Ready, Aim, Fire!!

This last year has been interesting.  The whole single mom thing keeps me pretty busy and I find myself in the kitchen only to make food for my kids.  I've taken very few cake orders. I just haven't had the time.

However, I was willing to make an exception for my very favorite "customers"... my kids.   

Since the divorce I've had my kids share a birthday party.  Their birthdays are only three weeks apart and they haven't minded, so I'm taking advantage of it while I can.  This works because they're still young.  At some point, being a boy and a girl, they will want separate parties.  But for now, I'm getting by on one- and this year they even managed to agree on a theme!!

Thus brought about the Angry Birds cake.  My kids both love the game.  My daughter, age 4 now, is even becoming skilled at shooting the bird in the right direction.  By that I don't necessarily mean towards the right beams and blocks to take out pigs.  I really do mean, quite simply, in the right direction- forwards.  But she loves the game no matter what her skill level.  My son, on the other hand, now 7, can beat levels even I cannot.  This surprises me not, since he's been playing games on the computer since he was just two.  I'm not certain I'm proud of this fact, but it is what it is, LOL.  

Anyway, Angry Birds.  They agreed.  Hallelujah, mommy only has to make ONE cake!  But it's got to be a good one!

I asked my kids what flavor they wanted.  I was hoping they'd both agree on a flavor just as they agreed on a theme.  "Blueberry mint!!" my son shouts.  "Huh?" my daughter says.  I hear ya Zo.  Blueberry mint?  Really?  Fortunately, they agreed that perhaps chocolate with berry filling was an acceptable alternative. 

And so with all agreed upon, I commenced caking.  I did my share of online research for Angry Bird characters.  Those tiny things on my phone screen weren't going to work at all!  Luckily for me, everyone and their dog plays this game, so photos abound. 


I have to say, crafting the characters for this cake was incredibly fun.  Getting the expressions right was tricky and I had some do-overs and some rejects.  My son happily ate one reject pig- though I myself wouldn't ever be caught eating non-marshmallow fondant.  Ick!!  Though I greatly dislike the flavor, I created my characters using standard Wilton fondant, because it is far firmer and dries better than marshmallow fondant.   

I've been asked to explain how I made my characters, but quiet honestly, I'm not sure I can.  Unless you can count "I looked at pictures and sculpted them to match using fondant (dyed with frosting colors)" as enough of an explanation.  There's no real tricks or hints I can offer.  It just took time and effort and the willingness to totally scrap what you've done if the face doesn't look right, etc. 

In the end I had 10 characters, five birds and five pigs, along with a slingshot, a nest, and some building pieces.  Using those, some nutty bars, chocolate rocks, chocolate eggs, and a couple of jewels from ring pops, I constructed the cake you see to the right.  The part you'd want to eat- it's not blueberry mint, thankfully.  It is, however, dark chocolate fudge cake with mixed berry filling and dark chocolate frosting with a hint of blueberry.

I was pleased.  The kids were thrilled.  No one was angry except those birds.  

Iron Man, Dr. Who, Princess Batman?!

Despite the insanity of the last year, I have actually managed to take a few cake orders here and there. I wanted to make a post about each of them and tell you all about them... but here I am, it's August and I haven't posted a single one. So instead, you get some pics and a brief description. Sorry I'm not caught up enough on this for there to be more... I was baking cakes. ;)

One sweet little boy requested an Iron Man cake for his fourth birthday. Having failed miserably as a mother for my own son's Iron Man cake request by buying one from the local grocery store (he has yet to let me live that one down- he's six and it was for his fourth birthday), I felt maybe I could redeem myself a bit on this one. I didn't go the usual three dimensional route. Rather, I decided to go more comic book style, fashioning three panels from fondant and inking/painting on each with edible inks/paints. The result is below. My favorite part though was the reaction of my client and her little boy, both of which were ecstatic.


Follow this up with another comic book themed cake. Must be the year for it. Or I just keep doing cakes for little boys. This time I was redeeming myself with my own son. He and his sister shared a birthday party this year. I'm a single mom who had just moved to a new town less than two weeks prior. Most of my life was still in boxes. For this one year, I figured one party was enough. But I couldn't do one cake. I tried. He wanted Batman, she wanted a "strawberry butterfly princess" cake. I offered up Princess Batman- pink cape, utility belt holding a curling iron and lipstick, pearl studs in the bat ears... but no, neither went for it. Pity really. And so instead I did two cakes- one Batman and one "strawberry butterfly princess." The results are below.

Batman Cake- three layer dark chocolate cake with dark chocolate buttercream filling and almond buttercream frosting. City scape and Batman insignia are fashioned from sugar sheets.


Strawberry Butterfly Princess Cake- She's three, so I was stuck with a few requirements rather than just one. Still, the result was a strawberry cake filled with a strawberry buttercream puree and topped with strawberry buttercream frosting. Fondant crown painted with edible paints, butterfly suckers, and a chocolate cake butterfly painted with luster dust. It's not my favorite cake, but she was happy, thus I was happy.

After that it was time to do a birthday cake for a bigger boy. His wife requested the TARDIS from Dr. Who. She said she wanted either style A- paint on fondant panels a la Iron Man cake or style B- a slightly three dimensional version laying down on the cake... I opted for style C, which was a whole lot harder and a whole lot more me. The TARDIS itself took nearly a full week to create. It's not fully edible- sorry, I knew it would take too long and I'd be using gum paste to do it- and no one wants to eat that anyway- so I built the under portion out of foam. Everything on top of that (for the most part) is edible... should you really want to eat it.

Dr. Who Cake- Gum paste TARDIS carefully sculpted and hand painted with edible inks.

It was paired with a yummy galaxy cake- triple layer vanilla lemon cake with two filled layers- lemon curd filling for one and strawberry puree buttercream for the other. Frosted with a lemon zest buttercream and painted with luster dust and powder colors.

My final cake for the month of July was simple in decoration, though a bit trickier in the cake itself. A college grad, daughter of a previous client, had requested I do the cake for her college graduation. Her flavor request- chocolate and Nutella. That was a new one for me, so I set out looking for sample recipes and finally found a cake recipe, a filling recipe and a frosting recipe that I would build off of. The result is below-

Rose-Hulman Graduation Cake- a dense flourless three layer chocolate hazelnut cake filled with chocolate-Nutella frosting between the layers, as well as a layer of hazelnuts for added crunch, and a dark chocolate ganache covering. I hand painted the Rose-Hulman crest onto a sugar sheet for the center of her cake. Simple and clean look, delicious chocolate fudgy cake.

And so that's it for now. Hopefully I won't wait another year before posting pics this time. ;)

(Note: Photos for the last two cakes will be updated in the near future. Right now they are lower quality cell phone photos.)

Tasteful Artistry... Limited Availability

It's been a while since I've posted an update on here. Life has brought some big changes for me over the last year and is about to bring even more. I have divorced, relocated and done a year of the single parenting thing. It's put a huge limit on my cake baking time- so if you're wondering where I went and why Tasteful Artistry closed its doors for a while, there's the Reader's Digest Condensed version of it all.

That said, because of all of this, the number of cake orders I will take per month is seriously limited. I'd love to take everyone's orders, but simply can't, so if you're interested in booking an order, you might want to contact me far in advance.

Coming soon to a plate near you....

Yes, it's true. I'm nearly moved and about to open up shop again. I'm so excited !! After turning down five orders for the month of May and one for June, I decided to make reopening my little business a top priority after my move is complete. I will have more pictures to post soon of the cakes I have done here and there in the last tumultuous year of my life (despite moving, divorce, yada yada yada) and hopefully a fresh face for my webpage as well. It's high time I remodel this thing.

So this is just my little post to say I'm about to put the double oven in my new little house to good use. I have all sorts of new flavors and techniques I'm dying to try. Should be fun. Stay tuned.

A Cake for Fifty Years

As someone who has a love for family history, my latest order was a special one for me. My client was the daughter of a couple who were about to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary- 50 happy years of marriage. She brought with her a photo of her parents cutting the cake at their wedding reception all those decades ago in the hopes of having a replica made. Of course I was more than happy to take on the challenge.

The photo was old and the clarity not the best for discerning details, so some artistic interpretation had to be done. In the end though, I think the cake came quite close and the happy couple were quite pleased with the results.

The cake was three tier with all buttercream frosting and decoration and some gum paste flowers for added detail. Cakes were raspberry filled chocolate and vanilla layers with raspberry almond buttercream frosting.


The biggest challenge for me with this cake was the transportation. The hall where the party was being held was an hour drive from my house and I had to transport the three layers of the cake plus two fully decorated matching sheet cakes. On top of that, the party would not be until the next day and so the cake would not be assembled until then. So I had to design it such that no additional icing would be added upon arrival (I've always done touch ups after assembly in the past). I was definitely holding my breath and saying some prayers during this drive!! Thankfully all fives cakes made it without so much as a smudge and I handed it off to the client with a happy sigh of relief!

Cakes of the Past Part II: Shower Cakes

Samples of some of the shower cakes I've done in the past-

Bridal Showers:


Three tier mini cake for my sister in law's wedding shower. Buttercream frosting with ribbon and gerbera daisies.




Dennis and Andrea's New Orleans style wedding shower cake. Three fondant covered tiers- dark chocolate cake with raspberry almond buttercream, butter pecan cake with vanilla maple buttercream and french vanilla cake with vanilla almond buttercream.

Cakes of the Past Part I: Birthdays

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I began baking cakes mostly for my children's birthdays. Below are some shots of my first birthday cakes.

2006

My son's first birthday cake and my first real foray into the world of almost 3D cakes.

Also not shown is the little monkey head smash cake. It's still one of my favorites, so I will have to hunt down a pic of it

2007

My son's second birthday was a beach theme. I decided to try my hand at something more sculptural. I baked cake inside both pans, tin cans and even ice cream cones for this one. I covered the whole thing in butter cream and coated it in dark and light brown sugar. Sea weed is buttercream. Shells are real, so don't eat them!

2008

My son loves robots, so for his third birthday, I did my most challenging cake so far. All cake is layered and cut sheet cake with buttercream frosting piped decorations. Chocolate donuts help make the arms and legs

2009

My daughter's first birthday meant my first chance to make a really girly cake. Everything on the cake is buttercream, except the large light pink flowers, which are fondant. Detail is piped in with buttercream and some luster dust is added for girly shimmer.

I also did a small coordinating "Z is for Zoey" smash cake.