Oreo's, Saints, & The Braves!

Hi again everyone! It's about 2am and I just finished my latest cake and wanted to share.


I was approached by a co-worker and friend to make a baby shower cake for her soon-to-be-here grandson. Sonia and her family are huge Saints fans, in fact this is the 2nd Saints theme I've done for her.


We decided this one would have baby shoes on top and rather than conventional baby blues, we'd go Saints gold, black & white... below are the reults along with some progression steps... enjoy!


The cake is a 3-layer cookies & cream mix filled with Oreo's...
...and it seemed to pass the preliminary taste-test!

I covered this one in a yummy white chocolate ganache, one of my standards. For all you other cakers reading, if you haven't used ganache under your fondant, you simply MUST try it! Aside from the great taste, it smooths sooooo easily and you can really get some sharp edges with it... I highly recommend it.

Now, I've only made one shoe prior to this (I'll show you in a later post), and I saw a picture of the cutest baby Converse high-tops and had to try them too! I initially started making them in baby blue until Sonia corrected me and and reminded me, this was a Saints baby! Silly me, what was I thinking!



The sneakers are made from fondant with some Tylose mixed in to help them firm up and hold their shape. I think they turned out pretty cute, what do you think? How about that logo, personalized with the little one's name? I LOVE my edible image printer!

I think this one turned out great! Complete with chocolate rattle and plaque, this one is 100% edible!

Now, personally, I'm not really a football fan, although I have made several football themed cakes... I'm more partial to The Boys of Summer. Thanks to my good friend Tim, I'm now completely addicted to the Tampa Bay Rays! Next weekend (after the Alice in Wonderland premier of course!) we're taking a road trip and I'm graduating to America's team... Go Braves! Champion Stadium, here we come!

That's all for tonight, I'm off to watch some late night tv and practice up on my 'Tomahawk Chop'..
... until next time

A Very Important Date!

One of my very favorite books, story, tale, movie... is coming to the big screen again. Revamped and told by the dynamic duo of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp... or maybe I should say Terriffic Trio and add Helena Bonham Carter to the mix. Alice in Wonderland, I mean really, can it get any better than this???

Any true fan can draw the lines between these 3 folks and connect them in countless combinations. Top of my list being Sweeney Todd, Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
Who knew Johnny and Helena had those voices? Wow! Didn't Mrs. Lovett and Mr. Todd almost make those meat pies appetizing! 


Now, together again as the Mad Hatter and The Red Queen it's almost sensory overload! I am so excited for March 5th to arrive. We've been waiting for this movie for what seems like forever. Let me intorduce you to some of Wonderland's key players...

Ah, the Mad Hatter. Johnny Depp, I'm so excited that one of my favorite actors is playing my favorite character! Did you know that many actual hatters really were quite mad? It seems that mercury was used to cure the felt that made the hats. Over-inhalation of mercury is known to cause neurological damage and could have easily explained the madness!

The Red Queen. Isn't she just delicious?!? It took about 3 hours every day to transform Helena into the firey-haired, quick-tempered, overreacting, decapitation-hungry, Red Queen. I love her, obviously.

The stunning Anne Hathaway plays the White Queen, sister of the Red. The White Queen is, of course the good sister... or is she? She actually seems to have a little touch of evil buried inside her, don't let her beauty fool you!

Mia Wasikowska, who plays Alice, is 5 feet 4 inches in real life, but Alice changes size throughout the course of her adventures in Wonderland, ranging from 6 inches to 2 feet to a maximum of 20 feet tall.
*** 
Wonderland and the Hatter's Tea Party were the inspiration for my choice in name for the Cakery. I was always intrigued with the madness of the cast of characters and the chaos of the 'Unbirthday Party', and I thought... The Red Queen controlled Wonderland , the whimsy, the cakes, and hey, I happen to have red hair, it was just meant to be titled 'Red Queen Cakery'! 


Here's a little Wonderland Fact: The potion Alice drinks to shrink is called Pishsolver. The cake she eats to grow is called Upelkuchen. Now, I've never made Upelkuchen, but I have made many cakes! One of my very first cakes was for my friend Ana's baby shower. She's also a big Wonderland fan. Baby Alyce (Alyce huh? hmm another Wonderland namesake!) was coming and we need a Wonderland themed cake. I almost bit off more than I could chew at the time with this Topsy Turvy creation.

This cake was a monster and almost made me throw in the towel, in fact I may have actually shed a tear over this one! Almond Joy was the flavor of choice.
The bottom tier represented Alice, the colors are taken from her dress.
The middle tier represents another favorite of mine, the Cheshire Cat. Always smiling and always speaking in riddles. I was not smiling during this cake's creation!
Top tier is of course my hero, The Mad Hatter.

Did you know the 10/6 on his hat actually represented something? 10 shillings and a sixpence (Thank you, Wikipedia!).
The teapot is made of Rice Krispie Treats and the other elements are made of sugarpaste. The cake was a hit and Alyce is now about to turn 1. I'm told we will be doing a cupcake theme this year, pictures to follow soon.

Mark your calendars and don't be late... March 5th is a very important date!
Now, I give you fair warning, either you or your head must be off, and that in about half no time! Take your choice!



                                                                                         ...until next time.

Love Is In The Air...

Hi everyone!
As this Valentine's Day arrives, I thought I'd take a few minutes and introduce you to a couple of my loves...


This is my son, Chris. He's amazing and is the person I have spent most of my life with. At 26 years old, he is a very talented artist, dabbling in sketches, paints, computer graphics and now tattooing. Chris and I have lived together through thick and thin, feast and famine, trials and tribulations, and whatever other cliche' combinations are out there! I love him more than anything in this world. (Did I mention he was pretty amazing?) 

My other loves include my 4-legged furry kids. Buddy (dressed in white fur), is a poodle-pomeranian mix that has been with me for the past 10 years. I swear this dog is part human! Look at that face, he's such a ham he actually smiles for the camera! His 'wife' Roxy (dressed in a lovely mix of browns), is my Lhasa Apso and has been with me for about 9 years. She loves to be loved is the best thing I can say about her. Their 'child' Shorty came into their lives and mine about 8 years ago. He and his dad have a definate love/hate relationship!

In honor of love & Valentine's Day, I've created this Candy Box cake and Queen of Hearts truffles. The cake is a delicious pumpkin spice with cream cheese frosting, topped with lemon coconut, chocolate chip, vanilla, & cinnamon truffles, super yummy!
Now, these cute little bites are also truffles. The red ones are a banana/coconut/rum mixture and the pinks are lemon cream cheese. These turned out so cute and I think they really look like something you should see at 'The Red Queen Cakery', they're very 'Queen of Hearts-ish' don't you think?
Enjoy your day with the ones you love!
...until next time.

The Red Queen Cakery - The Adventure Begins

Hi Everyone!

So, I finally did it, I decided to take the plunge and try my hand at small business, Apparantly small business is BIG business!

A little more than a year ago, I found myself sitting home with too much time on my hands (those days are gone!), bored and ancy. Now, I've always heard the old saying about 'idle hands being the devil's playground', so rather than taking the chance of adding more notches in my old pitchfork, I flipped through the channels. Ugh! Nothing's on! Four thousand cable channels available and I can't find a thing to watch, are you kidding me? OK, flip to the good ol' standby, Food Network, surely Bobby Flay's throwin' down on someone... nope. Waitamint, what's this? Who are all these tattooed crazy people and is THAT a really a cake? Yep, you guessed it, I stumbled onto an Ace of Cakes marathon and was I ever hooked!


As I woke up from a snooze to the ending of a movie, I saw it... the scene was a wedding and there was a beautiful black and white cake and in a shape that really caught my eye...


'Because I Said So' starring Diane Keaton really set the wheels in motion. I stayed awake for hours looking and pictures on the web and reading everything I could (did I mention I'm very nocturnal?).






The next day, I made my first batch of marshmallow fondant... what a mess! But... it turned out pretty good, and this was the result...
Needless to say, I got hooked and made cakes for every occassion I could, birthdays at work, showers, and 'hey, I made this cake, would you like to have it?'. As a result, it has turned into one of my favorite things to do, I love it and now, with some gentle prodding from my dad, co-workers, and friends, I've decided to make a go of it, The Red Queen Cakery is born!
...keep watching!