I spent Halloween in San Francisco this year!

First of all, our two RHPS shows were AMAZING. Saturday we sold out, and on Friday we sold 250+ tickets. Best Halloween shows ever!

I have to share the best Halloween costume I saw. San Francisco has a tour company called "Go Car", a GPS-guided tour of the city in little yellow go-karts. We were about to cross the street when a Go Car went by with a guy in a turtle costume at the wheel. OK, cute. Then a guy in a spotted mushroom hat drove past. That's when I got it. "Oh my god, it's Mario Kart!" This was confirmed a second later, when Luigi went by. It was brilliant! I wish I'd gotten a photo.

Meanwhile, reactions to my costume ranged from people who knew exactly who I was (including one guy who started quoting Woody's lines to me), to those who said, "Oh! Oh, I know who you are! You're from that movie! Toy Story! You're that character! Oooh, what's her name?", to those who simply tugged on the pull-string pinned to the back of my shirt. Overall, though, I got raves, which I was thrilled about. (Photo below the cut.)

I didn't have a lot of time this year, but it wouldn't be Halloween if I didn't bake something, so:


Oh what a tangled web we frost ...

( the whole colony and my costume )

Wow, 4 cakes in as many weeks! Busy me!

My mom's 60th birthday was yesterday, so of course I made her a cake. She requested one similar to one I made for her and her co-workers about a year and a half ago, so I did the same flavor - lemon cake with homemade buttercream - and a similar design. This time, though, the vines had something to say:



( side view )

We had a bridal shower for a co-worker yesterday, and I made bridal bouquet cupcakes. I've made them once before, but wasn't able to take a picture of them in their display stand, so here they are:



There were three flavors: vanilla, chocolate mint, and the ever-popular red velvet.

As promised, here are photos of my Threadcakes contest entry, complete with the redone design on top.

Many thanks to racerxmachina for alerting me to the contest!

I chose a design called "Sees the Day":


( And here's what I did with it )

If you'd like to see my contest entry page - which has many more pics of the process - check it out here.

Yet another cake disaster last night, folks. Luckily, this one was fixable (if not easily).

As I previously mentioned, I'm submitting an entry for the Threadcakes decorating contest. I decided to do yet another Frozen Buttercream Transfer, as I am usually very pleased with the results of that technique. Because I am crazy, I chose a design with lots of tiny details on it that had to be done with the #1 decorating tip - AKA "the writing tip," AKA "the tip with an opening the size of a flippin' pinhole." Piping frosting out of this tip is NOT easy. Doing the detail work for this design took well over an hour, even though it was only one color, between fighting to squeeze out the icing and resting my aching hand. Eventually, though, I had the details done, the background frosted, and the transfer in the freezer.

A few hours later, I took the FBT out of the freezer to put on top of my cake. I was working to loosen it from the plastic wrap, didn't realize I wasn't supporting the transfer, and ...

Splat.

Half of the FBT snapped off and hit the floor, breaking into several more pieces. I was shocked, stunned, and couldn't believe I had been so careless. And then, the realization hit me: I was going to have to do that slog of a design ... that painful frosting job ... all ... over ... again. Today I've actually been getting shooting pains in my hand and arm from squeezing than damn icing bag so hard.

Thank heavens for Tom. He calmed me down, first of all - I'd have probably been a sobbing wreck if not for him. Then he mixed up more frosting for the background while I re-did the detail work, washed all the dishes and cleaned the counters, AND massaged my aching hand. (And, like all good boyfriends, told me he was sure the second one would turn out even better than the first one, anyway.) I love that man. :-)

So, tonight I'll CAREFULLY place the new FBT atop the cake and finish decorating it. Photos tomorrow!

I found a video of the gear cakes!



Many thanks to 'Czarcats' on Flickr!

For the second year in a row, I had the pleasure of making cakes for the staff party/feed/collapse at the end of Baycon. I'll do a full write-up of the weekend (my first as a staff member) in a bit, but first ... cake photos!

This year's convention was titled "The Lost Sky City of Pyrocumulon", a steampunk-set city of wonder and mystery (and dragons). The very talented Kimmi Albee had drawn a picture of the city that was used as the convention's masthead. I decided to try and put it on the cake. But not as an edible photo or anything ... oh no, I was going to recreate it in buttercream! (Because I am crazy.) In addition, to go with the steampunk theme, I made four cakes shaped like gears.

Here is what Kimmi's drawing looked like:


( And here is what I did with it )

I go weeks without baking, and suddenly I've got two cakes in a weekend!

This one was a collaborative effort between kelkelrenee and myself for our friend (and Bawdy Caste director) Shannon's birthday party:


It was a record-breaking cake! ;-)

(I smeared the name, but I'm very happy with how the hand-lettered "Happy Birthday" and musical notes came out.)

( Follow the music ... )

It's Passover, so good Jewish girl that I am, I naturally made ... an Easter basket cake.


The cake is rainbow chip with buttercream filling.

( And matching cupcakes! )

Nothing fancy today, folks - just some chocolate mint Christmas Tree cupcakes for a holiday party here at the office:



Happy Holiday of Choice, everyone!

The office held a baby shower for a co-worker today, and I was asked to decorate a cake. I decided to do a design of a baby blanket with alphabet blocks on top of it spelling out the little guy's name: Marcelo.

I couldn't bake a big enough cake, so the shower planner said she'd bring in the base cake, and I'd decorate it and add homemade baby block mini-cakes:


Unfortunately, I was told that I'd be given a 1/2-sheet cake to work with (and planned the mini-cakes accordingly), and was presented with a 1/4-sheet an hour before the shower. So the name came out scrunched. I suppose I could have put it across instead of zig-zagged, but I thought "Marc Elo" would look even odder. "Why's his middle name 'Elo'?" Oh, well.

Otherwise, though, I'm pretty proud of it!

( Another angle )

Sometime, I'll try this again with a proper-sized base cake. I think it'll look even cuter!

I got the photos uploaded! Many thanks to lokiz_mom and genuine_snark for offering to loan me the right cables, and shoutingboy for suggesting I look for a command that would copy photos from my camera onto the memory card. It worked!

So here are the photos of my cake, which I have entitled "Hats Off to the Bawdy Caste":


(If you don't happen to know the inspiration for the cake, please direct your attention to my icon.)
It's a yellow cake with lemon filling and buttercream frosting. I used a star tip to make it look like sequins, then added a generous covering of "Old Gold" luster dust.

( One more photo )

Happy 13th birthday, Bawdy Caste!

Today's lesson, boys and girls, is that sometimes everything's going to go wrong ... but it's possible to salvage it and come out with a lovely finished product.

A field staff member in my department had her birthday today, and the Departmental Director asked me on Monday about getting a cake. "I make cakes," I said. (Famous Last Words ...)

Maggie, the Birthday Girl, has just bought a house, so we decided that would be the cake's theme. I figured I'd make a 9x13 'yard' cake and stack a smaller 'house' cake on top of it. silentbob037's girlfriend Kelly, who also decorates cakes as a hobby, offered to help me. I figured I'd bake everything, eat dinner while it all cooled, and then level, fill, frost, and decorate.

And then the fun began...

( The Comedy of Errors )

( The Finished Product )

So, there you have it: Snatching victory from the trash can of defeat. Also, everyone loved both the taste and the decorating (if they noticed the leaning house, they didn't say anything), and Maggie sent me an e-mail thanking me for the 'awesome' cake and telling me I'm 'amazing'.

All's well that ends well. :-)

I made a birthday cake for my friend last weekend, using one of his favorite bands as inspiration:


For those of you not familiar with The Misfits, that's their logo, known as 'The Crimson Ghost'. It's a frozen buttercream transfer.

( side view with candles )

This cake was yet another reminder that I need to get baking again! I haven't made a cake since May.

("How I Spent My Weekend" post 3 of 4)

Sunday, I went with oracledante, silentbob037, and his girlfriend Kelly to the 30th Annual Gilroy Garlic Festival. It’s a legendary festival (at least locally), and I’ve never been before, so I figured it was worth checking out.

After a lengthy drive – which included a long and winding road to find the designated parking lot – we arrived just after 2:30.

Obviously, this being a garlic festival, the first thing we wanted to do was fend off vampires – er, I mean, the first thing we wanted to do was find the food booths. It was also a hot day, so we wanted liquid refreshment. Tom and I opted to get large glasses of triple-layer smoothies – strawberry, banana, and peach. Yum!

Then it was time to find lunch. Tom and I wandered the food booths before deciding on garlic steak tacos and garlic bread, both of which were heaven. Tom also had garlic corn, which he said was delicious. We did not partake in the festival’s famous garlic ice cream, even though they were giving out free samples. The line was way too long, and I admit I was a bit chicken.

By this time, we’d accidentally gotten separated from Richard (Kelly met us there later). Well, we all had cell phones. No big deal. Tom and I elected to wander the arts and crafts booths and see what all was for sale. There were some nice things, but nothing caught my eye … until I found this:


Why is this cupcake smiling?

( Answer in here )

The festival was smaller than I expected. We’d seen pretty much everything after less than two hours. Tom and I spent a good 45 minutes just relaxing in the shade of a tree, which was actually quite nice. :-) The last booth we stopped at was offering garlic bulbs for planting. Tom decided to try planting some in his front yard. Mmm, fresh garlic!

Around 5:00, we found Richard and Kelly, who were also pretty burnt out. We agreed it was just about going-home time. Since Kelly had driven separately, Richard went off with her. Tom and I shared a (non-garlic) sundae, then decided to head for the car. On the way out, I couldn’t resist purchasing a shirt that said “GARLIC WARS: Attack of the Cloves”. I should have possibly thought through the implications of wearing a shirt that says “May the Stink Be With You” on the back, though …

So, there you have it. A small festival, but a nice day spent with my sweetie. :-)

Finally, after years of studying, I have managed to achieve enlightenment ... through cake.



( balance inside and out )

I'm pleased to say my cake took third place in a dessert contest at the Asian Heritage Party my office hosted today!

I spent most of my weekend doing two things: attending Baycon, and making the cake that lokiz_mom requested for their 'Dead Dog' staff party last night. A full recap of my weekend will be forthcoming, but first things first: cake pics!

This cake represented several firsts for me: It was my first time really shaping a cake, using styrofoam for support, using gumpaste, coloring fondant, using fondant at all by myself, and my first time relying on tiny little dowels to support the upper cake layers.

The theme was Space Pirates, so they wanted a pirate ship-themed cake to feed 150 people, plus a separate Vegan-friendly cake that could feed about 20. Here's what I came up with:


Arrrr, matey!

( close-ups, a compass, and cupcakes )

This was my most complex cake to date, but I am extremely proud of how it came out. I've already volunteered to do another cake for next year!

Our "Shock Treatment" performance went so well! I'll offer more details - along with pics and clips - later, but for now, I'd like to show you all the cake I made to commemorate the event.

Here's the scene from the film that inspired it:


Note the giant letters in the background.

( Happy hearts, and smiling faces ... )

A family friend - we grew up together - had her bridal shower this past Saturday. My mom (one of the shower hostesses) asked me to make two dozen cupcakes for the occasion.

After much thought, I decided to make cupcakes that resembled mini bridal bouquets (or at least bunches of flowers). So I mixed up frosting colors, got every drop-flower tip I could find, and decorated them like so:



Ah, but then I added the finishing touch!

( Shiny! )

For those who are curious: the cakes were one dozen yellow with a touch of lemon flavoring, and one dozen chocolate with a hint of mint. (I used Betty Crocker cupcake mixes, as I was very short on time, and added in my own flavorings.) They were all decorated with homemade crusting buttercream.

Everyone was very impressed with both the look and the taste of the cupcakes! I was so thrilled!

My good friend (and Bawdy Caste member) Diane is a professional cake decorator and owner of Bewitching Elegance in Burlingame. She and I have often said we should collaborate on a cake.

We decided to throw a party on March 15, the centerpiece of which would be our cake. "That's the Ides of March," someone pointed out. Ahh, a theme! We'd throw a toga party with a Roman-style cake design!

Working in her professional kitchen (which is in the back of her mother-in-law's candy store) was a real treat. I felt a bit like a kid at the grown-ups' table. She helped me with my fondant-rolling and -application techniques, which vastly improved!

And here is the result:


The Roman Temple of the Dagger!

( 'Eat too', Brutus? )