An Early Birthday

This summer my brother-in-law got married and most of the Hoeppner clan came out for the festivities. It was a lot of fun, and a gorgeous wedding! In the weeks leading up to the wedding my cousin and I were emailing back and forth making plans for the days leading up to the wedding. She asked if I could possibly make her mom a birthday cake. Mind you it would be early, since her birthday is in September, but what better time to celebrate when the entire family is together in one spot, which rarely happens! I was so happy to make this cake. I love our dear Aunt Myrt and jumped at the chance to do something for her. She is one of the most generous and kind-hearted people we know, and she deserves all the recognition in the world!

So I was excited. Until I realized I had no inspiration. I wanted it to be perfect, and as such I was paralyzed to think of anything. A day or two before I had to start decorating I phoned my cousin and begged her to tell me what she really wanted and what her mom would truly love. We decided on blue and green daisies, since those are Aunt Myrt's favorite colors and flower. So, I went to work making a few three dimensional daisies, but it just wasn't working for me. So I started to think about what kind of person Aunt Myrt is, and a few words came to mind, which were elegant and not at all fussy. So instead of the large daisies which were looking a little out of place and juvenile on this cake, I decided to make a few tiny blue daisies and place them around a vine-inspired design. The resulting effect, I believe is elegant and not fussy. I love it when a cake can reflect a person, and I do beleive this one did.


The cake was a complete surprise to Aunt Myrt, which was the best part. Of course she wasn't expecting a birthday cake a month in advance! It was a lot of fun, and I'm so glad I got the opportunity to do this. This part of our family lives too far away to visit on any kind of regular basis. It was amazing to spend time with them, catching up and celebrating C and J as they walked down the isle! Such good memories!

Little Antique Clutch

This past weekend I threw a bridal shower for my sister-in-law-to-be! Of course I had to make a cake for her, and this one was so much fun. I've been wanting to make a purse cake, and since C & J's wedding has an antique theme, I figured an antique clutch was the perfect cake for this celebration. The whole shower was a tea party, complete with scones, Devonshire cream, beautiful antique tea cups and plates. Super girly and fun!

I had originally found an antique clutch cake online that I really liked and was hoping to make. I started out carving that particular shape (it was more rectangular), but ended carving more of an oval. Of course I panicked. That just has to happen at least once in a cake-making experience. But once I stood back and re-thought my cake strategy, I realized that this was now my design, not someone's that I was trying to re-create. This afforded some sort of freedom for the rest of the carving process. So I visualized a new cake...my cake...and got excited once again.

After carving, then came covering the cake in buttercream and fondant. I have found that Gum Tex and cornstarch are my new best friends when covering a cake in fondant during the summer. I used to struggle so much with soft fondant, and now by adding Gum Tex to the fondant and rolling it out with a combination of icing sugar and cornstarch I don't get all the pulling and stretching that result in stretch marks (yes, cakes can have stretch marks) and cracks. Covering cakes has become much less stressful. Doesn't mean it always goes amazingly well, but it sure is going better than it used to for me!

The flower and pearls were so much fun to design and I love how simple and monochromatic the whole cake turned out. I had a leftover rose from the cake I had made for my mom's birthday last week, so I put that on the cake board as just a last finishing touch. I love it.


The great thing was that the cake was just as much fun to eat as it was to stare at. Of course this was C's favorite...chocolate cake with peanut butter filling. Yum. My favorite, too. It was such a pleasure to do this for C. She's so wonderful, and I'm so excited for her to be my sister-in-law!