I got a request for  1/4 sheet half basketball and half soccer cake! I immediately thought of my ball pans, but they were WAY TOO BIG to go on the 1/4 sheet, so it's just a semi-3d cake :) Chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream, and fondant stamped letters - simple as that... Happy Birthday Peach!

I love everything about this cake, particularly because of the previous caketastrophe! After the fiasco of a horrible delivery, this cake was my redemption! From baking the cakes to carving the shape, to the fondant details and the Chinese script writing on the waving fondant banner with food color, the airbrushed color of the cake, and the little fondant peaches in front. Redemption feels gooooood!

Enjoy the photos!

I would be so proud of this cake if it weren't for the fact that it split apart when i delivered it! I couldn't believe it. I even used my new "Cake on Board" sign so that I could drive like an old lady, and not get honked at! The feeling that i had when i saw the cake broken in front of me was straight horror and embarrassment. I can always cut into a cake ("oh my god, it's so pretty, I don't know how to cut into it!" "with a knife!") but handing someone a cake that has fallen apart is worse. What does one do at that moment? Fortunately, the cake was for a personal birthday, private celebration, and wasn't being presented. The client said, "It's an earthquake cake now" - funny, especially since we're not strangers to earthquakes here in the SF Bay - but still.....................

I owe you one

There is still lots to be proud of on this cake: I made a 360degree scenery where each side of the cake led into the next in one continuous, never-ending scene; I recreated a semi-3D Golden Gate bridge in a 6x4" space, complete with rolling hills and the ocean crashing into rocks and back again; i used "bake even strips" successfully and the cake baked up flat (it's almost like magic)! I'm sure I will recover from this traumatic experience - and 1 cake-tastrophe (that i can remember) in 4 years isn't bad - but still..................... oh, and btw, not gonna show photos of the "fault line!"

Oh my goodness gracious. I got a last minute order this week. HARRY POTTER COOKIES for an 8th birthday party! If you didn't know, I love the Wizarding World. I even made wands, and even one that I could use on my iPad and pretend that it was really magic. I know, NERDTASTIC, right?!? So, needless to say, even though it was très last minute, I couldn't pass up the opportunity. The birthday girl was dressing up as Hermoine for her birthday, and so the cookies are naturally red and gold for Gryffindor. (I'm in Hufflepuff, yellow and black - go Badgers!)

So, enjoy, and check out the cookie set below, and then my assortment of wands, and other Harry Potter nerd stuff (as if you needed more proof). I hope they send some photos of the party I can share with you all!

NERD ALERT! Here are the wands I've made. Let me know if you want your own unique wand! Click on them to see the type of wood and core (disclaimer: the type of wand and cores are entirely made up!)

Now more nerdiness abounds, here is the beginning of my Pottermore.com adventures! Find me, I'm MarauderEye11900.

I love fondant. The medium lends itself to so many uses. Like recreating a 1.5" medallion into a 8" cake topper for DJ and her spiritual group!!! I so enjoyed this challenge. I ended up rolling out a piece of fondant quite thick and etching the design into the fondant, then airbrushing it with food coloring and sheen to give it a metallic look. DJ took a photo of the medallion early on and I enlarged it to make sure I got the right details. When I went to deliver the cake, I saw the medallion in real life and it was SO SMALL!!! I had been looking at an enlarged photo of it for so long, that when I saw the medallion in real life, it was tiny in comparison :)

Remember my open-faced cake? and how the BF ended up using just half a box of the cake mix? what was i going to do with the other half? seriously... then i remembered i bought these mini cake pans along time ago, so  i thought i'd make a mini cake!

Chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream filling, and chocolate fondant?! I made chocolate marshmallow fondant for the first time! yes, it was experimental, and yes, i did look it up and people have done it before with mixed reviews, and yes, i was nervous, and yes it worked! THANK GOODNESS! This was a very fun cake to do, making all the little pieces (and knowing that they were not all to scale, but knowing that it didn't really matter too, too much in the end). ENJOY!

What would happen if I made my lemon bar recipe in the cupcake pan so they're already portioned out? Lemon bar pies :) yum yum yum... I brought them to an Oscar party. I didn't take a picture of the finished product. They were gone by the time I remembered to snap one! I guess I will have to make them again!