"Say not in grief he is no more - but live in thankfulness that he was" ~ Hebrew Proverb

Life is both beautiful and tragic.  Slow moving, yet fleeting.  Blink and you miss so much.

I am usually asked to create confections for happy events and milestones: birthdays, anniversaries, and so on.  But, with every joyful event there are unfortunately sorrowful ones, as well.

In June 2007, Cpl. Scott Wheeler was struck by a car while conducting a speed enforcement detail.  He succumbed to his injuries only days later.  He was 31 years old.

Scott's wife, Tracy, along with Scott's family, friends, and co-workers formed the Scott Wheeler 5051 Foundation, Ltd in memory of Scott's sacrifice and dedication to his law enforcement career.  The Foundation provides support and financial assistance to those who have suffered tragic loss or injury.  Tracy was gracious enough to ask me to do specially designed cookies for the event.  I was grateful to be able to contribute to such a wonderful cause.

Since the theme for the 2nd Annual Bull Roast is Irish based, she asked for green shamrock cookies.  She also though the law enforcement thin blue line and Scott's "badge" number would be a good addition.  Here's the result...

Although your end of watch was much too soon into your career, your legacy will live on through your family and friends.  We are grateful to have had the time we shared with you.

May your home always be too small to hold all your friends...

An old Irish Blessing that has meant so much to our family has been, "May your home always be too small to hold all your friends."  It's a wish and a prayer for someone to have so many friends in their life that they can't fit all of them in their home at once.  To have many close friends that would do anything to help you out is a true blessing.

One of those friends of ours threw a St. Patrick's Day party.  We threw some ideas around and came up with this cake...

I started with three cakes... yes, I said three!  I baked one devil's food cake and two marble cakes.  To the marbled cake I added green coloring to in order to keep with the spirit of the cake. What can I say, I love details.

I layered these cakes with green (of course!) buttercream icing and stacked them.  Next, I covered the cake board and stacked cakes with green fondant.  I used black fondant to create the band around the smokestack and a gold buckle in the front.  I painted gold luster dust on the buckle to make it shimmer.  I used excess fondant to create a four-leaf clover/shamrock tucked into the band.

I completed the concept with a pot of gold on top of the hat, because what's a leprechaun without some gold.  I used more of the black fondant to create a cauldron, which I filled with gold chocolate coins.  To a certain little someone, this was one of her favorite parts of the cake -- lol!  But, I just couldn't stop there!  I took Duff's wire curly-cues to give the effect of gold bursting out of the pot.  I flattened gold fondant "coins" on the ends of the wires and painted them with more of the gold luster dust.

 I have to say, I'm pretty happy with the end result.  There are always things I feel I need to work on, but overall I'm impressed with the skills I have considering I've never had any formal training. Oh, well!  A special thank you to Colleen and Scott for letting me make them a cake to show-off.  ; )  Thank you again for sharing your home with us -- We had a great time!  Here's to a job well done.  Sláinte!

Every Day Is A SuRpRiSe!

Shortly after I got the website, Facebook page, and this blog up and running, I received an OVERWHELMING response!  I received a whole lot of compliments, 4 new jobs, and one person asking if I ship to other states -- LOL!  I'm still speechless.  And, needless to say, I will have several more postings to come.

Thank you everyone for helping me make this business a success already!!!

A Big Celebration For A Very Little Man

My father-in-law's co-worker is expecting a baby and the office wanted to throw her a baby shower.  Mom-to-be Angela and Baby Quincy will be getting a very special surprise from Sweet Dreams...

"Baby Quincy" Under a Blanket cake

I was asked to do a half-chocolate, half-yellow sheet cake for approximately 30 guests.  I placed the cakes side-by-side and layered them with a darker blue buttercream.  The whole cake was iced in a medium blue buttercream, which really did not want to cooperate with me today.  Due to our unseasonably warm weather, the buttercream melted slightly and settled and the white royal icing border also decided to take a snowball on a hot summer day look.  How disappointing!



Up close of "Baby Quincy"

But, you can't deny that the end result was still super cute!  "Quincy's" head was made using rice krispie treats formed into a ball and covered in skin-toned fondant.  Eyes were painted on using color gel.  And the nose and pacifier were also created with fondant.  The hands were shaped in skin-toned fondant to give a "little hands" effect -- you know, those adorably fat little hands and chubby fingers babies always seem to have.



I tried to capture the shape of little hands and fingers
Quincy's sign was handpainted with color gel

 They expressed interest in having Quincy's name on the cake and I thought where better than front and center.  I rolled a piece of white fondant and cut the edges to create a "sign" effect.  Quincy's name was handpainted to complete the look.

I was provided with a napkin from the party supplies to try to coordinate everything...

The theme and colors for the party.

 

I was able to re-create those colors with the fondant...

 Not too bad if I do say so myself!  But, talk about trial and error... I thought I really messed it up when I added the black to the darker blue and it started to take on a purple hue.  After alot more kneading, it really started to come together.  Let me tell you something, NO ONE needs push-ups or a gym once you start working with fondant!  Talk about a work-out -- Whew!  I'm gonna be sore tomorrow  ; p

With those colors, I chose to do a patchwork quilt that would go over "Quincy's" head.  I arranged the patches and "glued" them down.  I then used a fondant embroidery tool to make "stiches" and "seams".  I ran those along both sides of the patches and around the border, as well as out from the corners.  I also used the colors to form a pacifier for "Quincy".

...for the quilt...

 

...and his pacifier.

A special thanks to Mark and Tina for asking me to do the cake in the first place.  : )  Congratulations Angela and I hope I get a chance to meet Quincy when he arrives!  Thank you again for making Sweet Dreams a part of your very special day!

Marketing Strategies

A friend of mine is having a St Patty's Day bash at her house for a group of people.  So, I couldn't resist but offer to do a cake.  She told me her boyfriend was actually growing lambchops and wearing a leprechaun hat for the event because he really gets into the holiday.  Needless to say I laughed alot then came up with the idea for a leprechaun hat cake.  I'm thinking a kelly green three-tier cake with green layering, fondant brim and belt with buckle, and shamrock, of course.  After further consideration on cake stability, I plan on adding in a black cauldron on top with gold coins falling everywhere.  This is going to be a blast!

Another cake request... WOW!

I was contacted to do another cake for the coworker of a relative.  They are throwing a baby shower for her at the office and wanted to have a nice cake done.  The theme is blue and green.  I came up with an idea and ran it by the woman coordinating the event.  We agreed to a sheet cake with a baby poking it's head out from underneath a blanket.  I can't wait to get started!

My first job!

My friend's son loved my son's 1st birthday smash cake so much, he wanted a football cake for his birthday, too.  Needless to say his version was just a little bigger than my son's.  He loves the Redskin's, so colors were created to coordinate with that.  His twin sister was also celebrating her birthday too and wanted a pink and black zebra stripe cake.  I had never worked with fondant before and was VERY nervous about how it would turn out.  But, I love a challenge and wanted to try anyway.

I started with the football cake which was a yellow cake with chocolate buttercream frosting covering it and layered on the inside.  I added some white royal icing "stiches" and his name and jersey number on either side of the cake.  I filled his name with gold gel and did a scalloped border around the base of the cake in burgandy.  He made a special request to have the starting line-up's jersey numbers on the cake board.  Here's the finished product...

His sister's cake was much more complicated.  I started with a two-tier chocolate cake layered with white buttercream frosting.  I mixed a pink fondant and covered the cake in that.  Next, I rolled, pressed, and "glued" the stripes to the cake in a zebra pattern.  I got to be a little artsy on this one.  She had expressed interest in having yellow added in somehow.  So, I did a buttercup yellow puff border in royal icing.  I shaped additionall fondant to create her name on the top of the cake and dusted it with edible pink glitter.  I accented the stripes and her name with silver glitter gel icing to complete the diva vibe.  In addition to the cake, I handmade pink pom-poms out of tissue paper and curling ribbon (she's a cheerlear, so we just had to get that in somewhere!).  She apparently loved it so much, everytime one of her guests would arrive, she would show them her cake... that made my day!!

I'm so glad you both had a great 9th birthday!!!

So it begins...

It all began with my son's first birthday party.  I had resigned from my previous job almost a year before because of issues with childcare and my husband's and my work schedules.  Our employers weren't willing to work with us and we were both forced to leave.  Since then, I had been floundering looking for a job (which has been beyond difficult due to the economy).  So, I settled in at home and tried to enjoy my "freedom".

Since I had so much spare time, I did TONS of planning for my son's first birthday.  My husband and I are big Raven's fans, so we opted for a football theme.  In my planning, I found a great idea (I'm sorry to say it wasn't originally mine).  It was a football jersey cake.  It was pretty simple... You take a sheet cake and cut off a third of it.  Take that third and cut it into two rectangles then cut off a corner and attach it to the upper portion of the cake.  Seriously, it wasn't as hard as I make it sound.

Anyway, I did a Raven's jersey cake and a smaller football "smash cake" for my son to dive into.  For those of you who don't know, a "smash cake" is a child-portion cake specfically for a baby to tear into for a photo op.  They are so much fun and my son ended up such a mess that he went straight to the bathtub from the highchair.  Here are some photos of the cakes...

Raven's Jersey Cake for my son's 1st birthday, complete with name and a number 1. 
(I'm sorry the photo doesn't reflect the true colors I created.)

Football Smash Cake

Because of that party, I've had friends asking to do cakes for their parties now.  The son of a friend of mine wanted a larger version of my son's smash cake as his birthday cake.  Who am I to disappoint??