~~~Give Away!~~~

Alright, it's Monday night. And as promised we have a surprise!!!! We are going to be doing a drawing for a $15 iTunes gift card. Who doesn't like free stuff?! I know what you're thinking, "How do I win this most amazing FREE perfect for anyone gift card?!" Well, don't fret. I will tell you! Become a follower of this blog and your name will get put into a drawing. If you are already a follower, your name is already in the "hat." Wow, you didn't have to do a single thing and you could possibly be the lucky winner of this life changing prize! Now, there are more ways to get your name into the pool and increase your chances! I know you're getting all excited now thinking of all the things you could do with this reward...you could take it to dinner, to a movie, or use it for all it's worth and kick it to the curb when your done with it like yesterday's trash. Whatever your heart desires. Come back to me now because I still haven't told you the other ways to win. Follow us on Twitter and your name gets entered again. Become friends with us on Facebook, and you guessed it, entered again. Post a comment on your facebook or Twitter and tag us in it and, OH YEAH, entered again! As you can see the opportunities are ENDLESS! Ok, one more chance...tell a friend...if they win...you win TOO! So if Sally tells Cindy to become a follower and Cindy wins...we'll check with Cindy to see how she found out about us and when she says Sally...Sally gets one too! Isn't that amazing! Alright...ready? Set...GO! The drawing will be held on November 21st. Why such a random day? It is the day that all people should remember that's why!

Why you haven't heard from me this week...

We've been a little busy this week. Here's how the schedule went down..Saturday September 25th, I, Cake Lady, had to work my part time job as a Special Events Manager for the Saratoga Event Group. I arrived to The Dunwoody Farmhouse at 2:30 for the wedding that was to begin at 4:30. It was one CRAZY BRIDEZILLA! However, because I love everything that has anything to do with weddings, I handled her quite gracefully, even when she got out her measuring tape to make sure the tables were positioned properly. They were because she was kind enough to provide a layout that was to scale. I got home from the happiest day of her life at about 1:00 AM, in bed by 1:30, wake up at 7:00 AM with Baker Man to head off to South Carolina for the Culbertson family reunion. The Culbertsons are Baker Man's family on his dad's side. We had a great time with his brothers and sister!

This was actually the first time I was able to meet his oldest brother David. It was hard to get a picture of these five. They just couldn't stop making eachother laugh! We were unable to get a picture with Baker Man's Dad. Maybe we'll see him again soon. Drive home since I must work Monday...you know...Bills. Monday evening drive down to the Cake Art Store. Tuesday-Work. Baker Man is working his second job tonight and must be there by 7:00 PM. He will get off at 3:00 AM home and in bed by 3:30 we hope. He wakes up at 6:00 to head off to the Fire Department. I have a day home with the kids. Thursday-Baker Man home from Fire Duty at 8:00 AM, I'm out the door to work. I get home at 4:30. He's out the door to work another shift in the ER. This time he gets off at 11:00 PM and we're both in bed by midnight. This might be the first time this week! Friday morning, up at 6:30 try to finish up a few cake details before the kids get up (did I mention we had several cakes this week?!), 8:30 AM- wake Baker Man, I'm out the door for work. 4:30 I'm home load the car deliver cake one. Eat dinner on the road, home in time to get the kids to bed and finish up the rest of the cake line up which is as follows:

Yuengling Wedding Cake - I didn't even know what Yuengling was. I had to Google it.

The Bride did want something that resembled a wedding cake in order to cut

There they are together.

Sesame Street Birthday Cake

Cake Trio - Happy 1st Birthday Mary Stewart!

The Cake Trio was inspired by the adorable napkins at her party.

That was it for this week. But here's what we forgot to update you on...

Lassiter High School Interact & Rotary International Club Cake

So there you have it folks...now it's time for us to take a week off...but we have a little something to surprise you all with. So make sure you stay TUNEd. There's a little hint there, although I don't expect any of you to get it. Check back Monday night to see what's going on at the Corner!

I found "my precious"

Do people get it when I say "my precious"? It's from the Lord of the Ring or was it Harry Potter? Some how I get those confused. Regardless...

Does everyone have something that they want for no real reason other than you were completely smitten with it the moment you laid eyes on it? The only thing that is stopping you from purchasing this cannot live without thing is the ridiculous price tag. You even dream for a moment that your husband finds it in a thrift store and realizes that this is it, the thing, the precious, and it's in the Good Will store for two dollars. Then the moment fades and you're sitting in your living room, watching Grey's Anatomy, remembering the cotton top old lady that drove up next to you yesterday was nice enough to inform you that the hub cap that FLEW across the road causing the truck behind you to swerve was in fact yours. I will never be able to afford it, but this is my precious...

Clara French



Second guessing...

As most of you know, I like a recipe. If something goes wrong, I have someone else to blame. It wasn't my recipe so obviously it's not going to be perfect :) Well, my sister is pretty much my Food Network Channel. She could whip up the best dinner out of elephant dung and it would put the Barefoot Contessa to shame. I envy her cooking mastermind. Brillance in fact. I clearly don't have the cooking confidence My Contessa has. Now, Baker Man and I have been in the world of couponing for quite some time. If you're not hooked like we are, you should be! Southern Savers has kept our pantry STOCKED! While it has changed our way of shopping, it has inevitably changed our way of cooking. Yesterday afternoon I sat gazing at a bag of black beans. At first I was trying to come up with something for dinner when my mind quickly drifted to how similar those black beans looked to the "coal" in the back of my son's Thomas the Train toy. I was quickly brought back to the bag of beans when Baker Man interupted my happy thoughts with asking me what's for dinner. Dinner...I loathe figuring out dinner. I would eat cereal every night of my existence if it weren't for my offspring. I could take the survival of the fittest approach but I'm affraid DFACS would be knocking at my door faster than I could say "what's for dinner?" Back to the pantry. Black beans and rice. My Puerto Rican bother-in-law would be so proud. Since I've never cooked any type of vegetable that wasn't canned I had to read the directions. And it's a good thing I had this idea at lunch time because who knew you had to soak those things for SOOOO long?! Now I wanted some Mexican rice but the only way I knew how to do that was with a Rice-A-Roni and we only had Uncle Bens...it's what's on sale ;) I decided to be adventurous and make my own...from plain ol' white rice. A little bit of this spice, a little bit of that...follow the instructions on the bag for cookings and BAMB! Mexican Rice! As I stare in aw at my rice perched there on the stove in it's perfection...I glance over to my drab, insipid, boring black beans. Back to the shelves! Can of corn...diced tomatoes...a little sour cream...a few more spices...mix, mix, mix...throw down some flour tortillas in a caserole dish...layer with my marvelous mixture...another layer of tortillas...marvelous mixture...top with cheese...bake...and my own version of Food Network. My three year old cleaned his plate! This never happens. Oh dear, what's that...a thought. Is it really that delectable or did I forget to feed my kids lunch? No, Baker Man has given me praise for my dish as well. And surely we both would not have forgotten to feed our little angels. I must call My Contessa! She would be so proud. I have created a dish from nothing. No recipe. Have I turned a new leaf? Probably not. But I can't wait to eat my leftovers!

News from the Corner

Baby Dress Cake

Beach Birthday Cake - Foot Prints in the Sand Cake

The Tot is Two. This is the cake we did for our little girl. But we were short on time, so it was a quick one.

Well, that is it I think. Stay tuned for what the Corner Crew has coming up!



News from the Kitchen

We've been so busy I haven't been able to update any of you on our cakes or life. So which one do you want first? Cakes! Because who really cares what else we're doing, right?! Alright, here they are...

Black and White Damask 18th birthday Cake

Golf Bag Cake

Dora Cake

(the Dora is not edible)

Happy Cowboy Camper Smiley Cake

No...it's not the Wal-Mart Smiley. It was actually the logo of a summer camp.

Electric Guitar Cake

Electric Guitar Cake from another angle

Boston Red Sox Cake

We finally rescued this one from Baker Man's phone!

So, that's the latest from the Corner Crew. Maybe I'll have some time one day to update you all on us...but probably not.

Wedding Cake Marathon and then some

Ok, so last time I updated you all (all 12 of you - one of which is Baker Man) I was telling you about our first wedding cake fiasco. Well the week after that we had another wedding cake, the week after that we had a wedding cake, a groom's cake, and a birthday cake. Can we say exhausted?! Oh, I failed to mention, Baker Man and I did not take any time off for these. In fact, Baker Man is back to working his two jobs...

Mental side note: I just heard the toilet upstairs flush for the 5th time, pretty sure Little Man is trying to avoid sleep.

...And on top of him working his two jobs, I realized the triathlon I signed up for is less than a month away. Are you supposed to train for those? Pretty sure you are if you don't want to DIE! So, we've been playing our little game of tag-here's the kids-hand off and I've been waking up every morning Baker Man is home (which is only every third morning) and going running. I choose to listen to music so I can't hear myself breathing because I sound like a train trying to make its way up the side of Mount McKinley. I even created my own station on Pandora - Family Force Five - AWESOME!
Off that rant, here were the cakes...that didn't nose dive:

Beach Sea Shell Wedding Cake for Chris and Natasha Ginn

Chocolate Sea Shells

You might be wondering why I chose to put this picture on the blog...well, actually all of these pictures were done by Nathan Fowler Photography. See, the reception was indoors and was really dark. I couldn't seem to get a very good picture of it because I had to have my shutter speed to slow to allow enough light and I kept shaking. Plus I am by no means a professional photographer! He offered to send us the pictures of the cake. Uh, YEAH! Thank you Nathan!

Now the next is the wedding/groom/birthday cake week, so here goes:

Black and White Wedding cake for Mr. and Mrs. Bias, thus the 'B'

Castle Groom's Cake for Brett and Lori, thus the 'L' & 'B'

The letter/monogram emblems on these two cakes were taken off their invitation and wedding program, how did we do?

Baseball Cake - sorry the picture is a little side ways ... I was rushed ok. Don't judge me.

So, that's it in a nut shell...well, we actually did another cake this week but I had the camera at work and Baker Man took a picture with his phone...yet another picture lost in the abyss never to be seen again.

This is me signing out!

Wedding Cake Bash or Crash?

Ok, so I've been waiting to blog about last week's wedding cake because I wasn't sure how to approach it. So, I'm just going to start at the beginning. About six years ago...just kidding, I'll save you the how we knew the bride and groom and jump into the cake fairy tale nightmare. We were asked to do a wedding cake for a couple of our friends months ago. This, as some of you may know, would be our first wedding cake. We accepted the challenge which quickly turned from not just a cake but a five tier wedding cake, 150 cupcakes, 120 cake pops, and "as many brownie pops as we can get." I don't have that much room in my little fridge or my house for that matter, but if you know me, I have a hard time saying no. Shopping and prep started months ago but the real fun began on June 20, 2010. Baker Man took the week off from the fire department to ensure we could achieve our task. Monday, June 21, 4:00 PM when I, Cake Lady, got off work, we made our final trip to the Cake Art Party Store. Tuesday, June 22- I took the day off work to help with cake/cupcake/cakepop/brownie pop baking and prep. Mimi watched the munchkins and we got to work. Our oven was on ALL day long leaving our house at approximately melting temperature for humans. Luckily we were able to get just about everything baked in one day...well for the most part. June 23- Cake Lady went back to the grind at work and Baker Man finished up the last of the baking and started making icing...LOTS of icing. Our freezer has been filled to the brim with cake/brownie pops. June 24: I took the day off work again so Baker Man and I can get down to business and a friend takes the kids for the day. We iced all cupcakes, made cupcake decor, iced cakes, decorated some, ran up and down the stairs to our freezer a million times (you know since I'm supposed to be training for a triathlon). So, the end of day four or is this five...we had three of the five tiers done, cake/brownie pops completed, cupcakes check...very sleepy. Friday June 25-Cake Lady off work again (with no pay might I add) by 4:00 I could see the chaos coming to an end...a light at the end of the tunnel. Little Man was the ring bearer in the wedding and we were supposed to be at the church for rehersal at 6:00. Baker Man and I thought we would go ahead and take everything to the church because they were going to allow us to use the fridge for cupcakes, cake/brownie pops and whatever else we needed. We got the and decided we would go ahead and set up the cake so we could take our time and have one less thing to have to worry about for game day. We set it up and headed to rehearsal which lasted until about 8:30-8:45 PM. The bride and groom couldn't wait to see the cake so we took them to the reception room and she almost started crying. "It's beautiful!" she squeeled! We went on to rehearsal and had to dip out early when the kids started to become unglued at about 10:30 PM. The bride wanted everyone at the church at 8:30 AM the next morning so all bridesmaids could get ready together and start pictures by 11:00 AM. Little Man was needed no later than 11:30 AM for pictures with the groom/bridal party. So...first person arrived at 8:30 AM...went to take a looksy at the cake, and there she was, standing tall, in all her glory...all five tiers. Mother of the Bride (or MOB) also saw it and tears (it must run in the family to cry when you see a cake). Then...at about 11:00 AM, we were getting ready to head to the church for Little Man's big debut when our phone rang...it was MOB..."the cake...it crashed." My heart started pounded and tears started flowing...I'm starting to think cakes just have that affect on people. Baker Man says, "We're on our way to see what we can do." We get in the car and all I can think is...how are we going to fix what has taken us a week to prepare. We started calling Publix to see if there was any way we could get some plain cakes on the fly. We arrived at the church with half of our kitchen and I walked into the reception room where all the groom's men were gathered around the demolished cake as if they were at some memorial service...REALLY??!?! Can you please get out of here before start sobbing and use your neck tie as a tissue. No kidding...it looked as though some 300 lb football player got down into his "let's do this" stance and plowed over the cake. How is this possible?! It stood tall and proud for over 14 hours...and then gravity just decided to cause it to plumit to it's death?! Well, however it happened we had to do something! The bottom tier was fine...untouched even. The next one was still standing but we couldn't manage to save it. The middle tier cake was fine but the icing and decor...not so much. So, we scraped it off and started making icing. The top two looked as though they were hit by a mack truck and then picked over by wild hyenas while laughing in my face. We found a Publix that could get us three iced cakes without decorations in one hour. Baker Man took off and returned with three cakes...we decorated them and were able to get a five tier cake up just seconds before the ceremony began...here's the before and after...

Five tier wedding damask wedding cake before the cake decided to pull a humpty dumpty

After all the kings horses and all the kings men...

And, here's the rest of the sweetest things we had there that didn't attempt cake suicide...

Cake Pops (idea from Bakerella)

Damask Cupcake Stand (directions on how to build this stand found on Ellez Designs)

Close up of the Monogram Letter Cupcakes

And the other Monogram Letter Cupcakes

So, lesson Cakes on the Corner will take away from June 26, 2010...swallow your pride and get down on your knees and thank God for Publix!

It can only get better right?!

This is the first time in a while I have sat down to actually write a little more than..."Here's what you missed on Glee." Speaking of Glee, does any one other than me and Baker Man watch it?! I know my sister does, but when I ask people outside my perimeter they look at me like I'm crazy, "Glee?" Anyway, the season finale had me crying. Baker Man would say I cry at everything including and not limited to the Wal-Mart commercial with the clown. You know the one?! But really, those tears are ones of laughter rather than the "that touched me real deep" kind of tears. Anyways, if anyone else saw it, you are not alone. I watched and grabbed for the tissues too.

So lately...Baker Man is back to working both jobs--Firefighter/paramedic and late night hospital shifts 7pm - 3am. When he's there, after I put the kids to bed, I fold laundry and watch General Hospital while hoping and praying Northside Cherokee is not that dramatic! I'm back to working my two jobs - Corporate services representative for Terracon and Special Events manager at the Pavillion. Then there's the kids and the cakes and the church stuff. I think I have seen Baker Man a total of 3 waking hours this past week, 2 of which we were arguing about the PS3 after which we both had to apologize. So, I say all that to say this...it can only get better right?! I mean eventually we will be normal humans that get at least 8 hours of sleep at night instead of Zombies that are lucky to put on matching shoes. Yes, I must assure myself...this life is not like milk. It will not go sour, start to clump and reek of death like the sippy cup we found in the car shoved under the driver side seat (which I was starting to think that odor was a dead bear rotting in my car). There is a light at the end of the tunnel. Althouh very dim, it's there!

The kids lately--Little Man is taking swim lessons with his future wife (yes he's only three but it's been decided). He absolutely loves it! The downfall - the past three times we went, the moment we stepped foot onto the pool deck...thunder...wait...lightning...cancelled. Devestating to a three year old that was all pumped up to plunge his body off the diving board all in an attempt to show his woman his super hero powers. So, we've been rescheduled for next week. Which might be the craziest week of our lives! Wedding cake, cupcakes, cake pops, brownie balls and wedding festivities...I'm not sure sleep will fit in the schedule this week. Little Girl has been up to no good! She insists on climbing on and jumping off of everything. Including the dog, Mayonaise. She has a monstruous knot on her forehead with a bruise that is now turning a lovely shade of green. She thinks Mayonaise is a horse and her booster seat is a diving board. She has already busted her head open once (which we superglued shut) and now I'm just waiting for that phone call from Baker Man while I'm at work, "We're on our way to the hospital because Little Girl..." That one keeps us on our toes!

And now for the latest cake...

Flower birthday cake for Evie's 1st birthday (her awesome mom has one of my favorite blogs!)

Up Close of one of the flowers

Well, I'm going to bed...look before 11:00!!

Latest and possibly our greatest...

No time for small talk. As you can all tell, I haven't been here much. So, here's what has been going down...

 Had another landfill cake. This one was modeled after Anderson Landfill in South Carolina and this cake had company logos.

This is the second baseball cake. The first one we did...the picture is stuck on Baker Man's phone. One day he'll upload it.

Fire Helmet Cake

Groom's cake at the wedding. Apparently Lunar in firefighter talk means MADAY, Firefighter in trouble. So, it was meant to be a joke that only the firemen would understand. Good times.

Other things we have been up to...Little Man had his first week of swim lessons and loved it. Baker Man's brother Luke got engaged while home from Iraq. Little Man will be in a wedding on the 26th and got fitted for his tux. What a handsome devil he will be! Baker Man is working like CRAZY. Cake Lady here is trying to stay sane...I think I'm doing a good job although Baker Man might disagree. Cousin Camp for the kiddos was a HUGE success. The grand finale video was done by Leak Productions and was a HUGE hit. We've already watched it five times and just got it last night. That's it for me. I'm ready for bed...early night for me maybe. POOH, I forgot I have laundry to finish...I'm trying to keep FLYing!

Quick recap of the past couple weeks...

Lots of stuff going on lately...but here are the latest cakes.

Yes we do cupcakes. There are Magic Rabbit Hole Cupcakes

Star Wars Clone Trooper Cake

Bathing Suit Tattoo Cake (this is as adult as we will go so don't ask for any less clothing!)

We have another landfill cake coming up that will be modeled after the Anderson County Landfill in South Carolina. It will be making it's appearance at the South Carolina SWANA Conference. Other than that, life has been slam packed of fun and excitement. Little Man is back up and running only now tonsil free and has slept through the night the last three night. That calls for a huge PRAISE THE LORD! Off to Puggles. Over and out.