Biker Babe

I don't think I've put a picture of my youngest little girl on this blog, but I couldn't resist sharing this one! How can anyone resist that sweet little face? Spoiled...oh no! Not this one...not at all!!!

Fondant/Gum Paste class #4 and a great class it was!

Finished this class tonite and everyone's cakes turned out to be beautiful works of art as you can tell. Thank you Belinda - again we learned a lot from you and look forward to learning more and the opportunity to share even more tips and ideas in the future. You are a great teacher and this was, once again, a great class. The white cake with the pink and purple daisies is Ashley's final cake, the pink and coffee colored one with daisies is my final cake, the yellow and white cake is Sonia's and the pink and white cake is Veronica's. And, once again, we had fun and made some new friends. Good job by all!

More Cake Classes

After so many things happening between the last 'official' cake decorating class that Ashley and I took and now, we are finally able to take the final class that Wilton offers for cake decorating - 'Fondant and Gum Paste'. Lesson #1 was a quick replay of previous lessons after which we learned the process of covering a cake base with fondant. Lesson #2 was using that covered cake base, adding fondant to the cake we brought and using gum paste to make this drape and some simple flowers. This is the completed practice cake that I made for that class. I missed Lesson #3 in lieu of making the cupcake 'pops' for my Keno group (see 'A request for cupcakes' below), but Ashley assures me that I can catch up and be ready for Lesson #4. Stay tuned for our final graduation cake using all the techniques that this class has taught us.

Awesome Kyle Field Cake!

Ashley sent me these pictures this evening after she'd spent the day delivering and setting up a cake designed to look 'exactly' like Kyle Field http://football.ballparks.com/NCAA/Big12/TexasA&M/index.htm at Texas A&M University. Her co-worker, Amber and her have spent weeks designing it and working on it. It was a Groom's cake for a reception held at the Fort Worth Club http://www.fortworthclub.com/. As you can tell it's huge so it took several trips from the bakery http://www.cremedelacremecatering.com/ and lots of work to get it completed in time for the reception but they pulled it off with only a little time to spare. I am a little jealous but ever so proud that she's finally doing what she really wants to do and is apparently pretty darned good at!

A request for cupcakes....

...turned into an excuse to experiment with something new and different for Treasured Cakes to make. I was asked to make some 'Spring themed' cupcakes for my Keno group and was having a hard time deciding just what I could make that would 'impress'. While cruising the cyberspace highway, I read about and was intrigued by a blog on http://bakerella.blogspot.com/ about 'cupcake pops' and decided that this might be the perfect way to come up with something that would bring thoughts of Spring to mind and impress all at the same time. Fortunately, for me, it did both. And I took the extras to work the following day, in another flower pot, and they were equally delighted and impressed! Both groups claimed these cupcakes were totally decadent and a few even claimed they were the best they'd ever eaten!!!!!! Just for the record - these are made with red velvet cake mixed with cream cheese (on the inside) and then dipped in candy molds (shaped to look like the bottom of a cupcake) filled with melted chocolate. The tops are then dipped in pink tinted white chocolate. Each one has a candy/sucker stick stuck into the bottom and is individually wrapped and tied w/a green ribbon.

Walk for the Cure - Tyler, TX

The family (mom, daughter/Ashley, brother/Gary & SIL/Debbie) and myself did the 5K 'Walk for the Cure' in Tyler on the Saturday prior to Mother's Day. It was lots of fun and a great event for an even better cause. In addition to losing my father this past year, my SIL lost her mother to breast cancer so it was doubly meaningful for all of us. We all found out that 5K (3.3 miles I think) was a little harder than we'd anticipated but mostly because it was mostly on brick streets that wound thru some of the neighborhoods of downtown Tyler - a beautiful area really. It was a great time and a good way to spend some special 'family' time together doing something that was important to us all.

A Re-Trip to The Shed Cafe & Blue Moon Nursery

A truly terrific day we had on Saturday (the 3rd of May). Ashley, Aunt Margie and I drove to Edom to meet my Uncle Charlie, Aunt Frances & Mom for lunch at The Shed Cafe http://www.theshedcafe.com/. This place is crazy good and crazy popular (for motorcyclists and non-motorcyclists as well). The service is great, the food is great, the crowd is a total mixture of everything imaginable. I LOVE THIS PLACE and this tiny historic little town in E.Texas.

After a great 'country' lunch (we all ordered the sweet potato fries & black eyed peas and our 'protein of choice' - mine was fried catfish fillets which were waaaayyyy gooood), we went back to the Arbor Castle Birdhouses shop http://arborcastlebirdhouses.com/. This is a must see for sure and the website is just a little taste of the of walking thru this amazing place. This little store has the most creative and whimsical birdhouses I've ever seen and the rest of the group was in total agreement. This was my 2nd trip and I couldn't wait to share with everybody else.

After our walk thru downtown Edom, including our 2nd trip to the most amazing and whimsical bird house place I've ever seen, we went to Blue Moon Gardens http://www.bluemoongardens.com/, aexperience pprox 4 1/2 miles from downtown Edom, which is another great place to visit/tour. We all wandered around in amazement at all the fairy gardens, the gnomes, the mosaic animals and yes, all the gorgeous plants! This is, for me, the ultimate nursery. They have everything you could possibly want in the way of plant and much more....in the way of 'fairy gardens', knick knacks, custom jewelry, gnomes, books, etc. They also offer 'how-to' classes which is something that I'll be looking into for sure.