Madness, then illumination...or just more of the crazies?

Have you ever felt like your head was going to explode? Or maybe just spin in a complete 360 one good time? That has been how I've felt for the last two weeks. Ending in a  crash and burn episode on Saturday that almost caused me to throw in every towel in my kitchen.

So, let it be said that I have been having scheduling "issues". DIsorganization and the dire need to please everyone that crosses my path, has made for some pretty hairy situations this month. I thought two weeks ago was hell week..ha. It was just the beginning of the two week bender that I didn't realize I was already suited up to ride. After the mound of orders that I posted pictures of, the week didn't slow down...just got more weird and complicated.

 Most of my set orders canceled or postponed, leaving gaps that were soon filled by other last minute orders. I was also supposed to do a craft show appearance this past Saturday, with goodies for sale and business cards and brochures to hand out. I had a nice little menu of things to prepare for the show, and had originally scheduled off two days before the show to do all these things. This didn't end up being the case. By Friday night, I had done 4 cake orders, needed to do one more, had not started any of the craft show goodies, turned down 5 last minute orders, fielded a slew of cake related phone calls, tried to get the house ready for a carpet stretching/cleaning situation this coming Tuesday, fought with my house dwellers (family?) about cleanliness issues, fought with my husband about laziness issues, had food poisoning/stomach virus, passed said virus to child and was puked on for a day and a half, and babysat a 6 month old three days out of this last week.  I kind of had a little...teenie weenie...minor....collapse. After making chicken pot pie from scratch for a unappreciative clan of hooligans (family), turning to realize that my sister and friend had been snacking on the cookies I had yet to decorate for the craft show, and looking at the clock to see it was already a quarter to midnight...I gave it all the bird, and went to bed. Everyone promised they'd help out with this and that, and everyone scattered when it came down to getting it all done. I guess I should be used to this, but with the week I'd had...it was just a little too much. seriously. my husband's name may be Matt, but I'm the one getting walked on around here. I just feel under-appreciated.

Yeah, so I not only still had the fuck-its on Saturday when I woke up, but had a worse case of it. I had a Spider-Man cake due at 10 a.m., and didn't deliver it until 1. It looked half-assed, which was a feat, considering it wasn't even 1/8th assed. I had quoted her a price of $40, and ended up getting $7 for the cake....since I asked her to give me what she felt it was worth. :(  I didn't go to the craft show, because I had nothing to take to it. Matt ignored everything I said to him about dodging responsibility and house cleaning, blaming my anger on my own fuck ups that I was apparently "taking out on people, unfairly." If you would have called me Saturday to place a cake order, or even to talk to me...I would have told you No MORE CAKE. I sat on the computer staring at my website, waffling about pressing a few buttons and dismantling it. My husband has been complaining that this "job" of mine is getting in the way. He's only recently stopped calling it a hobby, because I threw things at his head. I have customers and deadlines. People relying on me, ordering to be done, supplies to collect. What part of that equation sounds like a run of the mill hobby to you? Guh...

I need a vacation, from this. I really love my job, and all the neat cakes I get to do. But I don't love no one taking it seriously that I have a job to do other  than pick up after their sorry asses and make them dinners and fulfill wifely duties. I feel like I have a hump on my back that contains people.  There...whine complete.

That being said: Sunday I felt better, and did a cute Speed Racer cake. I have a few days off from cake town, and a few days to collect and breath. Hopefully that will help me get a better grasp on things, because May  is already booked. and June is more than half booked. I have orders booked through September. If anyone wants to come help me make icing, you're welcome to.

R

Cakie update...hell weekend...

This weekend probably tested my sanity more than any other so far, mostly because I'm becoming some kind of local celebrity around here...and I don't want to take backward lunges in quality and craftsmanship. It has been kicked up a notch here folks...I was referred to, lovingly yesterday as Jacksonville's Ace of Cakes. wow....I know the lady was trying to compliment me...but it scared me to death. :-(

Anyways, it was a rough weekend, 2 orders each day..non were simple. Then Friday night, I get a call from a crying bride. She says she has no cake for her wedding, because the bakery that did it..did it in blue, instead of green, like her wedding colors. Then refused to fix the problem even after they realized it was their error. I was sad for her, really I was. I asked when the wedding was. She said, "tomorrow at 1."


8-O

oh...well, you know how much of a push over I am for a crying bride and cash...it threw of the schedule for the entire rest of the weekend, but I did the damn thing for her. In a night. An entire wedding cake...plus two other complicated cakes...on Saturday. I'm exhausted, but proud of myself. I celebrated with a margarita this evening, and some new hostas for my flower bed out front. I know, I live dangerously. xD

Here's the end result of hell weekend:








 wedding cake

   (inspired by Brandon smash)

  I spent at least 8 hours on this one...It is currently my second favorite, behind the white tiger.

Too Good to Sit On

So I got an order from a lady the other day for a cake shaped like a white tiger. She said it was for her daughter, and I assumed she  was small, so I started pitching the idea of a lovable cartoony version of the animal. She seemed a little uneasy when I suggested it, so I backtracked and asked how old the birthday girl would be. She said 28. OH, well...I guess we have to go realistic then. Yes, she says. Her daughter is obsessed with white tigers and has an entire room in her house devoted to them. OH...shit.

I accept the challenge, hang up the phone, and proceed to freak the hell out because I have NO IDEA how I'm going to pull off a realistic white tiger for a person who stares at the animals likeness on an extremely regular basis. hmm... oh, and also she wants it done with red velvet cake so that when you hack into the animal, it looks bloody. So, hurray for that. :-D

I was going to make it out of the 3D bear mold pan that I have, make it standing. But the more I got to looking at my 3D animal pans, it seemed like the little lamb pan might be a better fit, after all...most four legged creatures bodies look similar while in the laying down position...I guess. So, I mixed up my batter, set the pan in the oven, and an hour later I pull it out and find out the damn thing didn't rise. WTF? I've made literally 60+ cakes at this point, and not a one, didn't rise. Batch two proved to be a better go, and filled out the pan to the needed shape. I talked with my mom, and decided it may be best to make the head separately from the body, so I could work on added detail with more range of mobility. I fashioned the head mold out of rice crisp treat, and began covering it with fondant. I had printed SEVERAL pictures of white tigers at different angles and just heads and so forth, and used those as a guide for the molding and shaping of the head. I trimmed some excess and height from the lamb body, beheaded the poor little thing, and draped the carcass in fondant as well. Slap on some fondant feet and a tale, attach the head via a pike, er, kabob skewer, and there you have it....

I also sat and painted on all the stripes. As well as indenting here and there on the body itself for contouring and effect.  Here's an alternate view, where you can see the face better.

It's probably the best thing I've done in my meager career so far...don't ask how it came out of my hands, because I don't know. I don't even know if I could do it again...I told Matt that I'm scared now, that I may have just peaked...and it's downhill from here...let's hope not! 

so these cakes are to bring you up to speed...in case you're too lazy to check my site. The first cake is one I just finished, a princess castle thing that I did by copying a kit that costs 12-20 dollars for about 5 bucks. Made the turrets out of craft foam and the princesses were printed on paper then laminated with packing tape. Whalla...
Next was the 48 cupcakes that were a last minute order on Thursday. The theme was "summer" for a little girl turning two. I'm really pleased with the way they came out, and for it being last minute, I think it was great!
Next was the butterfly garden frenzie. There were three cakes, and 4 dozen cookies to this order..all butterflies and such. The cake was decorated with whipped icing this time instead of buttercream, and I was really pleased with the turn out, since whipped doesn't want to hold color for shit. Yay.
Next was the Bon Voyage cake I did for a regular customer of mine. She was moving away to Hawaii. :-(
Lucky girl. So I did this sheet cake as a gift. Just for fun.
Next was obviously a Halloween cake, round mold for the eyeball, and gummy body parts to complete the creepy look. 
Next was the dreaded Coach purse, that I worked really hard on, but didn't like the outcome. I also made the iPod and headphones myself out of fondant. And the tag with the birthday girls' names on it. 
And last but not least, the Magic jersey I did for a lady to surprise her husband for his birthday. He turned 22, hence the number on the jersey, in case any of you are magic fans and know that there isn't a #22 on the team. Right, so..plus 12 cookies decorated like basketballs. Yay for cake, and all that. Have two more orders this weekend. Should be pretty cool. 

R.

Cake....and more cake....

First the Carrot Cake, approx 5 inches high, two layer..each filled with Orange Cream Cheese Icing, with a layer of icing between cake layers. Hopefully was decadent...for a boring carrot cake.




Next, the Golf Cake. Chocolate cake,with a tasty Peanut Butter Fluff filling. Think, giant reese's cup. I had so much fun with my new grass making tip, that it was hard to stop adding grass to the cake. Probably the funnest cake I made all weekend.



The Wedding Cake...three tiers of yummy (I hope). Bottom was choc. with choc. ganache filling. Middle was White with Raspberry filling. Top was Lemon with Lemon Creme filling. Iced and covered in fondant. Satin sheen ribbon and silk flowers. Add glittery blue seaspray...and wha-la...wedding cake.



I also did a baby shower cake this weekend, but don't have pics of it yet. Hopefully I will get those soon. What a weekend. 4 more cakes this week. More to look at and drool or critique. Bye for now.

R.

And right there for a minute, I was busy

So, I haven't posted cake pics in a while, though last month was a doozey. Did 25 orders all together last month. A crazed amount. This month has been slow and mild in comparison, but the cakes I do have coming up are pretty awesome. I did get an impromptu order a couple days ago, from a lady in Colorado. Apparently, my little cake business is listed on a website called "The Gathering". I had no idea, until I asked her where she got my info from...so I checked it out, and it can be googled...I feel strangely out in the open now....

Anyway, she asked for a cake with a farm scene on it for her daughter's birthday. They own a farm in Colorado. So the animals were specific to the farm, and the colorings of the real animals. Everything else was up to me.  She paid me $50  to do the cake, though I quoted her a price of $32. I am pretty darn happy with the outcome:



So, up next lots of tiered cakes. A wedding on the 20th, a baby shower on the 21st, an anniversary cake on the 24th, and a princess cake for twins on the 27th. All tiered cakes. I do have one Halloween order, a sheet cake with a cake eyeball on top and edible spiders. Then there's the alligator shaped, banana flavored cake at the end of the month...spooky, huh?  

Cake day from hell...

I had two orders due today. The first was the Baby Block cake for the shower. I was initially very excited about the order, because it gave me a good chance to try some decadent fillings, and try to challenge myself construction wise. Umm. so in MY opinion, it was a disaster. Block 1 was white cake with strawberry filling. The filling is awesome, and the cakes baked up pretty well, so I thought it was smooth sailing. I leveled everything off, added fillings and layers, all went well. But every time I tried to put the coat of buttercream on it, it would just fall right off, taking pieces of the cake with it.

:-O

I chilled it in the fridge, and came back to it, and it was still REALLY crumbley, but I did manage to get enough buttercream on it to overlay it with fondant. The batch of fondant that I made was awesome, it rolled out really well. I put the cake on the board, laid over the fondant, and it looked pretty good. But by the time I had the second block ready to put on the board, it had done a slide. Not a terrible slide, but a noticeable one considering the cake is supposed to be BLOCK shaped, not rhombus shape or whatever the fuck. I put the second block on, iced it fairly easily, and covered in fondant. I then inserted two support dowls into the cakes. These are pretty sturdy dowls, so I thought for sure that with a little kanoodling, Block 1 would shape up, and look like block 2. Block 2 was chocolate cake with an chocolate orange ganache filling. Block two ended up being the only block that stayed block shaped. I was up until 5 this morning trying to finish, and fix the cake. I took a two hour nap, and when I got back up at 7, the damage was done. The fondant was not completely adhering in Block 1, causing bubbling and cracking. Block 2 remained decent, but the top block was LEAKING vanilla cream, down the back of the cake. Through the fondant. I did a lot of paper towel dabbing, and soul searching, and a bit of crying before I called the lady. I told her over the phone that the cake had slid. She said she wanted to see it before she made her decision. She came, and absolutely LOVED the cake. She said it was a little droopy, but totally exceeded her expectations. The lady that came with her to get the cake also loved it and said it was "darling". I think it was quite possibly the WORST cake experience yet, and did not agree with either of them. She paid full price for the cake, and wisked it away. I DID NOT TAKE A PICTURE OF THAT HORRIBLE CAKE. I just wanted it gone away from me. But she said she would email me pics at some point...guh.

Then it was on to the next cake, which I had originally wanted to at least bake off last night, but the block cake took over the evening. Long story short, it wasn't done at 6 this evening when they came to pick it up, and the girl stood and watched me finish the cake. Did I mention Elora was screaming the whole time because she wanted to eat the cupcakes that went with the order? Nerve wracking enough without a total stranger standing in your dining room watching your every move. Holy shit what a day. So glad that the next thing I have to do isn't cake.  


I will sleep well tonight. Cause I don't have to make a cake tomorrow. I need a break.