I made the below cake for the 31st birthday of a lady whose favorite colors are blue, green and all shades of pink. She had always wanted to have a madhatter birthday cake. The cake was hazelnut sponge cake with chocolate butter cream frosting.

Picture of the cake before I put the metal swirly ball decorations in:
After I put the metal swirly ball decorations in:

My most recent cake commission was for the surprise birthday party of a Kevin Harvick (Nascar driver) fan. The car on the top was designed to look like Kevin’s car and was vanilla cake. The bottom layer was carrot cake with a cream cheese frosting filling.

Sketch:

Final Product:

My sister’s 27th birthday was this week, so I did what any good sister with baking skills would do and made her a cake. The design was inspired by the fact that she has been collecting all sorts of pig things (stuffed animals, figurines, etc.) since she was young, and by her favorite color: Purple

The top layer was vanilla cake with cinnamon cream cheese filling and chocolate buttercream frosting and the bottom layer was chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting.

My most recent commission was for two back-to-back baby showers: a cake for the first and some cupcakes for the second. The cake was designed to match the invitation for the event and was lemon chiffon with raspberry buttercream filling, decorated in fondant. The carriage on the top was made of pastillage, which is similar to fondant, but dries and hardens very fast. The cupcakes were made to match the same color scheme, but were vanilla cake with vanilla butter cream and fondant bows.

Shower Invite:

Sketch:

Final Product:

I decided to make two small gingerbread houses for a company holiday party. This was my first foray into the art that is gingerbread house decoration, so I decided to keep them small and simple — and try a couple of different things on each house. I’m relatively pleased with how they turned out. Incidentally, the day after I completed these, I watched the gingerbread competition on Food Network Challenge and I realized how impressive and detailed gingerbread houses can get. A larger more intricate gingerbread house may have to be planned for next year (time permitting!)

For Thanksgiving this year, I received an order for a pumpkin cake, like the one I did a couple years ago.

This one was a pumpkin walnut spice cake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting on the inside and plain cream cheese frosting on the outside. The stem and leaves were made of marzipan. It was somewhat like a carrot cake — but with pumpkin instead.

I used fresh pumpkins that I bought at Eastern Market in DC to make the puree used in the cake, and since I had leftover puree, I took the opportunity to make a pumpkin pie and pumpkin walnut ring with chocolate drizzle (recipe from The Cake Bible) for my family Thanksgiving:

The pumpkin walnut ring was basically the same recipe as the cake above. However, in order to differentiate it from the pumpkin pie in terms of flavor, I omitted the spices in the cake. It ended up a bit similar to a banana bread as a result. Very interesting — and very yummy!

So, I got married a little over a week ago. It was literally the best day of my life. Things were crazy (as they always seem to be) in the days leading up to the big event, but everything went like clockwork for both the rehearsal and the big day.

Now, to answer the question everyone seems to ask me: Did you make your own cake?? I did not. I like to think this is one of the reasons I still had my sanity on our wedding day :) I did, however, supply a sketch to the caterer (Jeffrey Miller Catering) and they made the cake to my specifications.

Sketches:

Final Product:


The bottom tier of the cake was hazelnut sponge cake with chocolate butter cream and the top tiers were lemon pound cake with a raspberry filling. They were both very delicious and I was happy to say that in the taste department I don’t think I could have done better myself.

(side note: these photos are not the ones taken by my photographer. I will update with the more professional photos once I get them.)

I also baked cookies that were given as favors at the reception:

I wrapped each in a clear plastic bag and tied each with a bow - I am not sure whether I have pictures of that coming to me or not - I know I forgot to take a picture of that myself. I will update the post if one comes my way.

All in all, I was very happy with the baked goods at our wedding :)

The below cake was made in honor of my cousin’s 30th birthday. She was born in Hawaii, so naturally we chose a Hawaiian theme. The bottom tier was vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream filling and the top tier was chocolate cake with cointreau-flavored-chocolate buttercream filling with raspberries. The first picture is before I placed the gumpaste 30 on the cake, the second after. The outside frosting was vanilla buttercream