Vacation

Wow it has been one week since we got home from vacation. This past week was a week to get back in the swing of things and it did take all week to recover! Taking six kids to Orlando was a feat the bigger feat was that we drove there. 16 hours each way which we broke up into two days.

We did not do the Disney parks, but we did go to Downtown Disney twice. For those who have never been it is a large shopping, dining, entertainment complex. The first day we went did not go very well. I fell getting off their carousel and I sprained my foot pretty bad. I could not walk on it for a couple days and my family had to drive all over Orlando looking for crutches. It has been 15 days and it still hurts some. Whenever i drive walk up and down stairs and if I turn it awkwardly. Everyone is telling me that sprains can be worse then breaks. I hope I am back to 100% soon. It is just really annoying right now.

Other then my mishap we had a great time. We stayed at the Sheraton Vistana Resort which is just beautiful. There is so much to do there. There are something like 10 different pools. They had movie and smores night at the pool on Friday. You can actually swim in the pool and watch the Princess and the Frog. Swimming was what we did the most of. it was so hot!!

Other things we did were go to Sea World. This is the second time I have been to the one in Orlando. The kids loved it, but every time I go I get a little sad that the one here in Ohio closed. I loved going there and it was nice growing up with a Sea World so close by. We also visited the Tampa zoo and the Columbia, SC zoo. We all agreed that we like Tampa better, but the Cleveland Zoo is better then both. Except for the Manatee section at the Tampa zoo. Cleveland just has so many different types of animals. Maybe because we are in a cooler climate?

I think Harry and my favorite part was seeing so many of our friends. On the way down to Orlando we stopped in Charlotte and went on Lake Norman with the Staton's. It was so nice seeing them. The last time we saw them Shannon was pregnant with Sydney and now she is almost 4! When we drove over to Tampa we stayed the night with the Hoff's. It was so nice seeing them again. Harry gets to seem them at least once a year when he travels to Florida. but it has been a long time since I have seen them. Poor Gus got a crash course in what it is like to be in a big family and I think he is very happy with his little family! I think my kids scared him, but he was so nice to my kids. On our last day in Florida I got to visit with a couple of my friends. Casey and Brooke and their families. I met Casey and Brooke through adoption forums. They live in PA and FL and we all met up at Orlando. It was so nice seeing them. It was only the second time we have ever saw each other in person. They are great friends along with the other ladies in my adoption group. I am so glad we had the opportunity to spend some time together!

So now it is back to reality. Soccer and gymnastics, babysitting and of course cake decorating! I am very excited to be doing a cake this week with a red, white and blue theme. I will post pictures on Saturday. I hope everyone has had a great start to their summer!

3 cakes not 2

This week was a little busier then I thought it was going to be. I actually made three cakes this week, I thought it was only going to be 2. They were three very different cakes one for an eagle scout ceremony, one for a wedding shower, and a birthday cake for my cousin Mike. I did not get a picture of the eagle scout cake so I need to try to see if I can get one. below are the other two cakes.

2 cakes this week

This week was a busy week for me. I had two cakes to do this week. The first was for my foster care agencies thank you dinner for foster parent appreciation month. The cake was huge and weighed over 50lbs.  The best part of the cake was the cookie and cream filling. Too bad I am on a diet. I think I could have ate a bowl full of the filling alone.

The second cake was for a brother and sister joint birthday party. The brother was turning 3 and the sister was turning 3. We went with one cake for the joint party 1/2 was star wars and the other 1/2 was princess. I have a lot of experience with joint cakes since I have six kids and we have 3 pairs of kids with close birthdays so we have 3 joint parties a year. I always try to make the kids feel special that their cake fits them. Many times I do one cake. Another thing great about the birthday cake was that my 4 year old loves star wars and my 2 year old loves princesses. I almost felt like I was making this cake for them. My little one LOVED the cake and had a hard time seeing it leaving our house to be delivered.  I hope that Emily and Zachary love the cake as much as my kids did. The birthday cake was made with French Vanilla cake and butter cream frosting. The neat thing is I dyed the batter to the kids favorite colors. So 1/2 is blue cake with blue frosting and the 1/2 is pink cake with pink frosting. On the Star wars half I made R2D2 out of rice krispie treats and the other half I made a princess out of french vanilla cake.

This picture was taken before I did touch ups this morning. The R2D2 did not like the humidity!

Mother's Day Cake

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there! For Mother's Day I made my mom a cake, of course. The cake was a white cake with coconut pecan filling. It was covered in vanilla butter cream and then topped in fondant. I then hand painted zebra print onto the cake and added green roses because green is my mom's favorite color.

Baby Shower Cake.

I just finished my first baby shower cake. It is for a couple that is waiting to find out the gender of their baby. The cake is a french vanilla but the top tier is checkered board blue and pink with strawberry filling. The bottom tier is blue and pink marble with vanilla filling. The cake is iced with vanilla butter cream. As a topper I decided to use some baby toys so that the parents can take them home. I will try to get harry to take a picture after the cake is cut so that everyone can see the marble and checkerboard.

Two cakes to do in the next 7 days

I am very excited about the two cakes I will be working on this week.

The first one is for a baby shower. I am going to be doing a two tiered circle cake decorated in pastel orange, green and yellow. the baby's gender is a surprise. I think I might make the top layer a checkered board pink and blue cake with strawberry filling. The bottom layer is undecided at this point.

My second cake is for my adoption/foster agency. We are having a thank you dinner for foster parent appreciation month. I will be making a confetti sheet cake with vanilla filling. Around the edge I will be making children of all races holding hands. On the top I am making a child wearing a parachute and it will say  "Thank you for being a child's parachute"

I am excited to get started, but I have to finish my term paper for school first. I guess this will give me more incentive to get this paper done. I will then be off school a couple weeks before Summer semester starts.

WELCOME

Welcome to our first blog! We are very excited to be starting our own home based bakery. Harry and I have been baking for years. Harry started baking when he was young. His father taught him everything he knows. Harry is our resident pie expert. I have been baking and decorating cakes for the past ten years. It is something I love to do. A couple years ago Harry and I started to sell pies around the holidays and just this year we expanded the pie business to include my cakes.

Here is my latest birthday creation. This cake was for my son and daughter's Kentucky Derby themed birthday party. Everything on the cake is completely edible! The silks were made of fondant and then hand painted, the roses were made of royal icing. Cake was iced in butter cream frosting. The sheet cake was devils food with a creamy chocolate filling. The horse shoe and hat cakes were yellow cakes with no filling.

 It was very sad cutting this cake. I loved it so much and worked so hard on it.

It was worth it though. Everyone LOVED it!