Ava's Art-tastic Art Party!

Today is our little girl's birthday. I still can't believe how seven years ago my life changed so profoundly. It feels like she's always been apart of our lives, and yet it feels like it's happened in the blink of an eye.

Seven. Isn't that, like, a BIG kid? I mean, I real big kid? Not the "big kid" that is out of diapers or sleeping through the night, but a real-life big kid? One that tells it like it is, cracks jokes that actually make sense, makes you warm when they want to hold your hand across the street, one that sits and reads books, and one that makes artwork you proudly make wall room for? Ava constantly amazes me.

This year, she chose to have an Art Party to celebrate her birthday. Being the life-long artist that I am, I pretty much "SQUEED!" when she picked that theme. She quickly designed her cake. A fairly simple cake with an artist palette on top with a paintbrush (with rainbow paint), a thumb coming out of the hole of the palette (awesome!) and the inscription: "Happy Birthday Art-tastic Ava!" Art-tastic! Isn't that the best?!?! I decided to add an extra special element to the cake, and covered the entire cake with white fondant - her canvas to paint on. (Sometimes I really am a cake genius.) I absolutely LOVE how her cake turned out! And, the unexpected flavor combo she picked - Coconut cake with Caramel buttercream - was wonderful. So don't be surprised to see a new flavor called "Ava" added to our Classic flavors.

It was her idea to ditch the inscription after she painted her name on the cake. (Good design, kiddo!) I think my favorite thing about her cake this year is that I had no idea how it would turn out. Her art was the star, not my work. Honestly, Stuffed Cakes wouldn't be around without her. It was her cakes that pushed me to take risks and try new things in cake decorating. I poured my heart into every one of them. I swore I would never make sixty cupcakes again after her first birthday (HA! - we do more each day now). I hated how sad my fondant skills were on her Bookworm cake, because I had absolutely NO idea what I was doing. But, I loved it all just the same. And I put love and care in the cakes I make for your family, because I KNOW how special that day is for you.

Please help me wish Ava, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I love you, Art-tastic Ava!

Wish for the stars, love!

October's Flavor of the Month - Spider Bite!

 

This month's flavor of the month is a spooky take of those classic Hostess cupcakes. Rich chocolate cake stuffed with red vanilla buttercream, dunked in dark chocolate ganache and adorned with a white chocolate ganache spider web. Sink your fangs into one of these!

Monster High Haunted House Cake

I always look forward to October. Fall days are crisp and beautiful, Halloween is on the way and our little girl has her birthday! There's no better way to kick off October, than with a Monster High haunted house cake. Ava designed her cake last year - perfect for a little girl that's gaga for all things Monster High. Six layers of pumpkin cake is dressed up like a spooky house, complete with hand-painted monsters in the windows. I can't wait to make her cake, for this year's party!

Big Ol' Yellow Lego Cake

The request was simple - a big yellow Lego cake. I dressed up this larger-than-life Lego, with a Lego man on top holding a flag. Simple in design, amazing flavor (Caramel Lovers!) and oh, so cute!

Star Trek's USS Defiant Cake

This Star Trek USS Defiant cake is ready to blast off!

My client gave me quite the challenge on this one. This carved cake needed to be completely vegan -  which meant I couldn't use any rice cereal treats for structure, no gum paste for stability, nor any modeling chocolate for sculpting. I was also given a vegan caramel sauce to stuff the cake with, which I had never worked with before. I'm very proud that I was able to create their dream cake and make sure it was vegan (and super delicious)!

She surprised the birthday boy with this amazing cake. He was absolutely floored and loved it!

Flavor of the Month - Caramel Apple Pie

 Fall is in the air, the kiddos are heading back to school and trees all over Washington state are heavy with apples. This month's flavor is one of my personal favorites. I combined my love for pie and cake in one, to make - Caramel Apple Pie! Buttery Caramel cake, stuffed with our own Caramel Apples, topped with Cinnamon buttercream and homemade Crumbles. It'll make you weak in the knees.

Tree Stump Wedding Cake

This cake made me jealous. Jealous that is wasn't MY wedding cake. I got married way back in the early 90s in my small hometown. Never would I have even dreamt of something "non-traditional." I didn't even know that was an option. So, you can imagine just how excited I was to create this gorgeous tree stump wedding cake. Three 10" round cakes made up this cake - all different flavors. There are many personal touches on this cake, including the bunnies that are a music box that belongs to the bride and the hand-painted gorilla in the grain of bark (for the groom's love of gorillas).

Gaga for Gabba! Yo Gabba Gabba Cakes and Cupcake Toppers

I absolutely love Yo Gabba Gabba! When my soon-to-be 1st grader was a pre-schooler, it was one of my favorite shows she might watch. It's so fun, colorful, and upbeat - and I wanted the same for the cakes I've made. Here's a couple of different takes on Yo Gabba Gabba.

These first cakes and cupcake toppers were made for a party with primary colors. We thought it would be fun to have a bright green and vibrant red cake.

This newer cake was made for a little girl who especially loves Foofa. This Strawberry Lemonade cake was the perfect pink for Foofa and the others to shine!

Viva la France! Eiffel Tower Cake

I love cakes that instantly make me think about the different ways to pull off the design. There were a few different ways I thought about tackling the Eiffel Tower, and I loved that I decided to use modeling chocolate (something I've only used a handful of times). The hand-painted chocolate has this beautiful look of a porcelain sculpture - perfect for the 1960s French illustrative look I was going for. Paired with a soft blue color, dainty white dots and hand-scrolled black writing; this champagne cake was magnifique!

Nursing cakes, two ways

Here are a couple cakes that celebrate the hard-working nurses out there - one just graduating school and one retiring. This is a great example of how we can work with your budget. The first cake was a custom carved cake, designed to look like scrubs, a stethoscope and more. The second cake had 3D/sculptural fondant accents of the traditional nurse cap and stethoscope.