Double Barrel Tree Trunk

This was my first double-barrel wedding cake. I have to admit, I was nervous with the size. I was not nervous with the stacking/support part. I was nervous it would not look proportionate. I covered the cake with vanilla buttercream icing and formed it to look like bark..

 

 

Then came the fun part of airbrushing multiple layers of food coloring...

 

Say a few prayers, drive 30 miles on rural Pennsylvanian roads,

and throw on a few hand-made fondant accents...

 



 

 



 

One of my favorite parts about this cake is the topper. The groom's father crafted the topper from wood and deer antlers. I did not have this topper in my possession while creating the cake. As the groom's father stated, this cake was made for this topper. They matched perfectly!!

It was meant to be.  :) 

 

 

Venue: Mitchell Ponds Inne - Bed and Breakfast

Located in Knox, PA

Luggage & Purse Cake

My customer sent me a picture from the lovely Pinterest & asked me to replicate the cake. I'm unable to credit the original designer of the cake because it was not attached to the photograph.

For the luggage, I did a 2 layered 1/4 sheet cake (chocolate & almond). The purse was carved from chocolate cake.

 I was very pleased with how my replica turned out!



Fondant Covered Luggage & Purse Cake

Fondant Covered Purse Cake

Stacked Baby Block Cake

Well, after hearing about the royal baby's arrival, I thought it would be fitting to share my stacked baby block cake! Each block was a 6" x 6" x 6" block, covered in buttercream and decorated with marshmallow fondant accents. I also hand molded the pink elephant topper. :)

 

Hunting Themed Groom's Cake

It's so exciting when a bride-to-be comes to me and asks for a SURPRISE Groom's Cake! ..This particular cake was going to an avid hunter and is probably one of my favorite cakes to date. The tree stump is iced in buttercream and all of the accents are hand molded from marshmallow fondant. I airbrushed "sugar in the raw" and placed it around the base as edible moss. :)



 

'Dirt' Cake

A few of my friends have asked me for my recipe for what we call "Dirt Cake". You may also know this as Oreo Dessert. When my children have the opportunity to take a snack to school, this is always their choice! While growing up, my mother always made this dessert and layered it in a flower pot. You can add gummy worms (the kids just love this touch) and stick a bunch of artificial flowers in the top for decoration. If you're like me and are fascinated with making 'all things edible', then you could always make vanilla pizzelles and form them into bowls as shown below!

Ingredients:
1 package Oreos, crushed
1/4 cup butter
8 oz. cream cheese
3/4 cup sugar
2 small packages of instant vanilla pudding
2 3/4 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
12 oz. cool whip

Crush Oreos in food processor until very fine, set aside. Cream together butter, cream cheese, and sugar. Add vanilla pudding, milk, and vanilla. Fold in cool whip. Starting and ending with the Oreo crumbs, layer Oreos and pudding mixture in your serving dish. Refrigerate to set up and ENJOY!! :)

Dirt Cake served in  vanilla pizzelle bowls!

Just added: Cake Order Form!

The majority of my orders start online. To make this process easier, I typed up an order form for cakes. This will help minimize the time it takes to get back to each other and you'll know the exact information that I need when you decide to place your order.

 

CLICK HERE FOR ORDER FORM!

How to use this order form:
    You will need to download the form (choose DOCX for the Word document). Please insert your information (you will need to 'enable editing'), save it to your computer and then email it back to me at thecraftycouple@hotmail.com. This way, we both have all the information we need in one place and it will make the planning process a lot easier.

Thank you! :)

Happy Birthday Adam

Over a year ago, while attending a cake show in Ohio, I learned about a non-profit organization named Icing Smiles. As a mom and a baker, I love everything they stand for. Bakers volunteer their time and skills to create goodies for children who are facing critical illness. These goodies can come in the form of "fun" cakes, "dream" cakes, and even cookies. Icing Smiles also understands how siblings may feel left out, so they may receive an 'Icing Smile' as well. If you've never heard about it, I recommend that you head over to their website and check them out. While you're there, you can even sign up to volunteer! :)

I'm one of those people who tend to lose sight of the 'big picture' in life. I'm 27 years old and I've struggled with negativity my entire life. The sad part is, I never realized how negative I was being until a recently. A few years ago, our family had quite the challenge to get through. I don't feel entirely comfortable talking in detail about it, and I'm still learning to "deal" with it. I'm sure I'll eventually come to terms with everything, but I'm just not there yet. I strongly believe that everything happens for a reason, even if I don't fully understand that reason, it's there.

About a month ago, I received an email from Icing Smiles to do a fun cake for Adam's 16th birthday. I've been so excited to do this cake. It makes me feel as though I have some sort of purpose in life. I know, some people may think, "it's just a cake," but to me, it's not just a cake. It's the opportunity to make someone else feel a glimpse of happiness and hopefully forget their worries for just a moment. Adam is a huge Jeff Gordon fan and I've been itching to do a 3d carved car cake for quite a while. I get intimidated easily and tend to psyche myself out (I'm still working on that confidence thing). I wanted to do my best and not disappoint Adam...I wanted to make him an awesome cake because, well, he deserves it. ..I think about all of the issues I may have and with all honesty, they're not THAT bad. In the grand scheme of things, I have absolutely nothing to complain about. I'm glad that with my involvement in Icing Smiles, my eyes have been opened and I can look at my life with a new, more positive perspective! (If you want to read about the children, check out the Icing Smiles Facebook page! There are photos of each child along with their cake and story.)

When it came time to deliver the cake, I was so nervous, yet elated. I just didn't know what to expect. I threw on my Icing Smiles t-shirt that I purchased at the cake show more than a year ago and started on my one hour journey to Adam's house. Upon arrival, I introduced myself and thought , "Why in the world were you so nervous?" Adam's family was so kind and best of all, Adam loved his cake! He even gave me a hug! ..And, from what his mother told me, he doesn't give them out freely! It was such a blessing to meet Adam and to be part of his 16th Birthday celebration! I'm so proud to be a part of Icing Smiles and will do my best to spread the word about this awesome organization!

 

 

 

 

ICING SMILES.ORG

Happy Memorial Day!

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day! After the cakes were picked up, we had a blast spending some much needed relaxation down at the cabin!






My 6 yr. old fiddler showing off his new 1/2 sized violin!
(We're so proud of him and I can't help but brag a little!)

 

 

 

 

 

I'm back!! :)

Wow, I really haven't been doing a good job with posting. Well here's the scoop....I took on a temporary full-time substitute position from January to May, so I took some time off from the cake world. My assignment has finished up, so I'm back in the kitchen and booking future orders!








Clarion University Graduation Cake

Recipe: White Bread

Most people who know me personally, know that I try to make everything I can from scratch. After doing some researching, I have made it my goal to provide my children with preservative free food! Those things are nasty and there are so many to look for. Currently, I'm trying to pull out ALL of the BHT, BHA, and TBHQ from our diet. There are more out there that you shouldn't be eating, but I'm starting with those three. Read your labels and you wouldn't believe how many foods have at least one of those 3 "ingredients". I had 10 boxes of cereal in my pantry. All boxes except for one was what I call, "contaminated". The generic Raisin Bran from Aldi was the only one without it. If BHT wasn't actually in the food, it was in the packaging...AND if it wasn't an issue, they shouldn't have to include it on the ingredient list of the product!

Barbie Logo Cake

Barbie logo cake - I did a buttercream lay on for the logo and I free handed the shoes and purse onto the cake. :)

 

 

 

Archery Birthday Cake

I love to browse around on www.cakecentral.com. While visiting, I discovered a painting technique used with buttercream. This is my second time doing this technique and was actually rather pleased how it turned out. In a nutshell, I base ice my cake, mix my buttercream colors on a painter's palette (used only for cakes), grab a paintbrush and start "painting" on my cake....   :)

THANK YOU!!

Well, I hope everyone had a happy and safe holiday! I was crazy busy during the month of December and appreciate each and every order from my customers--new and returning! It was also nice to have a much needed break to spend some stress-free, quality time with my family. I am so excited to start another year with this business adventure and have big plans for 2013... :)

Rudolph - Preschool Snacks

 

At my daughter's preschool, everyone takes turns bringing in a snack and a drink for the children. The theme they are learning about is also listed on the calendar (which is currently Christmas).  Kylie wanted something festive and decided on marshmallows dipped in chocolate and decorated to look like Rudolph. Then she mentioned that she REALLY wanted to take in cupcakes...

 

For the drink, we took in Egg Nog ---which most of the kids did NOT like! Haha -- They're all about having the kids try something new. At least one bite or sip. Kylie told me her friends loved her Rudolph cupcakes, but made the "yuck" face to the egg nog.   :)   

 

 

Winter Wedding Cake

This winter themed wedding cake has a layer of vanilla cake and a layer of chocolate cake on each tier. It was iced completely in buttercream --no fondant on this one. The biggest challenge was getting the snowy sides to look the way I wanted them to, but everything worked out! :) I made the snowflakes from white chocolate and adhered them to the cake with buttercream icing.

Carnival Cake

This 1/2 sheet cake is half vanilla and half chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream icing. While making this sheet cake, I was trying to accomplish the carnival theme more than circus. I decided to hand mold fondant to create the ring toss game, decorate a pail of popcorn from large and mini marshmallows, and of course a clown sitting on a ball while juggling.

 

Marshmallow People

I got the idea to make the people from marshmallows after looking through one of my craft catalogs. They make so many characters from marshmallow shapes of wood. I figured I'd attempt to make them in 100% edible form.....



For the manger, I "glued" 3 marshmallows together and airbrushed them brown. Then made the hay from fondant.

 

Death By Chocolate

My first attempt at chocolate ganache! ---YUMMY is all I can say. Which means a lot b/c I'm the type of person who can eat a single piece of chocolate and no more. For next time, I now know NOT to use a whisk (which I read in the instructions afterwards). You can see the little air pockets in the photo.

 

I finally found a use for this plastic cake stand. I have a soft spot for sunflowers, so this was perfect!!

 

 

Chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream filling, covered with chocolate ganache.

Crocheted Hats

Years ago, my Great-Grandmother taught me how to crochet (I wish I knew when I first started, but really have no idea). While teaching me, she never showed me a single pattern or told me what the stitches were called. I would carefully watch her fingers and imitate the movements she made. I need to take some photos of the first 2 projects she had me do (sorry, this blog thing is still new to me!). For my first project, she told me to crochet a square. To this very day, I hate to count while I'm crocheting. Needless to say, my "square" turned into what looked like the shape of a flat Barbie dress. Nowhere close to being a square. Great-Grandpa told me to rip it out, but Grandma wouldn't let me because it was my FIRST completed project. It's in my closet with my old crochet magazines -- every time I look at it, memories of her come flooding back. :)

Anyhow, I made myself mittens last year, so I knew I could figure out a hat for each of my children for Christmas gifts. I was so excited, and figured I'd just give them early. Good thing I did because:
                  1.) They didn't fit.
                  2.) They HATE them. (Partly because the yarn was also too scratchy.)



Carson's Hat

Kylie's Cupcake Hat
 

 

As frustrated as I was, my friends encouraged me to try again. I found a different pattern online at www.lionbrand.com. Again, it turned out to be a little too small (I swear, I followed the pattern perfectly to this point and Ky has a normal sized head). I hate to rip things out and start over, so I decided to just add a border and ear flaps with a long chain/string. The verdict: Ky LOVES her new hat and excitedly wore it outside to play in the snow! Success. 

 

I took this photo a couple days ago, but I decided to crochet a flower embellishment --she's a girly girl and this hat just didn't scream "Kylie" yet.  :)

 

 

2nd Attempt = Success

My Mittens

 



 

Dr. Seuss Cake