Lately I have been working on shower cakes, graduation cakes and retirement cakes! The retirement cake was designed as a safety cone! It was challenging because of the height, but I felt confident in the internal support system that I made. It was delivered with no problems. I hope all the Atmo’s crew enjoyed the cake.

The wedding shower cake below is one of my top ten. I love the design and colors! It was inspired by some of the future bride’s pillow choices in her registry at Target. I love getting ideas from clothes, fabrics, pillows, etc! When I look through catalogs, I look at the clothes but I am always thinking in the back of my mind how I could translate the design into a cake. So if you need a cake, and you are not sure about the design, just go to your closet and look through some of your favorite pieces for inspiration! 

My fellow co-worker, Jeffri, just graduated from Texas Tech and wanted me to make a cool cake for her party! We took pieces from previous Tech cakes and made one special for her. We did a marble flavored cake with a white chocolate filling. Congratulations Jeffri!

Now on to the table details! I am going to be blunt and say that our table was the most adorable thing I have ever seen or created! It came together so nicely, and I was proud to represent it. The theme of our table was “The Lovebirds.” I will post photos below so you can check it out for yourself. The display was a three tiered chocolate cake decorated with chocolate fondant (of course) and sitting on top were two precious love birds (they stole the show). I made gum-paste pink roses to go with our color scheme (chocolate, light green, and pink) and bumble bees to circle around the cake.  My husband gets all the credit for making the trees in the background. The idea came from a brilliant event coordinator, Amy Atlas, who uses color and style to create magnificent tablescapes. She was my inspiration. Jordan took an example from a photo and did his crafty magic. They looked exactly how I wanted them.

So here comes the best part! Out of four awards, our table was voted “Most Artistic” by three judges, two of them noted chefs in from the Dallas area. I received a giant wine bottle trophy to add to my table and was personally introduced to the judges. I also received a gold metal that I insisted on wearing around my neck until I realized that everyone won a metal for contributing! I met so many potential clients as we passed out treats, and I look forward to working with them.

We definitely made plenty of cupcakes. In fact, we left Llano with about 100 leftover, and not to mention the three tiered display cake. Alisa helped take some cupcakes off my hands, and then I took about 50 to work and they were all gone by the end of the day. I loved that they didn’t go to waste! I contemplated on what to do with the cake because it would have been a shame to throw it away. I was able to contact the local outreach kitchen and donate it to the Tuesday lunch downtown. It was the best delivery I have ever made.

Last but not least, I want to thank all my friends and family for coming out and supporting me. It was awesome to have a posse around the table throughout the night!
I hope you enjoy the photos compliments of Alisa Joy Photography.

The Centerpiece

Adorable Lovebirds!

My partner in crime, Alisa

Most Artistic Trophy!

My Posse

Luckily my first cake back was fun and festive. I was afraid I would be rusty after taking the time off, but I realized it is similar to riding a bike. I did a birthday cake for my spunky hairdresser, and decided to do a mod design with tons of vibrant, round cutouts. I think it came together quite nicely, and I felt it represented her personality to a tee.

I am currently preparing for the Chocolate Fantasia, an event hosted by Llano Estacado Winery this coming weekend. More details to come! If you would like to attend the event, you better act quick because tickets are going fast. Contact the Llano to reserve a spot for $45 (includes over 40 chocolate samples and an abundant amount of wine tastings). The proceeds go toward research for Parkinson disease.

Wow..I just realized how long it has been since my last blog. I am ashamed it has taken me so long, but I am not surprised! It has been a crazy past couple of months, so I will try to summerize some of the top cakes for your viewing pleasure below. 

Before I get to that, let’s talk about the holidays! Smitten Cakes wishes each one of you a very blessed season. I am lucky for all of my wonderful clients, and have enjoyed being a part of your special events this past year! Thank you for your business, and Merry Christmas! 

One more side note-Smitten Cakes has been booked for the month of December, but will start taking orders for 2009! Remember to get your orders in as soon as possible to be able to reserve the date. Since it is a custom cake business, I am limited to the number of orders I can take each week.

Also, if you are a future bride and need a wedding cake, please get in touch so we can meet. I am booking the summer months fairly quickly so give me a call and set up a consultation! 

Here are some new cakes that have been keeping me busy:

The Snowman and Penguin are such great friends!

A very fun and stylish lady ordered this cake so she could display it on a festive cake stand during the holidays for all to see! Not to worry, the cake is made of stryofoam! I opted for bright colors and the adorable snowman/penguin toppers handmade from sugar paste.  If you ever need a display cake, just let me know. It takes a couple of weeks to order the cake forms, but it is great to have if you want to show off a cake stand or impress your guests without any baking involved!

My very good friend, Jenni, recently had her first child, and I was privileged to get to do the cake for the shower. I opted for a simple, clean, and classic design because it represents Jenni’s style. I am so happy that Baby Peyton is part of our lives, and I am looking forward to doing her future birthday cakes!

This is baby shower cake number two for my client Brian in the past few months! When it rains, it pours. He is such an easy client because he will leave me a voicemail with the color scheme and the focal point, and then give me free reign on the design. 

Dora the Explorer for Olivia! I was privileged to be able to make Olivia’s first birthday cake, and I was even more excited to be asked to do the second. The Aguileras are great clients, and throw big parties! They are one of two clients that drive more than two hours to pick up their cakes, and I am honored that they are worth the drive!

Here is a list of all the shops we made it to:

Batch – This was our first stop and the one I wanted to go to most. I heard from another blogger that this was her favorite. I checked out their website before my trip, and I saw they also had Foie Gras Dog Bones and knew I had to get one for my friend, Alisa. We just happened to stumble upon it the first night I got there after eating at Grano Trattoria and it was a great shop-fun service and décor. I ordered the Lemon cupcake and Natalie tried her favorite, Red Velvet. To be perfectly honest, the cupcakes were kind of a let down. They were too cold therefore being a bit dry. Perhaps I was expecting perfection, so I was nonetheless let down.

How Sweet It Is – Natalie and I just finished our $1 dumplings and were heading to SoHo to shop when we fell up on this cupcake stop. The owner, Ellen Sternau, was outside speaking to a Food Tour group, so we snuck in behind and eavesdropped! After the tour left, we headed inside. It was really sleek and clean. The cupcake displays were really appealing! Ellen was super friendly, offering other places to check out on our cupcake tour and telling us how to get there. I ordered a Devil’s Food Cake cupcake with a Chocolate Mousse filling and a Vanilla Swiss Meringue buttercream (with sugar sprinkles on top!). Natalie, of course, chose the Red Velvet. The taste was really delicious, and the flavors worked nicely together! However, we ate them while walking down the streets of NY, and my cupcake was so soft it fell apart, thus making it very hard to eat. I desperately needed a fork! But overall, I would definitely go back.

Babycakes! – This bakery is unique because it focuses only on vegan treats. I saw the owner, Erin McKenna, first on Martha Stewart and she was adorable and stylish! I went in thinking that the products would be good for vegans, but not for the normal palette. Boy was I wrong. I ordered the Lemon Spelt Cupcake, and it was by far the best cupcake I have ever tasted. It was chilled perfectly, and the texture and flavor was just right. I loved it! The location was funky and busy! I got the cupcake to go, and they put it in a mini Chinese take-out box which was fun. All in all, the winner of the trip! I hope they ship because I have been craving it ever since I came home!

Corner Bakery – We went to the Corner Bakery on my last night there. It was near Natalie’s apartment so she took me by there on our way home from dinner. She loves the way the bakery is so open. You can see everyone working on the breads and pastries from the front counter. I ordered two mini cupcakes with sprinkles. I love the size of the mini cupcake because even a standard cupcake can be too much on a full stomach. They do not primarily specialize in cupcakes, so they had the basic vanilla/chocolate flavors. The cupcakes were the perfect size but a bit on the dry side. I am not sure if this is a franchised bakery, but it had the feeling of one, so it lost the small bakery aesthetic. Not my favorite, but it did seem popular, and Natalie was happy with it.

Crumbs Bakeshop – I am going to be blunt and say this was my least favorite. They had an array of sizes and flavors and sprinkles (which makes anything better), but it didn’t wow me at all. I don’t even have much else to say about it.

So that is a wrap on my cupcake review. I know I missed out on so many more bakeries, but I will have to save that for another visit to NY! It will be a good excuse to go again. Remember these reviews are based solely on my personal opinion. Sorry for the lame photos!

I have been a huge admirer of Elisa’s cakes for sometime now. I keep up with her blog, study her book, watch her on the Food Network, etc. I am a fan! So getting to meet her and work with her was a dream come true.

For the most part, we spent the session working on the Chinese Take-Out Box from her first book The Confetti Cakes Cookbook, while she answered as many questions as I could think of to ask (I was nervous and forgetful). She was a great resource and an awesome teacher. She taught me a few of her really great tricks that she has learned along the way during her career. Seeing an expert putting together a cake gave me new insight and encouragement.

We didn’t end up finishing the cake (time flew by), but she graciously spent an extra 45 minutes longer with me to cover all of our set objectives. I ended up taking the cake back to Natalie’s apartment where we feasted on it all night! It was a delicious coconut cake. Unfortunately I flew out the next day and had to leave the cake behind-it broke my heart! But I think Natalie enjoyed snacking on it for awhile.

I am so thankful I got the opportunity to learn from one of the best in the industry! Thank you Elisa and your wonderful staff!

Check out her blog to see her amazing creations! During my lesson, they were in the middle of working on the Lego Batman Cake! It was massive.

The owls were yellow cake and the the greek letters were red velvet. We wanted to incorporate the Chi-O colors with the flavors so it worked out perfectly.

It is always special when I do a wedding cake for a good friend. It is nice to be apart of their special day. Just like doing any cake, it is worth every hour I loose of sleep to make the recipient happy whether it is a wedding, birthday, shower, etc…

I even got to cut the cake at the wedding, which I can officially say that it is not my specialty! I got it all over the table. Plus it is an ironic situation-I put so much time and thought into making these cakes, and then in a span of 10 minutes it is gone! But I would have it no other way because that is the entire point! Just a funny thing I guess. It would be even worse if it was never cut into and it died a moldy death. There could be nothing worse than that. Nothing worse…

Thank you Adrienne for letting me be apart of your wedding, your bridal shower, your sister’s shower, your graduation parties, etc! You and Angela rock!