Blake's Transportation Party

My friend Lindy from like a decade ago--we graduated from high school almost a decade ago...yikes/yippee--celebrated her Blakey's birthday with a block party where sweet munchkins took to the streets on wheels. At her request I mimicked a Hello Naomi car cake for the hoopla.

I wish I could say I made those gorgeous cupcakes. I wish more that I had one in my mouth right now and another in my hand to put in my mouth. Vanilla on vanilla...my favorite. So there you have it, the recipe for a happy boy: friends, wheels, and treats.

Happy Birthday

Today happens to be my brother's birthday, but this is also a shout out to you all for checking in. Wedding season has destroyed my free time and I've missed blogging (and yet, here I am posting a personal cake, not a client's and while I'm on the subject, could anyone else eat white on white cake for every meal forever?) but I have a lot of cakes to share. So happy birthday and see you soon.

A Few Recent Cakes

 

Rainbow rosette cake for a quinceanera with the theme "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." 

 

This cake was for a stunning redhead and her vintage wedding. I have to throw in redhead because I'm married to one and might be obsessed with them. This image is from Amy Dixon Photography.

Dr. Seuss baby shower! Such a fun cake to make.

Kjell's Train Cake and Party

When you make your children have "Black & White" and "French" themed parties before they have any say-so, and when they're old enough to care they stick diligently to "train party" for months before their 3rd birthday despite your strong nudges toward "Volcano Party", I'd say you had it coming.

Does anyone not love ice-cream cake? I decided to make one for this event and since an ice-cream cake can't sit out for an hour whilst it's decorated, I knew it was time to pull out my candle-making skills from my college job in the basement of a lovely South African family with three of my best friends in our swimsuits. But I digress.

Candy trains, cardboard trains, and conductor hats were all super inexpensive elements of the party (more to come on the possibilities of cardboard).

I liked the idea of having the kids bring the tickets they received in the mail and My Buddy thoroughly enjoyed punching and stamping them. These beauties were created by Pink Piggy Design. Megan, I loved how they turned out!

last 2 images by yan photo

Kiana's Gold and PinkPeach Birthday Cake and Party

Remember Jane? Well apparently the family loves surprises. Her daughter, Kiana, had the surprise birthday bash of the century complete with gold, sequins, a mocktini bar, and the color pinkpeach which I'm going to see if I can have trademarked.

The rest of these images are from Jane's blog. Check it out for the endless details of this sweet bash and many other parties.

 

Happy surprises win! Isn't she cute? Such a special shot of Kiana and her parents just adoring each other.

Clara's Woodland Fairy Cake and Party

My niece Clara had a very sweet woodland fairy tea party complete with birdhouse making, Irish dancing,wands, ribbons, sparkles...lots of magic. The cake was layered and frosted in a strawberry buttercream. I don't doubt woodland fairies do their share of downing strawberries. And mushrooms, but you can see my reasons for going full-on with the strawberries. Clara twirled like a good fairy should. Is there any doubt she was on mushroom cloud nine?

Jane's Signature Cake

 Funny story...Jane emails me to order cakes for some upcoming birthdays including her own. Days later, Dusty calls me to order a cake for his wife's birthday. He wants it for the same day Jane wants hers. Turns out Dusty is Jane's husband.  This resulted in the following:

Dusty asking me to tell Jane I can't since he wants it to be a surprise.
Me telling Jane I can't make her cake. Embarrassing. But worth it in the end.
Dusty suggesting an Albertson's cake to Jane.
Me making a replica of the Pink Peach Signature Cake.
Me sneaking past her dinner table at Cedars of Lebanon (and incidentally a belly dancer) with the cake in hand.
Jane having the best birthday surprise of her life!!! Ok, maybe just an awesome surprise.

  Images from Jane Rhodes
It was sneaky good fun being in on this. And caking good fun making the Signature Cake. It's a favorite to do. Also, props to Dusty for knowing what that wife of his. I'm channeling my birthday wishes to Mr. Cali telepathically now.

Nola's Birthday Cake

Today I'm running around prepping for my baby girl's first bday party. Everyone discounts first birthday parties because, "they won't remember it," but aren't babies so deserving? I'm excited to see my little nugget (who suffers a milk allergy and has only known Oreos and Jelly Bellys) eat. some. cake.

Along those lines, let me share with you some images from my friend Kelsey of her Muffin's birthday and a little cake I made for her.  Isn't Nola sweet?

Kites

I love flying kites. I love flying kites on the beach even more...but that's another post (it's not really).  Seeing a kite in the sky and holding the other end of the string is a magical feeling! I'm wiping away magical tears right now. We live near and dear to a windy park and it seems like any day of the week we could get our fly on.

an innocent bystander in magical awe

Maybe you've seen some of the kitey celebrations circulating Blogland, but here are two of my faves.

what tops homemade kites?

 

Tracy Lau

 Ashley Rose via Green Wedding Shoes

Liam's Cowboy Cake

Liam's mother was such a breeze to work with. She told me her soon-to-be one-year-old (I'm not afraid to use hyphens) needed a cowboy cake and said, "I will love anything you do." I hope she meant it because I took some liberties with that theme. A little off-topic but, don't we all love the name Liam?

Noah's Hoedown

My nephew had an Autumn Harvest birthday extravaganza I wanted to share with you lovely celebraters. His mother had all manner of sweet farming, hoedown happiness happening. Everywhere you looked there was farm fun, which is perfect since they live in a beautiful rural bubble in the middle of the normal world. And If you can't tell, we had a blast.

I supplied some pumpkin pie-pops. Stay tuned this week for a pie-pop tutorial!

I don't believe you've met My Buddy

The hilarious birthday boy

My farm-loving family