Polka Dot Baby Shower Cake

I was asked to make a cake to match the shower invitations, which were light blue with a polka dot border in blue, green, yellow, and white. My plans were to frost the cake then add circle fondant appliqués. But I've learned that simple graphic design means the slightest imperfections are magnified. So, rather than struggle to achieve a perfect coat of frosting, I frosted the cake as smoothly as I could and I covered it in pale blue fondant. I then mixed the other colors to match the dots on the card. I cut the dots using a cookie cutter. They looked perfect...until I tried picking them up. They kept stretching out of shape. So I let them sit a while until they stiffened a bit, then I gently lifted them and placed them on the cake.

I intended to create concentric rows of dots, but the diminishing circumference meant that the dots didn't align properly. So I went with a single row around the top of the cake. I cut a large circle of white fondant for the center plaque and mixed some frosting and piping gel with blue color to pipe the personalized message.

The cake itself was three 10-inch rounds made using the white almond sour cream recipe, but instead of using white cake mix, I used French vanilla. It tasted wonderful. I filled the layers with Bavarian cream filling. I frosted the cake with white butter cream frosting. The fondant was vanilla flavored.

I was told that everyone thought the cake looked great and was delicious.

Fuchsia Gerbera Daisy Cake

This is another version of the cake I fell in love with on www.pinkcakebox.com. You can click here to see the first one I did, which was also my first fondant cake and featured peachy-pink flowers. This is my fourth try at covering a cake in fondant, but I'm still not sold on it. I guess I just need more practice before I can be comfortable with the whole process.

The cake is three, 1-inch layers of German chocolate cake. I made a traditional cooked filling with coconut and pecans. The outside of the cake was frosted with chocolate frosting I made from Ghirardelli sweetened chocolate powder, then it was covered in vanilla fondant.

The "pearls" around the border and the green stems are both made of hand-rolled fondant. The flowers are gum paste. The fondant for the stems was colored with Americolor Electric Green. I used a little bit of Americolor Fuchsia to color the fondant that covers the cake. I added a little more color for the lighter flowers and then added a bit more for the darker flowers.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the techniques I used to make this cake.

2009 Black Pot Cook-off - First Place Pork!

The Black Pot Cook-off fundraiser was held at Angelle Park in Cecilia on October 4. Our friends, Brook and Sam, asked if we'd participate and Sean agreed. He is not a competition cooker, but thought it would be fun and besides, it was for a good cause.

They hauled both our Cajun Grill and our Dixie Backwoods Smoker to the park on Friday night. We got there around 8:30 Saturday morning and lit the fires. Sam said she would register the team, but she needed a name. Sean quickly answered, "Team Grosse Affair"! We started cooking at 9:00. It was a beautiful day, not too warm with a nice breeze, perfect for barbecuing and hanging out with friends.

Sean had marinated ten racks of pork spare ribs, which is what he was entering in the competition. He had also marinated some beef short ribs, which he had never cooked before and wanted to try. While he was putting the pork ribs in the smoker and the beef ribs on the grill, I started on the side dishes. First I gave him some thick cut bacon to crisp on the grill. Then I mixed up a large batch of my baked beans. I put them in a disposable pan and placed them on the grill to slow cook. Sean season the rice dressing mix and I cooked it down for a couple of hours or so, then I mixed it in with a big batch of rice.

I had baked four dozen cupcakes, which I iced with buttercream in green and yellow, Cecilia's school colors. I donated them to be sold at the concession stand.

When they started to announce the winners I wanted to walk over to the main pavilion, but Sean wanted to hang back because he really didn't think they would call our team. Brook headed over there and before we knew what was happening he was calling across the field for Sean to join him. Team Grosse Affair had placed first in the pork category! So I grabbed my camera and we all headed over there.

The first place winners in each category were awarded an oblong black pot and lid, a small round black pot and lid, and various seasonings and mixes. After several pics were taken by family and friends, we headed back to the campsite. We were joined by several people who were there as spectators and others who had also participated in the cook off. Everyone wanted to get some of those award winning ribs. And, they had to check out his smoker, too. At the end of the night, when all was said and done, there wasn't a rib to be found!


Everyone should be as lucky as I am to have a husband who cooks award winning food for them. It has gotten to the point that dining out for me is second to eating in.

Everything Sean cooks, especially his ribeyes and pork ribs, always takes first place with me!

Baby's First Birthday - My First Fondant Covered Cake!

My friend and co-worker, Belit, asked me to bake a cake for her daughter Bella's first birthday. She gave me creative license and I knew I wanted to make something special. As luck would have it I had a Wilton class the night before I had to bring her cake to her. In that class, we learned to cover a cake in fondant.

So, I decided on a design, which was actually inspired by a cake I found on Flickr. It was a cake made for a wedding shower by Pink Cake Box, of which Anne Heap is the founder. She is a graduate of the Pastry Arts Program at the French Culinary Institute in New York City and completed an apprenticeship with Ron Ben-Israel Cakes in New York City (OMG!). She is a spectacular cake artist. You can click here to see the cake that inspired me.

I covered my cake in class with fondant colored a very pale shade of pink. But, instead of adding all the other stuff that was included in the class curriculum, I waited until I got home to decorate it.

I colored gumpaste in a shade slightly darker than the fondant on the cake, then I made an even darker color, adding a little orange to it so that it was sort of a shrimp color. I used a daisy cutter to make gerbera daisies and then rolled bright green stems and tendrils. I used a darker shade of green to make the centers of teh flowers. Then I used a small round cutter to cut circles from white fondant. I rolled two circles together to form a pearl and did this until I had surrounded the entire cake. I then brushed the pearls with pearl white shimmer dust for a finishing touch.

Since fondant isn't "mushy" I decided Bella needed a "smash cake" that she could dig into. So I cut a small circle out of cardboard and covered it in silver paper. Then I used a biscuit cutter to cut the center out of an extra cake. I frosted it in pink buttercream and covered the entire cake in pink sugar crystals. I finished it with a gerbera daisy on top.

Belit was ecstatic when she saw the cake and I was thrilled that I could deliver two cakes to her that I was quite proud of.



This was Bella's little smash cake.