Thomas the Train Cake

Thomas the Train is SO cute! This cake was made for little Chase, who yelled "Thomas!" when I brought in the cake..... by far my favorite reaction of all time! This was the first face I have ever made, and it was so fun I hope people start ordering more cakes with faces (sounds weird, but you know what I mean!)

Steve Prouse Louis Vuitton Cake

I love it when two completely different styles combine beautifully. Steve Sprouse was an American fashion designer and artist that had a funky, rockstar flare. These grafitti roses sit atop the traditional LV pattern (and other styles available), and make for a beautiful, espressive bag. ... and this one is cake. The flower was hand painted on fondant, and the sculpted cake was covered in milk chocolate fondant. The straps were made with a sugar flower wire, covered in tinted vanilla fondant. The LV patterns were made by hand piping a goldy-brown royal icing. I get warm-fuzzies looking at this cake, I think because it was one of the more artisitc cakes I have made. Thanks to Brittany for having great style and bringing this idea into the bakery!

Where the Wild Things Are Cupcakes

These cupcakes were made for a couple expecting a little baby boy. The theme they chose for the baby's room is based on the childhood favorite "Where The Wild Things Are" ..... a book about friendly monsters. The art in the book is so unique because of the grey based colors and graphic illustrations. When the husband came to pick up the cupcakes I was so thrilled with his reaction (and so busy) that I remembered I didn't take any pictures of these cupcakes until I was waving him good-bye! Thanks so much to Sean for passing along their photos, these cute little guys were a fun and funky project that I will never forget.

Red Poppies!

Red Poppies are one of the sexiest flowers ever! These petals were made with orange gumpaste airbrushed red. The centers were made with black royal icing and black non-pariels. The chocolate buttercream was piped on with my new favorite tip on vanilla-buttermilk cupcakes. I have to say that sugar flowers have become my new favorite project, and I am even thinking of incorporating them into my daily retail menu (stay tunned on the coming details).

Baseball Cakes

The client said.... "Heidi and I would like to thank you so much for the "Super Baseball Cakes" for Max's birthday! He absolutely adored them! They looked fantastic and tasted so good! It was exactly what he wanted, a cake shaped like a baseball and bat made of yellow cake and vanilla cream filling! He loved them and then to have his T-Ball Team Baseball Hat Cake. Wow, he was so surprised! You did score a home run with the cakes!"

Logo Cupcakes

These cupcakes were for a client who is interviewing for a very important job with the Hilton. In the current job market, its really important to stand out...... and that is exactly what he did with these cupcakes!

Mancino Wedding

My wedding day was one of THE BEST days of my life. It feels like yesterday, but I was recently reminded that it wasn't when I visited my photographers website to find that our wedding is no longer a "recent wedding" in his album (still part of the slideshow though, so that's good). It has been 2 1/2 years of wedded bliss :)...... and the thrill of this day has still not worn off. Part of my love for brides comes from my love of having been a bride. As a baker, I strive to add the special touches that will get me into each bride's hall-of-fame, and make her feel like a celebrity.
My brush with celebrity came when Syliva Weinstock offered to make my wedding cake! I adore her talent, and now I have her beautiful cake (gorgeous fall-colored flowers) as a perfect wedding memory. I posted more photos related to the cake since this IS a bakery blog.... but snuck a couple wedding pics in too!






And of course, I can't post this pics without acknowledging the designer, Preston Bailey and the photographer, Brian Adams. Two amazing talents!

Spring Flower Cupcakes

Super-Suitie Amanda ordered these cupcakes for Easter. She is a regular client of mine and said "I will have 12 of your Easter Cupcakes!" I paused, thinking "did I post about those yet, or was that still just in my head???" In any case, I had a thousand ideas.

I LOVE sugar flowers! My cake-idol is Sylvia Weinstock, and she is the queen of sugar flowers that look amazing. I must say that it was a very fun time making these! It got me thinking of all the celebrations with sugar flower cupcakes...... baby girl showers, bridal showers and MOTHERS DAY! What a special gift to bring a mom on Mother's Day!

Swordfish Cake

This cake was ordered for my best friend's future father-in-law (second from the left in the photo), so it had to be cool. He caught a gigantic swordfish in The Keys, a regular vacation spot for the family (how cool!)..... so we HAD TO HAVE Key Lime Pie Cake! This is a vanilla cake with key lime buttercream and since the cake simply not complete without the buttery graham cracker crumbles, I put those in a little container for my friend to decorate the plate with. A sculpted cake can have filling, but the graham cracker as a filling might affect the smoothness of the fondant, so its better kept separate.

I hope that they order this cake next year, because I really want to try a more graphic look, by making black stripes on the top with food coloring and a paintbrush (like an artist). I wussed out this time, because I was so happy with how the shading turned out, I didn't want to chance ruining it. They were so OTT (over the top) about the cake, *caution* proved to be the good choice this time!

Birthday Cupcakes

I am so excited about this new pastry tip I found! These birthday cupcakes were kicked up a notch by tinting the buttercream light blue, and piping it on the cupcake with this great tip that makes the tops look light and airy. I used multi-color, oversized non-pariels that look like a party all of their own.

Brown Cupcake Liners

A while back I decided that I liked the look of brown liners for chocolate cupcakes. This week, I brought some cupcakes to a friend's birthday party, and had only a few brown liners left. Thinking it was so big deal to use the regular liners, I proceeded. Once I got everthing set up I had a major epiphany..... brown liners ROCK! Check out these photos of some OREO cupcakes I made with regular and brown liners, what a difference!!!

I have already ordered several thousand of the liners so I will never run out! Totally worth the extra effort and money!

Ariel Cupcakes

Little Alex requested that her birthday cupcakes have the best Disney princess of all time..... Ariel! This was her FOURTH year in a row she wanted an Ariel birthday cake theme, so I knew I had to do something different.

I wanted the buttercream to have the look of water, so I used buttercream in three different colors, put them all in the same piping bag, and piped as usual. The result was a marbled buttercream and a lot of dimension. The sea life was made with cherry twizzlers and gum paste which I dyed, cut (with gumpaste flower cutters) and stamped. In the end, the assembly of these cupcakes was very easy, and the project was SO fun!