Minions

2 year old Dominic loves the movie Despicable Me. His mother, Aida, requested that the movie be represented on the cake, so I thought the cute minions were the perfect touch.  I did forget the hair on the middle one; he's not suppose to be bald.  Aida always orders her cakes with a chocolate and a vanilla layer, the best of both worlds.

Engagement Ring

My sister-in-law, Maddy, was proposed to this weekend by her fiancee, Clay, and She Said YES!  He had planned for all of us to get together after the proposal, so I made the cake to match her engagement ring (not the actual size of course) and its box.  I hate that you can't see how blingy it is with this picture, but it was glitzed out.  And of course, this cake was chocolate with chocolate icing because it was for my in-laws.  Congrats guys!!!

Lolo's 1st Birthday

The sweetest girl in the world turned one in April, Loralei Dove Gleason.  Lolo is my niece, and she needed a fun cake to celebrate her first year in our lives. I know it looks like 2020 is 1 at first, but I got carried away with  the L's. This was my first cake that I used my bavarian cream filling.  It is a beautiful thing when you wed bavarian cream filling with yellow cake.  Mmm : )  The little birds are fondant.  I'm already planning her 2nd birthday cake.

Ruff Wedding

Cory and Courtney Ruff were married this past weekend.  Another August wedding cake, but we made it through it!  They had a very rustic wedding, so the buttercream texture is stucco.  The flowers that are on here are not the actual wedding flowers, but I used some that I had so I could take a photo before I delivered the cake that next morning.  Congrats Ruffs!

Robot for Baby Jack

A lot of our Sunday school girls are pregnant right now, so check back for several cakes soon from baby showers.  This one is for Laura and baby Jack.  I told you teal and orange are in for baby boys.  He is all encased in fondant.  I painted him silver to give him a metal look.  He was another hard one to cut.  It's always the ones with faces.

TI 84 Plus

This is another cake for an extension of the Blankenship family.  Daniel is pursuing an engineering degree at the UofA, and Katie said she needed something "good and nerdy" for him, like an exact replica of a TI 84 plus calculator.  I had to use a sharpie to write on the buttons, but a call to poison control confirmed that the small amount of ink was in no way toxic to the cake consumers.  Who eats the fondant anyway??

Kohler Shower

This is for a couple at church who is getting married, the Kohlers.  The K is fondant, and the coral part is all buttercream.  Again, it's quilted with pearls at the intersection.  Simple yet elegant.

Look Whooo's Having a Baby

This cake was for the Alberson's baby shower at church.  The bottom picture gives a better look at the owl.  They gave me the owl they were using for the nursery, and I made it identical to that.  Teal and orange are so the new baby boy colors.

John B is 50!

I had the privilege of making this cake for my high school debate coach, Jane Balgavy.  When I was in her class, I was just making sheet cakes.  8 years later she called me to make her husband's 50th b-day cake which they celebrated on New Years Eve.  She said for me to make it "funky", my favorite adjective for cakes.  This is what came out!

Sweet Sixteen

I never make cakes for my students, but I just had to for Madison.  We went to church together, so I actually knew her before I taught her Spanish.  The fondant is quilted with gold pearls at each intersection.  The 16 is all glitzy with pixie dust, and she requested that there be a peacock feather somewhere on it, so I thought it would be a good background for the numbers.  She's a chocolate girl, so it is chocolate cake with chocolate fudge filling and chocolate butter cream topped with chocolate fondant. 

Chenal Book Club

Another cake for my patron, Aunt Nancy.  She is a member of the Chenal Book Club, so I made this cake for their Christmas gathering.  The picture cut off about an inch of the Christmas tree, but there is a star on top. 

Toy Story

This cake easily could have been my birthday cake.  I love Toy Story, just as much as Cole.  Incidentally, this was not Cole's birthday cake either.  I made this cake for Aunt Nancy's grandson; she's actually my brother-in-law's aunt but treats me like her own.  I was mis-informed on who was getting the cake.  In fact, I don't even know which grandson got the cake!  Good thing about buttercream though is that it can be wiped off just like an etch-a-sketch, so all was corrected.

DeRoos Wedding

Well, I lied.  Just a few months later and my other dear roommate from college got married, and again I was making the cake while being a bridesmaid.  While it's stressful, I'm so glad I was able to do both : )  Abigail is obsessed with purple, so of course I had to incorporate that into her cake.  She too married a Ryan from Canada!

Williams Wedding

I love when friends say that I can design their wedding cakes : )  This was for my dear friend and college roommate, Kristen, and her husband, Jarod.  She had a fall wedding, and we were going for a vintage look.  The picture may not show it well, but the buttercream is actually ivory with white scrolls.  Each layer was a different flavor.  When I made this cake I said I would never be in a wedding and make the cake again.

1st Birthday

This was for a friend at church, Jennifer, who needed a fun cake for her nephew's first birthday.  He loves dump trucks, so I used graham cracker crumbs on top of chocolate buttercream to create a work zone for Dawson's toy trucks.

Watson Wedding

The Blankenships give me several reasons to make cakes.  This is for Kacie and Michael Watson.  I agreed to make this cake for their wedding before I got engaged, and our wedding ended up being a week before their wedding.  I actually had to bake and freeze the cake before I left for my honeymoon and pray that I would get back according to schedule to finish decorating the cake.  It all worked out, but I will never do that again. 

Beal Wedding

My first wedding cake.  It was soooo heavy!  This was for my good friends, Katie and Daniel Beal.  Five tiers ranging from 6 inches to 16 inches in diameter.  I'm so glad they gave me my first opportunity to make a wedding cake.  Daniel and Katie are both blessed with musical ability, and the trap set below represents Daniel's passion for percussion.

Griffin Wedding

Monica and Tyler were married in 2008, four years ago tomorrow.  I made the groom's cake and some other sweet treats for their reception.  

Yum! I want to eat these right now.

Easy go-to chocolate cakes.

Tyler's groom's cake.  Take 2.  We had some issues with the first one.  For anyone who is not yet married, take my advice: do NOT get married in August.  Buttercream and southern Arkansas heat do not play well together.

I love to do these chocolate strawberries for weddings.  They were sitting on a chocolate cake, but I guess they hopped off for the photo opp.

Oldies but Goodies

I just located some of my first cakes.  They are from 2007-2008-ish, and while they are not as spectacular as some of my newer ones, they were necessary lessons to learn decorating techniques.

This is another recital cake at UCA for my good friend, Brandon.  

This cake, of course, is for my sister, Monica.  I actually made the fondant...ugh.  I'll never make that mistake again.  This was back in 2008.

I made this sweet bonnet for Cecelia Wilson on her birthday in 2007.  She had several pretty Easter hats that inspired this idea.

I free-handed this cake for my friend at college, Andy.  This was a symbol for his fraternity. 2008

My sister-in-law, Taylor, graduated with an accounting degree from Harding Univeristy in 2008.

Cheyenne loved penguins.  This penguin actually was not suppose to be on a block of ice, but I used the cocoa outline trick and spilt too much on the cake. Nothing buttercream can't cover : )

This cake was another cocoa outlined design for my cousin, Kayla, at her baby shower for adorable Kiley Jo.

This was another cake for my friend, Brady, who is a huge Yankees fan.  The jersey, however, looks like a basketball jersey.  I definitely improved on making cakes appear more realistic.

Autumn Auction

These cakes were made to raise money to send my students to Student Congress, one of my favorite competitions that I competed in in high school and college.  Now looking back, I can think of several fundraisers that would have been a lot easier, but this was so much fun making these cakes to auction off for my debate team.

This topsy turvy cake is all fondant.  If you look closely in the middle tier is marbled, but it's hard to tell with this picture.  The little pumpkins are so cute, arent' they?!

Here's a giant pumpkin!  It's cute too.

This scarecrow was hard to cut in to : ( Most of the time, I don't mind seeing them demolished by cake eaters, but he was one of my favorites.  He's really fat if you can't tell in the picture.  His hat and legs are rice krispie treats.  The wooden bucket is cake and not all fondant.  He was one heavy scarecrow.

Spiderman

One of my fellow teachers from Greenbrier, Susan Harmon, loves to scout out designs and ideas for me for my cakes.  She's always texting me cakes from pinterest even though we don't work together anymore.  I made this cake for her nephew, Bennett, for his 5th birthday.  I love topsy turvy cakes.  And the spider man mask is just a fondant piece decorated with buttercream.

Cardinals #2

Some more cardinals' fans are my Greenbrier family, the Roberts.  This cake was for George, or as he is better known, Jorge.  I will not reveal what birthday this was for him; let's just say he's missing a lot of candles.  He's more like a big kid at heart.  They are my only strawberry cake eaters, which is my favorite to make.

White Coat Ceremony

Both of my brother-in-laws are such smarties.  One is a chemist and the other is in med school.  I made this for Tyler's white coat ceremony for his entrance into med school last August.  Three more years until his graduation cake!

Watering Can

This is a fondant watering can I made for Ryan's nana, Barbara.  It was her 74th birthday in 2011, and she has the most beautiful flower garden.  My in-laws are obsessed with chocolate, so of course this cake is all chocolate, even the crumbled "dirt".

Farmer Bob

This was for my biggest cake fan, Bob Blankenship.  He has a beautiful farm which looks nothing like this cake. 

GHS Retirement

These cakes recognized the retiring staff and faculty from Greenbrier High School in 2011.  Each one has a different design since they were each unique to our school at GHS.

Welcome Loralei

This cake was for Jamie's baby shower to welcome Loralei Dove Gleason in 2011.  I thought she needed something girly yet whimsical.  The layers had raspberry filling and strawberry filling.  Mmmm : )

Aloha!

This was a simple wedding shower cake that my cousin, Kayla, was hosting.  The bride and groom were going to Hawaii. 

Brown Wedding

This cake was for my sister-in-law, Taylor, and her husband, Jared Brown.  They were married July 3rd, 2010.  She had a bright and colorful wedding with these gerber daisies which made this a fun cake with all the flowers.

My Math Nerd

This was Ryan's 21st birthday cake in 2009.  We were just dating at the time, and I have sinced learned that he does not use simple calculators such as this at work.  I need to make him an excel spread sheet cake.  That would be more accurate.