Lemon Birthday Cake

So I found out this week that my coworker Kathy was having a birthday this weekend. Hey another opportunity to practice! I whipped a lemon cake with lemon curd filling, because that's her second favorite. Sorry, couldn't decorate so well with German chocolate icing! Had lots of leftover buttercream from last week, but I think it was a little too runny. Gave me a chance to try a new technique that I have never done before called Cornelli Lace and also to practice my writing. As you can see I need to work a bit on that, but I did have fun playing with the icing colors!

Second Paying Gig! WOOHOO again...

My friend Shannon who I used to work with heard of my cakes for Ryan's retirement (see below!) and wanted to see if I would do a cake for the Girl Scouts. I would love to! But they wanted to feed 140 people. I don't have a slab large enough to hold a cake that large yet, so I did a half sheet with matching cupcakes. I freehanded the design for the logo from a smaller one. Must remember to get a computer. The cupcakes are lemon, strawberry, and chocolate. The cake is yellow cake with a buttercream layer. All are iced in homemade buttercream. Take a look!

First paying GIG! WOOHOO

I was SOOOOOOO excited to be asked to do this for Chief Ryan Nicholls retirement. His wife Tiffany and I had worked together for almost two years, and I have an even deeper attachment to the Nicholls as they are from east Tennessee! It's so nice to hear an east Tennessee accent in Italy sometimes! Plus, they are huge UT fans. GO VOLS! Ryan was planning on having 100 people or more for the ceremony, and the cake was to be served right after. The ceremony was SO emotional and meaningful. I decided to dedicate one cake to Ryan's 21 years of military service and the other to his deep love for the University of Tennessee Volunteers. Hope you like them!

Leftovers for New Year's. Is that bad luck?

There was some leftover buttercream from the snowman and I decided to make these festive cupcakes to take to work for New Year's. Now anyone who has ever delved into the pictures online of cake decorator's from around the world knows that cupcakes are in an entire category by themselves. Cupcake addicts will fight to the death about how addictive they are and how diferent it is to decorate those as opposed to cakes. With this in mind, I tried my hand at swirls, in bright pink and orange, fading from color to color. Sorry the pictures aren't that great, I need a new camera.

Snowmen but no Snow!

This cake was done for my last work Christmas party in December 2008 with my old job. All of the staff got together at Tiffany's house for food and fun. The cake is a double layer filled with buttercream, with the body being yellow cake and the top being red velvet. All of the decorations are HOMEMADE buttercream. Yup, you heard it here first. That is homemade icing, and surprise, it was a huge hit! Tiffany's husband immediately asked me to make his retirement cakes.

Cake... it's an addiction really.

I love cake. I have always loved cake. But as a child I always wondered how they made those beautiful icing flowers. So I figured I would start with the basics. So, here is my first cake. It was made for Thanksgiving 2008, which I spent in Italy, far away from home, friends, and family. The cake is pumpkin spice flavor from a recipe by "The Cake Mix Doctor". I love that cookbook! The icing is creamcheese, not homemade. This is definitely an amateur attempt, but it turned out so cute!