Gem City Cakes

Thursday, July 29, 2010

The Beard!

My friend Justin had a birthday! He's super cool and he has the longest beard of any one I know. To me, it was obvious what had to be done here...

I was stoked because I finally bought edible markers.
Beard Cake

Beard caaaaake!!!

And what better than to throw in some party accessories?
mms_picture.jpg
I look good with a beard. Jussayin.

Beard cake... it's what's for dinner.
2010-07-249522.05.50.jpg

Friday, July 23, 2010

My Aha Moment!

mms_picture.jpg


Well, here it is!
1

http://www.ahamoment.com/pg/moments/view/15459

I think I look strange without my glasses, which were taken off due to glare and chubby. I look chubby. Don't judge me. I'm talking about cake.

OH!!! And look!!! New sharing buttons!!!

| | | |
V V V V

Happy Birthday Hef!

My friend Hef just turned 23! Happy birthday babe!

I made her these ice cream cone cupcakes. So darn cute!

Ice cream cone cupcakes

I even rode my bike to the bar with them on my basket!
mms_picture_1.jpg

What's not to love here???
mms_picture.jpg

There’s nothing you can’t do- Now you’re in New York- These streets will make you feel brand new- Big lights will inspire yo-u

My friend Katie was going to NYC to see our friend Mike, he always goes on about my cakes and how he wants to eat one so she had me make one for him!

NYC cake


Fondant with buttercream and dragee accents. The inside was a zebra stripe with blue, purple, yellow and green, I think. I don't exactly remember lol.

I hope he loved it!

Friday, July 16, 2010

Happy Birthday Eddy!

Some of you might find me crazy, but I think it's more like awesome.

My dog turned 3 yesterday. I want kids- I love kids- I don't have kids. So... I spoil my chihuahua. He is my baby. Well... he's getting older now- I mean come on, he's 21 in dog years!

I texted my husband and reminded him, hey it's the dog's birthday. He immediately said we HAD to do something for him. I said duh, we'll make a cake like last year. Brian even picked out the colors.

In any case, I like ANY reason for cake. Even if I can't eat it.
I made this cake out of all things nommable for dogs.
Carrots, beans, beef, eggs, flour, rice, olive oil... a little paprika, a drop of liquid smoke... good stuff.
dogcake 003

I pureed this and baked it. Then I colored some mashed potatoes (no butter or milk) and used them as "icing" lol

He loved it of course!
dogcake 004
dogcake 006dogcake 009dogcake 007
dogcake 011

Big hit. The cat didn't want any. Well, he had a few nibbles, but Eddy finished his piece.

A HA!

I got this email last week


Hi Tiffany,
I work for the company that is producing Mutual of Omaha’s “proud sponsor of life’s aha moments” campaign– visit www.ahamoment.com to see what an aha moment is and the great real stories we filmed during the campaign in 2009.

Associated to that, we have a 34-foot Airstream mobile film studio that is traveling the US on a 25-city tour to capture the country’s aha moments. We are headed to Dayton next Monday, July 12th & Tuesday, July 13th, and would love to invite you to share what lead you to begin teaching yourself to decorate cakes, and how your life has changed since. I came across your blog and think that you would have a great story to share! You would just have to step into the Airstream studio for a few minutes and tell your story on film, which would be posted to www.ahamoment.com .

We would love to have you if you are interested. We will be parked at The Victoria Theatre on Monday, July 12th (11am to 7pm) and Tuesday, July 13th (11am to 7pm).

Let me know as soon as possible and I can reserve some time for you, thanks!


I was excited and when they asked me to bring a prop that represented my a-ha moment, I made a cake, of course!
aha

The inside was purple and white zebra stripe. I can't wait to get my link to my interview to post here! (Could be up to 30 days)

Friday, July 9, 2010

Excitement!

I feel like this is the highlight of my cake making so far. This week... I made my very first wedding cake!
Holy cow it was a lot of work, but so worth every second!

My friend Jess asked me to do the cake when she got engaged and with every passing month, I grew anxious about it. I was so worried I'd ruin the cake/wedding/bride's life if I messed this up! lol

Turns out, I had nothing to worry about. Honestly, I don't think it could have gone any more smoothly. Honestly.

I knew the cake was going to be big... but I suppose even after buying the huge pan set, I still wasn't prepared for just how huge...

It finally hit me when it took 4 lbs of buttercream just to fill and crumb coat the bottom tier. It was 16"x16" and about 4 1/2" tall. Uhm. Wow.
mms_picture.jpg
I had a mini panic attack, but stayed strong lol. If it helps, that mixing bowl is huge. So for it to look so tiny in this photo is mind blowing to me.

By the time I got all three tiers covered, I was feeling some real shock... "Wait... I'm almost done? Nothing horrible has gone wrong???"

I put EIGHT dowels in the bottom tier (paranoia much? lol), four dowels in the middle tier and though I considered a dowel down the middle, I figured the weight would hold it all in place.

I transported the tiers all separate and stacked them at the wedding. I filled my car with pillows and prayed for the best on the drive. It was SO HOT out. Some how I got the cake there with not a scratch!

Once it was all assembled, I got to stand back and see my work done. I almost cried.
I mean... it's really pretty, isn't it?

IMG_8561

What a great moment for me. And to be able to share that with friends... fantastic.
I also made an anniversary tier. With a handmade box.
IMG_8553

The wedding was a blast and everyone loved the cake! I did green buttercream between the top tier and orange between the middle! The bottom tier was chocolate.
mms_picture_1.jpg

So much fun! The wedding was just great and Jess was a perfect and gorgeous bride. She was about as far from a bridezilla as anyone could possibly be.
Congratulations Jess! I'm so happy for you and so thankful that you trusted me to make such an important cake for you!
2

Friday, July 2, 2010

Get em while they're... hot- or something.

Okay, so it's REALLY been hot out here in Ohio the past few weeks! I've been forced to crank my air so that my cakes don't melt as I create them lol.

I made these little angel cakes for my friend on twitter @ginakay for her inlaws!
mms_picture.jpg

She requested three tiny cakes with an angel theme. I wanted pastels and flowers. The base color was a peachy off white. I thought the colors were very whimsical. I piped buttercream transfers of angels for the tops.



futurama
My faaaavorite show was put back on the air after being off for years! I was so excited that I invited my friends over and we had to have cake!

mms_picture_1.jpg
Everyone dug into the slurm cake. It was half chocolate half confetti cake!
Long live Futurama!!!

Last, but not least, my friend's mom turned 50 last week! I made a cake to show everyone that being "over the hill" isn't so bad.

IMG_8522

Especially when your walker is made of chocolate. And the hill is made of cake.

The top was white cake, the middle was dark chocolate and the bottom was the crowd pleasing favorite lemon cake with strawberries in the middle! Yum! It was the largest tier, but it was eaten before any of the others were barely touched!
It was quite a night!
12