Last Day Cupcakes

Today ends my 3 month internship at Thoma Thoma, where I've been doing graphic design. It has been absolutely wonderful, and to show them how much I love them all, I made some sweet treats for my last day!

Each cupcake had a different colored Thoma Thoma logo that I thought fit everyone best.

The back of each cupcake had their own little thank you note on it!

So farewell, Thoma Thoma - stay in touch! And HELLO Sells Agency! Can't wait to get to know all of you.

Love, love, love,

KW

Learn Something New Every Cake

So this week, I worked on a vow-renewal cake. The woman ordering it sent me some wonderful pictures of 3-4 tiered cakes, with ribbons, buttercream, and stargazer lilies. I was prepared.

I spent every night making cakes, cutting them, stacking them, etc so that all I would have to do on Friday would be to ice them, stack them, and add the decorations. No problem!

But life, it seems, doesn't like to be easy. Friday, I woke up and started icing each one. After icing the bottom tier, I left it alone for a few minutes to "crust" (which is where it dries a little and if you touch it, it doesn't come off on your finger). I came back to check on it and part of the cake had fallen apart!

Discouraged, I rebaked the bottom tier. Everything was on hold because this was the bottom tier! I had to have it finished before I could start on the two on top! 2-3 hours later, I started the icing again. Anyway, long story short, this is how it (eventually) turned out.

Not too shabby! Anyway, I called Cathleen (vow-renewal "bride's" sister-in-law) to come pick it up, and together we loaded the whole thing into her packed SUV for the hour-long drive to the event.

I was nervous. No, nervous doesn't describe the feeling. I was petrified. I watched them drive away and said a little prayer for the cake.

A few hours later, I got news from Cathleen that the cake had slid off the stand at the end of my street, that they had tried to piece it back together (but it's buttercream--I'm sure that was difficult) but that it at least tasted good.

Wanna know how I felt then? Mortified. Stunned. Embarassed. I think you get the picture. So I did some research to see what I could have done differently, and I got a solution: non-slip pads. From Walmart. Put them between stand and cake, and under stand for transportation. Duhh.

Sigh.... Learn something new every cake.

UPDATE: Here is a picture of the cake with a text from Cathleen:

"I showed everyone the before [picture]. We fixed it pretty good...Don't worry about it we are all laughing."

Follow up text from Cathleen: "Please laugh."

Okay, Cathleen. It is kind of funny. Better luck next time!

I'm out. No more cakes for awhile. I need a break!

Happy 4th of July!

To celebrate the 4th of July, I made this cake for an office party at the advertising agency that I'm interning at. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to be there to enjoy the cake, but I did get a sneak taste of one of the cookies that we didn't use. IT WAS SO GOOD!

Anyway, so the cookies are homemade and a recipe I borrowed from Erin (who has amazing cookie skills. Seriously. Check them out here) which I swore I wouldn't tell to anyone. They also have little sprinkles on them which is why they look a little bumpy. (Erin's would never look this bad!) The cake is white cake with homemade buttercream frosting (MMMMMMM) and fondant accents.

Anyway, I only got this one picture from an iPhone so not the best, but hope you enjoy!

HAPPY FOURTH!

Summer Vacay

Hello all! WOW - I have gotten SO much positive feedback about my cakes! I am so flattered and so glad that you are here to look at these little piles of sugar!

I have decided to take a small-itsy-bitsy bit of a summer break from making cakes and will not be taking any more orders until the end of August/beginning of September. As you may know, each cake takes me over 10 hours to decorate (on average), and that does not include the drawing, shopping, buying, planning, pouring, mixing, baking, waiting, blogging...you get the point. I just don't have the time or energy right now to pack in any more orders until then. Just wanted everyone to know, and I want to apologize ahead of time if you ask and I have to (regretfully) say no.

However, for all you readers who just wanna see this crazy journey, do not fear! I have plenty of cakes already planned between now and then so the blogging will continue and you will get to share my adventures with me.

Stay tuned! New cake should be up at the end of this week!

UPDATE:

I think I might have confused a few people: when I say that I'm not taking any more cake orders until the end of August/beginning of September, I mean I'm not taking orders. So, for example: if you want a cake for September 30, I can't commit to that date-you'll have to ask me at the end of August/beginning of September.

The reason behind this is that I'm currently looking for a job, and will hopefully have one by then. I don't want to commit to any cakes this far in advance since I don't even know what my future holds. Thanks for understanding!

Graduation Cake

Cake #2 of the weekend: Claire's graduation cake! I am so proud of how it turned out. Claire is a good friend of mine who I met in middle school (wow, I'm old...) and we went to high school together. I am an intern at her parent's ad agency and loving it and they asked me to make a cake to celebrate her graduation. She went to Wellesley (gotta double check the spelling...yep that's right!) and majored in French and Astronomy. Congrats Claire!

I love that little bookmark! SO CUTE!

Shoebox Cake

My best friend, Natalie, turned 22 yesterday. To celebrate, I made her a shoebox cake with a little fondant shoe too! She is obsessed with shoes (it is her financial downfall...) so I found it to be fitting, and I wanted to try one out.

By the way, this is the first cake that drove me crazy this past weekend (I made two...PHEW!). What ev - I'm done (!!) so I'm happy I did it! YAY! Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY NAT.

I. Hate. Cakes. (A RANT)

I hate cakes. Really. Hate Hate Hate. Wanna know why? Because of days like today. When everything goes wrong and I look at the clock and it's almost 2 and I have made no progress. I hate cakes!

I realize that many cakers out there feel this way. We all cry, break down, throw something, and are generally displeased with the outcome of our cakes in one way or another. Unfortunately, this happens to me about every time I make a cake. I end up cursing at the ceiling, wondering why on earth I put myself through this torture.

So here is what has happened (thus far!) today:

I woke up at 8:30 to get started. Bought some supplies and got to cooking around 10. Feelin' good! (even though I spent, OH, $50 at Hob Lob). Cake bakes quickly and first two are out in 20 minutes. YAY!

Then disaster strikes. I have made the cakes MUCH too thin so I have to make more (which I haven't done yet), a shoe breaks for a shoebox cake I am making so I spend an hour trying to fix it (to no avail), one of the cakes isn't cooked fully, both cakes crack down the middle, I run out of icing, and thus, break down. Which brings me to where I am now. Hating cakes.

Hopefully you will look at this blog on Monday and see two gorgeous cakes on display. But I'm tellin' you right now - I'm gonna hate them and curse myself until this weekend is over.

Back to the store. Attempt #2 must get underway.