Father's Day

I decided to make a golf themed cake for my Dad for Father's Day this year. The night before I baked 2 layers of yellow cake that I had added lemon extract and lemon zest to. I set them on a cooling rack on the kitchen table to cool over night so that I only had to make buttercream in the morning. I always leave baked goods on the table since I have very limited counter space. However, in the morning (Father's Day) I awoke at 6am and walked into the kitchen. I glanced at the table, then walked away and the second time I looked at the table I noticed that my cakes were not there. I woke my husband to ask if he had moved them. He hadn't. The darned dogs ate my cakes!!! Not only that but they left the cooling rack untouched and not a single piece of evidence that there was ever a cake there in the first place! They have never done this before so naturally I was in shock. So, I took a shower.
After showering and feeding the baby I got to work. I made breakfast and a new cake simultaneously. At least I had my 4 year old to help stir the waffle batter as I was measuring the ingredients for both the waffles and the cake at the same time while the sausage was on the stove cooking. Then, as the mixer was going and the waffles were cooking, she scrambled the eggs for me so I just had to cook them after the sausage was out of the pan. My husband relaxed while all of this was going on and everything finished at the same time. The cakes were in the oven by the time I had to clean up breakfast and feed the baby again.
I made a buttercream with a combination of shortening and butter. I set aside some of it and added freshly squeezed lemon juice to it to make the filling for the cake. After filling and crumb coating the cake I make quick-set blue jello. I dug a small crater in the top of the cake and coated it with buttercream. Then, I poured in the blue jello and put it in the fridge to set up. Some of the jello soaked into the cake (apparently I hadn't sealed it well enough) so I took some of the mostly set jello that was left and spooned some on top of the jello on the cake. I used a spoon that I had heated in hot water to smooth the top out. I finished decorating the cake with "grass", graham cracker sand trap, fondant hole, flag and golf balls.
The cake turned out really cute and I absolutely loved the lemon filling!

Baking as a Business

I completed my first order as a professional (i.e. to a complete stranger) yesterday! I was so excited to get my first order. It was a bit of a scheduling challenge with my 2 month old baby but we did it. I am usually finishing cakes the day of, but this one was completely done and in the refrigerator the night before it was needed. I even had time to make 32 homemade bagels for my husband to take to work today.

The order was simple: a chocolate 1/2 sheet cake with vanilla buttercream and the company logos of both the client and his client. The logos were cut out of fondant with an Exacto knife. They turned out really good. I am so proud of myself. I have finally taken the leap of faith into the direction of a small business owner. Not only do I have my first client, but he is also most likely to return, and is posting my business card on his company's live feed internal networking site. Yay for networking, because I am terrible at it (too shy). Anyway, on to the cake...