Becca Recca Crew

My little sister, Becca, is one of my favorite people in the whole world. She starts each and every day with no anger, no disappointment, no bitterness. Every day is fresh and full of possibilities.

To some in this world the only thing they see when they look at my sister is that she was born with a genetic defect. She has Down Syndrome.

Personally, I think she is what the rest of us should aspire to be. She gets mad, but she doesn't stay mad. Holding a grudge is a concept she doesn't understand. Becca has to work so much harder than the rest of us to make even small accomplishments, but it doesn't occur to her to give up. She just keeps on trying.

Last year Becca Recca Crew (my pet name for her and every time I call her that she says, "Amy, I'm Rebecca Lynn" as though I never knew her name and we haven't had the same conversation five hundred times) turned fifteen. When I asked her what kind of cake she would like she told me she wanted a mermaid cake. I can't say that I was surprised. Becca, myself and our sister, Boo, all share a love of Disney's "The Little Mermaid." If you see the three of us together chances are that we have been, or soon will be singing "look at this trough, treasures untold, how many wonders can one cavern hold?" At the end of that song Ariel is singing on a rock with waves crashing all around her.

It's an iconic scene from the movie. And one of our favorite parts of "The Little Mermaid." So I recreated it in cake. It's one of my favs. Obviously Ariel is a doll, but each of the scales were individually applied by hand. The rock and waves are iced in buttercream. The white caps were made using royal icing at a slightly runny consistancy and applied with a soft paint brush.





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Princess Dragon

Our niece, Hannah, will soon be celebrating her fifth birthday. Later this month, for the third year in a row, I will hijack (I say "hijack" because I don't really give Kerrie and Ryan a choice in the matter) the priviledge of designing and creating this precious little girl's birthday cake. As the day of her party approaches I've been trying to figure out how I'm going to improve upon last year's cake specimen.

The Princess Dragon's Castle cake had been in the back of my mind for months prior to Hannah's birthday. I couldn't wait to make it come to life, so to speak. I about drove myself and my very patient husband crazy trying to figure out how I was going to make the castle's torrents. I finally decided to line soup cans with parchment paper and bake the cake batter in them. And it worked. Mostly. Unfortunately, they didn't bake as evenly as I would have liked. Each one ended up being just cone shaped enough that they required adjusting. This ment I would have to cut each one in half and bake four more so I could stack them on top of eachother. After cutting of the corners of the cake to fit the shape of the torrents the fun part started [it's a dang shame sarcasm doesn't easily show through in the typed word]. I cut each and every one of the "bricks" by hand (except for the four or five Ben [my ever supportive spouse] turned out for me. It took me longer to apply the bricks than I would have liked. My original plan called for the roof of the castle to be covered in the fondant tiles, just like the sides. The more work I did on it the less I liked. So I turned it into a rooftop garden. I don't regret the choice.

The best part of the cake, in my opinion (and Hannah's), was the sparkling pink dragon. The picture doesn't do the sparkles justice. She, I think pink definitly says "I'm a girl dragon," was hand shaped out of fondant several days before the cake. This allowed the fondant to firm up.

At the party my husband's eighty-something year old grandmother was admiring the cake (did I mention that I love this woman). She looks over at me and asks, "So, did you bake a sheet cake and use a biscuit cutter to make the round corners? You are so smart and talented. " Oh My Stars! Are you kidding me? You could have knocked me down with a feather. I spent hours working on those stupid things, HOW DID I NOT THINK OF THAT?! Naturally, I just smiled and thanked her.





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Better Late Than Never

Obviously I have been seriously neglecting my blog. Yes, Again. I wish I could claim that my life is so busy, and interesting that I haven't had the time, but that would be misleading. Actually, that would be a flat out lie. My life has been blessedly dull, I just keep puttin' off writing. However, since I can post from my phone, maybe I will do better. Now, on to the cakes.

In case you've been living in a cave you know that football season is upon us. Apparently, at least for me, that means a lot of football themed cakes.





















- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone