Monkey Cake and Goodies

Well, before I start telling you about the cake stuff, I just  wanted to share that I had a really hard week. There were things that simply pulled me in every direction.  It truly was an emotionally exhausting week for me.  The stress wasn't about cakes and cookies, but everything else; work, time, emotions, people, sleeplessness, and health.  The only thing I could do which should have been the first was crying out to God to help me with the madness and mayhem, and He did. All this to say that the only thing besides depending on God to grant me peace and serenity was actually looking forward to baking and decorating for this client.  Decorating the banana cookies and the monkey cookie faces were truly therapeutic, but even more so was making the monkey pops. It may not seem so, but each and every single pop had several steps and components that kept my mind occupied for several hours.  Oh how I love to do this!  I thank God for this creative outlet that not only blesses me in many ways, but it also blesses the lives of others.

Ok, now to what this blog is truly about, edible art!  To me it is such a delight to work for clients that know what they want.  Last year I had the pleasure of making this client son's Little Monster 1st birthday cake and goodies. Now he was turning two and although she was doing something small in comparison to the previous year, she still wanted nice looking elements and a specific cake design to make her little boy's day special, and I was happy to oblige. She sent me pictures of what she wanted and a cake that if I'm not mistaken is a  Martha Stewart design that I replicated. The cake was Chocolate with banana cream filling, frosted in milk chocolate buttercream. Cookies were vanilla flavor.  The cake pops were brownie with chocolate fudge cream and covered in milk chocolate.

How she set up the table.  Love the simplicity and colors!

Happy chocolate and banana cream Monkey cake

Vanilla flavor banana sugar cookies

Adorable monkey sugar cookies that were given as party favors

Brownie Monkey cake pops

Thank you for looking!!!!

Easter Cake

I can actually say that I am blessed beyond measure because God has placed me and my family in a church that really gets it!  On a monthly basis we have a meeting which is called "staff worship" and that is what it is,  all of the CF staff from all 6 campuses coming together to worship our Lord and to be reminded of who we serve, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It's about understanding that we all have a mission which is to reach the lost no matter where they are. It's not about council meetings and hours and hours trying to reinvent the wheel. It's as simple as doing what the gospel tells us to do and do it with a sense of urgency.  It's about reaching our community not as Christ Fellowship, the church, but as the body, as Christians being obedient of the Great Commission which is to go outside of our walls and boldly preach the gospel to everyone everywhere.
I made this cake for today meeting.  It was a sheet cake measuring 18x24 and could feed 100 people.  The flavor was vanilla with vanilla bean buttercream.

Festive Birthday Cake

I made this cake for my church, Christ Fellowship - West Kendall Campus.  We also made a whole lot of cake pops to celebrate CFWK 4th year of existence at that campus!   The topper of the cake is Christ Fellowship's Logo.  I absolutely love my church for many reasons, one of the many reasons is that it is a church that is volunteer driven and it's all about reaching the community's spiritual need by meeting it's physical and emotional need without a lot of frills, just hardcore serving. In the time that I have been attending I have seen how God has blessed this church in a powerful way.   I am so thankful to God for placing our family at CF at the moment that He did.

Bird Silhouette Baby Shower cake

This shower cake was inspired by the  invitation.  The colors were light pink, fuchsia and lime green.  I also make cupcakes to go with the theme. Flavor of cake and half of the cupcakes was pina colada and the other half of cupcakes was almond.

Winnie the Pooh Cake

I absolutely love Winnie the Pooh! I think he is the most adorable teddy bear ever, so sweet and innocent. O was asked by this client to make a Pooh shower cake, so I colored fondant in the golden yellow and looked at an old Winnie the Pooh coloring book to give me an idea on how he should look, especially his face.  I truly was happy with the way he turned out.  He is all edible as well as his honey pot.  The tree is a tube covered in fondant that I painted with brown food coloring diluted with vodka to give that uneven bark finish.  The sunflowers (my all time favorite flower) were made out of gumpaste.  I really love how this cake turned out. It is again, Leelee's vanilla specialty cake with dulce de leche filling. Thanks for looking.

Hello Kity Face Cake

I made this very simple cake for our nieces 3rd Birthday.  She loves Hello Kitty.  The flavor was Leelee's Vanilla specialty cake with dulce de leche filling. Gigi loved her cake

Barbie Sihouette Oreos and Cupcakes

A client called me to see if I could make Oreo cookies covered in chocolate for her daughter's birthday.  She also asked if I could do cupcakes to match her theme.  I didn't make the cake for this event.  I loved how girly the cupcakes turned out.  I cut each silhouette out of gumpaste with an exacto knife.  What a task that was.

Owl Birthday Cake

I just absolutely loved working on this "oh so girly" owl cake and cupcakes.  I was contacted by a client that I had made a cake for a couple of months back. She sent me a picture of the plate and asked me to make a cake and cupcakes for her daughter;s party.  I think the cake owl came out almost identical as the picture. I like sculpting cakes more than anything, so every chance I get to something like this I take it.  I made the owls for the cupcakes out of gumpaste.  The day I made these it was like therapy for me because I was so darn stressed that it really calmed me down. lol!  The flavor of the cake is Leelee's Vanilla specialty cake with dulce de leche filling. Thanks for looking.

Jungle Cake

I received a call from a potential client that said she had gone to a party and had seen a cake that  had made for her cousin and she was impressed on the quality of the work and cleanliness, but she wondered if it tasted as good as it looked.  She was blown away with the flavor too and decided to ask for my number.  We spoke on the phone and she told me what her theme was.  She wanted an extra special cake for her son's 4th birthday and asked me for my suggestion on a design for the cake and we came to an agreement on taste, color and design.  Normally for a cake this size I like meeting with the client and sketching something out for them to here their input if they don't already come with a cake in mind.  She also wanted cookies to use as part of the decoration of her dessert table.  The flavor was Leelee's specialty vanilla cake with dulce de leche filling. I drove so far with this cake and prayed that animals held up and the tree on top.  I made sure I took  my cake first aid kit, lol, in case the animals decided to take a dive or something. lol! I am so happy to say that the cake and cookies arrived in one piece. I enjoyed the client's and family's reaction: "can everything be eaten?" The smiles I see on client's faces are priceless to me and make what I do so worth it!

Baby Sailor Cake

This cake was so much fun to do.  I loved making the chubby baby.  It is not my inpiration.  The client sent me a picture of something she wanted and I replicated it and changed some things on it.  I also made cupcakes for this shower. I have been doing cakes for this client for quite a while now.  I am happy she always comes back.



All Star Sports Theme Cake and Goodies

My sister-in-law is having a baby boy and I helped her plan her baby shower.  She wanted a sports theme for her co-ed baby shower.  We got vases in the shape of soccer balls, footballs, basketballs, and baseballs, and used those for centerpieces, each one with a onesie cookie and four different balls, decorated with . They looked super cute on each of the tables lined with blue tablecloths. I also used the balls for the dessert table for the red velvet cake pops and the marshmallows covered in dark chocolate with blue sprinkles which I covered in a brown tablecloth.  The cake was a hit!  People loved it.  It was Marble loaf with vanilla buttercream filling.  The elements were all made of gumpaste. My sister-in-law and brother-in-law loved their shower elements very much and I was happy to be part of making this day special for them.

Minnie Mouse Cake Fuchsia

OK, yes, I already posted a similar cake before, but this one was a bit smaller and honestly, because I had done it before, It came out nicer and cleaner.  Neatness is super important to me and I am my greatest critic. Let me tell you about this client... I absolutely love her!  Love her amazing and impeccable taste, the way she plans her events, and how she envisions what she wants to the last detail.  I love doing things for her and she always comes to me for her special events. Now about the cake...This cake is crazy... Not only s it fuchsia on the outside, but as you cut into it, it is of a lighter pink color too with vanilla frosting in the middle.  I also made Minnie pops for her, flavor vanilla buttercream. Guess what color inside?  Yes, pink as well.  I had a blast working on this.

Vintage Baby Shoe cake

A Client of mine referred me to her friend.  She wanted a simple yet classy cake for her shower.  Her colors were baby blue, and shades of beige.  We went back and forth on what to do until she told me to do what I thought worked, that she trusted me.  I came up with this, which was a combination of two cakes I had showed her.  She absolutely loved it and I was relieved, lol!  This is a 10x10 x 5  round cake. 3 vanilla torts with chocolate ganache filling.  The shoes and rattle are made out of gumpaste.  The rest is just regular marshmallow fondant.

Miami Heat White Jersey Cake

This is a chocolate cake.  The client was my daughter, Lauren. lol!  She ordered this cake from me for her friend's birthday. Her friend is a Heat's fan just like my daughter.  Her friend loved the cake.  The flavor was chocolate with buttercream. 

This is the black one I made a while back

Vintage Cake and pops

The bride wanted a very simplistic cake with a whimsical flower and cake pops.  I love how she had them displayed on an old desk with vintage props.

Snowflake Dessert Table

Christmas celebration at home this year was weird. I had decided that I wasn't going to do much. This created a problem with some family members to the point that I decided that to keep the peace and harmony of my family, I would this one last time go ahead and do something nice. I had everything at home so I didn't have to break the bank last minute. One thing is for sure, I refuse to spread myself so thin next year. I'm getting too darn old for so many things in one day! The day before I cooked, made desserts, and set the table and dessert table. I did as much as I could because I knew that for Christmas Eve I would not have enough time to finish everything. I told my husband to do a couple of things, such as heating the food at a certain time because I would be home late. I left that morning at 11 am to go rehearse (We had two Christmas Eve services that Ashley and I were part of the praise team). I got home at 9 pm and the food was cold. Our guests were all already there. At first, my reaction was anger, a desire to run away or kill my beloved husband for not doing what I had asked for. If I would have gone ahead and done what my heart wanted at that moment  I probably  would have looked like a mad  woman in need of a restraining jacket or would have gone to jail for murder... on Christmas Eve... due to cold food... crazy, I know, lol! . So I decided that it made more sense  to breath, take it easy, heat up the food and make the best of it. It was great having the Tabora's over,  They are like family so things didn't feel awkward at all., thank God!!! Everyone complemented the food and expressed how lovely everything looked.  Lauren, as usual, made everyone laugh with her crazy, sarcastic remarks and so did Christine.  Ashley was very quiet this evening because she was extremely tired because her and I were up and down and all around that day. At the end, when I sat down with everyone at the table, I had a blast. We all did. It turned out to be an amazing night after all!

Now about the stuff this blog is really about:
My Theme was Snowflakes, Red, Silver and White.  For the dessert table I made a Red velvet with creamcheese frosting and cupcakes.  I garnished them with little snowflakes I made out of Gumpaste. I also place Carmel and figs in the little shot glasses. I made eggnogg flavored cake balls covered in white chocolate Vanilla cookies in the shape of snowflakes and my famous Coconut flan.