Halloween Cookies

I'm getting lots of practice at icing cookies it seems.  My daughter's preschool class is having their Halloween party tomorrow and I'm bringing cookies.  I would have preferred micro-mini cupcakes or some such but they really wanted something with less crumb and easier to eat - oh, well.  Since this is the last year I can bake and take to school and I'll do what I can.  They're actually pretty cute and I made little goodie bags to send home (with a card inside just in case mom wants more)!

Two blue cakes

The weekend of the 23rd and 24th were particularly busy and I will admit that part of it was due to an unusual lack of organization on my part. However, I did have so much fun working on these cakes. I have later found out that everyone but the bride and groom knew about the rehearsal cake.

The cat and dog represent our bride and groom.  The chuppah that they are under was recreated to match the one that they used in the their wedding and was made by their very good friend.  I am told that they were thrilled and many laughs were shared over this cake. 

This was a delicious chocolate covered cherry cake with cream cheese frosting and chocolate covered cherries on the border! It was a lot of  fun.
And the wedding cake the next day...

Congratulations, Marsha and Rick Ohayon!

Honeymoon Cake

Not all cakes have to be big and full of flare.  Sometimes it's the more personal cakes that just make the difference.  I was asked to make a "cake for two" for a friend recently as she and her hubby were now taking their long awaited honeymoon.  When I told her this was becoming the new trend she said, "We just never had time before now!"  So they were taking a well deserved vacation/honeymoon and she wanted a cake that would last the weekend and was beached themed. 

The simple cake was white cake with a raspberry filling in the bottom and just vanilla in the top.  But it was brining the little details in that really won her over. 

Happy Annviersary Candis and Edrick.

Social networks and your business

Last week I had the priveledge to cater dessert to a Perfect Wedding Guide event at the Croasdaile Country Club.  The topic: using social networks to the best advantage for your business.  It sounds pretty simple and no-brainer but even for someone like myself (and I felt I was pretty savvy on how to use Facebook at least) it was extremely informative and extremely simple.

Angel Guerrero was the guest speaker and he did such an amazing job at conveying information that could be understood at any interaction level.  He managed to break it down to it's easiest to understand format but at the same time reminding us that we are still in control of what we put into it.  It doesn't have to be a scary thing.  You can find Angel on Facebook. 

The food was excellent and a big thank you to John Sluck at the Croasdaile Country Club here in Durham.  The the made the entire event seem flawless and effortless!   Shavon Via Photography did some really amazing work as well.  You can find her on Facebook also.  She was kind enough to allow me to repost the her work here.  She made my work look absolutely fabulous.  Thank you Shavon.  

All of this is a constant reminder that social networking is all about people.  Whether it's on Facebook or any other forum it's still about people.  We are in the people business.  That's why it's called social networking.




Myself, Michael and Gary of
Flowers by Gary



White and roses display





Caramel Apple cupcakes, pecan pie tartlets and cookies.

Link to Shavon Via Photography on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Snow-Camp-NC/Shavon-Via-Photography/155760291875?ref=ts

Link to Angel Guerrero's page
http://www.facebook.com/#!/angelguerrero

Scams!

I don't know if this means I've reached a professional, albeit annoying, milestone or if I've just made it onto their grid but I was hit with my first "cake scam" this weekend.  Fortunately I had read about them in another blog but I think I would have figured it out anyway simply because they are so obvious. 

They tracked me through a professional on-line wedding vendor site which is not much different than the way any other spammer/scammer gets their information.  Once you reply and they give their return email that's when you know it is completely fake.   There must be a written script that all of these people use; broken English, (really) bad grammar and structure and impossible to believe sums of money and numbers.  The dates were contradictory and best yet it was for two weeks from today! 

I decided a semi-professional email was in order this time, with some slightly unrealistic demands on my part, but I also made sure that I went back through the original website and marked this item as spam.  I do not know if this will help or not but there's not much else I feel I can do.

The moral of this story:  knowledge is power!  No, really.  Keeping yourself current in your chosen field is a must but that means on the wackier side of things too.  Double check, check back and run with your gut feeling. 

Oh, well, I guess I'll have to wait a for a legitimate $4000 wedding cake order to come my way *sigh.* 

Cupcakes!

I'm excited about my new weekend schedule.  Does it mean I get to sleep in an extra hour?  No.  Will you get to relax a little more?  No.  Then is it more time for myself somewhere in the day?  No.  How, you might ask, can I become excited about a schedule that includes none of the above?  The answer my friends is cupcakes!  While they have not always been my friend they are now becoming a fond aquaintance. 
  PlayNation in Morrisville, NC is an outstanding indoor play place that does birthday parties every weekend.  The parties are two hours long and include over an hour of indoor play on the bouncy houses and wooden play houses and then pizza and cupcakes.  Now, just guess where those cupcakes are coming from?  That's right, Southern Gold Leaf Cakes.  Each weekend I deliver fresh chocolate and vanilla cupcakes to them for their weekend parties.  They also do weekday parties and we deliver for those too! 

  The Powell's are incredibly friendly and wonderful people.  They are the owners and have created a family business for family fun.  I love that!  The also have times when you can come and "pay to play" which doesn't require a party and covers a lot of time.  The facility is clean and well monitored.

You can find them at their website http://www.playnationparties.com or on Facebook. 

 

A small side note, Kara from A Cake to Remember just informed me I won her birthday give away!  Almost as exciting for me is she decided to post to my blog.  I'm an avid reader of hers and love her work.  So a big thank you to Kara, happy birthday to both of us, and let's keep baking!

You can find Kara at http://www.acaketorememberva.blogspot.com/.   Happy reading!

It's my birthday!

Yep, it sure is.  Yesterday was experimental cookie day and today is experimental cookie icing/painting day.  I can think of only a few better ways to celebrate than making a mess, I mean, art in the kitchen.  I hope to have a few photos later today.

I can honestly say my kids and hubby get much more excited about cookies than cake at this juncture simply because I'll let them eat the cookies.  Oh, sure, I give them some of the little left overs of cake but it's cookie and candy time they get excited about.  They also know at their birthdays they get to pick a really cool cake and even at 10 and 5 they can totally design a cake!

 

It's my birthday - everybody eat cake!

Our first cut outs - playing with Halloween shapes             Playing with icing to "liven" them up. 

It's a work in progress but you can see we're moving into fun new places with the cookies. 

And my kids, who really aren't into sweets, have given them the sticky thumbs up that they're awesome!