Saturday, April 4, 2009

Two cake orders on the same day

One of my 'hobbies' is cake decorating. I would like to make a career out of it, but everyone and their dog does these days. I have a decent client base however, and no shortage of jobs this year (even during the economic downturn, people still eat cake).

While I did go to school to become a baker, I didn't learn much about cakes that I didn't already know. Most of what I learned was how to produce commercial goods in large quantities at pace (ie: 200 croissants in 30 minutes). And I learned how to make bread, which was worth the ridiculous tuition I paid.

These two jobs were both for birthday parties.

The first was 30 cupcakes with stars and moons. The cake was a fabulous vegan vanilla (for all you non-believers I was vegan for years, and now I eat a whole-foods diet that includes meat and dairy, but this is a recipe I'll make over and over because it is SO GOOD) with Italian meringue buttercream. The buttercream, obviously, wasn't vegan. They knew that. Weird, huh? Oh well. I make what they order.

Anyways, the cupcakes have a fondant cap painted in a style reminiscent of Van Gogh's 'Starry Night'. The clouds are buttercream and the cutout stars and moons are dusted with a little petal glitter. Now if only I wasn't such a pathetic photographer:


What they looked like without cutouts


What they looked like inside

You can sort of see the glitter in this one:







The second job was for a small circus themed cake and 20 matching cupcakes. The cake was lemon with raspberry preserve and the same Italian meringue buttercream (it's popular). I have no pictures of the cupcakes.







We went to a party with face painting. I didn't expect the kiddo to allow a stranger to touch his face, but she was slow and gentle and painted my hand first, then his hand, and then his face. She had a neat poster with pictures of popular designs. Kiddo looked it over, then decisively pointed at the butterfly. 'Dat fly'. He was mistaken for a girl by several party attendees.

5 comments:

Lindsay said...

I'm going to post some pics of Facebook up today as I get a chance. I have some pics of Abhy before he's rubbed so much of the glitter off. ;) For what it's worth, I think he looked handsome with a butterfly on his face!

Lindsay said...

Okay that comment made no sense, though I'm sure you got the gist. I'm going to post some pics up on Facebook today, not of Facebook...

Sarah said...

Gawd, you're amazing. Sooo talented.

Kyre said...

Thanks Sarah!

West Coast Mama said...

These are amazing! I love your work...the cupcakes are my favorite.