Oh Baby....

I originally made this design in pink for my friend Roseann's daughter's Christening. I love how it came out... it was elegant and pretty and simple. I loved it so much that I made it the following month for my Godson's Christening.

But of course that wasn't all I made. For Elena's Christening, Roseann wanted a box of cake balls for each family. I made 320 cake balls for this party. They were fantastic!

And for Frankie's Christening, my sister Michelle wanted cross cookies for favors. Mom and Michelle came for 3 days to help make them. We were convinced after day 2 that Mom was breaking them on purpose so she could eat them. This was the project that never ended... but so worth it when every guest at the Christening raved about them! (Yes, they were packaged nicely for the party... these were some leftovers....)

My go-to taste testers....

I've kept them behind the veil of a computer screen, but figured I'd show you my top taste testers....

This is Bolo - our Sun Conure. He knows what the sound of the Kitchen Aid means. He definitely KNOWS the smell of Peanut Butter Butter Cream. He's even said "cupcake". If I ask him if he wants some peanut butter, he nods his head to the point where I'm afraid he'll pass out. HE LOVES PB BC!!!!

And then there's Spanx and Minnie.... our two rescue bulldogs that we got from the Long Island Bulldog Rescue in November.

They are also very keenly aware of what cupcakes in the oven smell like. And will sit and give you their "paw" for what seems like hours -- until you reciprocate with a treat. They, too, are very fond of Peanut Butter Butter Cream frosting. And of vanilla butter cream. And white cupcakes. And cookies. Go figure.

You've met Britt before... my 15 year old daughter who, at any given night at 11pm will pop in the kitchen and exclaim, "Mom, I have to bring cupcakes to school tomorrow. I promised." or "Mrs. so-and-so asked for cupcakes." She often brings clamshells full to school, and has to dodge those who see her coming down the hallways. She brings cupcakes to her friends for their birthdays. She brings them to her classes. She brings them to her teachers. Britt will NEVER frost a cupcake with a knife... and even made a makeshift pastry bag last summer when she was teaching dance camp and they decorated their own cupcakes. She can walk in the house and immediately know what flavors are on the day's menu. She has my knack for detail. My obsession for perfection. And she is better at shaping fondant that I am!!

And here's my biggest help... the man who will break down a flavor and analyze every morsel so that he gives me an honest answer... (or so that he can taste some more....). This is Erik. He's my biggest supporter. My cupcake stand maker. My shopper. My baker during the day while I'm at work. My "no-doze" when I'm pulling an all-nighter. The love of my life.

Erik knows my passion for baking. For creating. For perfection. He never gets annoyed - is always supportive - and is genuine. He will buy cupcakes from every cupcake store he passes so that we can try new potential flavors, or compare frostings, toppings, etc. He never complains when cases of clamshells arrive, or $100 in cupcake papers. He just smiles and knows it makes me happy. Everyone should have an Erik. But not mine... he's taken. And I'm keeping him!!

My "I tried to be Martha" Rainbow Cake

Let me start by saying that I absolutely LOVE the look of this cake.

I've made it several times, and am always trying to sneak another in here and there. Perhaps red, white and blue for July 4th, shades of pink and/or blue for a baby shower... ohhhh, the possibilities are endless! Almost everyone asked if each layer was a flavor.... Really? Would you want six different flavors in your mouth at the same time? Blech. Nope - all white cake based with food coloring. If you do a pink cake, you can make some with a strawberry flavoring. But keep the cake to one flavor.

The first time I made it was for my good friend Jenn's birthday. I was so excited to see how the finished cake would look. Making it wasn't bad. Easy, in fact... once I got down how much batter per cake. I can tell you that the puppies were loving the rainbow cake scraps.

Here's what the un-finished cake looked like when stacked:

The finished cake: (let me just say that a 10" round cake - six tiers - has over 4 lbs. of buttercream frosting!!!!

And here it is cut into.... Doesn't it look awesome??

Here's the link to Martha's post... Try this cake. You'll be so glad you did!!

Where have these last 5 months gone?

I'm somewhat embarrassed that I haven't written a blog post in FIVE MONTHS. Shameful... But when I think about why I haven't, I quickly remember seven dance competitions, two dance recitals, more orders than I can count, work, work and then more work, and raising a house full of teenagers, two bulldogs and a parrot.

I've made some crazy cakes/cupcakes these past few months. I've learned new techniques, gotten better at others, tried new recipes, got a double oven (FINALLY), and have expanded what I offer.

Yep, that's right... more to offer!! You see, Erik cringes when he hears that... because it, in essence, means that he will have to learn to do more so that he can be my "assistant". He wears his "For the Love of Frosting Staff" shirt proudly, and always looks to dig it out when we have deliveries.

Ahhhh yes, deliveries. There was one in May that almost pushed me over the edge. A giant.... let me repeat... A GIANT Wizard of Oz cake that absolutely should have had PVC down the center so it didn't shift. But no. I must have subconsciously wanted to stress out for the 30 minute car ride. This cake was 2' tall. And awesome. I'll post about the happenings when I post about the cake. Let's just say that when we dropped the cake off to the birthday girl, we immediately left and stopped at the dealership. And left there owning a new Honda Pilot. Yes, that took care of the stress from the delivery.

And remember the baby from January?? His christening was last week.... so we made some cool cross cookies and a cake, too!

What's coming up for "FTLOF"? Here's where the next few weeks take me:

• A pool party for 80 people (60 girls and 20 adults) on Sunday. Still not sure what treats to make!
• Four orders for July 9th... shower, christening, and 2 birthdays
• A trip to RI, where I'll decorate a cake up there for a very special 1-year-old
• A graduation party the next day back here on Long Island... cupcakes or cake shooters for that one
• A HUGE get together with some out of town friends -- which means an insane amount of baking
• A Cinderella-themed birthday to end the month. Not sure what that one will be yet... lots of ideas!

I have so many ideas I want to play around with... so many cute cakes I've seen, some new techniques, some new appliances I need to play around with, etc. Way too much fun to be had... never enough time to play.

So now it's time to catch you up on some of the things I've made.....

We have a baby.... and a winner

Little Frankie was born this morning at 9:46am - weighing in at 8lbs. 3oz.....
Which means our winner is.....
JUST ADD CHOCOLATE!

JAC... shoot me an email with your address!!!

And now.... here he is:

What will 2011 bring??? A Baby(Cakes) Giveaway, for starters!

Probably one of the best treasures ever... a new nephew. My sister Michelle is due to give birth to her first baby - a little boy they'll name Frankie -- in about a week or so. I'm super excited to be an auntie again -- and really miss the baby stage! In fact, I'm soooooooo super excited for the new baby that he will be the reason for my next giveaway.... A BabyCakes machine!!

Since little Frankie can make his appearance at any time now, I'm going to open up the giveaway now.... and it will end when Frankie is born.

So what do you have to do to win the giveaway?? Leave a comment on my blog with how much you think Frankie will weigh when he's born. Michelle's due date is 1/22, so he's full-term now. Feel free to also leave some advice for Michelle, since this is her first baby. The person who's guess is closest to Frankie's actual birth weight without going over will win. (In the event of a tie, the first person who guessed that weight will be the winner.) **You can only enter once. (Jason!!)

And here's a picture of what you can win... (I believe I have the pink for the giveaway -- I know, blue would have been better, but they didn't have blue in the store).

.

Ready, set, GO!!

(Disclaimer for my International friends... I don't know if this can be shipped internationally, so if you are the winner, I will send you the cash equivalent of the BabyCakes machine)

Toy Story anyone??

This was a kick-ass cake to make!! Britt's dance teacher turned 23 yesterday and her sister asked me to make a Toy Story cake for her family party. It seems "Miss Jackie" is obsessed with TS - and it was even the theme of the party!!

I wasn't fooling around with this one. The original idea put to me was a small cake surrounded by cupcakes with each character's face on them. Super cute! But in typical Lisa fashion, I couldn't shake the "too simple" feeling they gave me. Surely I could come up with something that would not only make me stay up all night long, but something that was also so far beyond my comfort zone. I think doing the Star Wars cake last month gave me the confidence to try anything. (Yes, a Star Wars cake -- you'll see that soon - PROMISE!)

OK - back to Toy Story....

Her favorite characters are the alien, Woody and Mr Potato Head... So I went to work Googling -- looking for some ideas - and decided upon a 3-tiered cake representing those characters. Did I mention this cake was for only 10 people? I know, I get carried away sometimes. So they'll have left overs. I did use a 6" and 8" pan, so it's not like it's gigantic!!

For the top tier, I knew immediately that I wanted to make it the alien's head. I used my 1/2 ball pan (6" diameter). That was easy!

I wanted the middle tier reserved for Woody. How do you shrink an entire character into a 3" tall circle? You focus on the costume -- the thing that everyone recognizes as Woody's. His shirt (and badge, of course). I even made a fondant "rope" to put between the first and second tier.

The bottom tier was going to incorporate a little more than the other 2 individual ones. So I went ahead and decided on a sky/clouds theme - and added some other fun characters around the base tier. Now, let me just say that MY favorite characters are those little Army guys with their feet stuck together. I'm actually giggling as I type that because they were pure genius to put in that movie!!!! I wanted Mr Potato Head to be in true fashion... missing some pieces. And what better way to display the Happy Birthday message than on an Etch a Sketch!!! I even tried to make the lettering square -- because I never really could master the art of Etch a Sketching... (Don't pay any attention to the chocolate cake on the Etch a Sketch... this picture was take after the cake was cut...)

I'm still working on perfecting the base of the cake in fondant. Not so easy to smooth out the fondant and not get creases/folds. I'm getting there -- slowly but surely!

This time around - and because I'm way too obsessive for my own good - I wanted to make sure that Mr Potato Head's "parts" looked authentic -- and I wanted to be able to capture the Army men in true plastic fashion -- but be edible and the same time. I ordered a silicone plastique kit to make my own flexible molds. You can pretty much make a mold out of anything. It's a process... but worth it in the end. I now have silicone molds for Toy Story parts - and can literally pop them out in seconds. Think about it... now I can make "Mr Potato Head Parts" cupcake toppers and have an ear on one, a mouth on another, etc. All without having to shape the actual fondant!! I have a feeling I'm going to be getting some silicone plastique for Christmas!!!

Seriously, doesn't he look all "plastic-y"??

Like I mentioned, this cake was so much fun to make!! I'm thinking I can come up with some other Disney tiered cakes for each movie!