies and morning glories:

And the whole beautiful bunch! Fun!

i {heart} fondant

2010-04-15T20:06:00.000-05:00

Last night was hands-down my favorite cake decorating experience. We began.... FONDANT! And I love love love it! Here's the final product before it dried:

...a fondant present cake. It is supposed to look like it's covered in wrapping paper with a big bow. And it was SO FUN to make. The cake itself is a devil's food chocolate cake with strawberry filling... also a new experiment. Paired with the fun wrapping paper theme, I am just loving the results!

This cake would be fun in a lot of different scenarios. Stacked gifts could make a gorgeous wedding or bridal shower cake. And it would be wonderful for any celebration... birthday, wedding, baby shower, etc. Depending on the color scheme, it could be VERY elegant or just a ton of fun!

B's cake

2010-04-15T19:59:00.000-05:00

So the hubsters laments often that the cakes I make are not for him. He gets to watch me make them, smell them baking, and his sweet tooth aches as I sweep them out the door for someone else.

I do often have random leftovers for his consumption, however, that I make sure to mark with post-its so he knows he won't be sleeping on the couch for ruining my perfect batch of frosting for class.

Thus, last night when I was photographing my handiwork, B asked me to "take a picture of his cake too". So here it is.... the cake (if you can call it that) I worked so hard on for my one and only.

Some assembly required. Not as pretty, but combine the two bowls and you'll get something that tastes eerily similar to the cake in my next post...

(Authors note: The hubsters is turning 24 in June. This means he WILL be receiving a legitimate cake in the near future. So don't feel too bad for him, mom.)

HE is risen {indeed}

2010-04-15T19:53:00.000-05:00

These are long overdue, but here a few photos of cakes that graced our family's tables as we celebrated this Easter season.

The first is a from scratch strawberry cake with fresh strawberry filling and whipped buttercream icing. I am only beginning to experiment with from scratch cake recipes. I learned on this one that I should have let it bake 5 minutes longer BEFORE opening the oven, as my gorgeous puffy cake sunk in just moments when I opened the oven to check it and take it out. Sad. It did prove, however, the cake decorator's mantra: "Frosting can fix anything". In this case, a LOT of frosting in the middle of your sunken cake will smooth over your experimental baking woes!

But, I am told the strawberry cake was yummy and I was loving it with strawberry ice cream! I also misquoted the hymn... "Sing ye heavens and earth reply... Alleluia!" were the intended lyrics. But I suspect heavens and earth were both rejoicing on Easter morning, so I think we're good. Here it is:

The second is a quick Easter egg-shaped cake that Meg and I made for our Palm Sunday Easter celebration with the hubby's extended family. Cute, quick (ignore the pulled crumbs... whoops!) and fun! These pans will also make great footballs next fall!

happy birthday {meg}

2010-03-26T21:38:00.000-05:00

My sister-in-law conveniently decided to turn 22 the day after our final project for cake class level 2. This made her the lucky winner of a birthday cake that I spent many hours preparing. It made her the unlucky winner of a birthday cake she didn't get to pick. She did get to pick the cake and filling, though, and opted for a white pudding cake with raspberry filling. Yum!

First, here's the final pieces I worked on last week. My favorite list of flowers is now: pansies, violets, and mums. Here's the lovely pansies:

I also did as I promised and practiced daisies for awhile. I am much more pleased with this result:

A few of the other flowers from class:

We learned a new icing, too. Color flow. It dries rock hard, but allows you to trace logos, simple pictures, etc. It doesn't taste as good as royal/buttercream icing, but I love it. The detail it enables is just so FUN. For Meg's basket-o-flowers cake, we went with butterflies:

I chose to make the wings separately so the butterflies could "fly" on the actual cake.

AND (drum roll please)... here's the beautiful blooming birthday cake! This cake would be perfect for Easter, Mother's Day, or wedding/baby showers. Any of the individual flowers could be used to decorate a cake all on their own. They'd also make fabulous cupcake toppers! So many ideas!

quick {polka dot} cake

2010-03-26T21:22:00.000-05:00

I had some extra color flow icing left after class last week, so I made up some polka dots while we watched March Madness (and yes, my bracket is doing quite well. Thanks for asking). Here they are drying:

Yes, that is our picture beneath them. I needed a flat surface and it was the nearest thing so it got hijacked by waxed paper and frosting.

Anyway, a friend needed a variety of desserts for an event she was having, so I just iced a white cake and decorated with my frosting bubbles the next week! SO easy and pretty adorable. I love the cake decorations you can make ahead!

So happy and spring-y. Love. It'd be easy to do many designs with these dots. I'll be revisiting this idea again in the future...

supplies and such

2010-03-26T12:31:00.000-05:00

Came home a week or so ago to this:

It looked neater, but I re-wrapped it to take a picture. Haha. A woman in B's class brought cupcakes in a nifty carrier and he thought I'd love one. So, he (being the savvy shopper he is) researched a few and picked this cupcake carrying engineering marvel at Bed Bath and Beyond for me as a surprise! I love gifts like that.

It has two trays for cupcakes that can be used to display them as well and can be popped down for storage, which is really nice. Even has lines to help you cut your cake evenly! Love. Find it here.

{cup}cake inspiration

2010-03-23T09:51:00.001-05:00

Saw a cute little article on cnn.com that cupcakes have taken America by storm. I believe it... they're just too fun.

Here's some lovely sites that inspire me... excited to roll up my sleeves and experiment more with cakes and icing after looking at these!

I'm looking over...

2010-03-17T17:29:00.003-05:00

...a four-leaf clover that I overlooked before

One leaf is sunshine, the second is rain

Third is the roses that grow in the lane

No need explaining, the one remaining

Is somebody I adore

I'm looking over a four-leaf clover

That I overlooked before!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

B made a little display platter for the cake I made for our St. Patrick's Day bake sale at work from some of my favorite Christmas wrapping paper and a cardboard box. I made the clovers ahead of time and skimped and used store frosting (tee hee). It has a mint chocolate pudding filling! Yum! Only wish I could have tried it!

coming up {daisies}...

2010-03-15T12:59:00.002-05:00

... or not. Until yesterday, I had a favorite flower. The gerber daisy. It found its way into most of the flower arrangements from B, into my bridesmaid bouquets, and into our wedding boutennieres... I love that it's such a happy, colorful, care-free flower. So naturally, when I saw lots of whimsical pictures of daisy cakes in our class book, that made me quite excited.

But the favorite flower status is on hold after class tonight. We made apple blossoms, violets, violet leaves, daffodils and roses. No problem. Delightful in fact. But the fun stopped with the daisies. They seem so cute and innocently beautiful. It looked so simple!

...but my daisies are oddly chubby, a bit misshapen and most closely resemble the bouquet of flowers my then-fiance dropped off while I was sleeping before he left for the summer with a wonderful note and an apology that "I believe these are the ugliest flowers I've ever seen. That's what happens when you go to the grocery store for flowers in the middle of the night". And while that bouquet and apology made me smile, these do not:

So I'm on daisy duty. In our March "off week" I'm setting aside my Wednesday evening to practice daisies while the hubby studies. Stay tuned.

Below are the flowers that I actually liked from class. They're drying and contemplating their future on my sister-in-law's birthday cake. The clovers are for a cake I'm making for our bake sale at work next week. I'm hoping to have the words "I'm looking over a four leaf clover that I overlooked before" on the cake. Notice there's only one four-leaf clover. :) Yes, that makes me smile. I'm that much of a dork.

wedding bells, books, and bliss...

2010-03-02T20:47:00.000-06:00

Thank goodness we set a date for our wedding or I would have never gotten it all planned. I still haven't tied up the ends on a few projects to archive the best day of my life thus far. I'm convinced the unfinished project is the woe of artists everywhere. My creative mind is just too easily distracted. Just tonight B was telling me that I unload the dishwasher "all wrong" (What? You mean most people don't put one knife away, clean the stove, grab something to eat, put a bowl away, put another knife away, then get distracted by a plate on the stove again?) I just find his orderliness constricting.... :)

So last night I rolled up my sleeves and invaded the hubby's tidy study space:

Poor guy. Note the Swiffer Sweeper I bought at Target and just couldn't seem to put away before I started creating. Anyway, I LOVE the board books that you can find at Scrapbooking stores and found a nifty one that comes in a cute little box before we got married. Hopefully it will soon be a coffee table conversation piece, but I spent so much time decorating the box and cover that I'm only now getting to the pages.

Here's the box:

Pretty darling, huh? And here's the book:

... and page one, which is all I got to last night. I {think} it's done, but who knows!

One of my favorite things to do when creating is use {old} things in {new} places. Scrapbooking makes that so easy since the whole idea is to use paper scraps, knick knacks and photos to tell a story. My favorite recycles in this book so far are the label on the outside of the box, which I made using my grandma's delightful old typewriter AND the "me and you" gift tag/photo which is actually just an extra from a set of blank greeting cards I bought awhile back and didn't need. I found it as I was rummaging through my things to get some up and knew I could find a home for it!

sympathy

2010-02-27T13:06:00.000-06:00

My mom called me Thursday because she was frustrated by how difficult it is to find a sympathy card that doesn't have some cheesy quote that you would never say, a tacky picture, or just doesn't "fit" how you're feeling and how you'd like to love someone during their time of loss. So she came up with a few verses and a basic idea of what she'd like, and I headed off to Hobby Lobby. Here's the results. The inside of the cards have either:

Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. - Psalms 23:4
I'll give you strength. I'll help you. I'll hold you steady, keep a firm grip on you. - Isaiah 41:10

I think paper will always be my favorite medium. I was the weird girl who didn't go look at wedding dresses the day I got engaged, but spent hours looking at invitations and programs. My poor father spent so much time with me making sure that we got it {just} right. I. Love. Paper.

I also enjoyed making someone else's little creative vision a reality. My mom is highly creative in the way she cooks, listens, and interacts with others, but doesn't love to create in the traditional "I spend more time at Hobby Lobby and Blick Art Supplies than the grocery store" sort of way. So though this is an example of {my} work, it was {her} word choice and layout.

humble beginnings

2010-02-27T12:55:00.000-06:00

This week marked the end of Wilton class number one. I really enjoyed it and realized I have a long way to go! I made two cakes as a part of course one: (1) a {30th} birthday cake for the hubby's friend, Josh and (2) a {sweet 16} birthday cake for Rachel and Tabi, the daughter of a dear friend. Our final for class number three (at the end of April) will be a wedding cake. I'm excited to make it!

Anyway, here's the goods. I learned 2 things on Josh's cake: (1) I love polka-dots. Okay, so maybe I didn't learn that, but definitely reaffirmed it. (2) I love colorful cakes. We had to ice our first cake in white frosting for class, and that just made me sad.

The sweet 16 cake taught me that: (1) leaves are oh so much fun, (2) I love purple cakes, and (3) white cake is WAY easier to frost than chocolate. But chocolate is very much my preference, so still not sure what I think about that.

lovebug {cup}cakes

2010-02-27T11:54:00.000-06:00

In honor of Valentine's Day (a few weeks late I might add), I thought I'd post a few pictures of some love bug cupcakes I made last year for our company bake sale. The love bugs are made out of E.L. Fudge Grasshopper cookies, which are basically Girl Scout Thin Mints, except available all the time and cheaper.

Looking at them now, there's a lot I've learned from class and might do differently. But they sure are adorable, huh?

here goes something

2010-02-09T21:22:00.000-06:00

Ever since the hubby and I graduated from college, I knew I'd be needing a {creative} outlet. Wedding planning and setting up our first home provided that for some time, but 2010 has finally brought some more significant creative changes to my weekly schedule.

First, I went on a shopping spree to Blick. My wonderful in-laws gave me a gift there for my birthday at hubster's suggestion. Met a delightful young art student who endured my onslaught of questions and painfully obvious lack of artistic training. (So do you know what kind of painting you'd like to do? Nope. Would you like to use natural or synthetic brushes? Don't know. What supplies do you have already? Uhhh... none? So what questions do you have? Ummm... all of them?) Fortunately he didn't ask when I last picked up a paint brush, colored pencil, or had any sort of artistic training (6th grade?). Painted a few canvases for our kitchen when I got home. I'm a fan of how they turned out...

One project down (I think... still can't decide if I'm done yet) and so many marinating in my little brain I almost don't even know how I'll paint anything else. I'm afraid all the ideas will try to explode onto the canvas at one time. I spent a significant amount of time staring at my acrylics and just pondering all the pictures that are sitting in those little colorful tubes... waiting for an artist to take the time to draw them out. There's a lot of potential in that little tube. I love to just think about the paint surrendering to the artist. When a piece is done, you don't see the original paint at all, but it wraps itself around the artists idea and brings it to life. Ahh... creative potential.

Anyway, another adventure I'm beginning is {cake} decorating. This is ironic for many reasons: (1) I'm not a fan of cake. I was the girl who had birthday brownies, birthday cookies, birthday ice cream cones... but not birthday cakes. I don't even like pancakes. I especially don't like frosting. But as of yet, they don't offer {steak} decorating. If you hear of a class being offered, let me know. I'm there. (2) I've often failed at cake baking. I love to cook, but bake? Not my forte. (I'm trying though, and improving slowly). Until further notice, however, Betty Crocker has agreed to help me out and she's packaging one of her secret recipes in these little boxes for me at Target. Many thanks to Betty.

I do, however, love cake {decorating}. There's the key. (1) Cakes mean celebration. Birthdays, weddings, babies, holidays, "just because I love you" days... and I definitely love all of those. (2) For some reason in our culture, cakes have become a reflection of who you are. When it's your special day, the cake is all about you. I love to roll up my sleeves and spend my creative energy on making people excited about who God has created them to be. (3) Cakes are colorful. I. Love. Color.

My dear friend Becky gave me the kit for the first class to get me headed in the right direction. Like any rebellious student would, I opened it before class began and experimented on my own. Here's the cake I came up with for my little sister's 20th "Happy Bloomin' Birthday". I now know after only 2 hours of class all the things I did wrong when I made it, but it still makes me smile.

What a cutie. Happy birthday lady! Welcome to the twenties.