I had the privilege of making a cake for a surprise party for a friend of mine who just completed her first marathon. She and I have done quite a bit of running together and, in fact, both finished our first marathons this year…I ran the NYC Marathon and she ran the Disney Marathon. There was quite a celebration in her honor and I was the lucky duck who got to make the cake.

And in the spirit of it being a cake about the Disney Marathon, we felt it appropriate to put a “Hidden Mickey” somewhere on the cake…

So cheesy. I know.

I got to make some more cute owls this week along with some “conversation hearts” for a friend who wanted to thank the staff of her local hospital for the great care they took of her son while he was in their NICU. I love helping people show their appreciation for one another!

 

 

I had a blast on Monday creating a fun cake with Chef Nicholas Lodge at The International Sugar Art of Collection School of Sugar Art. It was my first time at this facility and with this chef and it was just a near-perfect day. I just LOVE to learn! This is the cake we made…

I had a blast creating these yummy goodies…lots of little baby cake pops and vanilla cupcakes!

 

I’ve done a lousy job of keeping all of my projects posted here over the holidays. Here’s a sampling of what I’ve been up to! For quicker updates, make sure you “like” Pie In The Sky Cakes on Facebook!

Here’s a “Cute as a Button” cake for a baby shower. The pig is hand sculpted from gumpaste and the cake is fondant covered red velvet with cream cheese frosting. Yum! There were also some little lamb pops along with this order…you can see one at the bottom of the cake. This was was lots of fun to make–

This Dr. Seuss cake was for a very special first birthday party…

Another view of the hand painted details…

The Cat In The Hat cake pops for party favors…

I’ve read that no Southern baker is worth their salt until they’ve done at least one red velvet armadillo cake (a la Steel Magnolias). Now I guess I’m worth my “salt”, but I’m not so sure how I feel about that as lately salt has been getting cheaper and cheaper in the grocery store. I’d rather be worth my “butter”…

Couldn’t let Christmas go by without decorated sugar cookies!

The snowmen were my favorites…

And then one last batch of cookies over the holidays…these were to “beat the winter blahs” for a sweet family. I can’t think of anything more appropriate for just that than cupcakes and ice cream cones in January!

Here’s to 2011! May it be a year of blessings, happiness and joy.

And baked goods!!

These are some holiday pops I’ve made this week.

Turkeys for Thanksgiving…(the pic really doesn’t do them justice…each one has their own little personality…I think these have been my faves so far to make!)

And then for Christmas…

Love these little Rudolphs too…aren’t they cute?! 🙂

Looking forward to seeing what other Christmas goodies I can come up with…I definitely think there are snowmen in my future!

This week I was asked to make birthday cakes to coincide with the opening of a musical that both birthday kids were involved in. I was asked to do two a small cake for each birthday as well as cake pops for the cast. I went with a Broadway Playbill theme and trimmings that went along with the New York/Guys and Dolls theme.

 

And for the cake pops, I did dice in line with the theme of the show. I wasn’t sure how cake pops with right angles would do, but I think they turned out pretty great!

Oh my goodness, how cute are these?!

I got a call this week from a soon-to-be Grandmother who’s daughter was expecting her first grandbaby. I made a dozen cake pops; six in pink and six in blue for the party the mom-to-be was holding to announce the baby’s gender. (How fun is that?!) The grandmother also wanted a large cake for her husband’s birthday, which they were also celebrating as a surprise. She wanted it in pink (the baby’s a girl!) and she wanted it heart-shaped and chocolate, chocolate, chocolate! This is what I created…a sour cream chocolate layer cake filled with home-made Italian buttercream that is so smooth it just melts in your mouth. I was a little sorry to let this cake go because I really want to cut into and have a slice myself! Congratulations to this sweet family on their sweet baby girl!

These are a vanilla sugar cookie loaded with butter and topped with colorful royal icing. These are so much fun to make and even more fun to eat! Perfect for the upcoming holidays!