Building a Cake

As a kid, I grew up with Star Wars. I also grew up with Legos. The fact that kids today have Star Wars LEGOS is just awesome times two.

I was tasked to create a Star Wars Lego cake for a boy turning six. this boy is a HUGE Star Wars fan, and I'm not ashamed to say was instantly smitten with my daughter, who could retell every movie and Clone Wars episode as if she really lived through it all. I figured this would be a huge asset in about 20 years if she chooses to try to land herself a tech nerd as a boyfriend... but apparently knowing Star Wars also has power with the boys ages 5-7.

At any rate, this was an exciting theme for me to be assigned, and I went about drafting up plans for something fun for the birthday boy. First off was re-creating the Star Wars logo in fondant, as well as a layered 2-D Death Star.



Some cakes just tend to come together quicker than others, and this one was as smooth as it gets. With the primary colors as a palette, I was able to piece together a lego-like cake in no time. well... that's not totally true. cutting out all of those tiny dots to make the bricks look like real legos was pretty time consuming.


side view--- just a little light saber action on the right, and the Death Star on the left.


Couldn't forget the back of the cake--- another Star Wars logo.



Overall, Davis and his friends were pleased with the Lego-riffic cake. It was an 8-inch square 3-tiered vanilla cake with chocolate ganache buttercream filling. As this was my first Star Wars Cake... I was happy to use my forces for the good of the galaxy. (or something like that...)


Here's to Davis! Happy 6th Birthday!!!

Birthday and Beyond!

My kids never really got into the whole Toy Story hype, but with the newest installment out, they've definitely become a bit more interested in the characters. I mean... they're pretty much everywhere right now!

A friend of the family has a little boy turning 4 this year, and he is into the Buzz character. The mom asked me to come up with a cookie for him to bring to his preschool to share with friends... so how could I resist?

I got to work baking piping and flooding, and came up with an army of miniature Jay Lenos and Ben Franklins. I mean Buzz Lightyears.


Clearly my cookies are done by hand.. cause each Buzz was just a wee bit different from his other dozen brothers. Nonetheless... once they were put in their favor bags and wrapped with a ribbon and tag, I think they turned out kind of cute.

for his actual family party, the mom asked me to supplement the cake she ordered (NOT from me... waaaaah!) with some cake pops that the kids can take home as favors. Keeping in the whole Toy Story theme, I decided to do a mix of outer-space purple and little aliens. About 50 cake pops later, I came up with two centerpieces like the one below.

It was a fun project, and I was happy to get the chance to mix it up by doing both cookies AND cake pops. The tough part was figuring out which little alien to eat first. (can't you picture the little dude below saying "choose me! choose me!" no??? oh. nevermind, then.)

At any rate-- here's to AJ! happy fourth birthday!!! hope your day is filled with happiness that takes you to infinity and beyond!

Duke Blue Devils

I love my client, Jenny. She has the coolest ideas for me to make into cookies. (remember the Chucky cookies? totally her idea.)

At any rate, her office group was attending a meeting at Duke University, and she wanted to bring a hospitality basket to the group that was hosting, so she asked me to do something Duke-related.


I figured it was about time for me to learn a little local spirit since I live in North Carolina now... so I agreed to the project and came up with a basket full of treats. I can't say I'll be cheering for the Blue Devils any time soon, but I AM a fan of that centerpiece cookie and the way it turned out.

Thanks again to Jenny for the vision! I hope the meeting goes well and everyone enjoys their cookies!

Child's Play

Every once in a while, I get asked to do something a little.... DIFFERENT.

a little.... STRANGE? a little.... cookie with Chucky from the movie Child's Play on it???



yup. I was asked, and so I did. A whole basket of them, as a matter of fact. Apparently it was a hospitality gift for an office that just LOVES Halloween. Really-- I don't ask. I just do.

What can I say? I love a challenge! and I love people with a clear vision. Yes.. apparently even when that vision is a little blood-tinted and leaning towards the horror genre.

So Happy Halloween, and thanks Jenny for the chance to do something a little different this year! (PS... the knife was NOT included in the gift basket!)

Rock Star Baby

I love babies. Not necessarily HAVING them... the two I have are plenty.. thank you very much! but when other people have babies??? *sigh* love it!

now in terms of a business, it's also great when babies are born, cause that usually means one more family is looking for something for a birthday party at least once a year. (hey--- don't hate me cause I'm honest!)

My friend Angela was overjoyed when her friend gave birth to a little girl named Aubrey, and she asked me to come up with something special to celebrate her arrival. However, Angela informed me... Aubrey was not just an ordinary pastel pink kind of girl. With a nursery decor of hot pink and black, Angela wanted something a little more... ROCK STAR. So I went rock star.




Nothing says "my life is going to rock" like getting a metal tin full of cookies a couple of days after birth. especially when the tin is personalized and the cookies have edible glitter.



Throw in a few "announcement" cookies, and you've got yourself a one-of-a-kind gift.


By far, this was one of my most fun baby packages to put together, and I DO hope the mom thought it rocked, too.


Here's to Baby Aubrey! May the stars shine on you as you rock your way through life.... and thanks to your Auntie Angela for letting me be part of your welcome party!

Dynamic Duo

So there are these two boys in Massachusetts that I love. like, they are the bee's knees. of course, this COULD have something to do with how much I adore their mom.... but even on their own, these boys are pretty awesome.

so NATURALLY, when my friend Susie said the boys were going to have a joint birthday celebration with a batman theme.... I couldn't resist. I mean, if *I* couldn't be there, at least my cookies could.. right?

Each boy got their own personalized centerpiece cookie with a birthday message. Since Liam's older, I decided he should get Batman, and his little brother sidekick could rock the Bat-signal. (wasn't about to attempt Robin)

In addition to the centerpiece cookie, I made a couple of dozen bat signal cookies to put in favor bags.

And after creating my own batman cookie cutter....a couple dozen Batman-heads....

When all was said and done, each guest got a favor bag with a Batman and Bat signal cookie, tied with a nice ribbon and personalized tag. I even made a few cookies that were dairy and egg free for one of their friends.

Here's to MY favorite Dynamic Duo, Liam and Seamus! Happy birthday, Boys!

Holy Orders

This week I was busy making a BUNCH of cross-shaped cookies for a first Communion this coming weekend in New Jersey. Coincidentally, the class of student *I* teach is ALSO making their first Communion this weekend, AND our church is having a bake sale.

It was agreed that I would make 5 dozen cookies for the New Jersey affair, but I ultimately baked 75 cookies... allowing myself a decent margin should I have any mishaps. I figured any extra I made can be donated to the church for the bake sale... with that many first-time communicants on the loose, I figured the cross-cookie might be an easy sell.

Having learned from my own mistakes, I decided I would stick with a simple (and REPEATABLE) design. I was thinking all-white... with some texturization. given the sheer QUANTITY of cookies I was taking on, I knew my hands would be able to handle only so much piping. the idea of switching back and forth between colors would have probably broken me.

The crosses came out pretty simple looking, but those looks can be deceiving. I completed the cookies in about 5 stages. First I piped the 'outline' of each cross. Second came the flooding. that provided a plain white 'background' for each cookie. I let those sit over night so I'd be working on a nice firm surface the next day. (this would also be the best practice if I were thinking about using colors on top of the white. if the white is not completely dry, you will run a VERY high probability of the colors bleeding. I should know.)

Phase three had me doing the jacquard/scroll pattern on each cookie. I finally hit my 'groove' of this step around dozen number three or four. A VERY important reminder if you do something like this yourself is to go back over these cookies within a reasonable amount of time and 'trim' up the excess scrolling. This is particularly important for stage FOUR... where I once again piped the 'outline' of each cross.

SIDE NOTES:

without the 'trimming', the outlines ended up being either raised up or crooked, period. I also feared that with the raised up edges, they would be the first area of breakage when the cookies would be shipped. the textured cookies are adorable in all the various ways they can be done.. but cracko! first to go every time.

Also? Some may argue that the final 'outline' is not necessary, but personally i feel it lends a polished and profession touch to each cookie. Blame the engineer in me, but I like seeing definitive edges.

The final step for the cookies was to (after one more night of hardening/drying time) was to brush a luster dust over each cookie to give a pearlized sheen. (Note to self-- I NEED to get a bigger design brush.. using the little one took me FOREVER!)

During my 'down time' of waiting for the royal icing to dry.. I worked on the favor tags. I found some great pearlized green card stock that I used as the springboard for my design. (also why I chose to do the luster-dust on each cookie)

I printed the pertinent info on some heavy white card stock, then used one of those fancy-shmancy scissors to cut out and glue on to the green paper. Also? found a bucket of table confetti and glued a flower to each 'tag'. The flower confetti was also pearlized... so it was a perfect match.

Before I knew it, it was assembly time. Bag, tag, tie, pack. repeat 60 times.

I will also take a moment to note that the ribbon i used was squeezabley adorable. perfect color match, and just the right width. and who can resist a polka dot? AWESOME, I say!!

Finally, all 59 cookies were bagged and tagged. (yeah... one broke cause I'm clumsy and dropped it. I was bummed at first, but then I ate it. No sense mailing a broken cookie, and I was running low on energy, anyway. )

The most unsettling thing in this whole process for me is what came next... boxing up. Usually I shrink-wrap each cookie, but I opted for favor bags this time. I have no idea if they will 'behave' differently en route...but I definitely used about $20 worth of bubble wrap.

So that's it! the cookies have been mailed, and should arrive either tomorrow or Saturday. I toyed with the idea of driving them up myself, but my husband vetoed it on grounds of not being safe with the amount of time between MY class' mass and the one in New Jersey. I definitely put enough love in each cookie, so I'm sure the guest of honor will know how much we're missing her on her special day.

Love you, Laney-Bird! I hope you enjoy your cookies!