Welcome to our blog!! We are learning to decorate cakes and loving every minute of it!! Join us by following our journey of designing and decorating cakes! Thanks for your interest and let us know what you think of our cakes by leaving a comment! -- Margie and Joy

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Engagement "Stump" Cake

     Today my daughter Becca was engaged to Garrett Billings.  Since we knew in advance, my other daughter, Joy, and I prepared and planned an engagement 'stump' cake for them.  The chocolate cakes were baked before our trip to Michigan, as well as the chocolate frosting and ganache. These recipes were all made from scratch and made as an experiment for one of the cake layers for their wedding cake.  I am still waiting for the two thumbs up from Garrett and Becca, but I think we are close!
     Joy couldn't go on the trip, but helped me by making the two roses and blue and white blossoms. When we got to Michigan Garrett's mom, Lenora and I put the cakes in the freezer and frosting/ganache in the fridge.  It was tough to keep it all hidden from Becca, but Garrett and I stowed them away in a box labeled for Garrett's dad, Greg, and a few things in the center of my suitcase. Greg was also able to hide away all cake decorating stuff until the time needed!!
     Lenora had the perfect cake serving plate (something I had forgotten and kinda glad I did!!)  She also has a beautiful dining room and decor to add to the look of the cake!
 The heart is fondant with Wilton letters pressed into the fondant with also a little food coloring to help darken the letters and to give it a carved look.

I sure missed Joy's help decorating this cake today, she always has a lot of great ideas and the extra set of hands makes it go so much faster!  I actually had to call her for her ideas with one problem of messed up sepals (from traveling) on the roses.

Overall I am pleased with the results of this cake, although I have a few ideas to make it even better next time!!  Thanks for looking!

Thomas the Tank Engine Cake


 When we went to South Carolina to visit family, we had a birthday party for five people.... since my great nephew was the youngest and was turning 5 (or maybe 6), we let him and his mother pick the cake.  It is a double layer sheet cake - half white cake and half chocolate.  We did our transfer technique that I teach for Wilton course 1 to get the outline of Thomas. Then a quick outline and star tip with vibrant colors to make Thomas.
 The smoke and tree tops are dimensional decorating.  The tracks are also made with frosting and a basket weave tip, the rocks are made with tip 7 and of course we forgot to bring the grass tip to make grass. The flowers we added were for my Mom, who LOVES flowers, her birthday is April 1st!  Happy Birthday Mom, Dad, Alijah, Becca, and Andy!  Love you all!!

Quick Simple Birthday Cake for Becca


This year I had to make a really simple birthday cake for Becca.  Her birthday was on the same day as when we had to leave for vacation.  Between packing, cleaning, and making lunch for her, her boyfriend, and a few Fareway friends, the cake was made pretty quick... I didn't even get her name on it!!  Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. Brown and blue are her favorite colors, so at least I got that right!!  I always tell my students to put an odd number of flowers on your cake, I kinda messed up there...  It looked too few with three, but after I got the fourth one on, I was worried 5 might be too much.  A small one at the bottom may have worked, but I was also crunched for time. Hopefully my students won't all give me too hard of a time with that one!!