Yo Gabba Gabba Cake

Here is my finished "Plex" the robot cake! It was a big hit at Hayden's 3rd birthday party

Whimsical Bakehouse

A few weeks ago I sent an e-mail to Liv Hansen of the Whimsical Bakehouse. I have been using her chocolate method to make some great cakes and thought that I would send a quick thank you and a few photos.

Liv was kind enough not only to respond but to also use my photos in her blog.

http://whimsicalbakehouse.blogspot.com/2009/04/amandas-hollywood-cake.html

Tying up Loose Ends...

I have been so busy the past few weeks that I am going to cram a whole bunch of stuff into one post.

Cupcakes!
Last weekend my amazing sister Jess turned 35 and cupcakes were in order. Here they are, courtesy of inspiration from Whimsical Bakehouse.

Crochet!
Also this week my brother and sister-in-law celebrated their first anniversary. When they got married I made sand castle cookie favors but Josh (my brother) wanted an octopus instead of a sand castle.

Since the wedding, octopi have become a bit of a theme. When they had their wedding reception with their Canadian friends last summer, everyone had cupcakes with fondant seashells except for Josh and Celina. You guessed it, they had purple octopi.

This explains why I spent the last little while crocheting purple octopi for their first anniversary. Thanks to Rosemary Newman (RosieOK on Etsy) for the perfect crochet pattern :)

Easter Bunny Cake

The 3-D bunny cake is complete! As usual It took no time to get the body and head together and then I spent hours on the details.

The head is white cake, the body is chocolate cake and the whole thing was masked with vanilla buttercream.

Technical Difficulties

OK I am pissed. I was so excited to show off my crochet prowess but my camera has been coughing up blood and I may have to call in the chaplin (hopefully someone other than me has seen M*A*S*H* a few times). When we were on our recent Mexico trip my husband zigged when he should have zagged and dropped the camera on the beautiful, but treacherous, marble floor. Ever since that "incident" it makes God awful noises and refuses to focus.
This is really too bad because I finally completed my first Elisabeth Doherty project (best crochet book to date) and was totally excited to post some pics. I was so proud of myself that I even sewed a crochet hook holder in celebration. CRAP.
Oh well, when I find a photo taking replacement I will make sure to give these projects their due.

The Pink Dinosaur

My niece Olivia called me herself to request a cake for her 4th birthday party. The conversation went something like this:

Liv: Auntie Manna will you make a cake for my secret dinosaur party?

Me: Of course! What kind of cake would you like?

Liv: A dinosaur.

Me: What kind of dinosaur?

Liv: A T-Rex.

Me: What color should the dinosaur be?

Liv: I think pink.

Me: A pink T-Rex?

Liv: Bye Auntie Manna.

I was really pleased with the results and Olivia was PUMPED!

Out of the Fog

After living in a cold-induced fog for the past week I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

It always seems that I am the busiest with baking right when I feel the crummiest. Last weekend I made a dinosaur cake for my niece, earlier in the week was a catered breakfast meeting for 20 and finally 2 cupcake trains for today. The trains turned out better than expected and will be choo-chooing their way to a little guy's first birthday party very soon!