It is what it is.....

I recently took 2 of my children and 1 friend to the movies. An activity I did often as a child. We purchased our tickets ahead of time, which cost $55. I thought that was a bit pricey but acceptable. Before we arrived we made a quick stop at our local Dollar General to get all the necessities like lemon heads, chocolate covered raisins, sweet tarts..you know the necessities. We also got G2 which was on sale for only 80 cents each. Our total is now up to $75. I promised the kids each a small popcorn when we arrived which came to..brace yourself...$25. YES $25! It took that boy 30 seconds to fill 4 small bags and turn around to hand them to us. 1 trip to the movies has now cost me $100. Where am I going with this you ask..... My cakes start at $50 and delivery is $20. After you deduct the cost for all supplies..ALL supplies.. including things like butter, sugar, flour, vanilla, sour cream, eggs, milk, oil, cardboard bases, aluminum foil, straws, marshmallows, powdered sugar, gumpaste, food coloring, etc. etc. I could go on for quite a long time. My point is I put hours of time into a cake. Hours of coloring fondant, crumb coating, covering in fondant, making decorations, decorating, delivering.. It made me realize just how hard I work and just how little I earn. I am so lucky to do what I love but I've also come to the realization that some people just don't understand or appreciate the time and effort that goes into a cake. It's time for change or atleast some adjustments. :)

Skull and Crossbones

Love this one but it did give me a few gray hairs! I decided to try a new cream cheese icing recipe which is OH SO YUMMY!! For some reason it didn't "crust" so when I started applying the fondant decorations they all just started sliding down the cake. I had just baked, frosted and decorated 3 dozen cupcakes and it was going on 9pm.. so my options were limited. Make new buttercream, and fondant would have required a trip to the store so that was out of the question. So life gave me lemons, all I could do was try and make lemonade and all was good until...The delivery ride. UGH. The first acceleration and things started sliding. It could've ended alot worse for sure but I still feel awful giving a cake that obviously has a few flaws. Anywho.. Brett the birthday boy loved it and it would've looked better had I been able to decorate more. Excuses, Excuses.. I t was a learning experience and what I learned is.. If it's not broke  Don't fix it!! Enjoy!!

Cars

Happy Birthday! Kyle turned 3 and likes Cars and Strawberry cake. Yum! Me too! Enjoy!

Snow Boarding

When you're a boy and you're turning 16 you definitely do not want a cake with trains or Power Rangers on it, so this mom decided on going with a snow boarding theme. Well me being me, I had to put a silly twist on it and put him head first into the snow.  I call it Snow Boarder Down! Enjoy!

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

Happy Birthday Layne! Enjoy!

Love Honor and Cherish

A Beautiful cake to go along with those beautiful words...oh and the beautiful couple too!! Enjoy!

Cake Time Again..

After a little time off to enjoy the last of the heat with friends and family, I'm happy to say my calendar is booking up fast and I will be back to baking any day now. I have wedding cakes, birthdays, showers and even some super biggies! After much deliberation I have finally given in to everyones advice and began applying for amateur cake decorating contests! I have gotten feedback from a few and they have been quite positive!! We shall see... to be cont.

Camping Mickey

Adam turned 1! Time goes by so fast. Enjoy!

Lavender Hydrangea Wedding

Lavender and Sage Green were her colors and Hydrangea"s were the flowers. The beautiful bride sent me several pictures of cakes, pointing out which details she liked on them. Since she enjoyed the look of cornelli lace, I decided to spend the time intricately piping the design followed by a sheer "love" ribbon layered on top of a white satin ribbon. I knew right away I didn't want to over power the cake with too many flowers. I decided to enhance the beauty of the cake by placing white flicker candle lights behind the lavender hydrangeas above the second layer. As for the cake topper, now that was a challenge. I was given a very heavy glass heart etched with the bride and grooms name and wedding date. No stand,  just a heart. I admit I did panic for a bit. What on earth do I do with it?..lol. The end result was more beautiful than I could've expected. I used styrofoam with a notch cut out on the top, a hole cut out in the bottom where I positioned another flicker candle light wrapped in the love ribbon and surrounded by more hydrangeas. So Beautiful! Enjoy!

Golf Grooms Cake

I was asked to make a golf theme grooms cake so to be a little different..I made it a golf bag instead. It was a big hit..Enjoy!

Lady Bug

Happy 2nd Birthday to Delanie! Lady Bug theme...Love it!..hope you do too! Enjoy!

Scooby Doo!

Happy Birthday Hailey! Forget the pink polka dots or pinkalicious party for her! If you are not a "girly girl" then scooby it is! Good choice Girl! Enjoy!

Great News!

Sweet Shari Cakes name is spreading like wild fire! I'm so excited to be chosen to help out in the celebration of a huge historical event...Meeting with the committee tonight to take pictures and begin sketching some ideas.. Hoping it will make the paper or even the news. I'm thinking of posting clues and taking guesses for what event it will be.. Winner will win a custom cake from Sweet Shari's....What do you think?  Enjoy!

Playing Catch Up...

So a few unfortunate events took place that left me without internet access and it sure felt like a lifetime! Lucky for me it was during the hottest part of the summer, so far, and I got to enjoy it. Looks like I'm going to have to spend some time uploading pics of recent cakes I have completed... Okay.. I will wait until it rains. I am so very excited about some upcoming cake orders.. can't wait! Enjoy

First Birthday

Paeton is turning 1! Red and Black Minnie Mouse ...so cute! Yes mom picked out a cake and sent me a picture, but it wouldn't be me if I copied someones design so.... I jazzed it up a bit, made it topsy turvy and whalla! Mom was very happy. Enjoy!

Graduation

A small cake for a Big Celebration...Congratulations! Enjoy!

Princess Castle

Happy Birthday to Sydney and Adelaide! One likes Cinderella and one likes Snow White so they agreed on a castle cake. This picture was taken before I placed the princesses on the cake...so cute! Neapolitan cake (vanilla cake sandwiched  between 2 layers of chocolate with strawberry butter cream) Yummy! Enjoy!!

Happy 60th!

His and Hers birthday surprise! Corvette for him and frogs for her..hmmmmm That was a tricky one. Spent an extremely long day on it... into the evening I realized I had spelled anniversary wrong. Ooops! Then my husband says to me.."Didn't you say it was a birthday cake?" Ahhhh. I return home after delivery only to find the corvette hub caps on the kitchen counter! Can I get another Ahhhhh!! I worked real hard on the hub caps too :( Live and Learn I suppose! But the froggys bikini is oh so cute! Enjoy!!

Tangled!

Happy 5th Birthday Rachel! The weather has been so warm lately I was afraid to complete it too early so.. start to finish including leveling, torting, making butter cream, fondant, crumb coating and decorating in just a few hours. I remember my first cake..Hahaha. Enjoy!

Sweet and Sassy Sage!

Sage Green and Lavender bridal shower, designed from the shower invitation. No silly story to go with this one. It is chocolate cake with fresh raspberry mousse filling. Yummmy! I think it came out sweet, sassy, and oh so cute. Enjoy!!