Lil' Slugger Baby Shower

Baby Showers left and right...and more on the schedule.

This cake was made for a Baseball themed shower.

The cake was three tiers, each being a different flavor.

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Filling
Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Filling

and Chocolate Cake with Buttercream Filling

I accidentally colored the Buttercream Blue but then realized...why not? Goes with the whole "Boy" theme.

This Mommy-to-Be is a San Francisco Giants Fan...and she wanted to represent!

The whole cake is covered and decorated with homemade Marshmallow Fondant and Brown Sugar was used for the "dirt".

Congratulations Isabel on your Lil' Slugger!

Junior Huskies Cheerleading

My niece Hailey is a cheerleader...and a damn good one if I do say so myself!
Here she is shaking her hips!

She asked me if I would make her team cupcakes the next time they were in my area for a game, and of course I said yes!

She was very specific about what she wanted...footballs and pom poms.
Well, she got the footballs.

I decided that I just wouldn't be happy with fondant pom poms, so I opted not to make them unless they were going to look good and be satisfactory to Hailey...she would definitely let me know if they weren't.

Hailey cheers for the Fremont Junior Huskies and their colors are Orange, Black and White.

I had made orange, white and black buttercream and hoped to make them really cool looking by blending them together for a swirl effect...but it didn't work out so great.

So...after piping this color combo on a dozen cupcakes, I scraped it off and made a new clean batch of white buttercream.

Here's Ethan hanging out with me while I pipe on the new buttercream.
I love him, he's so cute.

A dozen cupcakes got the white buttercream, some orange and black sprinkles and fondant toppers.

The other dozen cupcakes got green buttercream grass and chocolate fondant football toppers.

The girls ate them all up and all said "THANK YOU, ERIN" in unison up to the bleachers where I was sitting...and taking pictures.

I asked my niece to step aside so I could get a photo of her alone, and she posed like this.
I love her.

Wedding Week

This past week has been INSANE.

Remember this post? Well, the wedding came and went...and I am still alive.

I was hired to bake a Groom's cake, a 5 tier wedding cake (mostly non-edible, partially edible) and four sheet cakes.

The Groom's cake was to be served at the rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding.
Originally, the Bride and Groom wanted a Sharks themed Stanley Cup cake but this was when the season looked promising for the Sharks.

Well, we all know how that went....so the cake was changed to the Shark Tank.

The cake is white with fresh raspberry filling and LOTS of raspberry swiss meringue buttercream.

A few days prior I had made the nets and shark head out of gumpaste to ensure they were completely dry.

I covered the cake in white vanilla fondant and added the red and blue hockey rink accents.
I decided the cake needed something more to say that it was the Shark Tank so I added the water waves and shark fins around the base of the cake.

I delivered the cake to the rehearsal dinner at Jack London Square in Oakland.
It was great to see the Bride and Groom the day before their big day and also see my fourth sister, Rachel who flew in from Hawaii for the event.

Once the delivery was done, I headed back home to wrap things up with the wedding cakes.

I covered 4 styrofoam tiers in fondant and wrapped them with ribbon:

I baked, filled, frosted and covered 4 sheet cakes in fondant:

Each sheet cake was devils food chocolate cake with chocolate ganache.

I also made the top tier for the display cake for the bride and groom to cut and eat at the reception.

The morning of the wedding, I cut the sheet cakes so they were ready to serve.
I offered this service because I worried the catering staff may not take the time to clean the knife when it got covered in chocolate and that the white fondant would get smudged.

On the way to Oakland, I picked up my friend Amy Steinert who would be handling the flowers for the cake.

All the flowers were placed on the cake on site to ensure complete freshness.

Amy added pearls to the center of each flower which gave them such an elegant touch.

It was so much fun working with her on an order and I hope that we can do it again and again.

Amy arranges flowers for all occasions....holidays, parties, weddings...everything.

Remember, she did the flower centerpieces for our Baby Shower.

Give her a call if you have something coming up!

Congratulations to Tracilyn and Daniel Tegge!!!

There's Always Next Year...

I'm getting better and better at saying that as each season comes to an end for the Sharks without a Stanley Cup win.

My niece Hailey turned 8 last week and she wanted Sharks cupcakes to take to school.
When my brother asked if I could make them a few weeks ago, I asked if she will still want them if they don't win.

His response? Yes, she is a die hard fan.

Is there any other kind in my family? Nope.

The birthday girl wanted white chocolate cupcakes, just like I made last time.
I didn't have anymore of the jersey picks, so I had to think of something equally as cool for toppers - I didn't want to just make all fins.

So, I decided I'd make hockey pucks too - some with NHL written on them, some with SHARKS and some with the number 8.

She only wanted 30 for her class, but my batch produced some extras so for the sake of even packaging - I gave her 36 and spelled out her name on the six extra cupcakes.

All the toppers were made with vanilla fondant and the writing is done with white chocolate.

The cupcakes are white cake with white/teal swirled white chocolate buttercream and a some black sugar sprinkles.

All I know is...my niece is super cool and now all her classmates know too.

San Jose Sharks Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes last year during playoffs and when my brother asked me to make him some for a party this year...I figured I might as well make it an annual tradition!

The cupcakes are white cake topped with white chocolate buttercream.

I filled the piping bag with 1/2 white buttercream and 1/2 teal buttercream for a swirl effect.


I made black shark fins out of fondant and used some jersey cupcake picks I bought a long time ago from my local cake store.


Sometimes...I think I am a photographer so I stage my photos, humor me.


Thursday is the first playoff game for the Sharks vs. the Kings...and I will be cheering them on!


GO SHARKS!

Oakland Athletics Cake & Cupcakes

My brother's girlfriend, Julie asked me to make a special cake for her Mom's birthday...something delicious and fondant free.

Her Mom is a chocolate fan...and an Oakland A's fan.

Sports and Chocolate...smart lady.

The cake is chocolate fudge.

The filling is chocolate mousse with caramel.


The frosting is caramel swiss meringue buttercream.


I know my writing is a little off center...bummer.


At 6 months pregnant....It took everything in me not to cut a slice of this cake for myself.


I also made a dozen baseball cupcakes, some that spelled out the Birthday Girl's name.


Again, my writing is not awesome...I should have flattened the top of the buttercream first, lesson learned.


Happy Birthday Cheryl!

Baseball Cap Cake

When my best friend from High School called to tell me she'd be in town for her nephew's 2nd birthday and she wanted me to make the cake...I was soooo excited!

Her nephew has a fascination with hats of all kinds and also baseball. It didn't take me long to decide on a baseball cap cake.

I was supposed to make a Raiders helmet cake later this month but that order was canceled, so this cake was set to fulfill my excitement of doing a domed hat/helmet cake :)

Kid friendly flavors were needed for this cake so I suggested the Oreo cookies n' cream recipe that has become very popular...because it's awesome and who doesn't like Oreos?

The cake is 1/2 chocolate and 1/2 white with Oreo cookies n' cream filling and vanilla swiss meringue buttercream.


I used my soccer ball cake pan for the top of the cap, carved it to the size I wanted it and added some indentations to appear as creases in the hat.


I covered the cap in blue buttercream fondant, attached a bill and added some green accents.


When I was done....I was pleased but I felt something was missing. I considered making a baseball out of fondant or chocolate...then decided cupcakes are more my style!

I made a small batch of white cupcakes with matching blue and green liners, frosted them with the vanilla swiss meringue buttercream and used red decorating gel to add the stitching.


I added two cupcakes because the little guy was turning 2.


Not only was this a fun cake to make...but I got to see my best friend too!

Lakers & Leftovers

I received an order for a LARGE Lakers jersey cake for a surprise birthday party this weekend. The customer wanted my (now famous) dark & white chocolate cake filled with dark chocolate ganache and fresh raspberry filling, covered in raspberry swiss meringue buttercream. She asked that the cake serve at least 40 people and have her daughter's name and age on the jersey.

I baked four 11x15 cakes, 2 of each and then put it all together.
I decided to alternate the cakes so it wasn't too boring when they cut into it and I spread the ganache directly over the raspberry filling.


Oh fondant...I am still learning how to make you do what I want.
Although I think I did a decent job covering this huge cake, getting the side panels on and managing to fit such a long name...It could have been better.


Note: For whatever reason, my camera did not like the purple fondant. I took many pictures in different lighting and they all came out blue.

I currently have three letter cut-out sizes: small, medium and large. I used the medium ones because the small are REALLY small but the mediums were still a bit too large. I do not have the skills or confidence yet to cut my own letters by hand, I still need some more practice.


In the future I will try some new techniques that will decrease/eliminate the powdered sugar that gets left on the fondant when you roll it out, that's something I wish I would have researched before this cake.

I saved some scraps from the cakes I made this week and decided when I was done with all my orders I would use my leftover cake scraps, fillings, buttercream and chocolate shavings to make myself and my lucky sister some small mini cakes.

I mean, I can't just let good stuff go to waste!

I used a cookie cutter to cut out some small square and circle shaped cakes.


I filled the squares with leftover apple filling and covered them in vanilla buttercream then added some sprinkles and a blob of apple filling just for fun.


I filled the circles with leftover raspberry filling and covered them in raspberry buttercream and decorated them with chocolate shavings.


It was late, I was tired and I just wanted to get these things done...so please forgive my frosting job - I was just going to eat them and didn't care if the corners were straight or level, as you can see.

I often don't get to eat my own cakes unless I'm lucky enough to be invited to whatever party they are going to...so this was a special treat and made the perfect midnight snack.