A Chocolatey Celebration!!

Happy Birthday to Roger!  My friend Leisa contacted me, she was planning a surprise birthday party for her husband and wanted a special cake to celebrate.  This was a party to celebrate Life!  The other thing she wanted was chocolate.  Lots of chocolatey goodness!  So, I got to work on it.  I have been wanting to do a cake with stars shooting out of it and this was the perfect opportunity!  I made layers of Tish Boyle's Devilishly Moist Chocolate Cake from The Cake Book, and filled them with a Chocolate Pudding filling from her Brooklyn Blackout Cake recipe, and topped them with Fudgy Chocolate Frosting.  Then I decorated it all with my homemade fondant.

Celebrating you Roger!

Gabriella's Baby Dedication Cake

I made this cake for a friend of mine from church.  She knew exactly what she wanted and even had a picture for me to work from (of course I added my own touch too!).  I love it when this works out!  

I love baking for my friends, and I rejoice in each celebration that I'm asked to bake for.  What an honor to contribute to life's most precious moments.  As I make each cake and add fresh ingredients I often lift up the receiver and family in prayer, and even ask God to bless the celebration.  My prayer for this child?  "Dear God, I pray Gabriella grows in wisdom and knowledge, that she knows You and loves You all the days of her life, that she has a long and healthy life, and that she is a light in the world for You.  In Jesus Name, Amen"

The cake is a Gluten Free Vanilla 8" round cake.  With Billy's Vanillie Buttercream and my homemade fondant on top. 

Unfortunately, I had a problem with the lighting when taking the pictures, so this is what I have:

Fortunately, my friend Rachelle sent me these (taken by FORE Photography):

Have a wonderful day!!

Rusty's Rockin' Carrot Cake

After a month of silence, I've got some catching up to do.  I couldn't decide where to start so, I started with my most recent cake.  

My friend Russel is writing a cookbook.  He gave me this recipe to try out and it is delicious!!  I have made it a few times but this time I got some good pictures and I thought I would share it with you.  I made this yummy cake to show our appreciation for the local teachers.  With all the layoffs this past week, we had a community effort to show them some love.  I made two cakes, one for each school my girls are in.

The cake is 3 9" layers of Carrot Cake topped by a Orange Zest Cream Cheese frosting.  I pressed toasted coconut on the sides to compliment the coconut in the batter.  I hope the teachers were feeling the love.  <3