Trains, Trains and Automobiles

 Retirement cakes for my dad's boss who worked for BNSF for over 40 years.  The trains are all cake.  Marshmallow fondant and buttercream icing.    The chocolate cake in the background was an afterthought, as I was panicking about there not being enough cake.  The trains are on a whole sheet cake, the chocolate one is 1/2 sheet.  There was also enough Famous Dave's catered to feed an Army. 

Monster truck birthday cake.  The truck is all chocolate cake, the tires are cereal treats.   All buttercream icing.

cupcakes

Daryl Ann & Jim

Cake ball extravaganza. I created 4 different kinds of cake balls and 4 different cupcakes for this event. There were dark chocolate orange espresso, carrot cake, red velvet and lemon cake balls. The mini cupcakes were Bailey's, champagne, chocolate and almond. Nearly 600 pieces in all The chocolates in the brown papers in the foreground were not made by me, I also spied a foreign cake in their wedding pictures, not sure what is up with that.

It's Not What You Think!

These cakes were made for a lady who has recently undergone a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery. She was throwing herself a "new boob" party. Or, as my daughter stated, a Boobwarming Party.

One cake is chocolate, the other, almond. Homemade marshmallow fondant and butercream.

Happy Birthdays

Mary & Pete

I was so excited about actually getting to take pictures at the reception, only to find when I got there that the battery in my camera was dead. So, cell phone pictures it is.

This was a Raspberry-Almond torte. Buttercream icing, with buttercream roses, royal icing hydrangeas and gumpaste dragonflies.

Here, Fishy Fishy!

Everything in Frosting Sounds Fancy

They're Real and They're Spectacular

Turkeys, Drinks and Animal Prints

The turkey is entirely cake. His tailfeathers are made from royal icing. All the rest is done in buttercream.

A friend ordered a Colorado Bulldog cake. It was for the 40th birthday of another friend. She has a habit of saving all the straws from her drinks to keep rack of how many she's had. One night she ended up with 9 straws in her glass. He favorite drink is a Bulldog, hence the cake.

This was my first attempt at poured sugar. I made the glass. Not perfect, but not to shabby for the first try, I think! I found the giant straws at Maxwell's, thought they'd be perfect for this and will be excellent cake dowels as well.
The cake is chocolate cake with Kahlua, Bailey's Irish Cream cake and tiramisu filling. I think that make have to become a standard flavor in my repertoire. YUMMY!

The animal print cake was for a 50th birthday celebration. It was marble cake, red velvet cake and carrot cake. The icings were buttercream and cream cheese frosting and buttercream decorations.

Carrie'd Away Cakes

I've never really liked the cake goddess moniker. It was just an email address I chose a few years ago and it stuck. The other night I googled cake goddess just to see what I came up with. Way too many cake goddesses out there. So, I posted a request for new name ideas on my facebook page. My Aunt Julie suggested Carrie'd Away Cakes. I liked it right away. So there it is.

Liz & Don

A cake for Liz & Don's wedding reception. The bottom tier was carrot, top strawberry, cream cheese frosting and royal icing decorations.

Photo courtesy of Kelli Hunt Photography. See more of her amazing work here, http://kellihuntphotography.blogspot.com/

Prize Winning Pumpkin

I was one of 12 competitors in the 3rd Annual Children's Miracle Network Cake Decorating Challenge. Each competitor was given four 10" round cakes, a bucket of white "But-r-Cream", and 2 hours time to complete their design from scratch using their own tools. This year they also allowed the use of fondant and other icings.
Also new this year was a theme, "Fairytale Royalty".

This is what I can do in two hours.


This year I took 1st place! It was very exciting, as judges for the event included Norm Davis, Steve Stellingworth and Lora Mahaffrey of Food Network/TLC fame.




Each competitor had to raise at least $150 in pledges to participate in this event. Combined with a cake show and other festivities, over $10,000 was raised for Sanford CMN this weekend!

Lloyd & Linda's Retirement

Dear friends of my family, Lloyd & Linda, are retiring to Florida. This cake was a small tribute to thier lives in Sioux Falls and Okoboji. Lloyd was a photograher for the Argus Leader for many years, the couple have been long time friends of my parents thanks to the sport of racquetball. Little did I know, but Lloyd uses a Nikon camera, but they were thrilled with the cake nontheless.

The camera is entirely cake with marshmallow fondant. The racquet and ball are fondant and royal icing. The orange blossoms are royal icing, the rest is all buttercream. It was chocolate cake with turtle filling and vanilla cake with raspberry filling.

Even more girliness...

This was chocolate cake with chocolate filling. All the icing and decorations are buttercream.

The teapot was also chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream filling. The teapot is entirely cake. The handle and spout are marshmallow fondant, the rest is all buttercream.

Kim & Jesse

Kim & Jesse's wedding cake.
Strawberry and vanilla cake layered with strawberry cream. Marshmallow fondant and royal icing flowers.


Photo by Brianna Dose Photography. See more of her work here
http://dosephotography.blogspot.com/

Sophia, Zara & Maham

Little Einsteins!


This cake was made for a triple first birthday! It is entirely decorated in buttercream. The family's religion prohibits them from anything pork derived, so I could not use my marshmallow fondant (gelatin is made from pig bones and marshmallow is made with gelatin, that's your bit of food trivia for today).
The cake is chocolate, strawberry and vanilla with chocolate and strawberry fillings.

Mario Bros. cake.
Marble cake with marshmallow fondant.

Another First

My first attempt at an allergy free recipe.
I'm just glad the cake taster is only a year old!

The cake was made to match her taggie blanket.