Wonderful Day for a Give Away!

Hello, cake lovers!

It's been a wonderful, exhausting day.  As usual, when I've had a big project come to an end, I'm just about out of words.  All I have is pictures, and hopefully they will speak for me. 

I apologize for the less than stellar photography.  I left in a rush in the wee hours this morning and forgot my super double plus awesome camera.  These are brought to you courtesy of my phone.

17 roses, 9 calla lilies and a bunch of little buds and green leaves

The view from up top!

Top and bottom tiers: Lightly Lemon with vanilla butter cream
Middle tier: Buttery Yellow with vanilla butter cream

And just for kicks (and because the top tier of this gorgeous garden cake wasn't touched by anyone by my carefully gloved hand) - I'm going to do a fast and furious give away of the top tier. 

Like it?  Leave me a comment!  This post and tomorrow's post will leave room for entries, so if you want it, comment away! 

Tasting Cake is Fun!

I love cake tastings.  It's fun to prepare for, fun to experience and even more fun to have a firm cake order at the end of the day.

I prepared another eight flavor combo tray for today's cake tasting.  We had four flavors of cake paired as follows with yummy buttercream flavors...

Left to right:
Lightly Lemon with vanilla butter cream and raspberry butter cream
Orange Delight cake with vanilla butter cream and orange butter cream
Spiced Heaven cake with cream cheese butter cream and orange butter cream
Buttery Yellow cake with vanilla butter cream and raspberry butter cream

The couple was adventurous, and came up with a fantastic flavor combination for their three-tiered bridal cake. 

I always provide a few things at a cake tasting.  If you have a tasting scheduled you can expect a full menu, a complete price list for the flavors you sample and your choice of tea or coffee with your cake. 

I also always have a handful of coffee beans on hand, so cake-tasters can cleanse thier pallate between flavors.  Sniffing coffee beans is an easy way to reset your sense of taste and smell.  Nice department stores will offer that service at perfume counters as well. 

Stay tuned tomorrow for my third and final post in my series: Elements of a Cake Tasting. 

Make sure you call or email to schedule an event for yourself!



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!!!

Deck the Halls and All that Jazz

What?  MORE super cute Saturdays from Bake Lore?  Well...if you insist...

What goes better with Christmas tree Saturdays than Christmas ball Saturdays??

What other ideas do you have for Christmas inspired Saturdays?  Snowmen?  Little Reindeer?  The possibilites are endless!



Hey There, Tiny Christmas Trees!

Saturdays at Bake Lore are getting cuter and cuter and cuter.

Look at these adorable little Christmas trees!

Kinda makes you want to sing songs and dance around like a little kid, doesn't it?  I'm in love with these little Saturdays.  They were fun to make, and they taste even better than they look.

These were made with the ever popular buttery yellow cake, vanilla butter cream and covered in white Chocoley dipping chocolate.  I discovered that no candy coating, even the good, expensive kind, likes red gel colors.  Something about it makes the chemistry just go crazy and instead of a gorgeous, smooth dipping candy, you end up with wierd, oily crumbles.  Ew.  So, the red decorations were just a bit of royal icing...as were the stars.

AmbuLANCE!

What a week it has been!  I was sworn to secrecy on this latest cake until today so as not to spoil the surprise.  But at long last, I have some fresh pictures for you.

This is buttery yellow cake and vanilla butter cream.  The fireman/emt figure is marzipan and the ambulance is cereal treat and gumpaste. 

Here's a little close up...

Marzipan is fun to work with, although significantly stickier than gum paste.  I'll definitely be using that medium again. 

Hope you enjoyed this fun cake - and congratulations to C.J., who has graduated from nursing school and is now the very best fireman/emt/nurse you could ever hope to have rescue you from anything that might be on fire or bleeding:). 

A Taste of Summer

These may not be the most festive or Christmasy confections I've ever churned out during December, but they are awfully cute.  And who wouldn't like to be reminded of a lovely, ripe, juicey watermelon during these gray months?

So I give you, watermelon Saturdays: 

They only look like watermelon.  I shudder to think of the monstrosity that would be watermelon flavored cake.  Ew...these are a much tastier combination of buttery yellow cake with a little splash of pink, a handful of mini chocolate chips and a big fat scoop of Bake Lore butter cream.

And of course, they are dipped - twice - in Chocoley white chocolate.  That stuff is amazing.  I love it.  You turn it any color you choose and it stays that beautiful shiny, silky smooth chocolate Chocoley is famous for.  You get those so-called candy melts at the craft store, and heaven help you if you want them any color but the one they came with.  It's happened to me so many times - thinking it'll somehow be different, and it never is.  A little gel color turns those candy melts into some kind of crumbly nightmare.  It's weird. 

I was actually just on the verge of being forced to go the candy melt route when my Chocoley order finally appeared on my doorstep.  I did a little dance...and a bit later, I took a bite out of one of these cute little pops. 

A Plan Comes Together...

I love it when a plan comes together!

I think that's from a movie...Blues Brothers?  I don't know...my Dad is always saying that, and I used to think he made it up.  I used to think he made all sorts of stuff up until one day I heard a song I thought he wrote being played on the radio.  Yeah.  I was excited for him, until I realized my mistake. 

He makes fun of me for that now.  BUT I DIGRESS!

I love it when a plan comes together!  What do I mean by that?  Well - I advertised at the little old home show a couple weeks back, and lo and behold, minding my own business, what dropped by my back door but...actual business! 

Yes, I got a cake order thanks to my free samples.  Awesome. 

The classic combination of Buttery Yellow Cake and Vanilla Butter Cream made this short-stack birthday cake a delicious shoe show.  See for yourself...

I actually kind of want to wear that shoe.

Nothing says "Birthday" like a new shoe...
even if it's just one shoe...and even if it's made out of icing.

swirly goodness:)

Something compells me to take a picture like this of every cake lately.
Sorry, but you'll just have to suffer through it.

80 Years and Counting

Most of my life, I have been blessed to know and love all of my grandparents - even most of my great granparents.  It's only been in the past few years that has sadly changed. 

It's a hard thing to lose anyone you love, but part of the healing process for me has been an increased appreciation of my grandparents.  Especially as I age, I've grown so thankful for all the work and love and time they put into building thier lives and creating stable, loving, god-fearing homes. I love them all the more for the unseen ways they have made our family strong. 

My dad's dad, Grandpa Wayne, recently celebrated his 80th birthday.  I think of him as the strong, silent type, but he has a gooey center if you look for it. 

I lived with him and my Grandma Nell, who has gone on to be with the Lord, for about a year.  I was trying to pay down college debt, and they let me live with them rent free.  It was a huge blessing - it continues to be a blessing because of the financial freedom it allowed me to bring into my mariage.

One thing I'll never, ever forget about that year...I made a point of kissing my Grandfather goodnight, every night, without fail.  I thought maybe it was cheesy to him, but I did it anyway because I wanted to.  I loved to see him blush and jutt out his chin at me, as if daring me to try that again! 

One night in particular, I kissed him goodnight, and turned to head off to bed.  He called me back into the front room and he said something he'd never said to me unprompted.  He stuck out that jaw of his again and he said, "I love you."

For a mushy, emotional type, that wouldn't mean much.  But for Grandpa Wayne, he couldn't have made me feel his love for me anymore if he'd bought me a new car or walked a million milesin the snow...uphill...just for me. 

I recorded that lovely moment in my journal, but it's perfectly preserved in my mind's eye as well.  What a good, Godly mad is my Grandpa Wayne.  He's one of three very important men who have taught me what a real man looks like, how he acts, how he treats others.  Oh how thankful I am for him. 

Happy Birthday, Grandpa Wayne!  I love you too!

Compliments of Bake Lore!

The day, the hour and the moment have arrived! 

Today is the Linton Festival of Homes and my house, now affectionately known as "The Gray Lady" (her many upgrades for this home show have allowed her to shed "The Gray Beast" and move up in the world!), is ga-ga-gorgeous, inside and out.

And who would miss such an opportunity to promote a cake business?  Not moi!

After they see the Christmas spread in the rest of my house, the ticket holders will get to stop in the kitchen for a free sample of Bake Lore cake. 

Buttery Yellow Cake with Vanilla Butter Cream and
a whole mess of hand made sugar flowers

festive, little holly berries

Hint Home Show Goers:
Doncha want to see these gorgeous things on your OWN cake???

My cahd, dahhhhhling...

I hope this turns into some new opportunities for Bake Lore.  Here's hoping those business cards go far and wide.  Ok...so, I'm off to put my feet up.  It's been a LONG week, y'all.

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:).

Pastor Aaron's Ordination Cake

My good friend and pastor, Aaron, has passed a major milestone in his ministry.  He has passed his ordination, and on Sunday, our church is going to celebrate with him and his family.

Of course, if there's a reason to celebrate...there's a reason for cake! 

I kept this simple - buttery yellow cake with vanilla buttercream.  The celitc cross is a design I've always loved and wanted to try. 

Congratulations, Pastor Aaron!  We are blessed to have you and your lovely wife ministering to us!

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

It's Training Season...So They Tell Me...

I'm in the middle of a number of cake projects - and even one enormous cookie project!  And I can't wait to share those with you. 

But until I am finished, I wanted to show you a Bake Lore archive cake - in the spirit of all the pro football training camps going on across the country.

I am no football fan, but I do make a darn good football cake.  If you are a Colts fan, my apologies, or Bears or Green Bay or whatever - - this is a cake I made for a Steelers fan.  I hope you enjoy!

Logo is in gum paste with piped royal icing

Oh yes...that's the Terrible Towel...in gum paste, of course!

This one was made up of:
10" tier: Chocolate cake, vanilla butter cream
6" tier: White cake, vanilla butter cream
Fondant icing, royal icing piping and gumpaste cut outs

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