oh baby!

Several weeks ago, Cristy told me about a cake that she wanted me to make for a baby shower that she was hosting. She said that it was the...umm..."chest" and belly of a pregnant woman. The more she described it, the more confused and scared I became. A while later, she brought me a picture of the cake that she wanted. It was exactly as she'd described it, but it was beautiful! I just couldn't wrap my mind around the idea before seeing it for myself.
It is an amazingly creative idea for a cake, but I agonized about it for weeks...I just didn't know if I'd be able to pull it off without making something that could very well end up o n cakewrecks The time finally came when I just had to go for it. It was definitely a challenge and about half way through, I contemplated chunking the entire thing in the garbage, but I stuck it out and was THRILLED with how it turned out!
This definitely wasn't a solo job. The cake was HUGE and there were lots of times where two sets of hands was necessary, so I enrolled the help of my unpaid assistant...my mom! Thanks for all your help, Mama...I couldn't have done it without you!

copy cake...

There are lots of inspirations for my cakes. Sometimes, a customer knows exactly what he/she wants and I do my best to help them. Other times, I'll get ideas from pictures I've seen in books, magazines, online, etc. This weekend, I was asked to make a cake for three kids who were celebrating their birthdays with one party. There were two birthday girls and one birthday boy. The challenge was to make something that was not girly and not too boyish. Several ideas came to mind and I tried a couple things that just didn't work out. Then, I remembered seeing a cake made by an amazing cake artist named Carrie.
Carrie owns Two Cakes...a part of Savannah Wedding Studio. To say that she is amazing is an understatement! Seriously, this lady never ceases to amaze me!
I won't even begin to compare my cake to hers..(I'm purposefully not posting a picture of it here so that you can't compare them side by side! If you're interested, look on her website.) She had a fun color scheme and a simple, but cute combination of stripes and dots. I thought that something similar would be perfect for the party so I did my best to imitate it. Thanks, Carrie for being such an inspiration!

happy birthday lacey...

Lacey said she wanted something "sporty" for her birthday. Apparently, she likes to play football at recess with the boys.
So, we decided to make her a football cake...with a girly twist.
I decided to go with an old-school technique and cover the shape with piped stars. There's something really neat and nostalgic about it.

happy birthday cally...

A co-worker ordered an unusual cake for her daughter's birthday party. Let me start by saying that we share an affinity for going "all out" for our kids' birthday parties! She is hosting a baking party for her daughter and 20 of her closest friends. (I'm thinking she's one of the bravest ladies I know!) In keeping with the theme, she asked me to make a cake in the shape of a chef's hat.
I usually don't completely cover cakes in fondant because I prefer the taste of buttercream, but I felt like completely covering it would make it look smoother and more realistic (and I hid plenty of icing underneath!) The red heart on top and the checked band at the bottom matched the party decor AND the birthday girl's apron. I hope the girls had as much fun at the party as I did making the cake!

welcome baby lilly...

happy birthday mary addison...

A few weeks ago, I made a cake for Emma. Emma happens to be the little sister of one of my favorite former students, Jake. Tonight, I kept up with the trend and make a cake for Mary Addison, the little sister of another favorite former student, Griffith. Both Emma and Mary Addison are a couple of years away from being fifth graders, but I'm crossing my fingers that I'll get to teach them, too. In the meantime - Mary Addison, I hope you have fun at your pool party and that you like your "froggy" cake!

a blog for jess...

Jessica is one of my all time best buds! Jess is quite the baker herself, but we have a lot more than that in common. For one, our kids "match". She has a son that is a few weeks older than Collin and a daughter that is two months older than Emie. To top it all off, we are both teachers. In fact, we met when we were teaching in Savannah, but we've both since left good 'ole Gadsden Elementary School and I miss her dearly!

One of the things I loved most about working with her was the fact that we were both creative and we could bounce ideas off each other. A while back, she asked me to send her some pictures of my classroom...here ya go, Jess!

I have these cute little guys all over the room. They're hot glued to clothes pins so I can switch out student work frequently.

This is the bulletin board outside my room. This monkey's been "hanging" around in my classroom decoration arsenal for a while! (I've used him since I was a first year teacher...thanks Oriental Trading for a great product.)
This is on my white board. Everything is magnetic. When the kids come in each morning, they move their card to let me know what their lunch choice is. It makes attendance and lunch count SO easy.

This is my classroom door.
Here you see our "While You Were Absent" crate and our "Can Tab Frog". We collect can tabs for our 4H club.

The crate has 31 file folders, labeled 1-31. Whenever a kid is absent, we put his/her work in the folder that corresponds with their absence date. When they come back, they check the crate to know what they missed.
This is also on my white board. I like the fact that everything is magnetic...that way I can move groups around quickly whenever we need a change.
This is "command central". It's where I keep all the supplies for students, extra books, and copies that I use during the week. I've also had those multi-colored supply drawers since my first year!
These maps are actually fabric. Whenever we read a book or story, we talk about where the story takes place and sometimes where the author is from. There's none on here yet, but we put little gold stars on each location when we talk about it.


The sign reads: "Not everyone who chased the zebra caught it, but he who caught it chased it." hmmm....

Classroom library...I found the lamp at Lowes for $19! (Right now I'm using the pocket charts for my word wall, but soon the "Wild About Reading" bulletin board will be sacrificed for that!)

Each student is expected to read 25 books each year...this is how I track it.

An easy bulletin board that I can keep up year round...

scooby dooby doo...

Yesterday I was able to have fun with a cake for a very special person. Today is Mrs. Diane's birthday and I was so happy to make a cake for her surprise party!
One of Mrs. Diane's favorite cartoons is Scooby Doo...she even spoils my kids in church with Scooby Doo fruit snacks. So, I started with fun and "groovy" colors from the show. Then I added appropriate fondant details: retro flowers (that you'll find on the Mystery Machine), spooky/shifty eyeballs, and of course, the Scooby Snack.

happy birthday taylor...

This weekend, cutie pie Taylor celebrated her first birthday! Her Aunt Stacy ordered a pile of sweet treats for her fun Winnie the Pooh party. The sheet cake was for the adults. There were fun cupcakes for the kids, and little Miss Taylor had her very own "Hunny" pot cake. (The Hunny pot is officially my all time favorite!) Taylor's mommy has promised to send me pictures from the party...I can't wait!

Happy 90th Birthday!

This weekend was very special...Mrs. Frost celebrated her 90th birthday! She is feeling a little under the weather this weekend and her family plans to celebrate this momentous occasion in style at a later time, but her sweet daughter, Glenda couldn't let the day pass without a special cake. Happy Birthday Mrs. Frost!