Super delicious birthday cookies

This wedding cake went to the Sheraton Read House in Chattanooga, TN.  I had a lot of fun making all of those swirly "S" curves over the cake.  Other than that, this cake is just your simple, four tiered, buttercream cake.

Helen from Humphrey's Flowers was on-site when I arrived with the cake and she got right to adding all those beautiful fresh flowers between each tier.

The fine folks from Sound Force Entertainment were also there, setting up a classy and cool "tent" area for the bride and groom to relax in during the reception.  Some other DJs were there setting up the music for the event, it was like we were at a party!  LOL!! I guess we were, duh!

I'm usually in and out before (or after) these vendors come and go, so it was nice to chat with them and enjoy the fruits of their craft.  I guess we don't get out much!! LOL!!  Have a great weekend!

Thank Goodness It's Friday!  I thought I would showcase a fun little wedding cake.  This was another Chattanooga wedding cake - in fact this tall bubbly number went to the Tennessee Aquarium.

This is a pretty simple cake, just a fondant covered cake with blue and green gumpaste circles.

This cake does have a funny story to go with it.  Now I deliver cakes to the Tennessee Aquarium all the time, I even have a special little place to park around back on the loading dock.  But when I go to deliver this cake, there's a huge Bluegrass Festival going on, and the way to my safe, secure little loading dock is completely blocked off by barricades and festival goers.  So what's a girl to do??

I pulled into a little drive area that is in front of the aquarium, but still too far to carry a cake.  I wasn't even supposed to be there - it's for the carriages only.  After speaking with one of the staff, they decided that it would be best if I just popped up on the sidewalk and pull straight to the main entrance!

So I do, and as I'm riding on the sidewalk, I pass a policeman who is also on the sidewalk.  He is giving me a wild look so I roll down the window and say "I'm here with the cake."  Evidently, that was more than enough to satisfy him!!  Being that close to the door I was in and out in a flash!  I don't know if I can ever go back to the loading dock again!!

I did this cake a few weeks ago and delivered it to the Tennessee Aquarium.  The couple wanted a tropical feel, but also wanted to convey a "watery feel" while keeping her white on white color theme.

Our solution was to make fondant rope waves around the cake,  They added the fluidity that the couple wanted, but still maintained the cake's simplicity and elegance.

It was a fun cake to do and I always enjoy bringing cakes to the Aquarium because I get to stop and say "Hi" to all the cutie-patootie penguins they have there!

I have a small family emergency that is almost over, so my time has been very VERY tight for the last week. So I'm keeping this post short... sorry!  Check back on Friday!!

Hello, dear readers!!  TGIF!!!

Remember, Smokey the Dog from Tuesday?  Well, this is the bridal cake that accompanied it. It was delivered to the Doubletree Chattanooga.  It was our first trip there and I was surprised by how nice it was!  The staff told me that the new owners had invested 27 Million to update it.  You could really tell it too!

This is one of those cakes that is elegant because of its simplicity.  Four tiers of buttercream bordered with a buttercream ruffle border.

The only fondant on the cake?  The big ruffled flower on the top!

Well, that's it for this week - come back on Tuesday for more cake-a-dee goodness!!

Being an artist (at least I consider myself an artist), I try to do everything I can to support local art programs.  In our town, we have The Creative Arts Guild.  They do a wonderful job of bringing art to our community, as well as teaching classes in art, dance, photography, music, and probably a lot of other stuff I can't even remember right now.

Every year they host Festival, where artisans come from near and far to sale their particular brand of art.  This year there were SO many vendors selling everything from jewelry, to wood crafts, to tie dye T-Shirts.

The night before Festival begins, the Arts Guild hosts The Patron's Party where they invite the best food vendors in town to come in sample their wares.  We were honored to be invited again to provide cake for the event.

This year we really wanted to go all out and really make something special.  We broke out the Cricut Cake machine and cut out lots of dancers ( and the font too).  Then we went to the Guild's website and grabbed some images from local artists and printed them on edible image paper.  I framed these mini masterpieces on modeling chocolate frames (made from a lace mold).

I added the red curtains for a nice splash of color, but also to represent the theatrical and for the dramatic flair it adds.  It's just red fondant, and the pleating gods were with me that day.  They turned out SO nice!  I topped the cake with some musical notes bursting out the top.

It was very well received by the guests and especially by the Guild members.  I think we may have set the bar for future years.  If the folks from the Arts Guild are reading this, we'll try to go bigger and better next year!!

I did this wedding cake a while back at Ryman Hall in Dalton, GA.  I always feel a little weird about mixing cake shapes and especially Square-Round-Square-Round.  But I was very happy with how this cake turned out!  I really liked the blue and brown theme that the couple chose for their colors.

Not a lot of difficult cake techniques going on here, just buttercream with some piping and a bow made from gump-  What? 

Contest/giveaway what now???  Oh yeah, I remember now!  You want to know who won that autographed copy of Cake Wrecks for voting for Icing Smiles.

Well, Chad took all the names of people that posted their comments on the Pepsi Refresh page and ran them through the Ran a Dee Mizer.

And the winner is....  Jennifer Murphy Tieman!!.  Jennifer, please contact me with your address so I can ship your book out to you ASAP!

Thanks to all who voted and have a great weekend!!

When I met with the bride and groom that got this cake, they wanted a very clean and modern cake.

They wanted the flowers to match their wedding design and they also wanted their cake to have no borders.

The twigs and the flowers were easy peasy to make.  We extruded the twigs using our clay gun and a couple of cutters and some gumpaste took care of the flowers.

The border, however, was probably the most time-intensive part of this cake.  Now, I do "borderless" cakes all the time, but there is an art to it.

First of all, I make sure that the cake board is just big enough to fit the cake, maybe a smidge smaller.  Then I stack the tiers as usual.  I run a small (as small as possible) bead of icing right along crack where each tier meets and then get the cakes nice and cold.  Once everything is cold and firm, use the heat from my finger to melt and smooth the buttercream as I turn the cake on the turner.  Have you ever done any caulking?  Like in a bathroom or kitchen?  Well, if not, its good practice for doing cakes!

As always, thanks for stopping by and have an awesome week!!

Icing Smiles Update:  Thanks to all our votes, Icing Smiles is now (as of this writing) ranked #25 in the Pepsi Refresh grant program!! They are moving up in the rankings everyday, but we need to vote every day to get them to that coveted top 10 position!!  Vote here:  http://www.refresheverything.com/icingsmiles