Website

Hi friends, I want to let you know the official Dessert First Cakes website is coming soon. The blog was useful but I can't wait to show you the real thing! Special thanks to Addie for the web design! Check back soon!

Cake-o-saurus

The four year old birthday boy said he wanted a dinosaur cake - didn't matter what kind. So I did some research and came up with a plan for a stegosaurus. He went through some lizard-like stages until I added the spikes. They were actually the hardest part. I was trying to make it more complicated than it needed to be. First I melted down chocolate and piped it onto wax paper in spike shapes. After they dried I inserted them into the dinosaur's back. That worked great... for about five minutes. Then they started to droop and it looked like a whale in captivity! God bless my husband - he said just use hershey bars. That worked perfectly! Sometimes simple is best.

Tribute to Grandma

My grandmother turned 85 this week. We threw her the first birthday party she may ever have had...
the reason being she has two birth certificates. They both have the same year but not the same date. She is the kind of person who doesn't like to draw attention to herself so whenever we'd suggest a birthday party she'd say it's not her birthday. Well we didn't give her a choice this time. We surprised her with presents, a good meal, lots of family, and of course a cake. My grandma is Puerto Rican and she collects beautiful fans. I always think of her when I see one. This was a very special cake for a very special lady!

for the piggies

We celebrated my husband's birthday yesterday in rare fashion. It was kind of mean to cut it... but it was funny having his face on a plate. This is my first guinea pig cake. I'm really enjoying the cake orders - I have my first topsy turvy cake coming up this weekend. I'll post soon. Thanks for looking! -Rachel

*favorite*

After 5 months of doing cakes in 2009 I have a new favorite. I love the tiffany boxes. This cake was for my friend Ashley's bridal shower.
You know I almost never buy books but this last week I found like 5 cook books. Most were at a yard sale. I picked up "The Cake Doctor" by Anne Byrne and "Quick Fixes for Cake Mixes". I have a lot of reading to do!
A word on boxed mixes:
I use them.
All the time.
I have never had a scratch made cake that is as moist as Betty Crocker's or Duncan Hines. Seriously. It tastes good and it saves me a bunch of time and money. This way I'm able to concentrate on frosting and decorating and I'm able to keep by prices reasonable. I'm looking forward to 'doctoring' the mixes and making unique flavors. Cheers!

Sorry that I don't update this blog more often - I was under the impression that not many people read it because most fans are on facebook.
Thanks for your continued referrals - I really enjoy staying busy with 2-3 cakes per week; a pace that has remained steady. There was one week with 7 cakes last month - that was insane! Lots have been donations lately, which gives me a chance to try new ideas. I literally have a list with about 15 new techniques / recipes I want to try and I'm just waiting for the right time.
That's all I have to say - I'm going to watch Ace of Cakes now. We don't have cable so I just downloaded it for the first time. Woohoo!

First castle cake

I've waited for a long time to get asked to do a castle cake. It was so much fun to make! I'd also love to make a boy's birthday castle sometime. Maybe frost it in chocolate and make a dragon to go around it. I did a cupcake giveaway on facebook last week - there were a lot of people who responded. Unfortunately I can only give cupcakes away to the first person who responds, but I'll do another giveaway again soon. I'm not sure how to post a link to a facebook group, but let me know if this works:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=26625164312&ref=ts

My son's birthday cake

Just had to throw in one picture of my son's second birthday cake. It was based off his favorite book: Curious George Feeds the Animals, where George feeds peanuts to all the whole zoo. The palm trees were made out of pretzel rods and the animal figures are fondant/gumpaste. When Andrew first saw the cake he shouted, "Monkey!"

Sorry I've been so slow about updating this blog. I realized it's been a while. The cake orders are getting more regular now that winter is almost over. There was one week in February where all my orders were cancelled because I was sick. I only get sick about once a year and it happened this time on a week where there were 6 orders for one of my regular clients. When she heard I was sick she gracefully let me back out. I was really disappointed to let that business go, but I realize my health is more important and I really needed to rest anyway. So since then I've been able to try some new decorating techniques that I've wanted to try for a long time. Among the new things I've learned is making chocolate cigarellos, like the ones in the picture. That was my Mom's birthday cake. The cigarellos are just hollow little tubes of chocolate and they complemented the chocolate whipped frosting and strawberries so well. It was basically a chocolate strawberry shortcake. I've started making a list of new things I want to try. There's about a dozen new things I've been wanting to learn such as painting with pearl dust on fondant and carving a purse cake. Hopefully this year will allow me to be creative and learn some new things.

A week off

This is my first week I've had no cakes to do since four months ago. I love keeping busy with cakes but I think it's about time I did some laundry instead of mixed frosting. So thanks for the continued referrals! This wedding cake was the largest one yet - it served about 200 people. The flowers are made of fondant - the ribbon is black satin. No more weddings on the books for a while, but there are several baby showers coming up in the next few weeks. I'll keep you posted!

Wedding cake marathon

Well the busiest cake-making week of my year is almost over. There was one wedding cake on Tuesday, the one pictured here, and the last one gets delivered this afternoon. I wasn't sure how I was going to manage two weddings in one week, but thankfully they were spaced out just enough so the preparation time didn't overlap. It's been a fun week. I hope to do more wedding cakes as word gets around. I'm starting my prices at about 30% below market value because I'm still relatively new at this. I've learned a lot with each new project. Thanks for the referrals, I look forward to serving you more in 2009!