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

Cat

Hi everyone!

I'm trapped in packing/moving land still. I have 12 days to finish packing my house and there are days when I think "no problems" and days when I think "what the heck did I get myself into?!". We have hired a crew to come out and pack the truck for us and we have help at the other end to unpack the truck but it's still very stressful. One of the most stressful is getting my hubby to do the part of the packing I can't do for him...his stuff! But we are slowly making our way through all of this! 

Hope everyone is having a great week. It's Independence Day here tomorrow in the USA. We'll be going out to watch fireworks tomorrow night but, other than that, it's just another packing day for us. If you are celebrating, what are YOUR plans?

Cat

I feel you Cat, packing is so tedious and feels endless!  But keep your final goal in mind :)  We have dinner plans for the 4th with family, but no plans for the daytime.

I had a 100 day cake for a little girl.  It is a Korean tradition to celebrate the baby's 100th day.  The baby's name is Ivy so of course they wanted  ivy on the cake.  I didn't think the elements went together, but it's one  of those "okay, I guess this won't be the best looking cake ever, but it's what the client wants" kind of things.

The top of the cake is very elegant but it's the bottom piping that totally makes this cake! It elevates it to a more fun and playful level! This upcoming week I'm packing my kitchen...that includes all of my cake stuff. For some reason that depresses me. I love seeing all of my little containers of decorating tools and candies on my counter. The kitchen is always the hard part for me since I always think I'll "need" something last minute and discover that I've packed it. Can't wait till I log on the 24th in my new home!!! Packing sucks but unpacking is FUN!

Cat

Thanks Cat, but the pearl border wasn't piped, it was molded fondant.  So much easier as I already had the colors made.  

That's fondant!!! I love it even more! Too cool! 

Yes, I love figuring out where everything goes. With this new house we have a bigger kitchen and a garage where I can put our pantry cabinet so it's going to feel even more wide open and spacious. SO looking forward to that compared to my tiny townhome kitchen that I have now.  Our upstairs is about 80% packed and the downstairs about 60% so I'm making progress! LOL!

Cat

We are getting ready for the 4th here. Made my first color flow cookies! Super excited about it :-) 

https://flic.kr/p/vv

That link was messed up.
https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/119441488@N03/19373520936/

@Krhardi969 those are perfect for the 4th!

@Krhardi969 I totally LOVE those! Cookies is something I just don't do...can't ever seem to get the "flow" right...so I admire those who can do it! Happy 4th!

Cat

Packing is the easy part for me it's the unpacking that seems to really be an issue for me. When we moved last time I organized every box with labels and what room it was to go in at the new house. That part went smooth however it took me 2 weeks to unpack :( Part of it I think is bc I was missing my old house. I'll blame it on hormones haha. Our youngest was 6 months old and I think I just for wrapped up in the memories. So I wish you happy packing and unpacking :)

We are doing a 4th of July theme cake for a local church auction for one of their missionary teams. This one I'm posting is the cake we had issues with and are currently remaking. 

http://www.cakecentral.com/gallery/i/3344842/quilted-cake-for-practice

the quilted was last weeks it's the second picture. It's the only way I could upload it without my laptop lol. 

@Webake2gether Fortunately I have a full week before our daughter/granddaughter move in so lots of time to put stuff away. Artwork is the last thing to go up since I'm pretty picky on where my images hang. But, yes, everything is labeled per room to make it much easier.  I'm got the rest of the packing supplies that I need today so next up is our office area and kitchen/pantry...the hardest of the work to be done! UGH!  It's so nice to come here for a few moments and see the gorgeous cakes you guys turn out. Your 4th of July cake makes me want a slice SO much!

Cat

Hey everyone!

Kind of a slow week for me, just got back from vacation. We went to our cousins cottage, it was so relaxing! The weather kind of sucked but we still enjoyed it.

Anyways, here's my work for the week:

Chanel birthday cake: 

http://www.cakecentral.com/gallery/i/3345106/chanel-birthday-cake

Game of Thrones birthday cake:

http://www.cakecentral.com/gallery/i/3345109/game-of-thrones-cake

@pastrybaglady I LOVE that cake. Its very different and original.

@SweetShop5 A week of vacation sounds lovely. It's been SO hot here..(100 now)...that anywhere cooler sounds wonderful. Nothing would make me happier than to be kicking back on a porch swing while it simply poured rain...unfortunately rain is a bit scarce on the west coast right now. Sigh. Your cakes are just lovely. Was the game of thrones cake a birthday cake too? I'm always looking for ideas for men and I love the way the swords all crossed each other in the front...thinking that a variation on that with maybe a dragon figure would work well for my SIL for his birthday in August.

Glad you had a lovely vacation, sorry you have to enter the real world again! LOL!

Cat

This is the cake we just finished. Went a totally different direction this time. I apologize for it being our FB page link haven't had time to upload from laptop :)

https://m.facebook.com/Bodinesbakingcompany/photos/pcb.918231501573091/918231148239793/?type=1&source=48&refid=17&_ft_=top_level_post_id.918231501573091

Here is my birthday cake that you helped me design:

http://www.cakecentral.com/gallery/i/3345194/hourglass-tier-with-peony-and-hydrangeas

I am pretty pleased with how it turned out.  I think it would have looked a bit better if the bottom tier had been shorter to make it more distinctively short, but never mind.

Thanks for the input.  Now I have rather a lot of cake to eat! 

@Webake2gether That blue fondant is so dark! Is this a purchased fondant or did you hand color it? I'm impressed either way! LOL!

@LizzieAylett That is just gorgeous! And that is ALL cake?! Yes, you could share with your whole neighborhood! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Cat

Thanks!! I hand colored it :) I read on cc how to make navy and tried it and it worked. I just mixed blue and some black I wished I could share with you how much of each but I just eye ball stuff like that and I can usually match it up exactly the next time. I know it was 24 oz of fondant and I added black twice about 2 large drops each time. Hopefully well get to do some more cakes soon. 

@Pastrybaglady  I was wondering how you you got your picture to post on here without it being gigantic. My husband is even on his iPhone 6 trying to figure it out lol. We are doing the copy and paste way that I read on here and it's not working :( 

@Webake2gether  I am of the opinion adding a picture is not possible from a mobile device!  I have to get on a PC, add my image to the gallery, once it's in, I copy from my own profile (the small picture) and then it can be pasted on to the post.  It's a pain until they fix it.

@Pastrybaglady  Thanks that's what I was trying to do from my phone. It is such a pain bc I never get on my laptop except once a month to use my banks bill pay lol. So I usually post a mass amount of photos then. I was thinking of just adding new pictures to one that's already in my gallery so I can post a link on cc and not our baking FB page. It will let me add pictures from phone to existing photos but I can't seem to upload a new pic to the gallery hope that makes sense. 

On a side note the patriotic cake we made we donated to a local church auction (I was cleared to do so by the health dept. ) it sold for $150. That's crazy to me and I'm glad we were able to help a missionary team out :) it's exciting for us bc we aren't able to really see what our work is worth to others yet!! 

Congrats on the sale!  That bodes well for the business you plan to have :)  It takes a little while to find your customers or in my case, for my customers to find me.  I do not advertise, I rely on word of mouth.  This is something I wanted to add to my life, not become my life so I chose the path of slow growth.  I applaud your path of skill development and research before actually starting your business.  Can't go wrong with a strong foundation!  I think you understand that on many levels, God bless!

As for the pictures I just can't make any other way work so I do what I can, it is what it is...

@Pastrybaglady   thanks for the kind words :)

I think we both know we have a lot to learn and we are no where near ready to take the HUGE step of doing this on a store front level. Honestly just having a commercial grade kitchen would keep us busy enough. We got a little ahead of ourselves in the beginning but now that we understand that there are multiple levels to baking we're content with moving at a slow and steady pace. I'm seriously wondering how everyone else manages multiple orders in one week. We still take a lot of time doing just one cake lol. My husband and I both agree if it's meant to be it will be :)

Yeah its going to very hot where I am all week as well. Around the same as you. And yes, the Game of Thrones cake was for a birthday as well. Thanks :) 

@SweetShop5 Looks like it's going to be a cooler week here in NorCal. Mid-high 80s...much nicer than the hundreds! Next week it will go back up to the high 90's which is rough because that's moving week. Fortunately the unloading will be done where it's in the 60's so MUCH better there! LOL! Can't wait to make my first cake in my new kitchen!!!

Cat

Wow! We moved just 2 weeks ago, and it felt great to bake in a new kitchen especially since all the appliances are now kitchen aid haha! Hoping the temperature drops here as well, not a fan of all this humidity! Good luck on your move!

The kitchen I have now is a narrow "galley" style kitchen. The new kitchen is a big square!! LOTS of room. Might even add an island it's so big!  I'm very excited to have so much room. We've been living in a town home for 8 years now...more than ready to be moving to a house.

Have a great week!

Cat

@SweetShop5  The kitchen I have now is a narrow "galley" style kitchen. The new kitchen is a big square!! LOTS of room. Might even add an island it's so big!  I'm very excited to have so much room. We've been living in a town home for 8 years now...more than ready to be moving to a house.

Have a great week!

Cat