Happy New Year!!...and A Bunch of Cakes!

Happy new years my dear readers!!  I know, I know...it's actually nine days into the new year already.  If you couldn't tell yet, from my infrequent new posts, it's been one heck of a crazy roller coaster ride for me!  I've learned so much about myself these past few months, that even amidst all the craziness, I  actually look forward to 2013 and envision the happiness and success that will come my way.   One bright aspect of last year is the ability to forgive, move on and look forward to the future.  This year, as selfish as it will sound but definitely needs to be said, ...this year, is dedicated to me. Alis volat propriis! I will make the most and the best of this new year.  I can feel the changes, and it is only for the better.  To a happier and better ME!

Ok, so let's start the first post of the new year by show-casing all the cakes I've been making!  I can still remember my initial reactions to cake creating.  Did you know that I initially came into baking because of cupcakes and not cakes?  I had a paralyzing fear of cakes.  For some reason, they just seem so daunting and intimidating!  So, instead, I dipped my feet into cupcakes!  And somehow, cupcakes turned into....dessert tables??  And TONS of cakes??  What the heck happened?  I feel like I don't know myself anymore!  In actuality, I was beginning to find myself and really fine tune what some would call "talent."  And now, I can definitely see my future in the sweets world...so, watch out, here I come!  In the mean time, check out these awesome cakes that should've had it's own posts, but I am SO behind, I think I'd rather show-case them all in this one giant blog!

This first cake is a mummy cake (so back from around Halloween...).  It was my girl's boyfriend's  (Freddy) birthday.  And because it was around the time of Halloween, they were really easy with the decoration...pretty much whatever I wanted to do.  The only decision they made was that the cake needed to be chocolate!  Great choice in cake, if I do say so myself!  So, I made chocolate cake with an Oreo cookie filling:

Poor Freddy...he never saw it coming.  That first gigantic piece of cake, was smashed in his face.  Oddly enough, he didn't get mad that his face was smooshed with cake.  Instead, he was more upset that a slice of cake, a big one at that, was "wasted!"  Ahh, I couldn't have better friends...and yes, he did eat what he can of that slice!
Next up, I did a Monster High cake for one of my girlfriend's niece.  Again, I had no idea what the heck Monter High was.  Once I found out, I must say, it's pretty darn cute.  Cute skeleton thingies with pink bows.  Awesome.  Check out the cake.  I thought pink and purple zebra stripes were kind of cool for a young girl.  And that tiara topper for the cake is actually wearable!

Next up, I recently made a one year anniversary cake for my tattoo artist.  I've show-cased this rose swirl design in a previous blog post, but what's different about this one is that I decided to do multiple color swirls instead of monotone.  Interesting, right?...something different!  The inside of this cake was really cool too.  Dennis "Dizzy" really liked red velvet cake, while his girlfriend liked chocolate cake.  So he asked me to mash those two up somehow.  What I ended up doing was both a layer of chocolate cake and a layer of red velvet.  The middle filling was a layer of cream cheese frosting, vanilla Nilla cookies, vanilla frosting.  That way, the frosting corresponded to the cake!  Clever, huh?  Not sure how that tasted, but I thought it was super clever.

This next cake has a great story attached to it.  It was a special request from my girlfriend's brother for his girlfriend's birthday.  So what's so special about that, you might ask?  Well, not only was it for Ana's birthday, it was also a day of proposal!  Yep, Billy did it...he shackled himself up...asked the lovely Ana to be his wife!  So the day was celebrated with this orange creamsicle cake!

And last but not least, I can't close out the first post of the year without some macarons!  Check out these Hello Kitty ones.  I had an order for one of my classmate's wedding reception (last picture)!  Of course I made extras.,.I even tried Hello Kitty without her ears....I guess they still  look semi-cute right? 

Again, Happy New Year my dear readers!!  I hope you enjoyed this lengthy post and that you continue to check back for new ones!  Let it be noted that I sincerely appreciate every one of you for visiting my blog and for silently (or animatedly) cheering me on from the comforts of wherever you may be!  

XOXO,

Linda