Opening up another session of the FNCC! Everyone is welcome to share their week, photos of their work, ask for help or provide help if you can!  Hope to see lots of photos tonight!

Cat

Hi Everyone!

Hope you all had a great week. Mine was a big one full of changes! My younger daughter decided to take me and my older daughter to go see WICKED as an early b'day (me) and late b'day (Krista) gift so I hopped the train on Thursday to head down to the San Jose area. Friday we were supposed to celebrate another friends birthday but she had a car accident (she's fine now) and thus we were still working through things that night and why I missed FNCC last week. I stayed on till Tuesday when we met up with my mom and her friend at Filoli (gorgeous house and gardens near Palo Alto) and then I came home with them. 

I tell you all of this because my younger daughter (who's home I was staying at and who is my partner is the party biz) and I started talking futures. She and her hubby are talking about another baby next year, we are moving to that area next summer, and the dr told me that my hand is as good as it's going to get. I still can't make a fist with my right hand so...well, it's not good. So we've made a decision to close our business after 15 years at the end of this year. I think I may do dummy cake art for fun and contests. Something that will allow me to spend weeks on a cake and not have to have it out the door in a few days. More time to make up for the lost time due to my hand. 

This will also allow me to persue the photography part of my art. I will have to get a part time job to help pay bills (ok, it's play money..the hubby pays the bills but my pay has always been our play money) so that will change things too. Depending on that schedule is the only thing that may change FNCC. Otherwise I'll still be here. I love it here. I love seeing what you guys come up with! I have one more professional cake booked and I may take another one or two before the new year but then I'm back to being an amateur!

Speaking of cakes! Two this week for the same client. Her kids turned 4 and 6 within 2 weeks of eachother so they are having a combined birthday party on Sunday. Here are the cakes!

They are both triple chocolate with brownie buttercream filling. 

Cat

@catlharper sorry to hear about your hand, perhaps with more time you'll heal up.  Your cakes for the combined party are really nice, what a party that must have been for those 2 kids!

Here's my adventure for this week:

Thanks...my friend, who took me to the dr, said it was a HUGE sign that I was supposed to go back to my photography...I said it didn't need to be that painful of a sign...she said, well, maybe it HAD to be that painful in order for you to LISTEN. Ok, ok, I'm listening! LOL!

I love the lace on your cake. I'm trying to figure out how to work with molds (the legos are from a mold) and they are not as easy as one would hope! LOL!

Cat

These are Oreo Cupcakes!

I made these for one of my managers leaving my store that I work at, funny thing is I also found out that I'm going to another store as well.

Oreo Cupcake:

Chocolate Cake

Oreo baked inside

Oreo cookies crumbled up in the frosting

Oreo cookie placed on top

AAwww cat, i'm sorry about your hand! But as one door closes, another opens :) goodluck with your photography.

@MBAlaska, wow! Loving the lace and roses! Never had the chance to make laces. Maybe someday i'll try sugarveil. Looks lovely and so elegant!

Here are mine:

Nike shoes for a Nike fanatic [IMG]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3284755/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

Agent Oso cake for one of our closest friends son's bday [IMG]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3284757/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

I love the lego cake. The little boy next door is a lego nut!! All of the cakes look fantastic!!! Thanks for posting!!

AMultiplied blessings on you and your health and your new beginnings (((((giant hug)))))

I'm sorry to hear about your hand Cat and sympathize.  I have multi focal dystonia and it effects my hands along with arthritis.  A lot of things that should be a breeze to do, takes my hands an extra long time.

Neat that there's a Friday night cake club!  Although I normally only bake for family & friends and wouldn't have a submission normally, I just finished this cake yesterday for a charity auction today and have to deliver it this morning.  It's for a cat rescue.

AWow that bed is amazing! I already posted my cake in another thread, but I'm so happy with it I'll post it here too. I was even able to make it through without any "cake tantrums" lol[IMG]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3284796/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

ASlight cake fiasco adverted this week! The date of the party changed for the little girl who was turning one. We (my best friend and I), the bakers of the cake/cupcakes were notified two days before. The party was now a day earlier and we both work full time M-F. All of our plans were ruined because we were now on a time constraint. We had Thursday night to get everything decorated and couldn't start until 6:30pm that evening. Well, I don't know how, but we pulled it off and it seems that everyone was very pleased. :) [IMG]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3284819/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

Thank you everyone for your kind replies. I started out as a nature/wildlife photographer years ago in my early 20's and moved to parties and then to cakes after our son was born 13 years ago. So taking back up my photography as a travel photographer is taking a small step back but it's back to what I love. This is actually a change we have been talking about for about 18 months but my daughter didn't want to give up. But life changes and my hand did the final placing of the straw on the camel's back. The only real drag to all of this is having to get a "real" job. Dreading that. 

Loving the cakes this week!  

Sweet: That cupcake looks yummy!

Matty: LOVE that shoe! SO cute!

Eliza!!! That bed!! THAT BED!! Wow! I'm blown away!

RugbyChick: Love your dolphin...I'm a nut about the ocean so I'm a fan of this cake! It's just so perfect! Did you use a mold or is it hand carved? 

Sara: I would have had a heart attack! A day EARLY!?! You guys did just amazing work ESPECIALLY with the accelerated time frame! As I mentioned to RugbyChick...I'm a nut about the ocean so I adore your whole party set up. The octopus is my VERY favorite but my daughter says it's the cake's whale that well, takes the cake! LOL!

I'm headed off to deliver my two but I'll catch up with you all again later!

Cat

AI drew the dolphin and made stencils to get the basic shape. Then stacked thin layers and shaped it by hand. I just delivered it, and they loved it.

I had a big order for a baptism this weekend! Everything went really smoothly, I was quite happy. I finished this three tier cake, 50 cake pops and 50 sugar cookies last night!

Here's the cake:

Cake pops:

Sugar cookies:

Final result:

@SweetOutlaws I'm positively wanting to grab one of your oreo cupcakes and devour it!  Yummy.

@mattyeatscakes those are sweet cakes, wish I had that type of design talent!  The lace is just fondant/tylose in a silicone lace mold. I've yet to try sugarveil.

@ElizaW  your cake looks like it belongs in a princess' doll house, lots of pretty little cats! Hopefully your charity made a bundle.

@FlRugbyChick the dolphin is looking like it should leap off the board and back into the ocean.  Jaylen must have been amazed.

@triSARAtops your bright colors are very festive!  it must have been a fun party and a 'whale' of a good time.  How did you get the big tail to stay upright?

@SweetShop5 you're multi-talented! what a spread you made for that party.  the cake is so very smooth and neat as well as pretty.  What's on top?

HI ladies! I'm loving everyone's work this week. I posted a few weeks ago, asking for help on how to make a dahlia for a friend's cake. Well, the party was today and I just wanted to show the finished product since everyone was so helpful :)

AAre the petals gumpaste? How did you attach them. Your lines look perfect! Great job!

AStress has gotten to me this week. I had a teary meltdown this weekend lol. But here's one of my 3 cakes. Small wedding cake 5/7/9 I bought the sunflowers from our very own Kara Buntin!! (costumeczar). HIGHLY RECOMMEND HER! The flowers got so many compliments [IMG]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3284979/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

Ai'm sorry you got stressed out, mc -- i hope you got it all out of your system and all the booger men boogied on -- and not to mention nice cake!

Aand nice flowers from kara of course

Hi all, I'm a new member and so excited to finally be able to post! Anyway, I entered a cake in our county fair and it won a blue ribbon. Even though I wasn't able to post questions, I found a lot of resources on here that helped me to make it. It is all styrofoam underneath. Plus it was my first time making gumpaste roses, which was really fun!

Sorry about the cluttered background, I will be taking better pictures when it's back from the fair.

A

Thank you! The cry did help lol. I have a very bad habit of wanting the money so I say yes when I should say no. Lesson learned for sure!

Great cakes everybody! Missed you last week, Cat. Sorry to hear about your hand; hope your nephew is doing better.

Going along with the ocean theme.... 10" + 6" buttercream iced with fondant/ gum paste decorations.  Baby shower for Jonah, due in November.

ANaivohw welcome and that is an amazing cake.

Cat glad you will be able to pursue the photography still. Love both of your cakes, especially the Legos when my nieces and nephews are over we drag them out.

All the cakes are wonderful , but ElizaW that bed looks so real and the cats are perfect.

MBalaska your roses are perfect they look so real.

This is the cake I made for my future daughter -in-law's bridal shower. If you took a picture from behind you could tell it should end up on cake wrecks. [IMG]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3285042/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

AThese are from last week...none this week as my niece got married yesterday and we've been preparing. Simple orders but fun to do less intricate designs sometimes!

[IMG ALT=""]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3285076/width/350/height/700[/IMG] [IMG ALT=""]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3285077/width/350/height/700[/IMG] [IMG ALT=""]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3285081/width/350/height/700[/IMG] [IMG ALT=""]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3285082/width/350/height/700[/IMG] [IMG ALT=""]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3285083/width/350/height/700[/IMG]

AThank you, [@]catlharper[/@]! I still can't believe we pulled it off considering the circumstances.

Thank you [@]MBalaska[/@]! The whale is made from MMF with a little tylose powder to keep it firm. :D

ASince I didn't get to share last week's cake with you alll, I will post it here. Have any of you ever had a customer who was just a complete hot mess concerning what they wanted, because they wanted EVERYTHING imaginable incorporated into their cake? Well, that's the customer I had last week. It was for her niece who was turning 7 And she had decorations that contained multi color polka dots, Monster High, zebra print and Doc McStuffins if that gives you any idea about what I was dealing with. I basically begged her to tell me what she wanted, and so all she said was, "Make it girly, I trust you." Well, girly is what she got. ;)[IMG][IMG][IMG]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3285089/width/200/height/400[/IMG][/IMG][/IMG] [IMG]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3285090/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3285091/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

@OTcakes good to see the finished product looking so bright and sunny.  it is encouraging to see the fun cakes that get made after getting the answers you need.

@morganchampagne that's another nice stacked cake for you.  Very cheerful colors and lots of details.  Cheers to Kara for her flowers also!.  and chin up young lady, a good cry is just natures way of relieving stress and getting you back on your feet.

@Naivohw Congratulations on your Blue Ribbon and on your first gumpaste roses, well done.  It's a real party kind of cake for sure.

@autumnwind your whale crashing through the surf is adorable, and the waves below are full of movement, fun fun cake.

@Marian64 Thank You for the kind words.  It has taken me a couple of decades to get to the point of making a gumpaste rose.  From star tip Wilton cakes to this weeks 'Rose & Lace' cake was a very long journey.  Best wishes to your new daughter in law and keep working at your cakes, you have lots of company here to join you along your learning curve, and many pros who can coach you along the way.

@reenrules What a nice set of cakes, you must have a very busy shop with those adorable presentations.  Don't know why, but I want to go to Disneyland !!

@triSARAtops  your post makes me remember why I could never do business, you have a lot of patience to deal with that lady.  Really good colors, lots of movement and fun in that cake.  girly cake is right.