Dessert | Airplane Cake

Hi Again, 


Things are moving for me in August!  My coworkers are such fantastic supporters of my work that orders keep coming in, my boss casually joked that the company may need to create a dessert department.  I did the following cake for my coworker, Ann.  Her boyfriend is a pilot and is celebrating his birthday today.  Happy celebrating! 

Next up, my boss order 5 cakes for our clients!  
Until then, happy baking!
~Danielle 

Cake & Co. in Portland!

Hello everyone! 


I hope that these past 8 months have treated you well!  I am back with a renewed zeal for Cake & Co.  I have been in Portland, Oregon for 8 months and I have recently picked up my whisk and headed back into the kitchen to do some baking.  I have missed baking and everything that comes with it, the good smells, how happy I am when I bake and even the stressful times with fondant!  


There are a couple of things in the works for Cake & Co., for starters recipes are being worked on and a new blog/website is in progress.  So please stay tuned!  In the meantime, I will leave you with a few pictures!  I had the privilege to work on two birthday cakes for my coworkers children, a 1 year old lady bug cake and a ninjago cake.  Enjoy! 

Thanks for hanging in there!  Happy baking!
~Danielle

New path...

I apologize to all my followers for not posting in a long time.  My husband and I are making the move to Portland, Oregon and I have been distracted these last couple of months with job interviews and packing.  At the start of December, I was offered a great position with a marketing agency in Portland.  So with some sadness, I am taking a break from Cake and Co. for a while.  Thank you to all of you have read my posts and journeyed with me!  I wish all of you a very happy holiday season and a great New Year!

Keep baking out there!
~Danielle

Dessert | 300 Cupcakes

So, we survived the 300 cupcakes!  Yes, we, Ty and I survived baking and frosting 300 cupcakes.  My husband is amazing, he canceled watching football with his friend twice to help me frost the cupcakes.  There is no way I would have been able to finish and it wouldn't have a been a tear free occasion {woot!}.

Close up of the carnation cupcakes!

I prepped all my dry ingredients for the vanilla cupcakes Friday night.  On Saturday morning with my production line all ready to go, I baked for 4.5 hours straight!  We then took a break and enjoyed a lovely dinner at Disneyland Hotel's Steakhouse 55 with some of our friends.  Dinner lasted a little longer than I thought and we returned home hoping to frost half the cupcakes... boy, was I wrong.  I made 24 cups of vanilla Swiss meringue frosting and that took about an hour and a half (my mixer is small and I could only make 6 cups at a time).  I showed Ty how to pipe a carnation (thank you to Blue Note Bakery, your online video is great!) and off he went.  I took over a little while later and by the time midnight rolled around, we only had about 48 completed.  I figured out that it took us about 30 minutes each to pipe 24 cupcakes... not promising.  


The next morning we woke up around 8:30am and started piping right away.  We piped from 8:30am to 12:00pm.  I think Ty finally understands the pain associated with cake decorating, ha! 

All in all, the totals for the weekend:
13 hours for prepping, baking and frosting
10 pounds of butter
75 eggs used 
4 Harry Potter movies that played in the background that weekend 

12 boxes that held 2 dozen cupcakes each, plus one box that held a dozen

It was awesome to see all of them in their boxes!  It was a definite sense of accomplishment

 Thank you again to Ty who was the best sous that weekend, I still wish I was able to take a picture of you piping pink carnations for our kids one day!  And thank you to Salisa and the Gamma Phi Beta Sorority for this opportunity!!!


Until next time!
~Danielle

Dessert | Carnation Practice... Marigolds

This weekend, I am baking 300 cupcakes for the sorority Gamma Phi Beta... 300!  I'm both excited and scared...  I don't know if my little kitchen can handle this, but it's going to have to.  I was asked to pipe carnation flowers, I learned by watching this video that no longer works and my flowers look more like marigolds than carnations.  I wanted to share with you my practice run, my marigolds below.  Wish me luck today as I start on the 300 cupcakes!

Dessert | Kristen's Birthday Cake and Cupcakes

As promised, desserts!  

Last week my coworker celebrated her birthday and our department goes a little crazy with birthday breakfast buffets... 

The birthday girl and the breakfast spread

I never seem to be hungry for lunch on those days {it may be the delicious cheesy potatoes!}.  Kristen happens to be my cubicle buddy and both of us graduated from Chapman University.  We also happen to be 1/2 of a group our other coworkers have deemed the lunch bunch!  There happens to be three ladies at work who I adore and work just wouldn't be the same without them!  Okay, moving on from the mushy gushy stuff... Kristen loves the colors orange and teal {I found out later that her teal is more of a turquoise}!  She even claimed dibs on those colors for her wedding, so we decided to incorporate that color scheme into her birthday decorations!  

This one was a group effort and I have to thank the lunch bunch for all their help! Thank you to Lynda for providing all the paper decorations!  

All the paper flowers scattered on Kristen's desk were cut out and the flowers are from her mom

Kristen loves red velvet, so I baked about 2 dozen cupcakes and a 4" mini cake for her!  I couldn't cover the 4" mini cake with fondant and have freshly baked cupcakes, so I opted for a rustic frosting look with fondant decorations.

The cupcake wrappers were custom designed and cut by Jen.  Jen is an amazing illustrator and designer, check out here work here.  

Happy birthday to the birthday girl!  Cheers!

Next up, piping carnation flowers... 250 of them...

~Danielle

Paper | Sources I love!

You are probably asking why I haven't posted anything about cakes or desserts lately... I promise you the next one will be about desserts!  


This post is about three of my new favorite party paper/design sources!  First up, Minted.com!  A modern stationary and invitations company based out of San Francisco that brings you fantastic designs!  They have some new offerings that I may be purchasing down the line as the holidays draw near... 

Minibook albums from their wedding line. Photo courtesy of Minted.

Menu Cards. Photo courtesy of Minted.

Baby Shower and Kids Invitations. Photo courtesy of Minted.

Skinny wrap labels... I totally want to use these this Christmas! Photo courtesy of Minted.

Second up, Style Me Gorgeous!  

 


I stumbled across this blog through another blog and right away I loved everything that Sarah had to offer.  It might be that I am a little big kid, but I am always attracted to kiddie stuff {huge Disney fan ~ remember the Minnie cupcakes}!  She designs playful and whimsical mommy and children items!  And you gotta love her company name!  In the last couple months that I have been in wedding world, she came out with a "print, cut and party" line that is simply genius!!!  Finally someone who offers more than just invitations, thank yous and menus.  Here is a preview of her recent tea party line!

Photo courtesy of Style Me Gorgeous.

Photo courtesy of Style Me Gorgeous.

Photo courtesy of Style Me Gorgeous.

Here are some other printables she offers: Birdie and Elephant and Diggers and Dump Trucks.  Visit her website to view her other offerings. 

And last but not least, I saw these cute cupcake sets at Sur La Table and had to look up Meri Meri when I got home.  If you are one of those that rather purchase than cut-it-out yourself, then this is the solution for you!

Oh Baby Baby line. Photo courtesy of Meri Meri.

Aloha line. Photo courtesy of Meri Meri.

Mermaids and mermaid invites! Photo courtesy of Meri Meri.

They do more than cupcake liners and invites... full party decor!  Love!  Photo courtesy of Meri Meri.

Now go have some fun!  Happy cutting and partying!
~Danielle

Where credits are due:
Minted ~ http://www.minted.com/
Style Me Gorgeous ~ http://www.stylemegorgeous.com.au/store/pc/home.asp
Style Me Gorgeous blog ~ http://stylemegorgeous-bysarah.blogspot.com/
Meri Meri ~ http://merimeri.com/
Sur La Table colorful cupcake wrappers ~ http://www.surlatable.com/category/id/104489.do