Cookie Exchange

My wishes were answered! Thanks to my friend Heather for sending this picture.  It was a pretty impressive spread for year three!

Holiday Baking

'Tis the season for some very warm kitchens! Most bakers were busy all season long, which is why I'm just now sorting through pictures.  We've also had some really fun Christmas surprises in the Taylor household (in the shape of a new camera!) so pictures of every shape and size are stored in a few places now.  Old camera, new camera, on my phone... you name it and we've got pictures there.

Here's the rundown of my December: 

Third Annual Cookie Exchange
Each month (give or take a few visits) my amazing group of JMU girlfriends gather for potluck dinners. Everyone is VERY dedicated to our themes, and trust me we've had them all. From "Dips for Dinner" to "Food that looks like other foods" we have a great time cooking and catching up at these get togethers.  For the holidays it's worked out for me to host the cookie exchange, and although the crowd and apartment/house has changed, it's always been a fabulous time.  I snagged a few pictures of the sugar cookies I baked, but the full spread is on someone else's phone. (Send those pictures if you have them girls!)

My Favorite Tradition: Hard Candy
Another thing I look forward to in December is making old fashioned hard candy.  I tried some as a kid, and when I was savvy enough to know what a candy thermometer was I made my own batch. It's not always been as streamlined as it was this year- I've broken quite a few thermometers along the way. Each year I try out new flavors, and this year I aimed for some tropical tastes.  Since I've LOVED shopping on places like Etsy and Pick Your Plum in 2012, I made sure to give them some business for this year's crop.

A 30th Birthday (shhh...it was a surprise!) An old friend from Grad School contacted me with plans for a surprise 30th birthday for her husband.  It came at the perfect time for several reasons. 1- she lives in Woodstock, VA, which is normally a bit of a drive for me, but we were heading home to Roanoke to see my parents that weekend. And 2- the party was an "Endless Summer" theme, so I got to dream of summer in the already bleak, and windy winter! Thanks Cassie for calling me up :)

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a have a wonderful New Year. I'm excited to bring you some MUCH higher quality photos in 2013!

An International Cake

I'm so excited to post this cake, because to be honest- it was one big experiment! My dear teacher friend Tejal has been trying to find an excuse to buy a cake for months.  She planned a surprise trip home to celebrate her dad over Thanksgiving because he was turning 65 AND retiring. (That's a darn good excuse to surprise someone!)

We planned out the cake and scheduled a pickup for the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Since the party wasn't until Friday I had the tough task of making a cake that would last that long.  She drove it home the next morning and dropped it off at the venue.

Did I mention that her family lives in Canada??

So Tejal was quite a trooper because this was my first cake traveling that far, my first cake that was served so many days after it was made, and for the sake of making this list- my first square cake covered in fondant.

All in all it was a huge success! Gulab was surprised, the cake tasted delicious (so I heard), and it was all in tact.  In fact, the pictures I'm posting are from Tejal's camera and are just as good as the ones I took of the cake days before, and better quality (shocking since I used my iPhone to take a few).

Thanks Lad family! Happy birthday and retirement Gulab!!


*Coming soon: Moira and Graham's Wedding

(I made the amateur mistake of deleting photos from my camera before they were synched with my laptop.  Luckily I know a fabulous photographer who was at the event, Mark Maskell!)

Pinterest!

About a year and a half ago I started my love affair with pinterest. I go through phases where I use it TONS, and then forget about it for a while. (Those who've used it know what I mean.) I've always been a big fan of Google Images, but Pinterest stores it all in one craft-addicted place.  It's been such a treat to see what the rest of the cake world is up to!

As I become more tech savvy I like to put my cake pictures in various places.  One place is my facebook page, but pinterest is the best by far: one stop shopping!

Check out my pinterest page appropriately titled "Cakes by Casey."  It's a fun archive of the old stuff.

Happy Tuesday!

The Cake of All Cakes... (at least in my opinion)

We were SO excited to get our flash drive of digital pictures the other day! Our amazing, fantastic, better than the rest photographer Rebekah Hoyt  lives right around the corner so our photos were not only posted on her website, but also hand delivered in the same weekend. What a bonus!

I'm very proud to share one of the most special cakes- my own wedding cake! Jared and I put on quite the search for this cake. In as few words as possible...

1. Decided that Roanoke was too small of a town to produce great cake bakers. (don't worry....I come around.)
2. Contacted and Visited several bakers in the DC area.
3. Tasted a few DC cakes that left us feeling disappointed, and mostly just poor. ($10 a slice?! Who would pay that??)
4. Extended our search to Richmond, Charlottesville, even Harrisonburg.
4a. Went so far as to ask our friends to drive the cake for us so we could skip the delivery charge (Thanks for offering great friends of ours!)
5. Felt leaving a bit happier, but still poor. (Closer to $4 a slice, with a $150 delivery charge).
6. Decided to just listen to my mom like I should have from the start... and went with a Roanoke baker.

Cake Maker Linda Adams of Botetourt had a really impressive resume, and delicious cake to sample. She had previously done a lot of floral designs, so we were hoping our fondant details wouldn't stretch her too far out of her box.  We had a very specific picture in mind from pinterest (where else?) and she delivered!

Pinterest Version

Linda Adams Version
(all that's missing is our "t" topper... photographed later once it was added) 

She also came with a really impressive bonus: she bakes for a hobby and the cake was closer to $2 per slice, with no delivery charge. WIN!

We were so happy with the way it turned out, and we're thrilled to have it nestled away in our freezer for another 11 months.

We also had the honor to serve bubble cake cupcakes as our favors. I made the mistake of forgetting to take pictures before I put them in the boxes. Luckily Rebekah captured the vanilla/vanilla, but the other boxes had the most obscene cupcake I've ever seen. I've been hard at work in the kitchen to recreate things... we're talking brownie with chocolate and brownie ON TOP.  It was rumored that these were being used for bribes throughout the night... I totally get it...there's not a lot I wouldn't do for another palm beach brownie cupcake.

Vanilla/Vanilla

Bubble Cake Cupcakes

Thank you to all of our amazing vendors! What a fun opportunity it was to be on the other side of the transaction this time!

Things are a' changing!

New names are exciting, but it's been a blur to connect my social/professional/and cake life.  Hang tight as I link it all up... email addresses and other documentations are coming!

As for now, take a look at this tidbit- my new facebook page!

www.facebook.com/cakesbycaseytaylor

If you're a blog follower, or just a friend of the business be sure to like it! It'll be fun and easy to share cake moments from this point on, especially if I have a few locations to do it. 

Enjoy, and be on the lookout for other big changes to come. 

My New Favorite Tool: The Stamp

For over a year I've looked forward to Moira and Graham's wedding. When we first sat down to chat about their cake and cupcakes they gave me the reigns on the design ideas (pun intended since Moira loves horses and it was an equestrian themed wedding). Graham does graphic design for a living and is fantastic at generating and formatting ideas.  It was such an honor to have the green light from this couple! Throughout the year of planning they sent pictures and tools my way, and I've now uncovered one of my new favorite techniques!! Moira ordered this stamp especially for her cupcakes, and it was much deeper than most. I'm excited to try out different stamps and see what results they yield. 

Pictures from the wedding will be posted soon, but for now- enjoy this look at the fondant stamp. 

Step 1: Roll out the fondant to about 1/4" in thickness. This is much thicker than I usually roll it to cover a cake or to use for typical cupcake toppers. 

Step 2: Use a cookie cutter to shape the toppers. I chose a circle cutter that's a bit bigger than an inch in diameter. This is the circle I often use for cupcakes. 

Step 3: Line up the stamp to the center of the fondant coin and press lightly. I had to peel it back a few times, but for the most part it popped right off. 

Step 4: Top the cupcake! I let my coins dry for a few days so they were hard enough to hold their imprint. Then I topped the cupcake while the frosting was still soft. 

I've been featured!

So many things have happened since my last blog! I've become a Mrs., survived hurricane Sandy twice, and endured a busy busy week at school.  I've got a long list of things that make me happy in cake world, so it seems like a fitting time to get back on the blog.

One of my new favorite people Jessica Maskell came to me after her own wedding with a proposition. (I suppose my cupcakes passed the test, and she was ready to take our cake relationship to the next step!) She is a wedding guru and works in the DC area to promote vendors.  This fall she put together a wedding shoot with some of the people she's worked with in the past, and asked me to represent the baking end! I was so excited by her vision and sneak peak photo looks amazing. 

I'm so honored to be featured with other DC greats, and looking forward to seeing more pictures.

Little Man Baby Shower

I've dreamed of doing something "little man" themed ever since...well.... since pinterest came onto the scene. One of my favorite client families came to me several months ago when they started planning for a friend's baby shower. After a few theme changes and color swaps, they finally settled on the Little Man idea.  It was so fun to create cupcakes with tiny ties and moustaches- adorable!

 Oh yeah... and my new favorite Pick Your Plum purchase... pink box twine!

According to facebook the little man has made it healthfully into the world, and he is such a dream! Thanks Taryn and Dara!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Cayden!

                               



                                


One of my favorite customers is back!  I'm a bit overdue on this post but it's well worth it.  A few weeks ago Shannon asked me to make a cake for her Grandson's 2nd birthday. It's been such an honor to make things for Shannon's family because I've been able to watch them all grow (from wedding to baby birthdays)!

I'll admit, it's also been a really fun challenge.  Each member of her family has different requests, such as nothing on the cake inedible, or matching a specific photo... this one was no different! I realized how out of touch I am with the cartooning world when I got the images for this one... Jake and the Neverland Pirates struck gold!

I love pirates, especially for little guys' birthdays, and I only hope that all of the fondant work came out somewhat resembling Jake.

Thanks Shannon!