Recent Baking

I've had a bunch of recent baking requests, all of which I was MORE than happy to fulfill.

In October, I was asked to make a birthday cake for a family friend who was about to celebrate her 99th birthday. How could I possibly say no to that?!?!? Mrs. Young (my mom's friend who ordered the cake) wanted a BIG cake with bright colors. Each tier is comprised of 4 cakes and the tiers are 14", 10" and 6" cakes. The bottom tier was white cake with homemade lemon curd filling. The middle tier was chocolate cake with chocolate ganache filling. The top tier (aka the temporary bane of my existence until I re-made the original square cake and made a round tier instead) was white cake with creamy lemon curd (aka lemon curd and buttercream frosting mixed together). The top tier (although you can't really tell in this photo) is quilted and has silver dragees at each line intersection. This cake would easily feed 200-250 people and was too heavy for one person to carry ... quite possibly, it is the largest cake I've made to date.

The same weekend was a baby shower for my best friend's sister. Their family is beyond amazing and I cherish them like no other. So, when Kate asked if I'd made cookies for Aileen's shower, there was no way I was going to say anything but a resounding "OF COURSE!" Aileen is expecting a baby boy any day now, so to celebrate I made lots of little boy onesie cookies and some bottle cookies. I think the green onesie with the sailboat is my favorite of the lot.

Last but not least, this weekend, I made a cake for the NISSA (NW Infant Survival and SIDS Association) auction. Aileen (same as above) asked if I'd make something for this year's auction. I think I've donated a dessert to the auction for (I think) 6 of the past 7 years. This year's auction theme was "Courage and Hope", which sort of stumped me until my friend Kate (God bless her for so many reasons) suggested that I use the auction's logo as inspiration. Once that idea was in my head, the rest took shape. Annika and I delivered the cake Saturday morning; Annika had a great time helping me place the stars. She's such an adorable pastry chef in the making! The cake was two tiers, each made up of three white cakes with marionberry filling. The bottom tier was 10" cakes and the top tier was 8" cakes.