Are you ready for some FOOTBALL!?

"A Thursday night party? 'Cause all my rowdy friends are comin' over tonight!"

I have one simple question...is it football season yet?! I don't know about you but I know I'm ready for some football :) and what goes great with football...aside from chicken wings and beer...well of course cake ;-)

One of my husbands co-workers put in an order for a birthday cake for their son who will be celebrating 22 years of life on Thursday. Of course I got excited when they told me they wanted to do a Washington Redskins cake and I got right to work. {For the record the Redskins are not my team. Go Broncos!! I've been a loyal fan since John Elway}

I started off with the native head and went from there. To give this amazing family the ability to cut through the cake, all the pieces are made of fondant which is more flexible than gum paste.

After adding some feathers and accents I used an edible black marker and carefully hand draw the facial features on. I must admit I'm very impressed with myself...drawing has never been my thing...ok lets be honest my almost 2 year old son can draw a better stick figure than me. But I managed to make his features look as real as possible.

This devils food cake is covered in my favorite homemade chocolate icing. I opted not to give the icing a smooth look and went for a more textured look which I really think made the chocolate pop. 

Wrapped around the sides of the cake is the name of the football team "REDSKINS" which is also made out of fondant.

My favorite part of this cake was the feathers. Unfortunately the picture doesn't give it justice...the tips of the feather were a darker golden yellow while the inside was a lighter yellow. The tips looked like they were on fire.

I can't wait for the birthday boy (well I guess technically man) to see his surprise cake! 

HAPPY 22ND BIRTHDAY BRAD!!

Football season will be here soon enough so if you need a sweet treat for your tailgating party featuring your favorite team contact me at Simply Sweet! I truly believe in the power of the "word of mouth" and want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who has helped spread the word. 

Under the Sea

When soon to be 5 year old Peyton was asked what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday, he didn't hold back and was very specific. He wanted a shark and a BIG one! And who am I to deny the birthday boy of what he wants?! 

 

Watch out Jaws, there is a new shark in town and he's ready to CHOMP into some cake!!

Of course I watch all of those cake shows and they make it look so easy molding things out of rice crispy treats so I was tickled pink that I was actually going to get the opportunity to try...and surprisingly it was very easy! I knew I wanted it to look like the shark was coming out of the water (i.e. the cake) so I molded his head and a portion of his back. This is how he turned out. Of course I had to eat a few of the leftovers when I was finished :) but once I was done treating myself, I covered him with rolled fondant. Then I added his eyes, teeth and fin which were all made of gumpaste. 

When I showed the final product to my husband he admitted that when I originally sent him this picture he was a little nervous about how I was going to make this (above picture) look like a shark. 

The one eyed, one tooth shark :) not that scary now but just you wait.

People have asked me if I'm ever nervous about how things are going to turn out. To be honest...yes but that is only because I am a perfectionist. I get visions in my head of these amazing creations and sometimes it is hard to make my visions a reality but I frequently shock even myself with how my cakes turn out. I personally never imagined this shark would turn out so cool :) and for those of you who are wondering...yes my husband was blown away by the final product!

Peyton's mommy wanted to go with an under the sea theme for the cupcakes, so I constructed these little sea creatures from gumpaste...star fish, crabs and sea turtles.

I must admit the little sea turtles were my favorite :)

The cake and cupcakes were devils food cake topped with a plain buttercream icing. Everything was edible including the rocks at the bottom which were made of fondant.

Five is such a great age and is probably the first birthday Peyton will truly remember. I'm so glad that I was able to be apart of his special day! 

 Happy 5th Birthday Peyton! CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP :)

You better work it Wolfpack!!

At the Deese house we are 100% Wolfpack fans so when my mother in law asked me to make an NSCU birthday cake for one of her coworkers I was thrilled!! This howling devil's food cake was topped with a white butter cream icing.

As much as I would love to claim that this was done freehand, I can't...at least not completely. I used a print out to stencil an outline on the cake to guide me. From there I just piped red, white and black butter cream icing from the middle out.

The birthday boy not only graduated from NCSU but is also enjoys working on cars and what do you need to work on cars? TOOLS!! I stuck with the basics: a flat head screwdriver, a wrench and a hammer.

Each tool was cut out of gumpaste and luster dusted to look like metal. The handles on the screw drivers and hammers are made out of fondant, making them look like plastic handles.

These sinfully amazing red velvet cupcakes are paired with a cream cheese icing.

The whole time I was making these all I could think about was the hit TV show Home Improvement with Tim "the tool man" Taylor and his trademark grunt!!

Jungle Fever

Lions and Monkey's and Hippos OH MY!! These roarin' devil's food cupcakes topped with a super sweet butter cream icing, were made for a surprise baby shower for a coworker. I fell in love with his jungle nursery theme and just had to carry it over to my cupcakes.

I adorned each cupcake with jungle animal that was handmade from gumpaste.

I made each jungle animal in sections and the outcome was even better than I ever could have imagined.

Half way done!

Completed hippo :)

I made one special cupcake just for Baby Logan (pictured above in the bottom right hand corner) who was welcomed into this crazy world a few weeks later :)

Queen of Coupons

What do you give the queen on her birthday?! A Coupon Cake of course!! This cake was for one of my mother in law's coworkers. If you haven't guessed it already, she is the queen of clipping coupons and saving money! Hearing stories from my mother in law about what the queen buys and saves makes me wish I had the time to clip coupons but lets be honest, I'm a full-time mommy, wife, maid and chef...not to mention my 40hr work week :) oh yeah and my slight obsession with making beautiful sweet treats...haha I've got plenty of time on my hands! But enough about me...lets talk cake...

This devil's food cake was topped with a butter cream icing and smoothed by hand. The accessories on top of the cake were make of colored fondant. The scissors on the sides of the cake were made from gum paste and were my absolute favorite creation to date.

You can't tell from the pictures but everything has a little sparkle! The scissors turned out absolutely amazing, but unfortunately the picture does not convey it's awesomeness :)

The coupon queens birthday just happens to land on the LOVE DAY so I made these special cupcakes to go along with her coupon cake. Per the queens request, the cupcakes were chocolate on chocolate with sparkly pink hearts on top.

Nothing says Happy Birthday or I love you like a Simply Sweet treat :) All hail the Queen!!

Rockin' to the music!

What better way to celebrate another year of life than with a little Rock & Roll!? A super sweet friend from high school asked me to help make her daughters 12th birthday party extra special with some music themed goodies. They say nothing soothes the soul like music but nothing says Happy Birthday like a piano cake and cupcakes adored with music notes!

To top off those ivory keys, I made these sparkly pink guitars in the shape of the number "12".

And to make sure that the cake wasn't the only one rockin' at the party, I made these quarter notes and beamed notes to top each of the cupcakes (I think that is what they are called...it's been a while since I played in my middle school band...yes I was a band geek...fortunately I wasn't any good hence why I don't know my music notes).

Everything on the cake and cupcakes were edible (except for the straws I used to anchor in the 12) and were made out of gum paste.

All the colors were inspired by the birthday invitations which were quiet possibly the coolest invitations I have ever seen! Her mom did an outstanding job!

I must say that nothing makes me happier than to see the look on my clients faces when they first see what I made specially for them. The excitement in their eyes makes all the sweat and hard work I put into my creations beyond worth it. It's amazing the things you can create with a little imagination, a steady hand and an incredibly patient and loving husband!

Well color me pink.

About a month ago one of my really good friends asked me to make a smash cake and cupcakes for her daughter's 1st birthday party. Thrilled! My friend has amazing taste so I knew whatever she had planned was going to be amazing. When she sent me the ideas she had, I was over the moon excited! Not only was it PINK but it was something I had never done before and I am always up for a good challenge.

Side Note: I have a son who is ALL boy so any chance I get to do something girly and pink I jump on it and man was I in heaven!!

But seriously how cool is this cake?! It was a lot easier than I anticipated and even though it was extremely time consuming the final product was well worth the effort. Now I know what you're thinking...seriously all that work for a cake that will be smashed to bits within 5 minutes?! Ummm...HECK YES!! Regardless of your age or the reason for your cake, shouldn't it always be 100% fabulous!? I think so :)

Here is the birthday princess with her super fabulous, 100% over the top, 1st birthday smash cake! She's such a doll :) she made sure I got her good side.

Since we were making the inside of the cake over the top I thought we should keep everything else simple. I did a vanilla cake with white buttercream icing for both the cake and cupcakes.

And what big girl doesn't want pink sprinkles on her pink cupcakes?! At the end of the day mommy was happy, the birthday girl was happy, and riding an awesome sugar high, and daddy was happy because his girls were happy (even if he was swimming in a sea of PINK that day). Mark it in the books as a success.