Karin’s Cakes and Wedding Blog

SUMMERTIME FUN

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 07:58:06 -0400

Hope you are enjoying your summer. With all the family gatherings, you can have fun trying new recipes and making those old time favorite family picnic dishes. Outdoor weddings are popular in the summer but you need to be aware of various things. The weather may be too hot for your guests...and the wedding cake! Plus, insects and animals enjoy eating cakes that are sitting outside and unattended. A late summer storm may come in as well. It is important to be prepared with indoor options. We have a wonderful park system, Cleveland Metro Parks, where you may find indoor facilities to use while still enjoying the beauty of nature. If you are coming to a wedding in the Cleveland /Akron area, make time to visit some of our special places...museums, zoo, Blossom Music Center, and so much more. I have included one website to help you get started finding what to do in the Cleveland area while you are here. Have a wonderful visit if you are our guests to the Cleveland/Akron area as well as a great rest of the summer!

VOCATION SUNDAY

Sun, 25 Apr 2010 07:26:45 -0400

✟
Today is Vocation Sunday in the Catholic Church. I have made many cakes for priests and religious celebrations. One of my favorite rosaries that I made was a hand molded rose wood bead rosary for the 40th anniversary of the local pastor at St. Mary’s Catholic Church. I used chocolate fondant and made oval shaped beads. I hand molded the crucifix and used 24K Gold. (The picture is in one of the many boxes of cake pictures....so sorry that I am not able to post it on today’s blog.). However, you can get the idea of making a rosary for a religious celebration cake in the featured cake for today’s blog entry. I used buttercream to make that rosary.
Sometimes, the celebration of one’s First Holy Communion sets the stage for a person’s vocation. Celebrating an ordination, a jubilee, an anniversary, a new pastor, a life of a religious person, etc. with a personalized cake are some examples of making the event extra special.
A special Happy Birthday to Sister Helen Eremich, a special teacher and mentor when I taught Catholic School many years ago. Also...I can’t forget to say Happy Birthday to my Godfather, too! I just baked his favorite cake....Pineapple Upside Down Cake.

HAPPY SPRING

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 11:41:01 -0400

Happy Spring......though the date is past the official date when Spring begins. It took awhile to get the Spring flowers up in my yard with all the snow this past winter. Above are Spring flowers of daffodils and Lily of the Valley made in buttercream. Some cake designers make these flowers in Royal Icing. I don’t usually make them like that because they are so hard to eat. I would rather bite into a buttercream flower.......and so would most people!
Instead of Royal Icing flowers, I prefer to make my flowers out of a sugar paste medium that hardens and becomes a keepsake. The sugar flowers in the basket are a small collection of the Spring flowers I have made. These flowers can be kept for years as keepsakes. It is best to keep them out of sunlight and humidity. To see more of my sugar flowers, look at my website sugar flower album. Brides are amazed at the collection of flowers I can make out of sugar. It sure brightens a room when you don’t have real flowers to cut from the yard!

GIRL SCOUTS BIRTHDAY

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 10:07:02 -0500

Girl Scouts of America, founded by Juliette Gordon Low, celebrates their birthday in March. Each year, many people look forward to this special time when Girl Scout cookies are available. As a young girl, I sold Girl Scout cookies door to door and delivered the cookies in a red wagon.....those were the days! I also was a Girl Scout Cookie Mom.....you have to be organized! The cake above shows the 37 badges I earned on the replica fondant sash I had when I was a Girl Scout. My favorite Girl Scout cookies back then were the Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies. The cake above has Thin Mint cookies cut in half as a side decoration. One of the cakes has a mint filling and a chocolate ganache over the cake....depicting a Thin Mint cookie. A star painted with non-toxic edible 24K gold was attached to either a Girls Scout green or gold colored fondant circle, representing each year being in Scouts. The cake topper is a the Girl Scout logo on a ball shaped cake.
I used to break up Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies and add them to the ice cream I made at Bricker’s Ice Cream...for a seasonal flavor celebrating Girl Scouts of America.
Another special birthday today is my brother Luke’s. Happy Birthday Luke!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Fri, 1 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Happy New Year! Hope you have a year filled with success, good health, happiness and many blessings.
Today is the Rose Bowl and Ohio State University is playing. I thought it was appropriate to showcase a Buckeye Fan Cake. GOOOO..... BUCKEYES!!!!