I'm the favorite now.

Ok, well he didn't come right out and say it....but the bar was raised. hee hee hee

 I've made a tradition. For every one of my nieces and nephews, I make them whatever kind of cake they want when they turn 8. (I still owe Lydia because I decided to do this after she passed 8.)

 He picked "sea creatures" themed. I had made a lobster, clown fish, anenome, sea weed, and urchin spines before our trip.

 I thought with having his help, it would be more fun. Which it was. From filling the cake, to frosting it, to covering it then decorating it. Its a REALLY long process and I usually do it at night. Alone with my Mp3. And all the time in the night.

 He stuck by me the WHOLE time!! He truly was facinated and interested in the whole process. He is well educated in all things under the sea. Which he freely shared. I loved sharing that with him!

Of course there were others with  ideas to create and that was fine. I don't even know what he made. A ghoulish face or something.

Can't think of a title,so it's not going to have one.

Raspberry peach jam=yummy! And there's LOTS of it. I did make regular raspberry jam, but this is what I did with the left overs. I guess I didn't get a picture of the regular, but's it's pretty too. And yummy. I also made just plain peach jam as well. 

 If I'm not making cakes, I'm making something else. These cookies were a "test run" for a demonstration I was doing on 'flooding cookies'. Since the season is fall, I opted for fall cookies.

 They turned out cute enough, but for the actual class, I tinted the colors darker. Fall to me just doesn't equal pastels.

It wasn't the greatest turn out in numbers, but that just meant more cookies for those of us that did come. And kids at home waiting for a small sweet morsel.
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Ashton's football has monopolized a lot of my time as well (more like going to all the practices to socialize with all the other awesome football moms), but I don't really have pictures to show him off (Trust me, he's a stud for sure in all those pads). His team has done pretty good. It started out in the beginning of the season loosing every game. But then when they actually won, they kept winning. They even played an undeafeted team and beat them in overtime. That was the MOST AMAZING game ever. Other than the opposing team loosing horribly. I've never seen an atlethic coach make such a scene. It really was ridiculous.

They have played well enough to advance into the playoffs, so we (and I speak for all parents, players, and fans) are pretty excited. They have a few weeks of no games before they start the playoffs but are still practicing. As a parent, to watch your child progress in anything, more specifically football, and become really good at it. It's a pretty incredible thing to witness. Pride seems to be appropriate. (The humble kind).
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Speaking of cake. (Well I DID mention it earlier). It's been pretty consistant with how many I've been doing. An average of 4 or more a month. And more interest is getting out there. I'm excited about that. I still feel that I've got LOTS to learn before anyone refers to me as a "professional". I get uncomfortable when someone says that. It's flattering, but mentally, i'm not there yet. I asked this question to my sister, but I'm curious what others would respond, "what makes you a professional?"
The floor is all yours. (if anyone's still out there.)

Dylan's 4!

With Dylan, it seems the time has passed even quicker than all the others. Perhaps it's because he's the 'baby'. But...WOW...time is speeding up!

 He decided that he wanted a Spider Man party so I started two weeks before to plan some games. I picked two. I didn't want to complicate things. I DO have a limit.

They played 'Pin the spider on the web'. They loved it! And did pretty well.

 The second game was pretending to be Spider Man and shoot the bad guys with 'webs' (silly string). That was a HUGE hit (once they figured out how to press the button down to squirt the string with their little fingers.) They just wished that I had an endless supply of silly string for their disposal.

I served a light lunch of PB&J/Ham sandwiches with veggies and juice.

 Eli. The little stink.

 Not so little anymore. Running with the boys now!

The cake was pretty simple. But not really. I've come to love making cupcakes and made them for the party. The cake was for the family later on in the evening when all were home.

Excited!!!!!!

I know I haven't posted much. It's amazing how crappy stuff that happens in your life can suck everything you've got right out of you. Your motivation. Your determination.Your ambitions. The goals you set. Your mood to get dolled up for the day. And it likes to linger too. Even after everything passes and everything is suppose to be back to normal. I'm one that it takes awhile to brush the dirt off and keep going. SOOooo...

I'm excited to share the long awaited for, Cake Website:

Audcakes.com

 Mind you, it's still in progress. I'm looking for feedback of what you think about it and what you would like to see added or not. Questions. Comments. Complaints. Let me have it! I want honest opinions!

I'm still in the process of uploading all the cake pictures. But most of you who have stuck with me all these years or followed religiously *HA! yeah right*..... will see the same stuff. This is just a site to send potential customers to, so I can still rant and rave and brag and ball about the personal stuff in my life, and not appear to be a complete nutcase....here. On this blog.

OH! And I'm almost done setting up a facebook page for people to "like"...So keep an eye out for that you fb users!

Yeah for Happy Days!!!!

Oh my Oh my Oh Dinosaurs!

This one was really fun to make. But took a lot of "research". I don't know too much about dinosaurs other than books we may have somewhere around here. My boys never went through a dinosaur phase like a lot of little boys do.

 I wasn't quite sure how to mold a dino...but I think I figured it out without it looking too odd. "Stick some spikes on it and call it a dinosaur". "Yea, I think that's what God said." A conversation I had with birthday boys dad. :o)

 After I applied the lava, Mykael suggested I had orange and yellow to make it look like a fire. So...I did. It's a cute fire now!

 I wanted to incorporate dino bones somehow so I made dirt and drew them on with royal icing. I kept laughing because how cute they looked. I really didn't know how to do dino bones either....it just happened.

Looks pretty cool to me! Luke loved it and that's all that mattered! The only drawback after completing the cake, Luke's mom made me cut it up and serve it. Since I was the one that assembled it. I was the one who knew how to destroy it.

Bottom tier: Cherry chip cake with fresh sliced strawberries in glaze. Second tier: chocolate cake with coo whip chocolate filling. Volcano: rice crispy treat.

Chocolate Home Improvements

Anyone else having issues with blogger? UGH!

I made a lot of cakes lately and with doing so many in such a short amount of time, I wanted to make sure they were still very individual. And that I didn't make any of them look the same.

I've been wanting to get my hands on chocolate and play with it a little and see if I could manipulate it in ways the professionals do. I saw this once and wanted to try it. In the process I learned a few things:

1. A regular hershey's candybar from the store is NOT the kind of chocolate you want to do something like this.

2. Chocolate has a mind of it's own. If it wants to be manipulated, then, by its own choosing, it will do what you want it to do. And only then!

3. Use molding chocolate. It sets up faster and holds the shape and doesn't melt when you touch it like the hershey's did.

4.It's a lot like my photography skills. I go through a LOT of blurry pics to finally get a piece that looks focused and finished.

5. I WILL conquer chocolate. I'm am the superior being here!

After about 2 1/2 hours of melting chocolate, waiting for it to set up, and scraping enough scrolls, I finally got enough to wrap around this little 6inch cake. I'd LOVE to do this to a wedding cake! It would be gorgeous! And impressive! And a sure ticket straight to the looney bin! That would be a VERY time consuming project.

(Cake: chocolate with cool whip chocolate filling)

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It's been a long standing joke with my family and my dad. All my life, he's been a home remodeling contractor, fix-it handyman, roofer, flat-tire fixer, leaky drain reverse-r. And him hurtings hinmself getting hurt on the job.

                                            
I remember quite frequently he'd come home with some blood blister or purple finger. I'd ask him what happened and he'd say "I smacked it". Eventually the question evolved to "how'd you do that one?" pointing to the injured appendage with the resulting,... same response.

He found a shirt of a plump cartoon handyman who on it had just drilled a hole through his hand looking all goofy. He thought it was hillarious and he'd wear the shirt on occasion. A few years ago, he found this exact same shirt in the store and bought it for our oldest boy. "To help him remember grandpa." 

Turning 60 CAN be a big deal, if there is someone there to make it a big deal. I'm kind of a big deal type of gal, so I chose to make it big by making a cake. The cake itself wasn't the "big" factor.. the theme, I so lovingly choose to immortalize in fondant, was. My dad isn't a "plump"y kind of person. The man can eat a whole burger joint and his shape remains the same. So this handsome little handyman was skinny. I molded the body around a wire "frame" to give it more support while he dried. I'm not a sculptor so I had to call in backup for the head/face. I have a very dear friend that amazingly turned a picture of my dad into a rosy cheeked, toothy grinning head, with perfectly parted hair. Just like my dad!

 I however made the "wood" by coloring tan fondant with more brown food coloring. My husband had a hard time believing it wasn't real, until I dropped a completely dried piece on the floor and it shattered.

Originally my idea was to cover the cake in "planks of wood" but it didn't look how I wanted it. SO...I pulled it all off and went to bed. I had to sleep on it to figure out what I was going to do. Good thing I did because I woke up to this idea! Green-grass with a border of a measuring tap. I still wanted the cake to have a "built" feel to it so I "seamed" the edges and used silver wire to "nail" the letters on the side.

I was running out of time with this cake and there is a LOT of different things I wanted to add, like different tools and hoses and ladders, but this was ok with me to send as is.

At least he had his hammer! :o)

(Cake: Spice with fluffy carmel filing)

Under the Sea

I have been wanting to make a sea creature cake for a really long time, but no one ever requested one.

 Till two weeks ago. A freind of a friend saw some of my cakes and wanted to order one. :o) Happy day!

 She said they were going to the aquairum (or having an aquarium themed party) and wanted something with and "Octopus, stingray, and of course nemo fish". The rest was up to me. *love that!

 I added, a sea horse. starfish, a shell, and seaweed.

I did marble the fondant with blue and green but it's not as noticeable as I'd like, in the pictures. In person...it was pretty cool. (if I do say so myself.)

(Cake: White cake dyed blue and green for checkerboard. Top tier: marbled blue and green "white" cake with freshly sliced strawberries and glaze.)

Wedding Cake

This is a huge mile stone for me because it's my first! Yes...my first wedding cake!

 They wanted the cake pearlized (can't really tell, but it's shiny) And then brushed embroidery. Orignially they were just going to have the one 10inch layer, but decided the cake needed to be bigger. I'm glad they did that cause it looks more like a wedding cake.

The flowers were furnished by the florist and look pretty cool!! Of course...I had hesitations as I was working on it. With the pearling and then the embroidery. But again...once it had all the "required" elements...it turned out well. I really need to learn to relax!

(Cake: Chocolate with cool whip chocolate filling)

Alice In Wonderland

This cake has been in the "works" ALL year long! Ordered all the way back in January. It was until about 1 1/2 months ago that the theme was picked, so I've been stewing for a long time. I even watched the movie and took notes! Seriously! I had a notebook and pen the whole way through it.

 They wanted Alice but focused more on the Tea Party aspect of it. SO...to incorporate enough of the movie to make the cake a reconizable "Alice in Wonderland" cake, I snatched a few key elements from the movie to hint as such.

 Flowers

 Checkers and hearts

 The Twinkle twinkle little mouse.  *the blue little stars* This is "steam" btw.  :o)

Tea Cup and the little "Eat me" cookie.

And it is finished!

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Bottom layer: Checkerboard vanilla and chocolate with buttercream filling

Middle layer: Chocolate marble with my secret chocolate filling.

Top: White with pink buttercream

Messing around

This technique is called Embroidery-ing. ;o) It looks SO elegant! It is now my new favorite kind of piping over fondant.

I'll be doing it on a wedding cake I've got coming up. But it will be white on white.

On the white fondant...I attempted scrolls. CURSE my shaking! It looks like crap! But if you ignore that wiggles....That sheen you see there on the right side of it...is pearlizing. I'll be doing that on the wedding cake as well. It'll be SO pretty!

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I had never made fondant roses that were supposed to look like roses, I had always just made the "ribbon" roses or gathered roses. SO...because I was curious. I tried it out!

 Not too bad, eh? I LOVE them! My new favorite kind. Although, they are pretty time consuming since you have to make each individual petal.

 Preps for the Alice cake.

Black fondant rose. So sleek looking.  :o)

Camo Cake

I've been kinda busy lately. Making cake. LOTS of it! I'm still not done. I've got two more before the end of the month (next week!). But got a break for a second to come and tell you all I'm still here!

 Barely!

This was Ashton's birthday cake. He couldn't make up his mind till the day before his birthday. Needless to say...his birthday was postponed two days! Which was fine. Grandma and Grandpa were able to come. So it was worth the wait....AND the motherload of cash that kid brought in! Holy moly, I wish we got that kind of dough when we were younger!