How the cakes began......

It's been a few years since I did cakes frequently. Lack of space, time and a bit of cake-perfectionism- burnout had me taking a break. Then I had a child, lol. I was determined that his first birthday cake would be made by me and the result is the rubber duck cake in my photo's. I've gotten a ton of compliments on it and I just can't say enough how incredibly easy that cake is for anyone to do.

however one thing that it has also done is recreated my interest in baking and decorating cakes. I like to do things that are a little more than the usual rose covered sheet cakes that you can find in the local bakeries. Now Ace of Cakes I am not, although I love watching that show for ideas. I'm really interested in trying my hand at a french toast shaped cake after a recent episode, lol.

provided i can get in to the office tomorrow (snow and ice storm coming in AGAIN) and get time at lunch I'd love to scan and share some pictures of other cakes I have done. Sadly I have not taken a picture of each cake and there are some I'm sorry I missed. The one that comes to mind the most was the cross cake with the fondant covering draped to look like fabric and accented with flowers. The cake that stands out as the longest decorating project was the irish lace cake. This was requested by a bride from ireland which was why i caved and did make it. it took about 12 or so hours to just decorate...not bake..not assemble...not ice and cover with fondant..just to do the detail work. i'm my own worst critic and even I know this cake is gorgeous, lol

oops almost forgot to explain how I got into cake decorating to begin with, lol. Early in life i couldn't ice a cake decoratively for the life of me. they always looked, weird, for lack of a better word. Now quite a few years ago my youngest niece was turning 4 i think. I was with my mom and we found out the store couldn't make a cake that fast as we were ordering late. This would be about 12 years ago. My mom looked at me and asked if I could do a cake. I took a deep breath and said I'd try. armed with a little book of basic techniques..and a lot of prayer I made the cake. I can't even remember what it looked like, although I know I wasn't thrilled with it, lol. However it sparked an interest and I started practicing and playing around with decorating techniques. Turns out I have a small gift for cake decorating and creativity, lol. Some are simple, some are stunning, some are silly... but they are all interesting, lol.