What dry spell?

Here's a cake I created for myself and my wonderful birthday which falls on Halloween. My intentions were to create flowers in a Halloween palate (yes, those are green roses), but as fondant tends to mess with colors, especially after drying, they didn't quite come out the way I saw in my head. Nevertheless, I think the whole thing turned out spectacular, and personally, I'd rather shellac it and put in on the shelf than eat it... but no one else feels that way :) So- to get to the specs on the cake, it's a chocolate cake with a chocolate filling, iced in smooth, marvelous buttercream with chocolate accents.

Congratulations Izzy and E!

I was asked to cater my close friends’ wedding reception. I love to cook, and I specialize in special diet/ dietary restrictions (such as gluten-free in this case), and cook (and eat) vegetarian foods exclusively. I was SO thankful for this opportunity and had so much fun with every aspect of the catering- from planning the menu, to shopping for food, to making everything from scratch (except the polenta and bread-bread was for those fortunate enough to eat gluten) to pitting and stuffing over 100 cherry tomatoes only two hours before the event (still had to get ready!) to insure freshness. My philosophy behind the dishes I prepared was to introduce people to exciting, flavorful gluten-free vegetarian foods, that aren't boring, or bland. The party turnout was around 50(?) people and I received many compliments, each person seemed to have a different favorite. Here are some pictures I took of the dishes; better pictures are coming soon (as I was a little shaky while taking these…)

Polenta topped with sun-dried tomato jam and herbed goat cheese- this also shows the crostini topped with sun-dried tomato jam and herbed goat cheese

Roasted red pepper and feta topped zucchini cups

Walnut-pesto stuffed cherry tomatoes

Tropical fruit salad

Chocolate hazelnut meringue mushrooms

Chocolate cake with extravagant chocolate icing for that father of mine...

Pics of baby Abigail's 1st b-day cake!

This lovely study in purple was a cake I made for Hermione's birthday. She had my martini cake (below) and wanted one for her birthday. Thanks Hermione! This first pic is me with the three semi-frosted tiers, then side and top views. The whole thing took around 5 1/2 hrs to make, every bit of it from scratch scratch scratch. Mmmm... Benny ate the frosting that fell on the floor. She loves it when I make frosting. Kitty will have purple poo!

This was a cake I made for Mike & Steve's 21st BIrthday! The cake was chocolate with buttercream, and got rave reviews- "The cake was fabulous! The boys liked the decoration. It looked good and smelled good too. I think people would have had seconds if there had been any left. Everyone raved!!! I didn't think the butter creme frosting made it too sweet either, it was perfect. I'm trying to think of the next legitimate holiday so I can order a duplicate! It was delicious!" Yay!

Elisabeth's Birthday Cake!

Other Desserts

I love cooking, I love baking; here are some other fine desserts I like to make- (some pics are bad- ah the convenient cell phone cam!) Peach Crème brûlée tart Mint chocolate tort Flourless chocolate coffee cake (named for a missing ingredient)

Sugar Flower basket cake

Here are some pictures (and close up details) from a sugar flower cake I made with a basket weave on the sides. LOTS of icing... :)

More 3-D and sculpted cakes.

Package cake! Cello cake for a friend; could pass off as a violin too. Chocolate cake with raspberry filling, chocolate ganash topping with dark chocolate and white chocolate accents.