Where I started.

 My very first decorating job was at Cashwise Bakery in Waite Park, MN. Honestly, this seems like forever ago. I can't even remember exactly when I started there, but I do know I learned a lot. Above is one of the first cakes I ever did.

3...2...1...

I can now officially announce that I have been asked to be a full time baker and decorator at Sarah Jane's. I, of course, happily accepted. I wish I could express how incredibly lucky I feel to have gotten this job, but trust me, this is a very big deal to me.

The reveal

Well, here it is! The actual finished result. The pictures may make it seem like it was an easy task, but it required some changes and decision making.

A little thing called Swiss Meringue Buttercream...

Everyone, I have a confession to make; I am in love. Do you see that cake up there? The one with the shiny smooth frosting...it has won me over. Swiss Meringue Buttercream (SMB as most bloggers call it) is totally going to change the way I bake from now on.

I missed a birthday!!

Someone turned one while I was away! Happy 1st birthday to this little blog of mine. Apparently people really do "celebrate" this, so don't judge me. I feel awful that I haven't visited in so long! I honestly can't believe it has been over a year since I nervously typed out my first post in here.

Hello out there!

I'm back, finally! I hope all of my readers are well (if there are any still out there!). Things have been pretty hectic for me, which does not make up for my lack of updating. However, the things I have been baking have all been repeats and I don't want to bore you. =]

ITSA ME MAAARRRIOOOO

 

Another birthday cake! I would have put a picture of my bestest friend holding his cake, but I am sick of seeing boys taking up so much space on my blog. Where's the love ladies? It's cool. I get it. So, my very best friend turned the big 2-6 on November 1st. I know. Totally not cool enough to be born on Halloween. hahaha. Since I have begun to get semi-decent at this whole cake decorating things, I have been ever so excited to make Tim's cake. Why? Because he has pretty much the coolest job ever. He works at Game Informer. So he gets his hands on all the latest and greatest games and gets to rub it in our less fortunate faces. "Oh you don't have the new Mario for 3Ds?? I do...look how cool it is!! muahahahaha" Yeah, that is Tim. =] But seriously, go check him out here for a chance to pick his brain about video games.
Ok, where was I?

26th Birthday Cake

It took me quite sometime to come up with this idea. Now that I am officially a decorator, I couldn't just use the easy way out like the last two birthdays...Bylerys cake the first year (gross and expensive) and a Cold Stone ice cream cake last year (good but WAY expensive). Josh likes a lot of stuff, however, most of if it pretty detailed and things that I would have to do with edible images and not out of frosting. Boring. Aqua Teen Hunger Force is a show on AdultSwim that he really likes, so that was that.

My first "order"

If you are a fan of my Facebook page, you have probably already seen this pictures. However, I still wanted to update on this cake.
Besides decorating cakes at Cashwise, I also work on-campus in the career services office. My boss asked me to make a cake for her 4 year old daughter's birthday party, of course I very excited to do so!
The only bad thing was, she needed a half sheet cake; I do not own a pan that big. I had planned on making the cake myself and buying the extra things I needed from work (edible image). Since she needed that size, I had to do it all at work.
It was a half sheet marble cake with whipped frosting. Her daughter loves princess' so I wanted to add as much to it as possible while still making it look good.

Work and class update

Well last night I finished up the 2nd Wilton course at a local craft store. I made about 40 RI roses and did a basket weave on the sides of the cake.

I was much happier with how my final cake for the first course turned out, but this one was ok too.

I honestly was a little burnt out yesterday, so I didn't really come up with a great idea for the final cake. I did get a lot of rose practice in and I am getting a lot more comfortable doing them.
So that is the class update...no more Wilton classes until September.

WORK!

Oh man, I am just in love with my decorating job it is not even funny. Since I started I had just been icing cakes and doing boarders on them, until today. Today I got to do my first flower cakes (which are a big deal because they are more expensive and popular)

This one with roses

These were just drop flowers, but I really liked the color combination!

I thought this one was just really fun. The flower in the middle, which I didn't make, was gum paste.

I think they are slowly going to have me start doing orders and continue to do flower cakes as well. I have so much creative freedom this job, I just need to be confident and go with it =]
I hope to have an actual baking update soon, but this past week has just been crazy with work and other things!

Have a great week everyone =]

The wait is over!

Brace yourselves, I know you have all been on the edge of your seats waiting for this post. I am happy to report the wait is over. My first fondant cake is here! Try to contain your excitement. My friend Mark graduated from college back in December, but one weekend I really wanted to make a cake, so he received a very late graduation cake. I used the same fondant from my last post to cover this cake with, and I did have to microwave it for a few seconds to get it nice and soft again. When you do this, make sure you only do a few seconds at a time. Ok, where was I?

Cake= a great gift for Mom!

As promised, I am excited to share the cake I made/decorated yesterday! The other day My roommate Leif and I were watching TV and out of the blue he said, "So what's the going rate for a mom's day cake?" I got the biggest smile on my face and just said, "REALLY?!?!" I was so ecstatic that he asked me to make a cake for his mom. I am at the point where I feel weird/bad charging people (since I am still learning and practicing) so I just asked him to replace the materials that I used. I was excited all week to make the cake and yesterday it was finally time. I know I have not updated on my 2nd level of class yet, but it is all about flower and cake design using fondant, gum paste and royal icing. That being said, I really wanted to do some fondant work with this cake. For the class I bought Wilton fondant that was already made and colored (definitely does not taste as good as making your own fondant) so practicing some flowers was pretty easy.
Leif didn't have any specific ideas for the cake, just that he wanted it to say something regarding mothers day, so I had a lot of creative freedom with it.

First session of class is over...(updated)

Well guys, tonight marked the end of my first session of cake decorating class. You might think I would be really sad and devastated about this, and I probably would be if the 2nd session didn't start on MONDAY! Wooo!! haha
First of all, I realize I have pretty much abandoned my poor blog for the last week, and I promise I had a reason. What is that reason? Well I simply didn't want to "over-bake" myself. My mom and I (well more like my mom) did a lot of baking for Easter, and I didn't want to burn myself out before my final cake.

So excited I could burst!

Oh my gosh you guys. I said earlier I was going to decorate my first cake this weekend, and I did. Yesterday I finished decorating it and I have been all smiles since. It was SO much fun to do and it's just so so great.

I said I needed a purpose for a cake, and thanks to my boyfriend Josh, I had one. One of his buddies had a baby last week, so I made them a cake. I have never met these friends, so I am going to be the weird girl who gives them a cake, haha. Poor them, having to be the guinea pigs for my first cake.

Be prepared...this entry is going to be pretty photo heavy.

Something different!

The weekend is usually when I do my baking, and this weekend I wanted to try something other than cupcakes. After reading all of my usual blogs, I came across my new favorite baking blog, Bakerella

I went through pages and pages of her entries and reading them made me really happy, especially when I saw this blog entry (go towards the end of the post, most of you should understand why this particular entry caught my eye more than others)