Ruffled Wedding Cake

20 batches of cake, 4 cont. dye, 20lbs of fondant, and quite a few hours later...
None the less was a fun cake to work on!

Was my white cake each layer of cake was cut into two and filled with raspberry goodness.

I suppose the most challenging thing for me on this cake was to get the roses and rose petals to the "perfect" color! I had dyed the gumpaste and let it sit overnight, four times! Each time at the end it was "perfect" but by the next day was a completely different hue! Hoping to get a closer picture of the flowers eventually:)
Something about being the maid-of-honor and not thinking of getting any shots of the cake.. totally dependent on others. 

Thankful I could do this for my sister and even more thankful it was what she was looking for:)
Can't promise, but I hope there are more pictures for me to share later!

Pumpkin Crunch Cheesecake

So this is what Chris & Jenelle ordered from Rach's Cakes - PUMPKIN CRUNCH CHEESECAKE - for their wedding.

So for 215 ppl there were 22 recipes made... was a lot of fun once I got the system down! However when I was on recipe four the oven censor decided to act up and I lost several cakes... wasn't long before Mr. fix-it showed up and we were on the move again!

This picture doesn't do the cake justice - you can't see the flavor:) There are three layers of a rich pumpkin cake with a thick layer of cream cheese all layered with a brown sugar, walnut, butter, graham cracker mixture... encased in cream cheese and the crunch layer again! 

Thankful for how these turned out - not to pretty looking here in the picture, but they were sliced and plated!

Congratulations to my dear sister and newest brother:)

Soccer Birthday

It seemed that it was during the busiest time of summer I got the most amount of orders for cakes... isn't that life!! So many nights after everything else was done and everyone was in bed I found myself working on cakes! 

This was one of those after midnight cakes - customer was happy. I still see all the imperfections, but like one of my instructor has said - there comes a time were you just have to embrace the imperfections in the cake... they will make the cake unique (taken in the right way of course). Still my aim is for perfection!
This was just my chocolate cake filled with a rich chocolate pudding and fresh raspberries!

Happy Birthday Mikes - hope you had a most enjoyable day! Love you!

Rubber Ducky in My Bubble Bath

Super fun cake to work on - even if it was a last minute one:)

Bottom tier - Carrot cake with cream cheese filling
top tier - vanilla with raspberry filling (by popular demand)

The cake topper was sculpted totally with fondant and all the little bubbles and duckies were done by hand!
It's the little finicky stuff that I love doing:)

Tied off with a matching blue bow! 

Baby Elephants

Fun cake to work on

Fondant wrapped with Tiffany Blue, Yellow, Purple, with Baby Elephants!

Chocolate Wrapped Cake

It was for a 70th birthday - ought-a make it special:)
It was a dark chocolate cake filled with raspberries and wrapped in a white chocolate - a type of decadent I suppose!
Wrapping the cake in chocolate was a technique I've wanted to try for a long time!
Finally had the opportunity - so thankful! 

Chocolate Weekend

 Chocolate Covered Strawberries - always a good, fresh, sweet treat

Chocolate Music notes - fun to work on

It was a busy weekend in itself, but managed to squeeze a few orders in - something I love doing:)
It seemed to be a chocolate weekend - which is branching out for me, but I still enjoy every minute of it! It always is a good challenge as I strive to please the customers!

Rolling into a New Decade

Happy 10th Birthday Micah J.

The Frilled Shower

 Had a lot of fun with this cake! Had about 30min to decorate this one (that part's a secret.... shhhh!)

I had been wanting to try this design for awhile - but no orders and no time to practice (sounds like a re-occurring situation), Got an order for a cake for a shower and they let me pick the design - knew exactly what I wanted to do! Et voila!

This Fantasy Flower was so simple, but it totally makes the cake! I have been trying to get this color purple for some time now as I have a wedding cake coming up with this exact color. Was a little concerned about getting the right color tone, but matched the dress swatch with this and it matched perfectly - was so excited!

Had to share this picture as well - this was the inside of this cake! As it was for something a little more formal I wanted to add a little special twist to your normal chocolate cake! I cut the layers so that I had 11 different layers all filled with a cream cheese filling - super moist, and turned out okay!

Thankful for family and friends that will give their honest opinion of these cakes - it's so much easier to improve for the next time then!

Chocolate Filigree Bowl

Made some chocolate bowls the other day - this is just one of them! I've been doing a lot of work with chocolate recently and really enjoying it! 

Really having fun learning new techniques, shortcuts, etc! E.I. Tempering the chocolate, using the right tools, making sure it's the "perfect consistency" - Chocolate can be a very sticky thing to work with, but amazingly yummy results - Chocolate is Chocolate!

The French Macaron

You have no idea how excited I am to share this picture with you! I've tried making these French master pieces before, but with little success, likely was rushing too much (sigh!). However I gave it another shot - after doing some more research on them, watching a few more tutorials, and reading more books!
Et, voila! Regardez-les!
My great uncle - who has taken many French baking classes and is one of my role models in the baking department came to the party I made them for... and approved them - terribly excited!

If you look at them closely you can tell there are still a lot of things I need to work on - and yes I will be experimenting more with these in the flavor department - looking foward to it 

Sweet 16th

Super fun cake to work on!
The actual cake is filled with a reese peanut butter filling and covered in chocolate ganache then wrapped in fondant!

The outside was a lot of fun to work on - the zebra stripes are all freehand and this was my first fondant bow - have been wanting to work on a cake with a bow for awhile, but no orders came in and I haven't had much time for practicing as of late:)
My beautiful sister is almost 16 - can't believe she's growing up this fast! 

Mocha Season

A Mocha Almond Delight!

A huge slab cake with a decadent taste! 

 A mocha book cake - very similar to the previous one except...

The fondant roses - each on of the petals was rolled out by hand and placed strategically! 

I`ve been trying different mocha icing recipes and I have definitely found `the one` - Mrs. Heikoop has always made this one - not sure why I didn`t try it before! Very light, not too sweet, and the coffee flavor is bursting with a hint of chocolate - a perfect mocha blend!

Set, Spike, Score

Kind of an inside story to this cake...

Kind of a joke behind this cake...

Kind of a yummy thing inside this cake...

A chocolate mocha volleyball - covered in fondant and stitched with love!

Set, Spike, Score - May the Best Team Win!!! 

Arbonne Inspired

A friend of mine is an Arbonne Consultant (well on her way to district Manager!!) and asked if I would make up a party tray for her spa party she was having!

The chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese icing - had the Arbonne symbol stuck in them 

(handmade with chocolate)

The rest - Strawberry Drops with Chocolate drizzled on top and Yum-Yum squares - a caramel inspired coconut square!

Had fun piping the chocolate...

A Camouflaged Cake

Love the look of this cake... was fun to pipe as well!

It's hard in this 35+ degree weather to work with buttercream, but didn't seem to effect it too much!

Writing still hasn't sold me, but with practice it's coming

HC in Chocolate

Mark and I worked on this cake together and like usual did not leave enough time to do it really the way I wanted to do it... however so special to work on it together! Thankful for those moments!

Vanilla Mocha Cake topped in hand made HC's in chocolate - by Mark H.

Cake Pops - a newer adventure

Cake pops are a new adventure to me - haven't made too many or had the desire to!
Was asked for an order and thoroughly enjoyed doing them!

Can't really see them in this picture, but will upload more when I get them!

Purple Ombre Rose Swirl

So excited to do this cake - was a new technique, but that's one thing I love trying - new techniques!

Bottom tier: a peanut butter lovers dream come true - chocolate cake filled with a smooth Reese Peanut Butter Cup! Top tier: Vanilla cake with a sweet strawberry filling

and yes, covered a purple ombre rose swirl buttercream (mouthfull:))

The little blossoms were made out of fondant and added a fun look to it - which totally reflected the personality of the dear lady receiving it! Really matched her personality! Something I really enjoy about cake decorating - finding out what my customers like yes, but their personality more - that's when you can really design a cake that is PERSONAL!

Pink, Orange, Gold

This is my favorite way of decorating cakes - totally fake cake!

No I do enjoy baking off a yummy cake and filling it will your favorite filling then designing it like you envisioned!

Wish you could see the top flower better - First peony - edged it in gold and all the ruffles as well are edged in gold pearl dust! 

Ruffles - new favorite fondant technique!

Silver Lined Feathers

This is not how I first envisioned the design... sometimes it's just "falls" together - Especially when you don't have a sketch, picture, or specific detail in mind.

Was able to do this cake after everyone went to bed, my favorite time to work on cakes (even though it was 3:30a.m.)! No distractions, no one to accidentally bump you... just concentration! 

My favorite detail about this cake is the feathers! Love how they add that extra little special something you know! Also love these colors together - Purple, white, and silver - so elegant!
Hope my client likes this one as much as everyone else does...

Cake - Three tiers of vanilla with vanilla filling!

The Rainbow

The inside of this cake is colored the same as the outside of the cake - a fun alternative to your normal "birthday" cake! Especially if its for a younger person! Between each layer is a strawberry filling, which throws in that fresh summer taste!

The rest, well you can see for yourselves!

Tye Dye It

-A sweet summer treat-

Hockey Time

Slab cake - congratulations Plattsville Rage

First time doing a butter cream applique - turned out alright, lots to learn!

Finally There...

Dairy free pumpkin spice cake with dairy free "buttercream" icing! Different techniques used...

Thanks brother for your help!

Pastries

Croissants - made totally from scratch! Most definitely need to work on it, but turned out not too bad for the first time! Super yummy! Made these pastries for my dear grandmother's 80th birthday - we took her for a shopping trip - so didn't have time to make a cake!

Life on the Edge

"Oh, Rach - Today's my boss's birthday can you make him a cake.. description to follow! If you get it done by noon can you bring it in?" Gotta love those dear brothers!

Another opportunity to practice carving a cake... nothing out of the ordinary to add to this post!

Blue Ombre Petal Cake

 Royal Blue and Lime Green were the themed colors! 

I've been wanting to try this technique for quite awhile and finally found someone to test it on!

Had to make it fun for my little brother somehow! Layers of chocolate and vanilla yumminess all colored in with lime green and blue!!

Whimsical

Another Topsy Turvy One
Each type of cake is totally different when carving and stacking! Learning lots... the bottom layer of this one is carrot cake (which is a bit of a softer, more moist cake) covered in cream cheese icing which doesn't set super well! I definitely like using the Australian method when working with Topsy Turvy Cakes - but not everyone wants to pay for cakes covered in chocolate:)
Middle layer is the chocolate with raspberry filling! Easy to work with... and the top is white with mocha -- it's the top layer, doesn't matter a whole ton -- as long as it's carve-able!
Fun to work on -- lots I would change for next time though!

P.S. - So thankful for my sister that stayed up past midnight to help me finish this one!

Birthday

Rhubarb Coffee Cake

I wanted to do something "different" for my grandfathers birthday this year! Normally he asks for his black-forest cake... but I know he likes other things as well!
I know it's not venturing out too far, but I tried decorating a Rhubarb Coffee Cake and it was definitely a hit! Wasn't sure how it was going to go over -- all iced up, but everyone enjoyed it -- all that matters!

A new Design

Wasn't sure if I was going to post this one or not, but decided to regardless.
This was a take three combination of four girls trying to decide how to create this cake! Was interesting none the less and learned some new things while attacking it:)

Mangolia - a new color

I've been wanting to try this new flower for awhile...

Chocolate Haven

Wanted to try a chocolate bowl -- turned out not too bad! Haven't worked too much with chocolate - new thing for me!

Next one will be a white/dark chocolate swirled one!

Something so fresh and yummy about a cold chocolate dipped strawberry!!

In a Lizard World

Made completely out of Krispy Treats

Seafood Inspired

Who says cake has to be sweet?
Put a new twist on it and make a seafood inspired cake!

...Just a meeting

Cup of Tea

I've been wanting to do a tea-pot for a long time, finally able to do it! However not exactly the design I was hoping for.
Sometimes in this type of world people change their minds, last minute! It was originally due Saturday, however I got a phone call Wednesday saying "I need it for tomorrow"... details I know... This weekend was already busy, to make a long story short I got home around 10 p.m. and had the evening to work on it! It's good to be in hot water at times I suppose (excuse the super crazy pun!). 

The design reminds me of the Delft China, not a bad thing!