Who you gonna call??

  I have to say the thing I love most about my job lately is bringing all those cool things that kids love to life.  I love that all these things that I loved when I was younger are coming back around, well, besides the fashion because it was pretty hideous!  I'm even going as far as teaching my kids the fine art of friendship bracelets and friendship pins.  Oh, come on, you remember friendship pins!  The pins you attached to your shoelaces and every time you tried to get them on there you poked yourself, but they were so cool!

So aside from the hideous fashion sense we all had in the 80's, I loved everything about that decade!  Great movies, great music and...great music!  I've run across the 80's quite a bit lately.  First off the Star Wars movies are being re-released, I attended a performance of "Rock of Ages, The Musical" (which, if you haven't gotten a chance to see it, go and experience it...run don't walk!!!  It's incredible!!), and this week I've gotten the chance to do a Ghostbusters cake for a little man who is turning 4!  His mom says he loves everything about it, but of course, his favorite is Slimer.  Birthday boy's mom gave me free license to come up with whatever I wanted, which is so much fun!  I think I covered the gist of the movie.  Proton pack and gun...check, ghost trap....check, caution tape...check and of course, SLIMER and his glorious slime!

Ok, I'm off to listen to a little Whitesnake and Def Leppard!  Have a great weekend!

Happy New Year! (I know I'm late!)

Yes, I know that in few weeks it will be Valentine's day, that the stores are decorated in hearts, there are isles of red packaged candy, balloons and cards everywhere, but technically it's still January so I can still wish everyone a Happy New Year!

As part of my New Year's resolutions this year I am going to try to follow in the footsteps of my favorite bloggers and try to make my blog a funny, interesting and informative place to be.  Maybe I should have a few glasses of wine before I write.  Let's see..."drink more" as a New Year's resolution...doesn't seem right does it?

Anyway, it's been a while since I've posted so I wanted to do a little catching up.  So, whatcha been up to?  Me?  Well, we had a nice Thanksgiving with the in-laws, hosted our annual Cousins Thanksgiving (which was a blast), visited family for Christmas and spent some time with new friends on New Years.  So it was a great end to the year!  And guess what??  Bella Cakes is now officially an LLC!  I have an EIN number and everything!  Yeah, I get to pay taxes!!!  Now we are just waiting on the bank for my loan and the health department to approve our final floor plan!  I'm getting there!  It's a little scary but as a friend pointed out, "face the fear and do it anyway"!  Love you Carey!

Just wanted to leave you with some pictures of things I've worked on over the past few months.  Let me know what you think?  Wishing you all a happy and blessed New Year!

Birthday cake for my bike racing neighbor

Yo Gabba Gabba, Two Faced

See, told you:)

Cupcake cookies for a sweet girl

all wrapped up and ready to go!

Easter cookies, just making sure you're paying attention!

Thanksgiving cookies inspired by Georganne at LilaLoa

Santa's swimming pool, at least how I picture it!

Doesn't he look relaxed?

Betty Boop cake

Duckie cupcake toppers

Dad is great, gives us some chocolate cake!

Happy Friday!  So I have chocolate cake on the brain today.  Every time I hear chocolate cake I think about the Bill Cosby Himself stand-up routine when he sings that song..."Dad is great, gives us some chocolate cake"!  Love it!  I've been searching and searching for some great scratch cake recipes over the last few weeks without much success.  The great thing about this industry is that everyone is so willing to share and give reviews of different recipes and techniques.  As I was stalking all of my favorite cake blogs the other day I ran across this recipe titled Best Chocolate Cake by Amanda of iambaker...um, yes please!  It's a recipe that was originally Ina Garten's of Barefoot Contessa fame. 

So off I went to try another cake and I must say that this one is definitely a keeper, so rich and moist and chocolatey and fabulous and...ok, ok, I'm back.   The hubby tried it and was impressed too, the problem is now that I can't keep myself from "testing" the flavor, i.e., it's disappearing very quickly.   Thanks again to Amanda for sharing!!

 I wanted to include a few more pictures of what I've been working on lately.  I've included links to other blogs that have great tutorials!  Did I mention how nice everyone is??

 I love this little guy!  I worked off a tutorial by LilaLoa here.  So cute and creative.

 Hello, Kitty:)

 I love the little hill.  I got the idea from this picture.  I'm not sure who the cake artist is so I apologize but here is the link: Thomas Cake

Enjoy and happy weekend to everyone!

 

Happy Birthday to G

Last weekend we went to Chicago for my cousin's daughter's 1st birthday party.  I come from a fairly large Italian family so there was a lot of food, love and fun!  Food is love, right?  Maybe that's my problem, I love too much!

On to the 1st birthday party.  My cousin, who is very fashionable, beautiful and knows just what she wants, knows how to throw a party!  Her gorgeous little girl "G"'s bedroom is based off this painting that her very talented father recreated just for her:  Bird & Cherry Blossom painting

My cousin wanted "G"'s 1st Birthday party to be based off this painting, which is beautiful!  We were talking one day about the party and I said I would love to make her cake, smash cake and cookies as her present for her special day.  So we got started on ideas and this is what we came up with.

 Cherry Blossom Cake for the princess!  This is based not only off of the painting by by one of my favorite cake artist's Pink Cake Box

Here is the smash cake based off a cake by the very talented Small Things Iced

 Birthday Banner and paper decor by Toadally Cute

 Here is the sweetie with her smash cake!

We were so happy to be able to celebrate her special day with her and the rest of our family!

Hi all!  It's been a while since I've posted so I thought I would give an update of some of the things I've been working on and on the progress...or process...of getting the business started. 

First, the technical/business side of things.  My detail driven husband and I are laying out the basement that will, one day, be my commercial kitchen.  We should have it done by this weekend and at that point we will bring in the inspector once again to go over it before handing it in for an official plan review.  Getting closer!

Now onto the fun stuff!  I've been keeping busy with several projects over the last month, all which have been so much fun!  So here is a sampling of the goods!

How can you not celebrate 40 with this sassy thing!

Cutie little birdhouses

Yummy cupcake cookies

Go Chiefs!

60 & Fabulous!

 My first cupcake toppers, so fun!

And finally.......

a sneak peak of my next project!

Well that is all for tonight.  I am off to rub vicks on the little mans chest to help his cough and check on the princess who has an earache.  Don't you love this time of year???  I should buy stock in Allegra, Ibuprofen, Vicks and some sort of winery;)  The wine is for me, not the kids, just to clarify!  Night All!

I am speed!

A couple of weeks ago I get an email from my sister in law that was titled "challenge".  She then asks if I would be willing to take on the challenge of making a 3D Lightning McQueen for my nephews birthday.  I can't count the hours that my son has spent on the floor with his cars from the "Cars" movie.  Lightning McQueen, Chick Hicks, The King and the rest of the gang have given us a lot of entertainment over the years so I decided to take on the challenge.  I have never done a sculpted cake but I'd never know if I could do it if I didn't try, right?

I was so relieved when this cake came together like it did.  It took me a total of 7 hours from start to finish but I was really happy with the outcome and hopefully the next time I make one of these the time will go down!  There were a couple things I would do different, but that's how you learn. 

So here are the pics of the finished product.  Let me know what you think!

Half Baked Giveaway!

Carrie from Half Baked, the Cake Blog, is giving away a fantastic prize pack full of extremely useful tools for all of you cakers out there...beginner to pro.  Check it out!

http://www.thecakeblog.com/2011/08/sugar-ed-productions-giveaway.html