Sunday, October 18, 2009

Slyce

Awhile back ago, Mary, Elisha and I brainstormed a name for my future cake business. There were tons of suggestions (some too ridiculous to repeat) and nothing stood out to me until "Slyce" popped out of Mary's mouth. So among endless other reasons, I owe Mary my love, life and loyalty. Upon the decision of a name, I have created a few (more) ways for my friends to keep track of my progress and creations. Here they are:

Twitter: SlyceCakes
Email: slycecakes@gmail.com

I've been really blessed with a group of incredibly supportive friends, whom I also consider to be family. As my humble one man operation grows, my weekends get increasingly full. So to help all these people in my life whom I would love to bake for, I have made my calendar public so that they may see if I am available during the weekend of their event.

Since I am only one person (who loves sleep and having down time), I can only really handle one major cake per weekend. If you would like to request a cake from me, please make sure that I have at least one full day before your event to prepare. And because I have a full time job, which I am required to be at Mondays through Thursdays, this means that I can really only prepare a cake for an event that is either on a Saturday or Sunday. Of course, I am flexible and would love to work with you, so enquire with me if you need something that is outside of these parameters.

For questions email me at slycecakes@gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you!

Abi's 4th Birthday


Abi is Phil's niece and this weekend we celebrated her 4th birthday.  I have several friends with kids, a few older than Abi, and it's still a little crazy to see them grow up right before my eyes.  This was my second opportunity to be a part of their day and create something special for them.

About a month ago, Abi specifically requested "a princess cake with white cake, pink frosting, flowers and butterflies".  Being an obedient servant, I heeded her commands.  As I was thinking of ideas for the layout, I couldn't decide if I just wanted to stick to her requirements or tweak things a bit.  I felt that if I just had the elements from her request it wouldn't be "princessy" enough but ultimately I didn't want to disappoint a 4 year old on her birthday and ruin her party in front of all of her friends (albeit they are also 4) and family.  So I decided to add only one more element and took inspiration from the image of a castle on her online invitation.  It was a simple cookie cutter image and was therefore easy to mimic with fondant.

This cake was definitely the most time intensive one I have had done so far.  It was my first time making any type of human figure so it took me awhile to figure out how to work with gum paste; how to make the skirt sit just right; how to place her top and sleeves; how to make her hair just so; and how to make a teensy, itsy bitsy tiara.  As you can see, my "arm and hand" technique needs a little work.