A Piece of Cake: April 2013

This past weekend I went to the North Texas Cake show. It was my first time going to a big show like this. I had signed up to do another entry also in the cupcake catagory, but after having a severe allergic reaction last week and being hospitalized...I was just happy to be able to pull this one off the night before the show! There were so many amazing cakes there and such talented cake artist!

I've been wanting to try this billowing effects for awhile now. I found a great tutorial here http://thejoyofcake.shutterfly.com/tutorials/4

The ribbon flowers I just kinda figured out ...I may snap a few pics and post a tutorial on here soon.

Fondant billowed cake with ribbon flowers

And an order of Teacup cookies....made to match the design of the tea cups being used

Howdy guys! Well, after being MIA for almost a year, I'm finally updating my blog. Wow...a whole year!! Just Doesn't seem possible. Let's see, after my last post in January of 2012, I got very sick. I had silent reflux mainly due to stress, followed by esophagus erosion, liquid diet, etc.. I was still taking on orders and working, but not able to do as many as I once could. Skip ahead to the Summer, and we found out we were moving from West Texas to the Dallas area! It had been in the works for awhile, and we were very excited about the move for our family. Although, I was super sad to leave my business that I had built up for 5 years, and all my wonderful friends and clients. I had spent every Saturday morning getting to visit with my customers as they came to pick up their cakes. Some customers had been with me from the very begining, they had gotten their wedding, baby shower, first Birthday cake and beyond from me. All of that was very special and I loved my job dearly....but I had let myself get burnt out. It was affecting my health and my Family. This move to Rockwall was probably the only thing that would have pulled me out of it. I wasn't able to see that until we had moved, and I now had time to spend with my four kids. I wasn't always rushing or missing things at school because I "had cakes to finish" I wasn't always stressed. I honestly didn't think I would ever get back into "caking" and I was perfectly OK with that for about 6 months. I had a nice long break, my hands healed up ( all you decorators out there know what I'm talking about! You wouldn't think about cake-related injuries...but most of us cake peeps have horrible carpal tunnel ) but, I started missing it and I'm now back to decorating and baking! I'm doing it "on the side" this time. No more 6 cake weekends, or doubled up wedding cakes.I'm going to find a balance of the work that I love to do, and my family. Anyhoo...I didn't mean to write a novel here, but wanted to explain my disappearance! I had always heard of the dreaded "burnout" amongst cake artist, but didn't think it would happen to me. A word of advice to other decorators...don't overdo it! Don't be afraid to say no. Take a break from it every once in a while if you need to. I'm excited to about starting over again here in the Dallas area and getting to meet new clients...and I'm very happy to be back to enjoying it again. : )

Here are a few pics to fill in for the year I was gone. Some are from back in Midland/Odessa and some are new orders here in Rockwall.