My BIG break!!!

Its been a very busy couple of weeks for me around here! Parties, a trip to Disney, lots of sweet treats, cakes and even instructing cooking classes.







Thats right, cooking classes! :) I'm so excited to share my experience with y'all!!!



This past week I taught my first cake class. :) :) It was at a local gathering for a number of very influential people in the community (14 to be exact) who are considering baking as a future career path...I was a little nervous as this was my first real gig teaching an audience how to decorate a cake, but it all went over pretty well. Turns out they loved me! And I even think I may have swayed a few to join the "Keep calm and bake on" career path!!!

Take a look!!

OK, OK...So the class was for a bunch of four and five year olds, but an audience is an audience, right?!!?! ;)

And they were a great one!! They listened well, were very behaved and seemed REALLY interested in what I was doing. (And I'm almost certain it had nothing to do with the fact that they were being bribed with ice cream cone cupcakes) Actually, now that I think about it....hmmmm?

Anyway, it was career day at Bailey's school and Mrs Tiffany asked if any parents would like to come in and demonstrate what they do in their jobs. OF COURSE!! I love to see my baby at school with all her sweet friends so I was all over this opportunity.



I brought in my bags of supplies and taught the kiddos how to make an ice cream themed cake. :)

My husband has been teasing me all day about the teeny tiny table I was sitting at!! LOL I look about as goofy as they come! :)

Aren't they SO cute looking on!? You gotta love preschoolers!!!!!

Once I was at a stopping point with my cake it was time to get the kids decorating! They were each given an unfrosted cupcake baked in an ice cream cone, icing, sprinkles, and a fondant cherry to top off their cupcake. They all did great and showed off their superior decorating skills! (alittle intimidating for me in fact...stay in school kids, I don't want the competition!)

My little Bailey girl hard at work...

Take a look at this one...step aside DC Cupcakes...Griffin's in the HOUSE!!



The kids were asked to come to school dressed up as what they want to be when they grow up. Guess what my Bailey wants to be?!!?!?!!?

I'm so proud that my sweet girl wants to be just like me!





And WOW. She's gonna sell a lot of cakes with that face.

Get those kids in the kitchen y'all!!!

EEK!!! Lookie what I just saw!!!!

My husband just forwarded this to me. April 23 is the big day for my appearance on Paula's Best Dishes!! For a while I've been in denial that this is really happening, but I guess its official! April 23 is the big day!!

Click on the picture to see the show description!!!!

Little Livie is turning 2!

Tomorrow is my little Olivia's 2nd birthday. I cannot believe my little baby is turning TWO!!!!! I just have to say a few things about this little girl...

Born on St Patricks Day, Livie is our little leprechaun. Mischievous and clever. She is perpetual motion, always on the hunt for trouble. My husband calls her a "hot mess" because she is always...well...a mess! She licks the bottom of her shoes, she rubs food in her hair and she loves to dig in the dirt and then eat it. She is a mess.

She loves her sister. Examining Bailey's every move then trying to mimic, she wants to be just like her. Smart as a whip, she will figure out a way to get what she wants!!

She is very silly and very goofy. Mean as a snake, but so sweet at the same time. She is a chatterbox, literally wakes up singing her ABC's and goes to bed singing her ABC's. Every night before I put her to bed she takes my face in her hands and says "Love you sweet sweet mommy". She makes my heart ache I love her so much.

Tomorrow we will be celebrating her first 2 years with many fun activities. On the itinerary is a morning Gymboree Play class, lunch at the park with some friends, a nice little nap, dinner at McDonalds (her favorite "restaurant") and then cake back home with mom, dad, sister, nana, papa and gigi (her great grandmother). I cannot wait for our fun filled day celebrating my little girl!!

And if you're still reading (after my long love note to Liv) check out her cake for tomorrow. I almost didn't make a cake for her b/c I have so much going on with planning for her party this weekend, but after some thought I knew I couldn't let that happen. ;) I made her a little 6 inch round representing her love (emphasis on love) for ice cream and ALL things sweet!!!!
I love you Livie Bivie!!!!!

How do you do this w/ two kids??

That's the question I always get..."How do you find the time to do all these cakes w/ two children!?!" My response is always, "I don't know!!!" (and I honestly don't know! lol) But somehow it all gets done...I'll admit there are definitely times when I'm icing a cake with a baby on my hip while the other little rascal is off coloring on the walls or hanging from the chandelier, but somehow it all gets done. That said, since summer has started (meaning no preschool for Bailey and Olivia has now decided to drop her morning nap) I find myself really thinking HOW am I going to get these cakes done without losing my sanity??

For the most part my caking schedule is 5:30am-7am before the girls wake up and then 8:30pm to as long as it takes... Needless to say after working on my cakes and chasing around 2 little ones in between, I'm a tired girl.

Luckily for me I've got B signed up for 2 weeks of vacation bible school in the month of June so I should be OK for this month, but July is crazy busy w/ 2 kids, beach trips, lake trips, MY 29th BIRTHDAY! and pool time. Sooooo, I have made the executive decision to pamper myself and...

TAKE THE MONTH OF JULY OFF!!! :)

I'll still be updating my blog w/ cakes (I have to make some cakes, I can't help myself), parties and other creative stuff so there will still be some action on here. But for the most part I'm going to be enjoying my birthday month with some freedom from caking! :)

So there is my announcement...
July I'm off
...returning full force to my cakes in August. :)

My little apprentice...

Ask and you shall receive!! I always say I need help in the kitchen so I guess I found it! My new apprenice...

Hard at work....


She's so proud!!!!!!! (check out the bed head on this girl!!!)


The Masterpiece...I mean really, its in her genes!!!!



During her nap I did a little tweaking and ended up w/ something like this....



My advice to Bailey, and/or anyone out there looking to get into caking...practice practice PRACTICE!!!! :)

This is what stressed looks like...

Its been a long and stressful week!!! Luckily its a slow cake week for me, but I've got some other things going on that are just putting me in a FUNK!! I'm weaning my little Olivia from nursing and its proving to be much more difficult than I anticipated. For one, she doesn't love the bottle so there have been a lot of challenges w/ getting her to finish just 5 ounces. But I have to say whats even harder is MY feelings towards saying goodbye to nursing!! I thought I'd be so relieved and excited (which part of me is), but I'm also very sad that its all coming to an end. She is my baby, but she is almost 11 months old and its TIME. But its hard letting go. This is just one step closer to 18 and leaving for college...really, thats really how I feel. I'm crazy, I know.

Can you imagine the break down I'm going to have when I watch Bailey walk onto the school bus for kindergarden in 2011!? **tearing up already**

Anyway, there it is. The center of my stress.

Ahhhh, to vent. That felt nice.

Moving on...Last night was our turn to host small group at our house and whoever hosts always has a dessert and coffee to munch on for everyone. Well, I was planning on making a cake since, like I said, its a slow cake week for me. But after a very emotional day (for Livie and myself) I didn't have the energy or creative mind to come up with anything so here is what I served.

I think it was the perfect dessert to capture my mood. :) And what a great and supportive group of friends I have who gobbled it up all while working to cheer me up!



"I'm Tired!! Here's your CAKE!!"

What an experience!!!!

What an opportunity!!!! Lots of thanks to Jamie and Brooke for getting me a spot on the PAULA DEEN SHOW!!! EEK!! How exciting!!! This past Tuesday I was given the privilege of being a guest on Paula Deen's cooking show, Paula's Best Dishes. We made a cake together from start to finish. She is soooooo fun, sweet and very welcoming. My knees were knocking I was so nervous, but as soon as I got up there with her I was completely at ease.

Thanks Paula and crew for such a cool experience!!!!!

Here are a zillion million pictures....


Getting my hair done before the show...lol









Cooking w/ Paula...






The whole family came along!! lol

Here are pics of the cake I made for display on the show... (if you can't tell it was a Spring/Easter themed show)

I took about a million pictures of MY cake in PAULA'S kitchen!!!! WOW!! How cool! :)



I also made sugar Cookies covered w/ Marshmallow Fondant to go w/ the cake...

What a cool experience for an amateur cake decorator!! I've only been doing this for about 7 months and I'm so lucky to have been given the opportunity to show Paula how I do my cakes! Thanks again to everyone and anyone who made this possible!!!

Fondant isn't just for cakes!!!

Today I tried out marshmallow fondant on sugar cookies for the first time. It was so fun, easy, and most importantly, passed the Bailey taste test!

My little sugar critic devoured her cookie in about 30 seconds and said, "Mmmmmmm, mommy that was good!! I think I want another one!!"

(followed by a tantrum b/c I wouldn't give her another one)

**rolling my eyes**

Its been a long day!!!!! ;)

Anyway, here they are...my cute little Valentines Day cookies.

Turns out you CAN freeze a fondant cake....

So, remember the princess cake for Anna Lee? Well, kids will be kids and poor little Anna Lee got too sick to party the DAY before her big princess party. :( Her parents had to alert Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), all the guests and of course, the cake baker (that's me) ;) that the party was postponed until the next weekend. Of course me being the diligent cakester that I am, had just put the final touches on the cake about 10 minutes before receiving the call. :( GREAT! What to do now?

I researched and found that several cake "experts" said no, you can't freeze a fondant covered cake, while others gave the green light. So we decided to cross our fingers, wrap the cake up in Saran wrap and foil, and stick the princess in the freezer for the week...I felt alittle guilty about this, seeing as how she was smiling at me the entire time I was wrapping her up...she had no idea about her freezer fate...

So yesterday I took her out and defrosted Sleeping Beauty. So far so good...she's never looked better! (which was one of the main issues some "experts" had to say about freezing fondant, saying the fondant would get sticky and spotty) Perhaps it was my amazing Saran wrapping abilities or maybe marshmallow fondant performs differently in the freezer than regular fondant, but whatever it was she looks fine. No issues in appearance.

Later today Bailey and I will be attending this royal princess ball. I will come back w/ an update on how she TASTES!! (the most important detail of all!!!)



UPDATE: Just got back from the party and it tasted great!!! :) No harm, no foul! You can freeze a fondant cake...not that I want to make that a regular practice of mine, but its nice to know in case of emergencies!! :)