Best of 2011

It's the end of another year!  How did this happen again?? 

I am feeling reminiscent and looking over my year of projects, I wanted to share with you all again some of my absolute favorites.

First, the Incredibly Time-Consuming Shaped Cake Category...Winner is...The Guitar Cake!!!

Rock n Roll baby!

Up Next we have the Impossibly Cute Saturdays, that is Cake Pops, Category:  The Christmas Ornaments!

Soooo cute.  I love 'em!

Yes, I had to go with the Christmas ornaments.  I love them.  I want some of my own:).

And finally, my top choice for 2011, my chef d'oeuvre, my magnum opus, my awesomest of awesome cakes:  The Epic Wedding Cake Category and Best in Show...a little something I call the Colossus of Gant...best wedding ever got the best wedding cake ever (if I do say so myself...).



The Colossus of Gant!

2011 was a sweet year, pardon the pun, and here's hoping 2012 will be better still.  I want to see a full wedding calendar and a many, many new and returning customers. 

God bless you all and thank you for making time for Bake Lore.  Here's hoping I'll be sharing pictures of your very own Bake Lore creation soon! 

Happy New Year!!!

Saturdays with Baylor Flare

I tried to begin this post by writing witty new lyrics to the Baylor University fight song.  You know, that school in Texas, in the city where David Koresh went bonkers?  Yeah.  There. 

I find myself seriously disappointed in my powers of rhyme and meter this evening, so instead of "crucifying this verse" as Cole Porter might put it, I'll just tell you about my latest project, mmmk?

Baylor-inspired Saturdays in the much-loved green and yellow

I used to live in Washington D.C. - a fun time in my life, during which I acquired several lifelong friendships.  I wish I had the time and money to visit those people every year, but at this point, many of them have scattered to the four winds, like myself, and facebook stands in the place of costly trips these days.

I of course landed in the best place, Southern Indiana.  But my good friend, Lisa, would certainly take issue with that point of view.

You see, she's from Texas.

Yup.  And she's having a Texas birthday this year. 

So she called me up to find out if cake pops...that is...Saturdays...ship well.  Which they do!  And tomorrow morning they'll be winging their way to her door. 

Lemon Cake, Vanilla Butter Cream, White Chocolate Candy Coating

I have had the privilege of calling a few people my friend over the  years who have shown themselves to be the very best, stalwart kind of souls you want walking with you through your life. 

Lisa's one of those people. 

I haven't actually seen her for more than four years, but my son sleeps with a quilt she made by hand, and every day I eat off of dishes she bought for me as a wedding gift years ago.  I have a great suspicion that she has silently come to my aid when I've been most in need, though I can't prove it.  She's on a very short list of people I am sure I will know when I am 80 - and on an even shorter list of people I knowwho will still be able to hold their liquor when they're that old.

When I was lonely and lost in a big city, God gave me a good friend.  I enjoyed many happy evenings in her company, and only wish I could help celebrate her birthday in person.

Here's to you, Lisa.  I thank God for allowing our paths to cross, and I pray God's blessings on your head. 

Happy Birthday.  Go eat cake:).

Babies!

It's been a full and wonderful day!  My good friend Katie won my facebook promo, and got her shower cake for 50% off...speaking of facebook - have you liked Bake Lore on facebook yet??  Go on...do it...I'll be here when you get back...

Here's the cake...and tomorrow I'll show you the adorable cookies that went with it!

6" tier: chocolate with vanilla butter cream
8" tier lemon with vanilla butter cream
fonant and gum paste details

MBA: Master of Baking Art...(isn't that what it stands for?)

I'm supposed to be cleaning up the kitchen right now, but instead, I'm eating a piece of pizza and posting pictures of the cake I just made:). 

This is for a good friend of mine who is about to have her MBA - so to her, I say, congratulations!  And I hope my business benefits from your hard-earned, nearly-official knowledge of all things commerce:).

Now...for the CAKE!

6", lemon cake, vanilla butter cream

Mr. and Mrs. Gant

Mr. and Mrs. Gant cut this six tiered, lemon cake this afternoon.  Oh what a wonderful thing!  I will  have more to say about this later, after the cake euphoria has died down.  For now, a picture is worth MUCH more than my words...

Twoo Wuv! and a Cake Tasting

Tonight, I did something I've never done before.  I held a cake tasting.

My good friend, Scotty G., is getting married.  This outstanding man has finally "found his Eve," as he once so longingly put it, and I am THRILLED!

Ak!  They are so stinkin' cute!!!

Can I say that again?  I am THRILLED!  First, because Scott is a great and godly man.  Second, because his matrimonial felicity has been high on my "please, God" list for a long, long time.  And third, because now that I know his bride-to-be, I see why he's in love with her - she's great.

I let them taste three flavors, lemon, almond and chocolate.  Oh, I tell ya, I had a good time getting this ready for them.

That's four plates of yum.

This is almost as cute as Scott and Krista:).

Practice, practice, practice!

We also designed their wedding cake, which it will be my honor to create.  It's going to be epic...like six tiers kind of epic...like a garden of gum paste flowers kind of epic. 

So, I have my work cut out for me.  They picked the lemon cake, which is hands down the favorite flavor I make.  But the baking isn't going to be the fun part of this cake.  It's going to be the many fun-filled hours I will spend creating flowers and praying for them - for a long and joyful marriage, for a house full of happy children, for lives that bring more glory to God together than they ever would apart.

How sweet it is!