Jerry and Her Cake

I'd like for you to meet my house helper. She is Ethiopian and we call her Jerry.

We like Jerry so much! And not just cause she helps me clean my floors and my dishes and the general dustiness of my house a few times a week but because she has a beautiful heart following Jesus and a sweet spirit and she adores my children and she is so cheerful!

SO, when she asked me if I'd make a cake for her to celebrate her first wedding anniversary with her husband I was honored and blessed to be able to do so for her!



This is what I came up with. She was thrilled and so was I! She is such a blessing to me...

Sweet N's First Party

H's 3rd Birthday Party

The paper cups are cleaned up. The hot cider mugs are washed. The leftovers are in the fridge. The streamers are torn down. The house is quiet.

The party is over.

But my heart is full!

You'd like to see some pictures? I thought so. Even though I took 131, I'll only post a few. Candid shots of big parties are not generally blog-post worthy. Usually someone is mid-word or has a fork halfway to their mouth or is only showing the back of their head or has their fly down.

Alright. So no one had their fly down.

Wait. I have one exception to 'no big-party-candid-shot' rule. The exception is my cousin Jen.



Isn't she looking so photogenic for a candid? Is it technically a candid if she is looking at the camera and smiling? Maybe not. But I still award her best candid shot for the evening. Congratulations! And her prize is her picture posted on my blog. Her second prize is the leftover birthday cake. I'll ship it to her in the mail. I'm certain she's a-gonna LOVE that. Or not.

;)

Okay. Moving on. Or moving backwards.

Oh wait.

First let me show you one more.



Me and Dave. You know... my brother in law with the new (used) heart. Doesn't he look great?!

I know!!

Okay. Now I'm moving on. 'On' as in backwards...

Here's my boy before the house filled up. I'm gonna be honest and admit that I meticulously arranged this photo shoot to include the cake and card and the streamers and balloons and my boy. I spent quite awhile on it. Just ask my Dad and my Father-in-law. They watched me and quite possibly thought I was going a bit overboard.

But I think it was worth it...



He's the cutest!

And do you like that cake?

Speaking of meticulous...



This took some time.



But this was also worth it! I think it turned out so cute. I call it "Thomas the Racing Airplane".

Cause it kinda looks like Thomas the Train, it has racing stripes and numbers and it's an airplane.

Did I need to explain that?

I dunno.



Here's one more for those of you in cyberspace who were wishing on a star that you'd see one more shot of the birthday boy and the cake from just a slightly different angle.

You got it.



I'm a proud Mama.



I don't know what the finger in the mouth is about. This is when approximately forty of our closest family members were singing to my boy.

By the way... whoever was singing harmony... you sounded great! I always appreciate a good harmony.

:)



Huff and puff!



Blowing them out! (I helped.)



I asked him which piece he's like. He chose to eat the H! (I edited his name out).

It was such fun! We had a house full. With a capital FULL. I loved it! H loved it too. I'm fairly certain he is an extrovert like his Mama.

I love you H! The last three years have been wonderful, I am so blessed and honored to have you as my boy.

Happy Birthday!

Magic

As we speak As I type, These two are off on a date. Maybe 'honey-date' if you would ask my boy.



They are at Disney Live! Mickey's Magic Show. In fact, this very moment they are probably oohing and aahing at Princess Jasmine levitating. Or Donald Duck jumping out of a locked cage. Or singing along to "It's a Small World After All" waving their arms in the air.

Who knows really what they are doing?

Everything I know, I learned from the internet.

See?



I have to resort to these methods cause I wasn't invited.

Humph.

;)

Meanwhile... can you guess what I'm doing? (Okay, I'm blogging. Duh. You got me there. But I mean what I was doing BEFORE I sat down to blog about what I was doing?)



Uh huh. Baking.

I am magically trying to transform



this



and this



and this



and this into a fun airplane birthday cake for my boy.

Check back later this weekend for final results.



P.S. This was my lunch.

Cake Catch-up

You should be glad I didn't type Cake Ketchup. Gross.

Here are a few more cakes I have made in the last year or so.

This first one is a faux wedding cake I did. It is faux not because it wasn't made of real cake and icing (cause it was!). It was faux because it wasn't for a wedding. I was asked to do a wedding cake replica. I was fairly pleased!




















And this is a simple, (yet charming I say) cake I made for my sweet nephew Davis's baptism in June.















The last one was for a friend's birthday in the fall. I don't often draw 'characters' on cakes... but this one turned out well. Although it wasn't done freehand! Us decorators have our secrets...

First Cake

This is my son's first birthday cake! After looking at lots of ideas in books and on the internet, I ended up doing a design that I came up with on my own. Brightly colored kid shapes! I was really pleased with how it looked, but I am still working hard to try to find a white or yellow cake recipe that turns out light in this climate. It's hard!

Another Sweet Creation

These are the two cakes (and chocolate covered pretzel rods) that I decorated for my dear sister's baby shower a month ago. Mmmnnn, I could eat them all over again!

What a special day that was...

Got My Groove Back

I used to make and decorate lots of cakes. I loved it, and often thought that if we had stayed in the U.S., I may have made a go at a weekend cake-decorating business. Once we moved here, for some reason I thought that because of the heat and because of different ingredient availability, that I couldn't decorate. And although it is incredibly hard to find a recipe that produces a cake that will remain moist in this climate... it's possible. And icing ingredients (mainly butter) are quite expensive, but it is available. Anyway, I have recently re-discovered my love for cake decorating!!

Today I hosted a "Farewell-for-now" ladies luncheon in honor of a friend who is leaving us for awhile. I am amazed that it is literally days of work to prepare a nice setting and a simple soup and sandwich menu. But it was great fun and we had a fabulous time.

I was especially pleased with how the tables and cake turned out. This one was a carrot cake with cream cheese icing (made by draining plain yogurt). But now the cake is only a memory lingering in our tummies.

:)