Christopher Garren's Let Them Eat Cake

One of my favorite Cake TV shows is Amazing Wedding Cakes.  I was in California for Mother's Day weekend and I just HAD to stop by their shop.

I was lucky enough to get a picture with the master himself, Christopher Garren.  I let him know that he is the best on that show.

Quite frankly, he may be the best on TV.  His shop if flawless in execution and he has an excellent team.  I was so giddy the rest of the day.  I met Christopher Garren!!!  Don't you love it when you meet your heroes?!

By the way, his cakes are really good too!  We had cookies and petit fours that were fabulous!

The Royal Wedding

I didn’t actually get up the morning of the Royal Wedding.  I was too lazy.  I did celebrate though with a Tea Party.  My friends and I got our best hats on and dressed up for the event.

I made scones (which are delicious) with an orange glaze.

Cucumber sandwiches.

Crumpets and jelly, which are basically just mini pancakes.

Coconut Macaroons.

I was very proud of my lay out and everything was so yummy.  So yummy in fact, that as I was putting away leftovers, Roscoe (the dog) decided to eat EVERYTHING.

It was a fabulous tea party and I just loved the wedding!  Hope you enjoyed it too!

Cute Car

I did NOT make these so I can't take credit, but a friend made them for a cub scout Pine Wood derby.  Aren't they so adorable!!!  They are Twinkies with mini Oreo wheels.  Perfect dessert or snack for any type of racing/car event.

Cricut Crafts

It's hard to balance my hobbies.  I feel like I do one or the other and lately it's more Cricut projects since it's new to me.  Here is what I've done lately:

Customized Letter

Mirror with Vinyl Lettering

More Picture Frames with Vinyl on Frame

Wall Decor

Easter Egg Basket

As a donation for a Baseball group, I made an Easter Basket Cake.

It’s German Chocolate with Coconut-Pecan filling.  Chocolate Buttercream for the basket weave.

Then, it’s green colored coconut for the grass and peeps and jelly beans.  It was really simple and took no time at all and came out really cute.

Easter Eggs

I saw a commercial for Rice Krispies Treats and they made these cute little eggs with M&Ms inside of them and I HAD to make them.

I didn't take many pictures, but if you go to the website, they give you a tiny tutorial and have lots of other recipes and creative things to make for all holidays.

 

Also, I learned that Peeps has more than just the marshmallow birds and bunnies.  They have stuff all season long.  I'm making a cake for this weekend and I have to copy an idea I saw from their website.  So genius and so cute!

 

Cricut Projects

One of the things that has distracted me from cake decorating is the Cricut!  I got one as a very early birthday gift and I have spent a lot of time trying to learn how to use it and play with it.  I did not get a Cake Cricut, but I did not want one either.  I don't even like using fondant because I think it's kind of a cheater/easy way to do things, so the Cake Cricut would be right up that same alley.  For others who are interested in buying one, go ahead if that's what you want, but do know that I've heard nothing but complaints from those who have bought it.  They say it's not that easy to use and it's more time consuming.  However, if you want perfection, that might be the way to go.

Anyways, back to the non-cake Cricut.  I have been making crafts with it and learning vinyl lettering.  It has been a lot of fun and I've been trying to figure out how to incorporate it with my cakes and other daily things I do.

March Madness

Since the start of this year I have been very busy with other crafts and things that I'm involving myself with.  Honestly, I have too many crafts on my plate, so I have a hard time balancing them.  I just go from project and project.  There haven't been too many birthdays or things I need to make cakes for, so that has taken the back seat.

For March, I did want to make these cute little Pots of Gold that I saw on Makes and Takes.  They used pipe cleaner, while I used ribbon, but it's the same effect and a little easier.  I thought they were so cute and simple.  Just perfect for gifts.

Missionary Cake

I took a "Tall Cakes" class at JoAnns to learn how to stack cakes.  So now I can easily do wedding cakes.  This didn't turn out perfect, but it was for class.  However, I did use it for my cousin's mission farewell.  It is suppose to look like paints with pinstriping on the bottom, a belt, dress shirt and tie.  It also has a missionary tag and RWH means Return With Honor.  Overall, it was pretty good and I was quite happy with the elements.

Inside, the top tier is Red Velvet with Cream Cheese frosting, middle tier is German Chocolate, and bottom tier is Chocolate with Strawberry filling.

Keeping in Simple in January

For January, I made gluten-free shortbread cookies, which were not the prettiest thing I've created.

I tried to add some "flair" to them by adding a drop flower of cream cheese with sprinkles.

I also made Lemon cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.  I was working on simply frosting them, since I have struggled with them not looking right in the past.

For "flair" here, I spray painted them reddish orange.  Not too exciting, but something for the month of January was done!

Last Minute Holiday Cake

I gave myself way too short of time to do this cake.  I was amazed that I turned it out so quickly, but it was a mess and I wish I could have taken the time to fix it more.

It's red velvet with cream cheese frosting.  I have never decorated the cake fully with the cream cheese.  This recipe I found was half buttercream and cream cheese.  It appeared to work well at first and tasted very good.

However, I even got the frosting to a whipped stage and there was still little chunks of cream cheese that I couldn't get rid of.  They were so tiny, but when you are piping, they find their way out.  If you can see my lettering, I was doing okay until the bag burst on my very last letter!  So, I went over it and had to call it a day.

This was a very simple cake, but a feat for sure.  It's suppose to be a wreath and have poinsettas on it.  Below the rope border looks great though!  Even with all the flaws, it tasted great with the berry medley in the center.  I don't know if I would recommend the mix with cream cheese, but it does taste so much better with it.

Happy Holidays!

For a Holiday cake, I decided to do chocolate with mint filling.  For the filling, I chopped up Andes mints and it was so delicious!

For decor, I tried a rope border that was new for me.  The rope work came out much better then my dots and even my shell border on the bottom.

I did better with the writing, but I should have taken the time to mix in a little piping gel to make it smooth.

For the top, I made cake pops for the first time!  I have an autographed book by Bakerella that my mother got me.  The pops are actually much harder than I expected them to be.  You have to be very fast when you work with the candy coating.

I just loved the cake pops once the hard work was over.  They were made out of red velvet and they were so cute!

My Wonderful Christmas Gift

My parents bought me the most wonderful mixer for Christmas.  It's so much better than using a hand mixer and my arms are so grateful!

It's a Breville, which I wasn't familiar with at the time.  However, now after going to the store and doing some research, it's way better than a Kitchen Aid.  Kitchen Aid does have the famous name and many accessories, but this is so efficient in the mixing settings, timings, etc.  It's actually scraps the bowl clean, too!  It is amazing and I can't say more good things about it other than I am so happy I got one!