Spring is here and Weddings are happening!

This is the New year of February! The month of Love! get inspired by new looks and fresh spring fads! This particular wedding cake was for my Chef's friend who wanted a red velvet cake. Lining next to the cake is miniature cakes that mirror the centerpiece, the three-tiered wedding cake. The bow was made up of pastillage and the adhesive was from divert sugar. Pearl borders seal the layers and the gold bottom board adds a touch of beauty and elegance.

It's a fresh start, a new beginning, a sign of hope, and an emotion of joy. This year is full of weddings! I've been lined up with new requests! It's a wonderful season and a great start of the year.

The Infamous Guitar

This is Mike airbrushing his infamous guitar cake. He used an airbrush that I've seen by Airbrush Depot.

Here's the template for the guitar.

The silver was sprayed onto modeling chocolate that had been cut and molded by Lana(Mike's assistant)

Here is the final piece of the Fender Guitar

Another angle of the beautiful artwork

A Slice of Cake

[Chocolate Bailey's chocolate cake and Raspberry white cake with Ivory buttercream]

What makes a cake great? Is it the beautiful creations, the artist designs, or is it the flavoring of the cake? Some places may have only the looks, and others sometimes only have the flavor.

While working at Mike's Amazing cakes, I was able to taste test some of their cakes and found that they are not only beautiful, artistically made, and pretty, but they are also delicious, moist, and rich in flavor. Sweet but not too over-bearing. Thick with cake, but precisely cut so that layers of flavors will enrich the taste of the cake which evens out the thickness.
I highly recommend anyone to try the cakes made at Mike's Amazing Cakes.

Cakes

This creational cartoonish cake was made for the water utility company. Every creature was made and designed by Mike

A popular wedding cake for outdoorsy people. The water was made with buttercream

The infamous picture of the luggage stack

Six tiered wedding cake made with gumpaste flowers

Mike's Amazing cakes

After much requests from friends and family, I've finally written a post on how my time went at Mike's Amazing Cakes. It was a three day job shadowing event that involved much observing and a lot of questions.

What most intrigued me about going there was that they only had three cake decorators for the entire business(That includes Mike). Their orders during the summer weeks can consist of 60 cakes. That averages out 4 cakes a day! They ship their cakes all across the nation and will drive to any place in Washington to drop off cakes.

My first day there, I worked with one of Mike's assistant baking off cakes, mixing up some butter cream, and making modeling chocolate. What surprised me about the business was the diverse varieties of flavors. From poppy seed to Baileys to a peachy orange flavor. It was delicious!

Since I was helping with the baking, I was also able to sample a new compound that they use in their cakes that they were selling- coconut. It tasted like a delicious tropical sweet spongy bread! I also as able to sample a chocolate baileys cake and a raspberry white cake. Both had very rich unique flavorings. Not an overly sweet taste, but definitely strong in flavor.

The second day I mainly observed and watched as they made cakes from 4-foot trouts to 4 tiered wedding cakes to a mosaic 3 tiered wedding cake. All were carefully made, crumb coated, frosted, and decorated. I was in a fascination! Their work is done with quality and personal care. Definitely a business to look up to. What I learned most of that day is, to have very intricate and detailed work, you must work with chilled products and you also must have a very thin butter cream(meaning with no air pockets).

On my third day there, I was able to observe all day long. I learned about how the business started and how the name came about. Originally, (as you can see from the photo above) it was named, Amazing Cakes. It changed after a lawsuit was brought to them and it was then that they changed their name to Mike's Amazing Cakes.

What cake I saw made that day was a 4-foot fish that I had never heard of before. I was also able to see was Mike making an exact replica of a Caterpillar bulldozer. It was perfect in proportion. Insane was the only word that came out of my mouth when I saw it. It was truly an amazing work. His company name does not lie.

Well, I will post some of the cake photos that I have so that you'll understand why insane were my words when I saw the cake.

Craft Fair Baking

The Craft Fair Table Over Fifteen varieties, preparations that took weeks to decide, and boxes collected over months before the day, the day of the craft fair finally came! This is my table that I put together for the craft fair that was held in Bellevue, Washington. Everything was freshly baked a day or two before the craft fair and everything was made from scratch.

Please leave a comment to hear what you thought about it! Thank you!

My New Business Cards

Pound Cake Miniature pound cake is simple, dense, and has been eaten by many over the past years. It may not be too exciting as other fancy boxed treats, but it definitely has its excitement for those who eat it. While I was at the fair, an older gentleman came looking at each and every food item that I had. He casually exclaimed that he was a diabetic and that the things that I was selling would not be good for his health. He went on and on about it until his eyes reached the pound cake. Like a little boy, his eyes brightened up and his whole body straightened up. He quickly looked around and asked, "Can you put that aside for me while I get my money?? I'm not supposed to have this, but I want it!!" So, he came back later smiling and discretely paid for it and hid it in his bag so that no one would catch him. Pound cake may be overlooked by others, but to one elderly man it could be mean everything!

Not Your Usual Icebox Cookies Colors like holly green, cranberry red, and gold are classic colors for Christmas. But why not spice up the holiday season by adding fun colors like sunshine orange or vibrant bubblegum pink!

These cookies were all made a day or two before the craft fair. Fresh, sweet and delicious!

Enjoy bright colors? These Icebox cookies can be dyed in any color of choice. I had the most fun making these cookies than any other cookie! I dyed them in cocoa brown, green, deep blue, vibrant pink, white, and orange.

For All Pumpkin Lovers These Pumpkin Cookies are the most delicious pumpkin cookies that I have ever eaten! I like things a certain way and if I don't like it, I wouldn't recommend it. These Pumpkin cookies are on the top of my list as AMAZING! They are chewy, soft, and not too sweet. Perfect with coffee in the morning or after dinner served while guests are over.

These are giant pumpkin muffins sprinkled with cinnamon.

Little Candies in a Pail Remember the days when you went to the candy store to get a bag of gummy bears, chocolates, sour warms, and bright colored taffy? The before sugared-out excitement was uncontrollable and thrilling! This excitement was the exactly the same to a little girl that came to fair with her mommy. The little white pail laid there on the table and when she saw them whole face lit up and she excitedly pointed at them with glee. No other baked good, fancy colorful cookie, or box could excite her as this white pail of M&Ms did. She left with it in her little hands, happy and content.

Krispy Snowballs Made with Marshmallows, butter, and Rice Krispies. These snowballs are definitely something to be keeping and eating instead of throwing during the snowy season! You can mold these, add red hots, dye with green or even put on a stick.

These rice krispies can be made for the holidays, for birthday parties, and even made and put in stockings for Christmas!

Chocolate Dipped Lollipop CookiesAs a little kid my mother would always make goodies and cookies for our neighbors during the holidays. These lollipops were one of the popular treats that we made for them and enjoyed eating as well. While I made these this week, it gave me a warm feeling as I remembered those exciting, fun-filled days.

You can also make these in mint or peanut butter flavored. Quick and easy but fun and festive to do during the holiday season.

Satin ribbon and inserted with Popsicle sticks, these cream filled cookies were ALL sold at the craft fair.

Chocolate Cover Pretzel RodsThese were by far the most popular item that I sold at the craft fair. I chose to package them in an assorted bundle and had them in packages of six. The best part of these that I had fun with was that they were made with chocolate. I have a respect for those who work with chocolate. REAL CHOCOLATE made from cocao. It is such an exciting art to do and learn to perfect.

If you're a chocolate lover, these pretzel rods are perfect and easy to make! I made them with coconut, chunky walnuts, white chocolate, and peppermints. My absolute favorite one is with walnuts.

Sugared Citrus Peels

These are the delectable sugared citrus peels that I made with Satsuma oranges for the craft fair this weekend. They can be alternated with ginger, grapefruit, or lemons. They are great for those who enjoy the tart and sweet flavor.

These are citrus peels that will be cooked and then sugared. I've made these sugared citrus peels many times in the past years, but this is the very first time that I've actually made it in bulk. It turned out quite well !
Day one of baking for the Christmas bake sale.

Birthday cake

This birthday cake that I made was draped with fondant.

For the pink accents, I used buttercream and free-handed the details. The roses and the swirls had 3 alternating colors that added demension and creativeness in the layerings. I mainly used a 2,4, and 8 piping tip for the decorations and used several sizes for the rose tips.

As for the cake, I made a chocolate cake with Grande Marnier filling and put citrus rinds to add a little boost to the flavor. The cake was made with four 8" round cakes and each layer was split in half adding up to a 8 layer cake. The whole process took about 2 hrs to make and was quite fun to make!

Eat Your Veggies!

Radishes, Lettuce, Beans, Carrots

Graduation cake

Puget Sound Metal Trades cake

For this cakes, I used pastillage for the logo and plaque. Using royal icing, I hand-wrote the writing on both plaque and logo. For the coloring on both pieces, an airbrush was used so that the coloring would be vivid and bold.

Mother's day/birthday cake

This cake was made for a friend's mother for her birthday and mother's day gift. The cake itself is chocolate and the filling is an ameretto chocolate filling using ameretti cake crumbs

My creation and added designs on the rolled fondant cake.

Strawberry fruit tart

This tart was made by Yukia

Anniversary cake

For this cake, instead of frosting the sides with buttercream frosting, I draped rolled fondant over the entire cake to give a nice smooth layer over the cake.

These lavendar flowers were piped with a buttercream frosting

Sailing themed birthday cake

Citrus tartlets

pirate cake

This pirate cake that I made took a total of 3minutes to decorate.

White Chocolate Raspberry muffin

Homemade doughnuts

drizzle cake