TamaraLynCakes

There has been a whole slew of cakes over the last year that I have not posted about, but I figured I could at least post some pics and little about them now.  Where to begin…

Cupcake Fun

  Hello Kitty

  Glamor night

Movie night popcorn boxes

Gotta love the mouse…Chuck E Cheese!

“You saved our lives.  We are eternally grateful!”

Baby Showers

Birthday Cakes

My daughter’s first slumber party – American Girl style!

Let’s bowl, let’s bowl, let’s rock and roll!

And last but not least, the very special first birthday of sweet Eli.  The last post I made over a year ago before my long break was about a baby shower for a dear friend who was having her first baby.  It is hard to believe how much time has gone by, but Eli turned 1 back in February.  Well, technically he didn’t have a birthday because he is leap baby!  It has been a privileged and a joy to get to watch this little boy grow over the last year and watch him with lots of firsts.  He holds a special place in my heart and I love him like a nephew, so of course I wanted to make his birthday cake!  It matched the hat he wore on his big day.  Too bad I don’t have a picture of him with the cake. 

It’s been a great year and I enjoyed the break from cake making for a bit, but it feels good to get back into the creative swing of things!

I was so excited this past fall when some of our good friends told us they were going to have their first baby. It has been so much fun to share in their joy throughout the last several months. As she got closer to her due date, I had the privilege of helping to host a baby shower for Ellie. They found out back in the fall that they were having a boy. Ellie is very creative and likes to sew and has worked as an interior designer. You can imagine all the cute things she has done for the nursery!! When she decided to go with a safari theme, it sent my mind on all kinds of little rabbit trails of ideas I could do for her cake. But in the end, I found the perfect plates and napkins for her shower and that became the inspiration for her cake. As with all my cakes, my heart and soul was in every little detail. It is always special for me to make cakes for people as they celebrate important occasions, but all the more so when it is a dear friend. I think this cake turned out very cute, but cutting all the stripes and spots was definitely a labor of love!!

I was truly thankful for the opportunity to help celebrate this exciting time for Ellie and Keith.  I was also glad we had the shower when we did because baby Eli decided to make an early entrance into the world!!  He is 7 weeks old today and I don’t know how, but he gets cuter and cuter every time I see him!!

Welcome to the world sweet Eli!!  We love you buddy!

After my 9 month hiatus, it has felt really good to jump back into my cake batter and buttercream world.  Even with the aching hands and mind swirling with details, I have loved putting my creativity back to work.  I have been able to make two cakes in the last few weeks for some very special events.  The first was for the daughter of a friend who was taking her first communion.  I was honored that she would ask me to be, in a small way, a part of this special even in her daughter’s life.  I was glad I was able to find the time to help her out.

First Communion

The other cake I made was for a dear friend, Jamie.  She has three boys 5 and under and she is pregnant with her fourth child…a GIRL!!!!  We are all so excited about this sweet baby girl that the Lord is blessing this family with and we couldn’t wait to celebrate her.  When plans were being made for throwing a baby shower, Jamie called me and asked me if I would make the cake for the shower.  It was a very sweet request that I could not refuse.  In  her words…”I would much rather have you make a gorgeous very personal cake for the shower than just some stranger at a bakery.”  It was so much fun to come up with something that I thought Jamie would love and that went along with the theme of baby Elleanor’s room.

Cherry Blossoms

It has been a busy few weeks but I have enjoyed it so much!!  I have one more cake I am making this week and then I will take a little break for the summer.

Wow!!  The last three months have flown by as we spent time traveling, seeing friends and family and trying to survive the Texas heat.    I have had the chance to do several cakes this summer, but not had time to write about them and post pictures.  So, this will be one long post about them all. 

Chugga Chugga Choo Choo

This cute little train cake was for a friend whose son was turning 2.  She made the invitations herself and they were so cute I tried to model the cake after them.  I love being able to use invitations and party themes to create my cake designs!

Eiffel Tower

I was asked to do the cake for a baby shower for a gal who was pregnant with her fifth child…it was a girl after having 4 boys!!  As you can imagine, they went ALL pink.  They were doing a Paris theme so and they wanted cupcakes along with a small cake for her take home after the shower.  I came up with the idea of doing a little Eiffel Tower on top of the small cake and decorate the cupcakes in shades of pink.  I LOVE how this turned out – so beautiful and elegant for the little princess!!

I loved the picture of the table of all the food and cakes at the shower – it was so pretty all together.

Pretty in Pink

I have a very dear friend who is getting married in October who used to live here in Austin.  She came back for a visit this summer and we decided to throw her a lingerie shower.  I had fun trying to create some cute and tasteful pieces to go on our cupcake tower…the hangers were my favorite! 

It’s been fun summer but it’s back to school today for the kids.  Stay tuned, I will post pictures from my middle daughter’s birthday soon.

“Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.”  Psalm 127:3

Children truly are a blessing from God.  I have had the chance to be a part of celebrating several of those blessings recently.  I consider it an honor to be a part of these events.

The first was for a baptism for a friend’s son.  The cake was a white cake with raspberry filling and chocolate butter cream, covered in fondant.  I love how this cake turned out – the cross and the dove carry so much symbolism of our faith and it was fun to be able to bring that out in this cake.

Amy, Max’s mom, wrote me the week after the party to let me know how much they loved the cake.  Here is what she told me:  “I just wanted to thank you for Max’s baptism cake.  It was beautifully made and delicious.  My family could not stop raving about it on Sunday.”  Hearing that from her brought me such pleasure. 

The other cake I did was for a friend of mine who is pregnant with her first baby.  I have the pleasure of getting to meet with several international women every week to help them with their English as well as teach them about American culture as well as Christianity.  It has been a true joy to get to know these women.  This baby shower was so fun and special – a first hand look into a fun American tradition for these friends.  I loved creating this cute little cake in blues and greens to celebrate a sweet baby boy my friend will be having in a matter of weeks!!    I am so excited for her!

I have had a busy few weeks with making cakes for several different occasions.  The first was for a baby shower for a friend who is having a little girl.  After talking with her sister and figuring out what kind of design they wanted, I decided on the cute two tiered pink and brown cake below.  I had a lot of fun with this because i got to do a lot of fun detail work with my new fondant ribbon cutter I just got! 

I just love the pink and brown colors together and it was fun to play with the different geometric shapes to get this cute design.  We talked about making sugar baby booties or using plastic but then I had the idea to buy a cute pair of shoes that she could give her sister after the shower was over.  The result was cuter than I could have imagined.  What I love about this design is that it is so versatile…could be done in many color schemes for a boy or a girl, with or without the shoes.  This cake was a vanilla cake with a custard filling and almond butter cream icing.  The other decorations are made out of rolled fondant.

I think this is my favorite cake, to date! I am just glad I was not there when they cut in to it!!

Several months ago, I had a friend ask me if I do wedding cakes.  I told her I have not yet, but would be very interested in getting to do one.  She referred her sister to me and after meeting her and her fiance, they asked to make their wedding cake and groom’s cake.  The wedding is next month and I am very excited about the challenge.

But before I get to the wedding, I was asked by the family to do a few other cakes for them.  The first was this bridal shower cake…”Love is in the Air.”  I spent some time chatting with my friend about different color schemes and decorations they wanted to use for the shower.  I came up with the design for this cake and knew it would be beautiful, if I could actually create what I had in mind.  I was not quite sure how to execute it, but I had fun figuring it out and I was VERY pleased with the outcome.

I started with the umbrella and the hearts, which are all made of fondant that I allowed to dry for several days.  I placed the umbrella top on a sphere cake pan that was turned upside down to get the shape just right.  Once it was sufficiently dried, I used royal icing as glue to attach the umbrella to a fondant covered dowel for the handle.  Lastly I “glued” the hearts on the umbrella as if they were being showered down.  A little cheesy, but I LOVE how it looked.  The most satisfying part of it all was when my 6 year old daughter said to me in awe, “Mommy, it looks like it is raining hearts!!”  That was exactly what I was going for!!  Thank you, Madi, for being Mommy’s biggest fan!

The cake was a german chocolate cake with traditional coconut pecan filling and white chocolate buttercream icing.  Yum Yum!!