Pretty Serious Now

This cake was made for my dear friend Jennifer's son's 1st birthday. (Same friend with the twins). This cake definitely marks a point where I have realized how to plan for a cake. The baking, making the icing, and decorating all planned out. I still manage to screw up the cake board every time its a shaped pan. I do it backwards every single time. But other than that, I have it down pretty good. She picked the design, I said I could do it (not really sure I could), and it actually went fine. Much easier than I thought it would be.

This cake was for Jennifer's grandparent's anniversary. She didn't really ask for anything specific. Just a cake with light and dark blues. I came up with something simple that would have a bow on the top. The bow quite nearly became a disaster in assembling because my fondant ball was too hard. I didn't panic and just kept going and it came out fine I think. I will admit it looks better in the picture than I think it actually did in person. I had to cover up a boo-boo in the back. That whole icing color change thing again...

This was my redemption from the last baby shower cake I attempted. The picture was taken before the cute little baby accessories were added to it. So cute! I was really proud. It came out so much better than I expected. Well, it came out pretty darn near perfect. I'd like to perfect my writing now. I had everything well planned out again and did not stress out. I was never up too late and I was even able to watch 24 the night before the shower. So much better than how I started!

Getting more serious...

This was the final cake for my Intermediate class. First time I used fondant and I learned I LOVE working with the stuff. This was hands down the most fun I've ever had making a cake. I was actually dancing in class. I don't dance. :-) Now, if the stuff just weren't so darn expensive...

The first cake I actually made for someone other than me or a family member! Made for my dear friends' twin daughter's 4th birthday. There were cute lime green, purple, and pink cupcakes that went with it.

My pride and joy! I knew I would make this cake for over a year. For my son's 3rd birthday. I was quite proud. I had a little difficulty with the icing changing color in the purple as you can see in the picture, and also in the pink bear above. But, after a year of research and experiment, I think I've finally figured it out! I think I think I think. I'll know for sure soon enough!

Another cake I was very proud of. And the 2nd cake I officially did not make for myself or an immediate family member! Made this for Alia's High School graduation. I completely consider her my sister. So, I guess that does make her immediate family... Well, my brother was a little jealous that I did better on her cake that I did on his. What can I say? Skills improved. And I remember being SO thrilled that her colors were red, white, and blue because I had a TON of red left over from the Wiggles cake!!! It worked out perfectly! Red is not an easy color to make. Neither is this dark navy blue. I was pretty impressed.

How it all began...

I have to give my mom a lot of the credit because she made all of our birthday cakes growing up and dabbled in decorating as a hobby every now and again. My brother and I have an 11-year age difference and at some point I started to experiment and decided I wanted to make his birthday cake. I followed all the recipes and made a HUGE mess in my dad's tiny kitchen, but I got it done. Wish I could find the pic for that. Not bad for a beginner. Made about 5 different colors for my first cake. I stayed up all night into the wee hours of the morning making that cake and it was the best thing I ever did.

I had always looked in books and sort of built up a collection over the years, but never really did anything until I had my own child in 2005. Then I started taking things serious and decided for his 1st birthday I wanted to make his cake. The bear cake is completely self-taught. I spent hours reading about how to do a 3-d cake and how the cake needs to be firm or it will collapse. As I look back now, I'm pretty proud of that cake. It taught me a lot. And I enjoyed every minute.

Still dilly dallying with the canned icing. Why make your own if you don't have to? For this cake I didn't find it necessary to go through the ordeal of making chocolate icing. I free-handed the logos for the superbowl teams since the superbowl fell on my dad's birthday that year. I carved the football shapes out of 2 9x13 cakes. Again, a ton of reading on this one. I am not an artist, but I've been impressed with what I can do with icing. Get me to do that same thing on paper and I promise you it won't happen. This was rare for me to be a little creative.

Still self-taught for my son's 2nd birthday. The theme was Tigger and Pooh so I was set to have a Tigger AND a Pooh cake. I will say this was the last year we had his birthday at home. I wanted to be able to focus on the cake for his birthday and not on all the other things that go into having a birthday at home. Of course, if I do these cakes again today, I doubt it would take me close to as long as it took me then. I was up well past what I had expected with these cakes, the night before the party.

Disaster Story: At work we were having a baby shower for a friend of ours, Catherine. She was expecting a baby girl and I volunteered to make the cake. This was in the Spring of 2007. The cake we had picked was adorable. 4 baby blocks. Well, long story short, it didn't quite turn out so well. I was nothing short of absolutely devastated. I will say, however, that no one agreed with me. But, I refused to take a picture (regret that now), and I couldn't even be present for the shower to see it. After that experience I immediately enrolled in cake decorating classes at a bakery in Plano. Suprisingly enough, I didn't learn a whole lot in the first course, but I learned a ton in course II and in couse III the next year.

This would be the first cake I made while enrolled in course I, for my brother's HS graduation.

Cakes by Shirin, First Blog!

Well, I decided to start a blog, separate from my personal family blog, dedicated to the cakes I make for various special occassions. I'm happy to have all of my cake pictures in one place. Beware! You might read more than you ever wanted to know about cake!