Emilio Rocks!

Emilio turns 4 and his awesome mom Trina creates a rockin' party for him filled with music and fun. Trina wanted a simple 2 tiered cake with subdued colors of avocado green and charcoal gray for her son's cake, inspired by a card she saw on Etsy. Here's what I came up with and I'm glad to hear they liked it!

Happy 4th birthday Emilio!

Movie and a Popcorn

Enzo's cake
Disney themed with gumdrops

I have not made the same cake twice in years since everyone has different themes in mind. But this cake I feel is very versatile. With minor detail adjustments, you can personalize the cake to the celebrant's request.

Enzo turns 1 while Bella turns 10. When I got the request for Enzo's cake to reflect different Disney characters and with the budget she had, I thought of a movie reel and of course, we can't leave out the popcorn! Bella on the other hand, didn't have a particular theme in mind but was having a slumber party with 10 of her closest friends. With slumber parties at that age, you talk about your favorite shows or watch a movie. These cakes were only days apart and after showing Enzo's cake, Bella's mom wanted the same with a few changes.

Bella's cake
With her favorite shows, hand painted personalized m&ms

Some cake details up close

A lot of people have done their own version of a movie themed cake but if you're a cake maker reading this and you're given a budget for a cake with different elements, consider this. I think it works! Plus, I enjoyed every minute making those popcorn kernels.

My Izzie Turns 3

Photo taken at Izzie's school. Pardon the unedited photo.

One nice day months before her birthday, Izzie stands on a stool beside me, watches me work on a cake then tells me "Mama, I want Elmo standing cake holding Izzie's hand". I thought she would forget but on the contrary, kept telling me about it! How can I say no to that right? :)

My hubby was in charge of making the structure and I think he did such a great job. Thanks Hon!!

Both muppet Izzie and Elmo are made of the same structure just flipped around. Both then filled with rice cereal treats and modeling chocolate or fondant. Wish I did make Elmo a little thinner. First he looked like a dirty old man wearing boxers - yikes! But after putting everything on, he looked a little better -- now, a chubby little monster that's somewhat cross eyed wearing his goggles hehe! Izzie still loved it regardless. That's what matters. She loved her muppet too. She wants to learn ballet hence the tutu. And oh, here's the inspiration why Elmo's wearing scuba gear. We gave out fighting fishes with the Elmo background you see which was made my fab sister.

Izzie's fish. His name's Elmo!

Happy Birthday Izzie! Mommy and Daddy loves you!

Precious Cayleigh

Baby Cayleigh is welcomed into the Christian world with a cake that holds a Precious Moments inspired figure of a girl praying with a bear per request of her mom. Cayleigh's mom is one of my favorite regular customer and the best part is she leaves the design of the cake to me! Here's what I came up with, inspired by Dot and Grace of Cupcakes by Design.

The base is completely covered with pieces of fondant to embody a quilt. To match, I added a quilted heart on the top tier. Cayleigh's name is stamped with floral accents.

Welcome to the Christian world little princess Cayleigh!

Old MacDonald Had A Farm...

Little Austin celebrated his first birthday in Lemo's Farm (www.lemosfarm.com). What other way to complete the party with a farm themed cake!

Lemo's farm is known for their pony rides, petting area and their train ride. Since it was going to be costly to make a moving train from scratch, we opted to have Thomas the Train and tracks around the cake to go with the venue. Here are a few shots of the cake.

Ee i ee i oh!

And on this farm he had some pigs,

Ee i ee i oh!

And an oink, oink here,

And an oink, oink there,

Here an oink, there an oink, everywhere an oink oink,

Old MacDonald had a farm,

Ee i ee i oh!

Old MacDonald had a farm,

Ee i ee i oh!

And on this farm he had a horse,

Ee i ee i oh!

And a neigh neigh here,

And a neigh neigh there,

Here a neigh, there a neigh, everywhere a neigh neigh,

Old MaDonald had a farm,

Ee i ee i oh!

Old MacDonald had a farm,

Ee i ee i oh!

And on this farm he had a chicken,

Ee i ee i oh!

And a cluck cluck here,

And a cluck cluck there,

Here a cluck, there a cluck, everywhere a cluck,

Old MaDonald had a farm,

Ee i ee i oh!

Old MacDonald Had a Farm,

Ee i ee i oh!!!

Alison and Dave's Special Day

I love weddings. I love the planning part of it, the day of and of course the cake! However, having a child and being around more of them now, most of my cakes have been children's cakes. This month though I was given a chance to work on a wedding cake and I truly enjoyed it.

Wedding cakes are so different from creating a child's cake. It is simpler design wise but the smallest detail you put on it I feel needs to be perfect and precise, which doesn't make it simple to make. And making it look cohesive and detailed but not overly decorated I think is important.

"Lace"

This cake I made for Alison and Dave was inspired by Alison's beautiful Monique Lhuillier dress. ML is known for using beautiful lace on her gowns and the signature ribbon tied around the bride's waist. So I focused on the lace and the bow for the cake. The bottom 2 layers of the cake being the "skirt", then the bow and working up to the "torso". The "lace" were hand cut pieces of gumpaste then hand piped with royal icing. I only had a small swatch of the lace which didn't give me an option to make a mold. I did some string work too to create the hem. Last minute I decided to add the lowest tier to elevate the cake and give me room to pipe the hem.

Jane Hammond events busy transforming the room

Congratulations Dave and Alison! Wishing you all the best and happiness.

ICES 2010

Just a couple of weeks ago, I attended my 1st ICES convention in San Diego . This year's theme was Hanging 10 in 2010. Each year, a cake decorator creates the main show cake for the event. This year, Susan Carberry of Cake Cottage created this ginormous and amazingly detailed cake as this year's ICES cake.

It was overwhelming to see hundreds of cake decorators, some coming for the first time while others veterans eager to see what's new in the business and to learn from the who have taken the time to share their talent. There was what they called a Cake Shack where decorators can bring in a cake to share. I wasn't expecting a lot of cakes since this was not a contest but surprisingly, there were a good number and they were from all over the world! I myself brought 2 cakes to share. The one seen above is inspired by geometric shapes and the Modern Art Museum. I wanted to make a modern showpiece worthy to call art. I do hope it is! The second cake below is inspired by tin lanterns. Both photos were by Stringer Photography, taken at the convention site.

Attending this convention was a wonderful experience and I hope to be able to attend more events like these in the future. The one thing I realized with this event is that there are so much more I need to learn, so many sacrifices to make and hurdles to go through to survive in this industry. Cake decorating is more than just a job or a business. It is dedication and passion that makes us do what we do. I admire the great ones out there and they are such an inspiration. I do hope to make it like them someday. When that will be, I don't know but it never hurts to dream right? :)