FAQ's

I'm so excited about all the questions I have been getting about my cakes. Thank you for your interest!  Here are some basic answers to the most frequently asked questions I've been getting - and please feel free to ask MORE!  

Every cake I make is unique so all special requests will be considered. Here is a list of my current offerings:

What flavors of cake do you make?

Every cake I make is Custom - so you choose what you like best! Here are some standard flavors to get your mouth watering but I can do almost any request!
Chocolate (dutch or German)
Vanilla
Coconut
Lemon
Spice



What fillings can I choose from?
Every layered cake begins with Buttercream frosting - which can also be flavored to compliment your cake) Some examples of that would be:
Butter-cream (Vanilla, Chocolate, Lemon, Almond or Coconut)


I also usually use a Secondary filling for my layered cakes.  The most common of these would be: 
Raspberry/strawberry preserves
Lemon curd
Fresh berries (extra charge)



What will you frost my cake with?
Every cake gets a base layer of Buttercream icing. That is either topped with more buttercream or a combination of buttercream and Fondant.  MOST of my cakes are finished in Fondant.  I may also use candies, modelling chocolate or specialty gumpaste to complete your designed cake. (Extra charges may occur)


Here I want to make a note that I MAKE MY OWN FONDANT - it is not cardboard-y or tasteless.  It is a sweet, soft and mellow homemade confection!  Almost everyone who has tried my fondant has exclaimed that they have never had a fondant they liked until mine!!

PRICING:

My cakes are Very Reasonably priced for custom cake design! 

I start with a base price to cover my expenses and then use a calculation based on how many people the cake needs to feed and the degree of difficulty (i.e. how many hours spent decorating).  I know you all want a BALLPARK figure - so . . . The BEST information I can give you is that you can expect to pay at least:

$40-70 for a small cake that will feed less than 15 people 

$60-140 for a small party or occasion cake the will feed more than 15 people

$100 and UP for wedding cakes, cakes that need to feed a big group of people (more than 20) and large party and occasion cakes.  

I give an EXACT quote for each and every cake!

If you live in the Vancouver WA/ Portland OR area and would like a unique and personal cake for your next celebration - contact me!

Buttons, Ribbons and Bows

This cake was a 'just for fun' and 'practice' cake. I got a new nifty fondant press that I really wanted to try.  I used some fondant I already had made and tinted it some pretty pastels.

I like this cake.  The idea of it would be GREAT for a baby shower or first birthday - but I think I would try this with a different shaped cake.  The fondant had a tendency to droop because the cake was so tall - this might be more successful on a square cake.

Still it's super cute and I can think of all kinds of applications for ribbons, bows and buttons!

 

If you live in the Vancouver WA/ Portland OR area and are looking for a fun and personal cake for your next event - contact me for details!

Horse Cake

So this cake is WAY different from anything else I've done.  A girlfriend requested this for her daughter's birthday and I wanted to make something Amazing and Realistic. I think I hit the mark on both counts.

This cake was hand carved and everything you see on it is edible.  I made my own fondant for this cake and used Icing sugar and cocoa powder to 'paint' some of the details.  Enjoy!

 

If you live in the Vancouver WA/ Portland OR area and are looking for a Unique cake for your next party or event - message me!

Owl Cake

My teenage daughter wanted to celebrate the last day of school with a little party at our house. And she wanted a cake. I was happy to oblige on both counts :)

Right now Owls are BIG.  They are on t-shirts, jewelry, home decor, art work - you name it!  My daughter loves them! And what's not to love? They are Cute, Sweet, Thoughtful, Quiet, Wise and Fun.

For this cake she wanted something 'cartoonish' not realistic. I went for Retro colors and I think it turned out adorably!  I used fondant, sugar and Candy Melts.

I'll definitely be making more owl cakes - I want to try a sleepy owl, a wise Graduation owl, a 'girly' owl - the possibilities are endless!

 

If you are looking for a fun and personal cake for your next party and you live in the Vancouver / Portland area contact me!

15th Anniversary cake

I made this cake about 3yrs ago.  My hubby and I decided to renew our vows in a little gazebo park near our house.  We re-affirmed our vows and had our kids participate in the ceremony.  After the ceremony we shared cake and champagne with 15-20 of our closest friends.

It was a beautiful day, a beautiful ceremony and a beautiful cake!!

A couple things about this cake - at the time I had NO experience in making complex flowers - sugar, fondant or gumpaste.  So I went on-line and ordered these from a sugar-craft house.   They were not cheap - but totally worth the price - they took my cake from simply pretty to elegant.

One thing I LOVED about this cake was that even though it looks like fondant - its actually buttercream (cause I love the taste and it was my day dag-gonnit!)  I used a very old fashioned technique that my mom showed me years and years ago of pressing a damp kitchen towel over the buttercream to 'smooth' it out.  Pretty nifty huh?

I also used candy pearls, ribbon and green Hydrangeas from my garden.  The cake was lemon and vanilla layers with a lemon curd and buttercream filling.  And for the topper? Two sweet little ceramic birds I bought at a garden shop. I love, love how this came out!!

I'm going to keep working on my flower skills so that the next time I make one of these I use my own sugar craft :)

And here are a couple of photos from the day - so you can see that the flower theme and yellow, white and green were carried throughout.  I did my own decorating and flowers - with some help from a couple of my talented girlfriends.

If you live in the Vancouver / Portland area and are looking for a cake for your special day - message me!

Guitar and Drum cakes

I've decided to blog these two cakes together since they are so similar in theme.  (We have a very musical household so often our family cakes reflect that interest)  I suppose a 'sports mom' would have a lot of sport cakes and and a dance mom would have cakes of ballet shoes and etc (oooohh  - a ballet shoes cake - now that would be FUN to try!! :)

The first cake I'm including here is a guitar cake I made for my husband's 39th birthday.  He is a guitarist so there you go!  This was my first foray into making my OWN fondant and with trying a marbling technique.  I was pretty happy with the results.  I also combined some good old fashioned butter-cream piping too. 

The other cake I want to include in this post is one I did pretty recently for my son's 13th.  He is a drummer so I bet you can guess what his cake was! :)

For this one I again made my own fondant but this time I was much more successful with the marbling technique. Check out those drum sticks made out of fondant!! Very cool!  I also tried an edible spray paint technique to get the silver finishings. Sadly - the paint cracked as it dried - it wasn't tragic but I have changed my approach to 'metal' looking fondant now :)

The cake itself was a a chocolate and vanilla layer with Marshmallow Fluff and buttercream filling. Yum!

If you live in the Vancouver/Portland area are looking for a fun and personal cake for your special occasion - please send me a message!

Pizza Cake

The pizza cake has had made two appearances at our house over the years.  First for my son's 8th birthday and second, for my daughter's 13th.  The REAL secret to this cake is the pan - its deep and big enough to make a nice sized cake and the toppings are as endless as your imagination.


The first time I made this cake I did it with a more playful take on the 'toppings' using candy to mimic the pizza:

The second time I made this cake - I aimed to make it more 'grown-up' and the toppings more realistic:

They were both great and they were a big hit at both parties. If you live in the Vancouver WA/Portland OR area and are interested in special ordering a Pizza cake - contact me for details!

Humble beginnings

My cake decorating 'career' started like a lot of people - I had kids and my kids had birthdays :)

One advantage I did have was that my mom was an amazing cake decorator and when I was a kid we always had the BEST birthday cakes on the block! My mom even baked, designed and decorated my wedding cake :) I grew up watching her and I had a great example to look up too!

I started making birthday cakes for my own kids after a couple of years of spending WAY too much money for cakes that frankly weren't as good as what my mom had made for me and my brothers and sister.  So I took matters into my own hands - literally!

My first attempts were clumsy, messy, fly by the seat of my pants and though cute - certainly not very professional looking.  Here are some of my early cakes:

And then, SLOWLY, they got better as I gained skill and practice:

 And later Even BETTER:

Pretty soon I was able to make cakes that I was proud of.  Cakes that were good enough that other people wanted them.  I'll be posting photos of those soon- but for now please enjoy these blasts from the past :)