Fiddleheads are good, and I'm not even Veg

Talk about pressure. Libby had asked me to make a cake for her sisters wedding vow renewal ceremony/celebration or whatever it's called- a while back. I said sure, yeah OK... and like so many other times when people ask me to make a cake for a certain occassion- I didn't think it would come to fruition. But then it started to get closer and we actually started to PLAN for it- birch tree with ferns/leaves on it. She's such a gem she gave me picture inspirations too!

Truthfully, I kept sliding it to the back of my mind because I was a little scared. A cake that a lot of people would see and eat that weren't my family or close friends... They could give me awful reviews and I wouldn't be there to shame them into saying nice things even if they didn't mean it.

So, when it came time to REALLY plan for it, Libby was specific about flavors even. Lemon, lemon and lemon. Crap. I've never made lemon cake before... or lemon frosting! My mid goes into overdrive as I scour the internet for recipes and went to the grocery store to buy an absurd amount of lemons so I could practice making this cake.

And here it is:






This was actually shot before I added the finishing touches. I wanted Libby to see it before I made it "birch tree"-like and added the initials.
You can go see the FINAL product on my Facebook Page- Sweet Sandy B

DO IT, do it NOW and become my 'fan' :) please?
k, thanks

Last minute awesomeness

This is what kept me up all night... I had a last minute request to do an engagement cake on Tuesday evening. I can't turn down a job at this point, ESPECIALLY when it's a type of cake design I haven't done before. Because I already had square cake baked AND because I had 2 nights to get it ready (Wednesday and Thursday) I said sure.

PLUS, the customer was a fan via Facebook (YIPPEE!) and a referral from my beautiful photographer Libby. There was no way I could turn this down.
She sent me an idea of what she was looking for, then I did some research of other ideas, sketched out an idea and she loved it. This is the sketch:



I had ideas in my head of HOW I was going to create the ring band and thankfully at Michael's I found everything I needed (sigh of relief) and I felt pretty prepared for Thursday night when I actually started to decorate. It took me about 3.5 hours from start to finish (not including re-whipping the frosting). This is what it looked like when it was all done:








I also had to make oatmeal raisin cookies for an order. I haven't made this type of cookie in years. I like it way too much- more than chocolate chip cookies (I know, blasphemy) and I could just eat the dough in a bowl and be happy. NO need to bake. I had intents to make the dough on Wednesday night when I was making the frosting and buttercream for the cake, but I didn't have enough oatmeal or raisins. Needless to say I was up all night until the a.m. today. I'm tired... But happy with how the cake turned out. I'm like a mother when I pass the cakes off for delivery. I hover and worry, but also get to the point where I'm like- ok the stress is NOW YOURS during transportation. I won't be there when she picks it up this afternoon, so I will be sitting here anxiety ridden until I hear she gets it home OK.

So, congrats Anna & Dan- hope you enjoy your cake

Crazy Town (my life, not the band)

Can't think of where to begin as I have a lot to say/show after this weekend. Here's me jumping in- try to follow:

I want to first show you a tiny bit of what my kitchen looks like after I decorate a cake. This gives me anxiety just looking at it-



and that's not even showing what the other countertops look like or what the sink is filled with. heart palpitations..

So- I delivered the cookies, bread and U of M graduation cake on Friday. Forgot that my cake was also commemorating the fact that our President was going to be delivering the commencement speech at my Alma Mater. Kind of proud.
Well, I had an awesome day on Friday. Overall a great start to my weekend. Met up with some friends, caught up on some girl time- happy girl I was. I went to sleep that night and had a nightmare about that dumb cake though. This is what my life is about now- waking up in a cold sweat about someone hating my cakes.

Saturday- busy BUSY and loo-oooong.
Had another session with Libby set up and had to bake/decorate some things for her to use. This is where my Mom juggling skills come into play- took the kiddies to breakfast, played, baked, decorated, nap, get ready and be on time for Libby. Um, I wasn't on time. Poor thing had to wait while I finished getting dressed.
This is what I wore for our photo shoot-



Her idea was something along the lines of whimsical/bright colors/flowers.. This is the girliest dress I own so it seemed to fit the bill. Can't wait to see how the pictures come out... we drove ALL OVER town and ended up at a cemetery. To take some pictures with these:




Which were the cupcakes that I made for my friends birthday. He had a show that night and I was going to go deliver them, after the photo shoot... Down in the D. And also somehow go to a meet and greet for someone called Johnny Cupcakes :)

If I could clone myself I think I would. OK- Libby is quick and efficient (I however am not) and she made quick work out of me and the goodies. I changed into my David Seibei shirt that arrived just in the nick of time and high tailed it out of Dodge to get to the next part of my day.

SO... I could go on about Johnny. I would if any of you care to know- but it involves about 4-5 hours of standing in line, driving to the Magic Stick TWICE, handing out cookies, making small talk, running into old friends... yeah, nevermind. Too much to say. It was exhausting but great. Here I am w/ Johnny:



yes, he is holding up a container of my cookies. Which he claimed he loved. I believe him ;)

And here is what Just Baked made for his appearance:




By the time I got inside the gallery to get to the cupcakes I was starving. My stomach was eating itself. I inhaled the cupcake and can't even begin to comment on what it tasted like. It wasn't awful, and that's about all I can give you. I did get a menu from their store and sweet Jesus are they pricey. $2.95 PER cupcake. They have four locations so clearly most people don't think that's too much. For.One.CUPCAKE. Maybe they are flecked with gold?

Alright, so I get my shirts, I ate the cupcake, I got my poster signed and I limp out of there. Wearing 4 inch wedges for 5 hours of standing in the same spot (for the most part) did a number on my soles and my wonky knees. I hobbled to my car and got myself into some more shenanigans....

I'm exhausted just reflecting on the weekend. But, yesterday I got this lovely picture on my phone:


I wish more people sent me pictures of them w/ their cakes. Even though it's not a picture of my friend eating the cupcakes, I like that the candles are all lit up and I know that people who love him are all standing with him at that moment. And my cupcakes were a part of it. I LOVE that....

I need a day off from the weekend. But you know I'm at work. Working.

Dear Blog, I've been missing you!

A week away from my manifesto and I have been missing it so...
I have a lot of random thoughts that I'll put in the other normal spot- go look! But, have some quick pictures to get up here.

FIRST, here is a little tease of my bestie's 30th birthday cake:



My camera is M.I.A. and it has the real deal pictures of this cake. Silly Rebel, where did you run off to??

This was a BIG cake. Bottom tier was chocolate banana cake and banana cake w/ a malted chocolate ganache. Middle tier was ALL yellow cake w/ chocolate frosting (Bestie's FAV), and top tier was chocolate and yellow cake with the chocolate frosting.
All covered in Swiss Buttercream frosting and fondant designs. The top decoration was wire with beads on the end.

I drew up the design on a 'break' from my class last week, and got giddy excited to make it. It took quite a bit longer than anticipated- I felt REALLY out of practice, I haven't done a cake in a while... wait... scratch that-I DID make a cake last Tuesday! Yipes, how did I forget!? I had the FAIL with frosting. oooh, more on that in a hot minute...

You know how some people remind you of a color? (lol, remember the move Baby Mama where Amy Poehler says your aura has a color? wow I love that movie). So, my bestie's color is yellow. I don't know why- I think or brighty, sunshine-y yellow when I imagine her 'aura'. So that's how the color theme came about- sunrise colors.

Now, back to the frosting fail. We had a brief spring warm up last week. We got to EIGHTY on Thursday, and starting Tuesday afternoon/evening the house started to warm up. I didn't think it was that warm, but as I was making the buttercream I noticed it wasn't setting up like it normally does. Something was AMISS! But I kept whipping it and slowly it cooperated. hmph... I didn't give it too much thought.
THEN I started to frost the cake (I don't have pictures of this cake EITHER, as it's on the pesky little missing Rebel)... the dirty frost went on ok... It was a chocolate cake which I don't like frosting because it's so messy. But, it seemed to be going ok, and I put it in the fridge to set up.
queue music as I take a break to go and pack for my class for the rest of the week...
I come back downstairs, take the cake out and start to do the second layer of frosting.
THE FROSTING WOULDN"T STICK TO THE CAKE. It became too warm, the house was too warm, it didn't want to cooperate. I freaked out. I thought I did something wrong w/ the frosting. I took a big spoonfull and tasted it. It seemed fine, what was going on?!

I feel bad admitting, I seriously gave up on this cake. We got in a fight, the cake won. I did what I could, but I was in a rush to get it delivered- no excuse, I realize. But it wasn't my best work and not until I was packing it up did it all dawn on me that the temperature in the house played a huge role in the cake fail.

I totally blocked that from my mind. weird.

OK, wait here is something good to end on until I get the Rebel back and can post pictures of the Bestie Birthday cake:




Libby, I <3 you!! Didn't she do a great job? She is the cutest pregnant person I have ever been around, she was so sweet and I can't wait to do more business with her. We are crafting up an evil genius plan to help promote each other, and frankly- the idea is SWEET. PLEASE, go check her out: Elizabeth K Photography and become her fan.

Get ready! (part I)

This is gonna be a long one! And will have to be in two parts... Part 2 will have to come tomorrow because I just realized I didn't download all the pictures.. dang!

SO, FIRST- had a very last minute cake to make at the end of last week. My dear friend at work decided to leave and follow a new adventure with another company. My dear Miss Marsha bid us farewell and I made her a BIG square cake. I wanted to practice covering a square cake again so this was a good opportunity. It was a simple affair- (5) 8" square layers. 4 layers were marble cake and 1 layer was strawberry, just for fun. There was either strawberry ganache or amaretto ganache all covered in the usual Swiss Buttercream and then chocolate fondant over the top.
Check it out:



Then... Then I had a very important date on Saturday with a new friend, Libby. She and I are hatching up an evil genius plan together and the first step was to get her stellar photography skills over to my kitchen to snap some of my attempts at greatness and me attempting to make them great. ;) Here is the cake I made and one of the cupcakes I made for the photo shoot :




You can check out one of the pictures she took of me on my facebook fan page, look for Sweet Sandy B and become my fan if you aren't already. I can't WAIT to see the rest of the pictures. giddy!
**Cake was 3 layers of Chocolate Creme de Menthe w/ a mint ganache and covered in Swiss Buttercream. The cupcake is Clementine Creamsicle w/ Swiss Buttercream.**

Then, Easter... It was a beautiful day- just gorgeous out. #1 and Mooch had a fab time hunting for eggs, and thankfully the kiddos don't like looking at the camera for pictures so I have a few to share of them hunting for those eggs left by that pesky Easter Bunny:




And, like a lot of American homes, we had ham for dinner.. lots and LOTS of ham. and lots of LEFTOVER ham... I found a yummy recipe for what to DO with all of that leftover ham and made some Scalloped Potato and ham gratins in my muffin tins. Seriously, they are delightful and nothing but BAD for you... butter, cream, cheese, ham, potatoes... sigh.. heaven in a muffin tin.




and then... I wanted to make carrot cake and try out this recipe for "the best pound cake ever". My idea was to do it on Saturday or Sunday, but that didn't happen (as things often DON'T go as planned lately). And then I started to feel under the weather and tired... so, they kept getting put off.

But then, a few twists and turns later, THIS was created:




And I'll tell you MORE about it tomorrow when I have the pictures lined up to tell you the story.. it's a good one! :) Happy Hump day! (ew, I HATE that saying. yuck and YUCK)