A family of birthday cakes

If you read my blog (or know me), you are well aware of how essential I feel cake, cookies and cupcakes are to daily life. After all, my Lucky C's Sweets motto is "Eat responsibly. Save room for dessert!" So when my dear friend, Elizabeth chose me to make all of the birthday cakes for their family this year, well- I was in heaven!

Bell, her oldest, wanted something "different" using orange, lime green and turquoise. I wanted to include a few personal details too. Here's that one.

Yes, those are cupcake pops, which where the colors all the way through. Also, when she cut into the cake, it was three layers with, yes, you guessed it, orange, lime green and turquoise layers. Wish I had a picture of that, next time.
Another time, they had a family party combining a few cousin's birthdays. This one was for that one. Similar color scheme. The cake was chocolate with vanilla buttercream and birthday butter cake with chocolate ganache filling. A real crowd pleaser!

One of my trusty helpers has a fondness for fondant. Whether it is creating designs, making colors, tasting samples or in this case, making puppies.
Here's the one I made. This lovely family had just adding to their brood with a little black lab, named Sadie. She looks like she needs a home, huh? Cheer up little pup- here comes the perfect spot for ya...
Alexandra's birthday cake! She wanted something pink with buttercream frosting. Waalaa! The puppy looks at home doesn't she?
This one was probably my favorite. It took me many hours, but I think it turned out the way I hoped it would. Isaac was having his party at Vertical Endeavors. He is also a major Twins fan. I also had made cut out letters of his name and put them on sticks to add to the top of the cake, but didn't put them in until delivery.
Thank you Esch family for taking my decorating (and fun) to a new height! When's the next party?

Boats and Bucky Badger Fans

I almost forgot to post this cake.  I certainly didn't think I would ever forget the hours it took to complete.  Oh, sugar on the brain makes you lose track of many things.  

Well, the customer's were having a 50th birthday party for Chuck.  A true Badger fan and UW Madison alumni.  So, we hit it off right away.  They wanted a cake to celebrate Chuck's fun spirit and make a nice centerpiece for their event.  

I have learned that there are usually two main types of customers.  One group is where they know exactly what they want and even provide pictures for me to copy.  (Oh, that can be tough, cuz remember- it's cake.  But I do love a challenge!) The other group of people, don't really know what they want or don't know what to even ask for. When the second group comes along, I always pry a bit to find out about the recipient or the event.  I love to do this, because it really helps give me an angle and that's when I seem to get my creative juices flowing. These guys were group two.

After chatting with Chuck's wife, I found out that he loves to entertain and hang out on their boat.  She told me the type of boat it was, and I must say, I am no boater- so, off to the internet to look up pictures.  Well, just like cars, boat styles change by the year. Who knew? 

Okay, "long story short" time.  I found a picture, tried to carve out a cake that would slightly resemble it. Frosted it, covered it in fondant and gave it a few special touches.

I added the name of their boat and a little drink and snack platter.  I then put the boat on a half sheet cake covered with white chocolate cream cheese "water" and they were set.  Well, not quite. They were concerned a bit about not having enough dessert.  (Did I mention how much I liked these people?) So we decided to do some red velvet cupcake bites too.  I made them in the same colors as the cake so they could display the cake and surround it with the bites.

It all turned out so great and when they picked up everything, Chuck was thrilled.  The first thing he said was, " Oh my gosh, that is our boat, I mean exactly our boat, I love it!"  

Then, I was thrilled:)