Round 'em up cowboy...

We celebrated my nephew Blake's 2nd birthday with a cowboy themed cake. This cake was a two tier white almond cake with vanilla buttercream and rasberry filling. The cake was accented with an edible belt buckle, hat and western stars.

One of my early cake creations was Blake's 1st birthday cake last year. It's great to look back at the cakes I've made in the last year and how much I've learned. This year I plan to kick it up a notch and put more focus on wedding cakes...watch out Martha here I come!

Birthdays & Beer....

What birthday guy doesn't enjoy a little beer on their birthday? So I thought why not make an edible cake version too!

This year we celebrated Dave's birthday with a 'barrel of beer' cake. One all ages can enjoy. It was a four layer vanilla cake with three layers of chocolate truffle filling. The 'barrel' was handpainted with food coloring, decorated rock candy ice and sugar beer bottles with custom birthday labels.

The cake caught some eyes when we celebrated Dave's birthday at Buffalo Wild Wings in Ankeny. Thanks to the great gals there & great service, we had so much yummy food we barely had room for cake!

Super Mario!

What kid doesn't like Mario? Especially in a surprise birthday cake! It was a first time and fun challenge in sculpting a large figure jumping out of a cake. The cake was vanilla with vanilla buttercream filling. Check out the cute matching cupcakes in slideshow. Happy Birthday Caden!

Baptism & Birthday Cakes...

This week brought a baptism cake for my nephew Evan. Finally, the Iowa winter weather cooperated! We were so happy to share the much awaited event with Evan and the entire family.


The week also brought a milestone birthday....so I had to make a little surprise cake for my Dad who can seriously fix about anything....Happy Birthday Dad!

It's a Girl...

...themed baby shower. Spring is just around the corner and that means flowers and showers...Baby Showers! This cake was a surprise for the Mom-to-be. The stylish diaper bag was loaded with Mommy must haves like a chocolate bottle, diaper pins and diapers. The cake was white almond with rasberry buttercream filling. Now that's a sweet shower...congrats Sarah!

30th Birthday Party!

This cake was so fun to create. The birthday boy's beverage of choice was Captain Morgan & Coke. So we surprised him with an edible version!

The bottle was carved from chocolate cake with Swiss Meringue buttercream filling flavored with Bailey's Irish Creme. The bottle was hand painted with food coloring to replicate a real bottle of Captain Morgan. The cake was a big hit at the surprise birthday party for my brother Rich!
Happy Birthday Rich!

Happy Retirement!

Here was a fun cake for a November retirement party! The money jar was made of chocolate cake with Swiss meringue buttercream filling. The retiree loved potato chips and was counting down the days to retirement. Those decorations (potato chips, pencil, and notepad) were all made of sugar paste and gold chocolate "money" topped it off.