Volleyball Cake

Kim asked if we would make a cake for Kaitlynn again this year. Last year we had a lot of fun making her a softball cake, so this year we got to make a volleyball cake!!  Joy and I would both have to say that volleyball is our favorite sport to play, so that alone kinda pushed us both to make time for it. Kim had several great ideas she found, but with a short time to plan it out, we went with one of the easier designs.  

The ball is made with Wilton's Ball pan and everything is simply covered in buttercream frosting with simple stars, shells and writing.  This was the first time we have done the newer technique of putting writing on top of writing with two different colors.  It was a little scary since we were putting it on top of the net - if we made a mistake, it was going to make it hard to fix... but all went well!  

Thanks Kim for a fun opportunity for us to make a cake for Kaitlynn!  

Monty's Football Birthday Cake

 My good friend Christy asked if I would make a football cake and some cupcakes decorated like sports balls for her son's first birthday party.  Monty is always smiling and such a sweet little boy, I love caring for him in the nursery at church.

Christy has been a long time friend and is helping me learn sign language (which is not an easy thing to do... because I am slow, old and also nervous when I sign, yet she is so patient!) I worked my schedule to make these for her.



I looked at football shaped pans at the store, but decided against spending the money. As you can see here, I used an oval shaped pan and just cut it from there. Simple piping with zigzag and stars and writing for the laces.  The cupcakes were also star tipped and a simple writing technique to make different types of sports balls. 


Happy Birthday Monty!  We love you! 

Joseph's Birthday

So.... I have been really bad about posting cake pictures.  We have baked some... and taken pictures of some... but for some reason just a little too busy to take the time to post and share on this blog.  

Today I plan to get caught up a little here while it is quiet at work... unless of course, if it gets busy.... then maybe I will try again next week!

Here is Joseph's birthday cake. He is my firecracker born on July 4th.  Since we knew he wasn't going to be able to be home for his birthday, we made a special meal with all the family together before he left in June.  It was sad for him to be gone, but grateful for the experience he had on the road with the Cola Clash this summer!

In the pictures, you can see Ella loves her Uncle DaDoo (her own personal name she made up for him - although she can say Uncle JoJo.)  Whenever we talk about Uncle JoJo, she says, "funny" - because she thinks he is so funny!

The cake is just a simple two layer/two flavor cake with buttercream frosting and fondant covering it. We didn't have a lot of time while getting him ready to go, so it was made very quickly.  Joseph LOVES fondant in any way or form: whether plain or on a cake, flavored or unflavored, etc. which makes it easy for us!  Everyone knows his love for the piano and for music, but with limited time we needed a simple design and this was definitely it!

Although we really missed Joseph on his actual birthday, we were excited to hear how he had an amazing summer traveling with Bobby Bosler and the Cola Clash.

Christmas Fun - Cookies and Gingerbread Houses

Joy and I have always wanted to do a gingerbread house... but unfortunately, we just do not have the time during the busy holidays to make them.  After Christmas, we were so excited to find Wilton gingerbread kits for 50% off... although it wasn't exactly what we planned or envisioned us making, we decided it might be a good first try. We bought LOTS of candy and planned out a few hours on a Saturday. Well, we thought it would only take us a few hours, but it took over 6!!! It was actually a lot of fun and even relaxing... we also learned that whenever we decide to make a full gingerbread house from scratch, we had better set aside a good chunk of time!    

Wilton Gingerbread Houses

Joy made her roof tiles out of rolled Starbursts... the bricks are made from Extremes.

My roof tiles, bricks and chimney stones were made from rolled spiced gummies. The chimney and porch were made with graham creackers and covered with candies.

Christmas Cookies!!

Someone asked us if we could make some Christmas royal frosting cookies... We have only experimented with this type of cookies twice before. Joy did this experiment but it took a lot of time, and we didn't have that kind of time for that weekend. We unfortunately had to decline, but would really like to experiment more with these. They are fun and look very clean and professional.

Christmas Royal Frosting Cookies

Thank you for stopping by! 

Sherrard Softball Cake

Cake decorating is a skill my daughter and I have truly enjoyed learning and teaching. We love making cakes for friends and family! Unfortunately, life slowly changes with jobs, a beautiful new grandbaby, etc.. and although we don't decorate as much and have had a hard time filling up our cake decorating classes, we still have a love and desire to work on a cake!!

Lately we had been talking more and more about making a cool cake, BUT, life is busy and other things just seem to keep trumping our time and continues to push our desire to bake and decorate to the side. In the middle of this, a friend (Ana) texted and asked if we could bake a cake for another friend, (Kim). Well... when we saw the cake they wanted... how could we resist?  A fun, smaller, simpler three layer cake with dots and animal stripes, and a baseball.  We had all the stuff for it...  and we actually had the Saturday open...  So, we jumped...

Cooking in a house where 4 people, 1 cat, and 1 dog live.. means we have a lot of prep.  We have turned down many cakes... and maybe this will give you a good glimpse as to why!!

We clean by dusting, vacuuming, and mopping - to get the dust and hair out of the house... and our animals are banned from the kitchen with gates!!!

Yes, they have a hard time with it... and so do we... since our animals are our babies...  our spoiled babies... and we wouldn't want it any other way!!!

We even clean ourselves off with lint rollers - to make sure NO HAIR of any kind can get in our 'masterpiece' - yep... we are kinda obsessed about the no hair thing...

We do research as well to make sure we know the exact colors, we shop, and then begin....

The fondant is colored while the cakes are baked...  Frosting is made while the cakes are cooling... and then it is time to decorate!!!  YAY!

And in the middle of all that - we have to stop to make lunch.  For some reason, beyond my control, my family needs to still eat when I make a cake.  I suggested fasting a few times and I get 'the looks' from them... so...







When we get back to it, we frost and stack the individual layers and begin rolling and cutting fondant for the cakes.

Joy is amazing and has so much patience to make all those balls just so perfectly sized!!  I prefer to frost.  Which brings us to another problem...  We could bake cakes too long and make them stiffer and easier to frost... and we could make frosting with all shortening to make it easier and more beautiful to frost. BUT, I am big on flavor - if it doesn't taste good, it just isn't worth making!!  So, we make this frosting with 1 full pound of butter. Which makes it sooo good... but also causes us a little grief on a warmer day (at least warm in the kitchen!!)  No matter how much merigue powder I put in, it just didn't want to cooperate with me.

We finally get it frosted, add all our goodies to each single layer, stack the ball... and we are ready to roll... we usually finish stacked cakes on site when possible... to prevent damage.

We had our directions, and turned on our GPS...  unfortuantely, as much as I love my GPS, it can really be dangerous!!  It turned us too soon. Joy looked at the directions that we were texted and missed the city we were to drive to... but in theory, the fact that we got on a road with the same name going north should have gotten us there.  But not this time... and not anywhere near the quad-cities...  lol!!  We got on a road that turned into a dirt road with huge ruts and almost mountainous (I am sure that is a word) hills that were scary!! This is one of those times I was SOOO grateful for my SUV! I am quite certain if I still had my car... I would still be there today...


Anyway.... we laughed a bit, but got nervous when this so called 'road' had water going all the way across it... I did NOT want to get stuck in the mud. Fortunately, we were not out of range for a few texts... a U turn was not possible, except when we got to an open gate to a pasture - YAY! I could not explain to you how glad we were to get off that road!!   It was such a relief to pull into the driveway of Kim's house!!  WOW....  No major damage to the cake - praise the Lord, although a few things slid around, we were able to fix most of it.

Joy putting on the final touches.

It was not our most perfect cake (yes, I know that is bad English)... and personally we were both maybe a little disappointed in our final product.  But it should have tasted good - golden vanilla cake and chocolate cake, both with a true butter buttercream frosting and fondant accents.

Thanks Kim and your sweet family for letting us be a part of your celebration!!  Thanks to those who stopped by to read and look!  I hope you are enjoying the beautiful fall weather!

Purple and Gold Sherrard Cake

Baby Reveal Cake

Baby Reveal Cake - Buttercream with Fondant Bow

I was asked by a friend, Christy, to make a cake for her baby reveal party. We have not made many cakes for others recently, because we have had so much going on.... but we squeezed it into our crazy schedule this time because I LOVE baby reveal parties... I think it is SUCH a cool fun idea to do as a family!!  This is the second time we were able to make a 'baby reveal cake,' I wasn't able to get pictures of the other cake unfortunately, so we made SURE to get pictures this time!!  

 

8 x 8 x 4 square Baby Reveal Cake

The cake is a simple white cake, that was colored BLUE since she is having a BOY!!  

Pink and Blue Fondant Bow

It was frosted in a white buttercream with fondant that is colored in classic baby colors  as requested - pink and blue with a bow, stripes and buttons.  

Hat Box Cake with Gumpaste Bow

Joy taught course 3 this past month and completed a cake on the final week.  

In Wilton's Course 3 you learn to cover a cake with fondant, learn to paint on a cake, 

make many realistic flowers, leaves, and a beautiful bow.

For her cake, she created a three color bow using two colors of fondant/gumpaste

and painted the edges for a stunning look!

The cake is a triple chocolate cake that is torted in four layers and frosted with a light chocolate frosting

and then covered with Wilton's chocolate fondant.

 Here are the bow loops that are waiting to be put together!!

She painted on the sides of the cake, which is also taught in course 3. 

The small flower buds you see here are taught in course 4 which will be in the month of February - 

hope to see you there!!

Simple Christmas or Valentine Wedding Cake / Hobby Lobby Classes

Joy and I made a simple Christmas/Valentine cake for a display at Hobby Lobby

 in Bettendorf, IA.  It is just styrofoam covered in frosting with sanding sugar 

added to give it sparkle. 

Red Ribbon Wedding Cake with Gumpaste Flowers

The red ribbon around each layer adds a bright contrast for a Christmas or Valentine wedding.  The gumpaste flowers and leaves are made with Wilton gumpaste and Wilton products. 

 

Wilton Cake Classes - January Schedule

There will be no Wilton classes for the month of December.  

But we have a full schedule lined up for January!  

Course 1 - Buttercream Skills

Tuesdays, January 6, 13, 20, 27 @ 6-8 pm

Course 2 - Flowers and Cake Design

Mondays, January 5, 12, 19, 26 @ 6 - 8 pm

Course 3 - Fondant and Gum Paste

Saturdays, January 10, 17, 24, 31 @ 10 am - 12 pm

This is a GREAT gift idea for Christmas!!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

The winner of our Food Writer Contest is Katja P.  

Thanks to everyone who joined and shared!

Wilton Food Writers Freebie

We are going to give away one set of these awesome 

Wilton Food Writers 

to one of our followers for this blog!  

These are really nice to have for decorating cakes, cupcakes, cookies, and/or anything edible!!!  

In this set comes 5 colors: blue, green, red, brown, and black.

 The fine tip helps for awesome detail work!

How to enter:

1) Sign up to follow us (in a link to the left that says "Follow by Email") with a correct email so I can get information to and from the winner.  

2) Also leave a comment below stating your favorite cake from our sight, if this is your first visit, please look around!

Drawing will be held on 
Saturday, November 15th. 
Winner will be notified by email provided!  

Thanks so much for stopping by!!
Margie and Joy Cain

Wilton Classes at Hobby Lobby

Wilton Classes for the 

Hobby Lobby in Bettendorf 

start soon!! 

Hobby Lobby has a great price of $22.50, 

which is 50% off Wilton's regular price of $45.00

for the month of November 2014.  

You get 8 hours of instruction and a course book

 (a $5 value, given on the first night of class).

Each course meets 4 different nights 

for 2 hours each night. 

Do you know someone who loves to bake? watch cake shows? and/or cupcake wars on TV? 

Wilton Classes make great Christmas presents!!  

Course 1 - Building Buttercream Skills

Come and learn about cupcakes, cakes, cookies 

and how to decorate these great items with buttercream!  

We learn how to bake, frost and decorate a cake to look professional, 

many buttercream flowers (including the Wilton ribbon rose), 

and fun techniques to make cake decorating fun and easy! 

Mondays, November 10, 17, 24, and December 1 from 6 - 8 pm

Course 3 - Fondant and Gumpaste

Come and learn how to cover a cake in fondant and

 make beautiful gumpaste flowers to decorate cakes!

Wilton has designed easy techniques that anyone can learn to make 

unbelievable showstopping gumpaste flowers. 

Come join the fun and see!

Tuesdays, November 11, 18, 25, and December 2 from 6 - 8 pm

Sign up at a your Bettendorf Hobby Lobby today!

Hope to see you soon!!!

(For those waiting for Course 4 - it will be available in January!)