8/30/2009

I'm as busy as a One Legged Man in a Booty Kickin Contest!

Don't get me wrong-I'm lovin' it! (Not McDonald's) Cake!

This week end, mom came over to help out. We finished it all!


AWANA Balloons (AWANA colors)

Here is what we had on the "menu"... 2 cookie orders. 2 dozen decorated sugar cookies for AWANA Club and 2 1/2 dozen chocolate chip for Evangelism Explosion. Plus, 2 cake pop orders. The first was a bucket of apples for the teacher (in Texas!) and then 2 dozen beach balls for the beach cake order. My final order was for one of my favorite Texas customers, Mrs. Melanie Jones.

Here's how the Texas order went down...
Little Miss Brenna and I discussed her cake when we were at my sisters in Longview, TX (a couple of weeks ago). She made sure her mom didn't order pineapple for her birthday cake. It was chocolate with a kitty cat on a pillow. The only "stab" mom got in on the cake design was orange and hot pink colors. We managed to make fun orange flowers with hot pink centers. The kitty has a hot pink bow (one on her head and the other on her tail), a toy mouse on the board and a small ball next to her on the pillow. I heard she really liked it.



Now, for Melanie. I made her a 10" pineapple cake with pineapple cheese cake filling. I covered it with vanilla butter cream. Nothing fancy in my book, but she thought it was beautiful! There will not be a photo, because I didn't take one. It was smoothed and a bead border. That's all! I did send 4 plastic forks for the trip home to Arlington. She kept promising she wasn't going to eat it. Yeah, sure Melanie! Her mom said, "She may not, but I will! If it goes to her house I may never see it again!" Besides, last time I made a "side" cake for Melanie, it was gone before they left Oklahoma! Very funny girl!

The "Teacher's Bucket" was also for Melanie. One of her girls has a teacher she loves. So, she wanted to give her a small gift for being an amazing lady and influence on her daughter. I like what she thinks! The apple's are dark chocolate cake dipped in melted vanilla candy. The leaves are gum paste, and the stem's are Fondarific Chocolate Fondant-one of my favorite fondants! It tastes like a tootsie roll!


Single Apple Cake Pop Teacher's Bucket

Now for the beach cake. It was for one of our teachers, Sydnee. Ordered by her mother Kim. Also a teacher at Edmond Christian Academy. It was a fun cake to make. If I could do it all over, I'd make the same design and add so much more! An umbrella, sea shells, Syndee as a fondant character tanning by the water or playing with the sand castle, radio, beach chair, seagulls flying in the top tier (the sky), and so much more! The top two tiers were vanilla and the bottom tier was banana nut (Sydnee's favorite!) All covered with vanilla butter cream.


The "Buckets of Beach Balls" are cake pops. Also, a dark chocolate cake dipped in vanilla candy and then vanilla Satin Ice Fondant mixed with Fondarific Butter Cream Fondant (my other favorite flavor of fondant!).
These four things were both due out yesterday. Fortunately, one at 9:30 am and the other at 5:00 pm. God is good to me! The cookie orders were due on Tuesday and then on Wednesday.

Please check back next week and I'll post the new Schooner! Have a blessed week!

8/17/2009

Unwanted Blog Posts

If you are receiving my blog by email and do not want it. Please let me know and I will be happy to remove your email. You will not hurt my feelings. I simply wanted you, my customers to know I have a new way to share my cakes and get a review of your order.

Thank you so much for allowing me to help with your celebrations!
Toni

Ahhh! School Started today!

Regardless of the fact that school started today and I'm teaching 6th grade. Things do not seem to slow down, but quite the opposite. Just today, I received a new order-from one of the teachers. It's only the beginning! Don't get me wrong, I'm very grateful. I do get Fridays off so I should be able to get things done at school and baking.

Yesterday, I did a cake for one of the ladies at the school. We'll call her K.K. until I get permission to mention her actual name. Anyway, I saw her this morning at school and she had great reviews about the cake. It was dark chocolate cake with vanilla butter cream. The 2D animal cut outs are exactly what was on the baby bibs. Those are what I personally like most about the cake. K.K. sent me pictures of the theme and I followed it.

Honestly, I wanted to do fondant, but she really wanted butter cream. I may have to start charging more for butter cream, just to get to make fondant cakes more often! (Just kidding-well.....maybe!) Remember! You must give the customer what they want! I sure try.



Please let me know what you think of it.

Tonight I baked up some yummy carrot cake bites and topped them off with a crusting cream cheese butter cream. Now, if you do not like cream cheese, this icing may change your mind! It is so good! I personally despise cream cheese, but this is one I could eat all the time.
Any way, I plan on taking some to the teachers at school tomorrow and to Evangelism Explosion tomorrow night, we call it EE. Every Tuesday I bake and package cookie buckets for them to pass out while they are visiting and witnessing to people who have come to our church. I just wanted to give the EEers a little something different for them to enjoy. Still there will be cookie buckets for those they visit.

Oops! I almost forgot to post a few more of my favorite pictures.

Church Lady Cake Pops
Madeline's Cake

Bria's Castle

Bria's Party Favor Cookies
Bria's Special Cookie
Reclaiming OK for Christ-Prayer Baked Cookies

The "Prayer Baked Cookies" were for a conference our church is a huge part of. I donated 5 dozen of the sugar cookies, decorated with royal icing. They were tagged with the conference logo and labeled appropriately.

I hope you are enjoying some of my favorites! If you see a cake and would like to know details-please ask.

O.K., it's time for me to check out until my next round of orders. Have a great week!

8/10/2009

Relaxing in Texas


Here I am in Longview, TX chillin' like a villin! Not that I didn't come here for a birthday party or anything. O.K. so I did come for my niece Ashley. She turned four and yes, I designed and made her cake. I am the only baker to make her cakes since she was born. She is absolutely precious, beautiful and very funny. Love her so much. I even got to hold her and play with her. Generally she doesn't like being approached by people who she doesn't see every day-we scare her.







Ashley is learning to sign. She doesn't really talk. So, I was shocked the other day when my sister Trish brought her into the living room and she, Ashley, yells HI! With the greatest conviction. We all happily returned a big HI right back at her.

Back to the "cake of it all". Ashley's 4th party was a Hawaiian theme. My brother-in-law built a Tiki Hut Bar for fruit smoothies. We had kabobs, shrimp-chicken-beef, they were rather tasty. Also on the menu were trays and trays of fruits, from pineapple to mixed berries and grapes. Since it was a luau we had to have a tier of pineapple. The flavors of the cake were vanilla, pineapple, strawberry and chocolate with butter cream. The pink stripes are Fondx fondant and the flowers are gum paste with luster dust.



However, before I could even consider packing and driving to Texas, I did have a couple of special orders due out on the weekend. The first order was for a Baptism, vanilla with a strawberry cloud filling. The strawberry cloud filling can be found in The Cake Bible. There are some great recipes in there if you are ever looking for something different or traditional. A really great resource. The cake is covered with Fondx fondant and a royal icing cross painted with the air brush pearl. The monogram is also Fondx. I received a note today from the mother, Jennifer and a message from the father, James. It was a success.

The other order was a Monkey theme. There are 5 dozen cup cakes with 2 smash cakes. The smash cake with the monkey was for the party and the other was for pictures for Tuesday, tomorrow. I built the 5 tier cup cake/cake stand.

8/09/2009

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog about - Cakes! What else is there? Just kidding. I felt this may be a way to get to know me as not just a baker, but as me! I love to share with friends what I've been up to and this is a great way to do it.

My business is in the process of changing to It's A Toni Cake, Inc. I've even started Kenzie's Kookie Korner! Specially decorated sugar cookies for what ever your occasion may be. So far we've had great success. Not to mention, cake pops! Those are a favorite for many showers, baby, wedding and well maybe even for after taking a shower! (You know, as a special treat for being so clean!)


Well, since I love designing and creating cakes, I thought I'd share some of my favorites with you. One that has not fallen off of my favorite list (from the beginning) is the Wedding Shower Grill.
It was one of my first 3D cakes. I was told they ate everything that could be eaten. By the way, the cheese, hamburger patties and hot dog are all made with sugar and rice krispy treats. Even the wheels are rice krispy treats-yes, they ate those too!





Also, the Giraffe Cake. That was quite an adventure to creat
e. I wasn't sure if it was going to come out the way it was planned, but it did.






Oh and how can I forget? The Blue Thunder Monster Truck! Wow, that one came out pretty good and it became a repeat design. I get to do a Grave Digger Monster truck next month for the same customer. I'm excited and can't wait. Gosh, there are so many. Don't worry, I'll just mention these few for now.



Some cakes I have made for customers have been original, inspired by many designs or simply a very close design of another decorator. One of my favorite sites is CakeCentral.com. That is a community of decorators who post pictures of cakes, cookies, recipes and advise for others. It's a great place to venture to get away from everyday stresses. All of my cake photos are shown there if you want to see them all right away. My user name is tonicake. Go to galleries and search, then on the members name search tonicake. Good luck and I'll get back at least once a week.

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Some day I plan on opening a specialty bakery in my home town.