Have yourself a merry simple Cakemas...

Happy Sunday! Its been a very hectic week for me (again). Not just in cakeland, but also in my personal life. With my precious dog being sick earlier this week which now, my dog is doing great. The vet told me that she has the heat beat of a 2 year old dog, and she's 13! Ok, enough of that, this week I had 4 cakes overall and were quite simple and pretty. They were all due on Saturday so this post will be short and simple as well... not too sure if its gonna be pretty. =P Lets get on this:

 Saturday, December 17th - Holiday Party Cakes and 1st Birthday Party - Deliver Times: 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Alrighty where to begin, this weekend was mainly about the holiday. As stressful as my personal holiday festivities and purchases have been, I managed to take in some cakes for the weekend even though 3 of 4 were donations! Yes I am giving. Lets start with the 1st bday cake. The cake was to be replicating the birthday girl's party dress. I would post the picture of the bday girl wearing the dress, but I'm not quite sure how the parent would feel for their daughter to be in some random blog without their permission. Pretty much the cake shows it all. It was a tutu dress with a fushia pink skirt with the matching color headband (as you can see the rose on the top tier portrays the "headband") and the center tier would be the replica of her shirt that has baby pink rose petals put together to shape the hear and three red roses to shape an even smaller heart. This cake was to serve 40 guest so it was quite small. The cake turned out great with no complaints! Now let's start with the holiday cakes! Three holiday cake this weekend and all donations (I was giving away my stress for free!) The first holiday cake was a winter wonderland cake for a magazine's holiday party. My friend donated a dessert table and asked if I wanted to donate a small cake to serve 30 people. As I mentioned before it was a winter wonderland theme so I kept it simple and used different shades of blue and a lot of glitter!!! The result: Awesomeness.

 

I FORGOT TO TAKE INDIVIDUAL PICTURES ON THE NEXT CAKES! So sue me! These two cakes were for and organization called Casa Familiar. The president won a gift certificate I donated to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Gala... 5 YEARS AGO! So you know how out of the blue I felt when they called to redeem this certificate. At least they were really mellow and just wanted nice simple holiday cakes. Their only specific request was that they wanted both cakes different from each other. So once cake I stuck to the glittery winder wonderland idea as the previous cake and the other one as a fun polk a dot Christmas cake with the traditional red and green colors with bows to give it a gift feel to it. Everything went smoothly until delivery time, WHAT THE _________ (you fill in the blank). These two cakes were to be delivered in Bonita. As some of you know, Bonita is know to have some of the most beautiful houses, the only catch is that they are located in hills with driveways steeper than Mayan pyramids!!! After having my car on park staring at this monster of a hill for 15 minutes I decided to just go for it. The more I drove into this driveway the more I felt the car be more vertical than horizontal. 50 seconds of screaming like a girl later, BAM! SUCCESS!!! MUAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!! I told the client that her driveway was insane and she laughed, but when she showed me her view (and kitchen!) I understood it was all worth it.

Cakes this week were bitter sweet. Sweet that they came out great with now problems. Bitter because my back was KILLING me throughout the decorating, but I took care of it via Massage Envy. Plus it is a reminder that next week is Christmas! GRRR!!! I haven't really done any shopping, I am notorious to do it the last minute. This coming week I do have cakes, but I probably won't post anything til Monday since next Sunday is Christmas Day! Universal Studios here I come! I wish you all a very merry Christmas and hope you spend it with people you love and enjoy. =)

Jose Barajas vs. The World

Hello lovely readers. Hope everyone's week was just as exhausting and hectic as mine was! As my title says, this week has been a complete obstacle finishing cakes. It was hell, from my car breaking down to guests invading my kitchen space, it was rough! Even blogging right now was rough! I was halfway done blogging on my cell phone and Bam! My battery dies and I didn't save my draft! Bleep My Life! In the end, cakes made it to their destination with satisfying results and I'm blogging on the laptop with the adapter plugged in. NOTHING CAN STOP THIS POST NOW!!! MUAHAHAHAHAHA! Let's try this one more time:

Friday, December 9th - Holiday Cake - Delivery Time: 10 a.m.

This cake was for my cousin's holiday party for the federal court. Since she was in the party committee she asked me if I would be able to make her a cake to serve 100 guests for the party which started at 4, but since I went in to work at Standlee's at 10 that day, it would have to be ready earlier. She was expecting a sheet cake, but since I found this to be an awesome opportunity to show off what I am capable of to a new group of people, I made something more extravagant other than a simple sheet cake. She told me the theme of the party was a "Vintage Hollywood Christmas" theme, so I jumped to the internet and started looking on Google images to give me some inspiration on what I should create. As I was browsing through, I saw that the colors were a lot of reds, greens, and lots of gold and silver tinsel. I started my cake with a white base, but didn't want to make red and green as a secondary color because then it would look too much of an Italian or Mexican theme looking cake. So instead I began to decorate the cake like an elegant "winter wonderland' a la Margaret Braun type cake with the secondary color being an "icy" blue color. Then I started adding the vintage touches with some very deep, brownish, red bows and some dark green holly throughout the cake. Finishing it all up with dabs of gold and pearlizing it completely to give it that old antique, porcelain feel. After decorating it almost all day Thursday (I say almost because I had to take a 3 hour break to take a quick class) from 6 a.m. calling it a night at midnight, and waking up early Friday to finish it up, I fell into a dilemma with my cousin... She didn't have a big enough car. =\ Luckily, she had enough notice to find and SUV to transport the cake. The result was a hit, like my cousin always tells me when she is satisfied with my work, "Mamma Likes!" =)

 

Mamma Likes!

Saturday, December 10th - 5th Birthday Make Up Party Cake and Drumline Debut Sheet Cake - Delivery Time: 10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.

Getting off of work at Standlee's around 3 p.m. on Friday I was exhausted, but nothing that the love of my life, Red Bull, wouldn't be able to help me with. Right after work I had to go to Linda Vista to pick some things up for the rest of the cakes and as I'm ready to leave, my car starts to have itself a little seizure and then... it dies on me. GRRRRRR!!!!! %^$T#&#!!!!! BLLLLAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All of my time organization was thrown out the window. At a panic and in need to be in the kitchen and working, I called a tow truck to take me and my car home. Now with time being of the essence I have to pull out a trusty vintage cake decorating tool I can always count on, my mother. I assigned her to help me with the sheet cake since that use to be her forte when she was a cake decorator in her hayday, I was able to put most of my energy on the make up cake (plus that one was the first one due in the morning). The make up cake was a pretty important one since my friend sent me an email venting on how the client sent her an email on how she wanted this cake to be PERFECT! This cake wasn't that big, just serving 40 guest, but the details were time consuming. Bows, flowers, pearls pearls and more pearls, and the main focal point, the make up. I managed to get all the details done by 1:30 a.m. on Friday evening to be able to wake up early on Saturday to assemble, deliver first thing in the morning, be able to help my mother out with the sheet cake to serve 100 guest for a new dear friends drumline cake for her debut shindig at the YMCA which was the one due at 2:30 (GO THUNDER SQUAD!!!), and be able to go into work at Standlee's at 10 a.m.! Pheeeew!!! Oh and btw, the sheet cake was another delivery dilemma since my friend that was picking up the cake had a small car herself. My mother told me that one was a mission to get into the car. 3 down, 1 more to go!

 

Sunday, December 11th - Pirate Baby Shower - Delivery Time: 10 a.m.

Leaving Standlee's at 4 on Saturday my body said ENOUGH! Time for a break. Red Bull couldn't work it's magic at this moment. I went home and just slam my face into my pillow and take one of my rare naps that people only read about in blogs. Waking up around 8, I'm ready to finish my last cake... so I thought. As I prep myself to start working, my brother arrives with my cousin and his girlfriend. I don't mind having some people around when I cake decorate, especially close friends and family, but right after my brother arrives, random guests that my brother invited come over, that's when my work came to a halt. Frustrated with the fact that I am now wide awake with no ability to work since the kitchen had been occupied by people, I decided to go to bed to be able to wake up around 4/5 a.m. to finish the 30 guest pirate cake in record time... Can you say insomnia! I was able to finally close my eyes at 2:30 a.m. to then open them at 5 a.m.... alright, lets get it over with. Peace and quiet in the kitchen, I managed to finish the pirate cake with an hour before delivery to spare and enjoy some menudo that my mother prepared that morning. Dropped off the cake and FINITO!!! Time to enjoy my Sunday with family, friends, and my on and off again love, food!

 

This week was really grueling, especially with the inability to drive around since I had a car that was out of service, I managed to finish the job from home and with limited cake decorating tools since most of them were in Linda Vista. All the cakes came out exactly how they were envisioned with now caketastrophy. 

FINALLY! Today's blog done with no dead battery interruption and 18 minutes to spare before it is officially Monday! Now to toast myself with a glass of wine and then a date with my bed for a full 8 hours before another crazy week! See ya next Sunday!!!

Mean texts, circus freaks and sugar weaves...

Happy Sunday people! I guess you can consider this as my first blog since it's not an intro and just about cakes really. So, this week was long and busy! Total of 4 cakes! Yes, I did have my energy drinks throughout my cake adventure, I know a lot of people tell me that I need to stop drinking them, but it's either that or crack. =P. ok let begin with the first cake of the week:


Friday, December 2 - Birthday Cake with a dozen matching Cupcakes - Deliver time: 4 p.m.

So this cake I already made a while back during someone's birthday when the Royal Wedding was going on. This cake is one that The Caketress, an amazing cake decorator in Canada, created, and I replicated with matching cupcakes. Everything went perfect, the hand painted design, the fondant ruffles, etc. only one big boo boo... The filling. So when my dear friend told me about this cake she informed me that the filling should be pistachio with tiny pieces of chocolate. I have made pistachio cakes like nobody's business, except I have never and accidentally didn't add the chocolate. At this point I'm at a #$#^&^& moment and my friend is sending me "I'm gonna smack you" texts (she really didn't, she's a sweetheart and joked around with me) So that goes to tell you that I have made a million cake errors in my past an they will continue just like we all do.

On to the next!

Saturday December 3 - 2 Circus Cakes to serve 20 guests each and a dozen Circus Cupcakes - Delivery time: 10 a.m.

So pretty much Friday was a 16 hour day, completing the cake due that day plus trying to work on all three of Saturdays cakes. Entering my Saturday I have already downed a 5 hour energy, and 2 16 oz Red Bulls and only 5 hours of sleep (I spoiled myself and gave myself an extra hour) waking up at 4 am I managed to do the final touches to the circus cupcakes and cakes for two brothers, one was turning 1 and the other 3. They weren't all the big to begin with. Oh and like a dork, I forgot to take pictures of them. =|

On to the big finale!


Saturday, December 3 - Rapunzel Tower Cake to serve 60 - Delivery time: 12:30 p.m.

Everyone thinks, "ok it doesn't matter if this cake doesn't come out ok, it's just for family" WRONG!!! My family IS my biggest critics! They have seen all my cake that they themselves have now a professional eye for cakes. It sucks for me in a way that I wanna push them out of a moving car, but then I appreciate the productive criticism. This cake was for my little cousin Alexandra which is turning 3 later on this December but my aunt decided to do the party early to prevent and rain delays. I made the cake while my mother was making cake pops, dipped pretzels, dipped marshmallows, my sister in law was making the dress cookies, and my cousin made these awesome apples that looked like Rapunzels dress! I had my dad prep the structural support for me since this cake is more top heavy than anything else and don't wanna deliver the cake, then attend a party with a smashed cake. I had a wooden cake board with a long steel rod, covered it in foil an started stacking the cakes. I didn't add the house part til I got to the party, then I added Rapunzel, then the hair, then finito! (lots of then pheeew!) The grass is made out of airbrushed coconut and royal icing pipe work for the vines. Everything else is fondant. She loved it!

This was a super busy week, but very rewarding. Committed a big error, but let's hope it just stays to a filling error and not a cake disaster. Now time for some R&R before the next apocalypse in cakeland...

Here we go!

Ok, so this is my first attempt at trying to Blog, so please blogging veterans, don't poke fun at me. AYIYIII!!! What in the world did I get myself into. Well I'm trying the blog thing so I can keep people posted about my adventures in cakeland. I tried my best in keeping my Facebook strictly about cake but all my friends post random things in my wall and sometime I just cant help posting whats on my mind outside of cakeland (You will notice I use the word cakeland a lot, get use to it), like how I feel about Nene Leakes from The Real Housewives of Atlanta, I really hate her. See! I'm already going off the blogging subject! So, anyways, yeah, this is gonna be my weekly journal of my cake adventures, so hopefully I wont bore you all so much that you're gonna post something nasty to make me stop wasting internet space and just keep myself locked in my house. This week I'm actually gonna post two blogs, this on that has just been posted as my intro to this crazy blog world, and another one this Sunday showing off what I have done this week with cakes since I'm only in the baking and prepping stages right now. Let me just give you a sneak  peak of what I am creating this weekend. I have to replicate a cake I already made a while ago, something a la Caketress, two small circus cakes for two boys, and the one I am looking forward to creating is for my little cousin that is turning 3, its gonna be Rapunzel's tower from the movie Tangled. I'm actually super stoked in making this one since this is gonna be a challenge for me. I already made cakes from Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, Little Mermaid, and now Rapunzel. All I need is Princess Jasmine, The Princess and the Fog, Mulan, and Pocahontas to complete my Disney Princess cakes bucket list. Hopefully I wont blog on Sunday crying about my epic fail... Let's see how it goes!!!