Barney Cake (click photos to enlarge).

I’m so far behind in getting my cakes posted. I’ll try hard in the next few days to catch up starting with today’s cake: Barney. I didn’t even realize Barney was still around until I got a request a few weeks ago to make a “Barney-themed” cake. He’s changed shades of purple about 8 times in the last two decades (not kidding, I really researched that). I went with the “old school” Barney, from back in the day (circa 1989, when he was still really purple and not fuchsia yet), because I thought the color looked nice with the party decor. I was worried that little Heidi Marie, age 2, wouldn’t recognize a 20 year old Barney - but I guess there aren’t that many purple dinosaurs to choose from, so she nailed it. Woo! This was double chocolate chip cake with whipped chocolate butter-creme filling and icing, covered in chocolate ganache, then finished with a layer of homemade marshmallow fondant. All 100% edible, as always.  

"Barney!!" Ahhh, music to my ears!

Heidi getting some sugies from her momma.

Oven's on. I'll be back soon!

~ Peggy

Kami's Wedding Cake (click photos to enlarge).

Kami is special. Long story on the “why” - you’ll just have to take my word for it. This sweet girl is so in love and so happy to be marrying her best friend that she would have been smiling rainbows even if her cake had ended up on the floor. Talk about the polar opposite of Bridezilla, she has the sweetest, most laid back spirit of anyone I’ve ever seen on the day they’re to be married. I’m not exaggerating. I concluded that a just reward for her precious disposition was that her big day had to be flawless, including the cake. I REALLY wanted to knock this one out of the park. I mean, I wanted to deliver on this cake in a way I’ve possibly never wanted to deliver before.

After an initial Q&A session, Kami designed her own cake. I LOVED it from the minute it was more than an idea. She wanted 4 tiers, off white, bottom with stripes, 2^nd with scrolls, 3^rd plain with a monogram, and top tier polka dotted. We tweaked my draft just once and voila! We had our cake. (See draft HERE.)

This is the biggest wedding cake I’d ever made and it had to be delivered in pieces and set-up on site at the reception venue.  I was so nervous the night before, I literally couldn’t sleep. It was only when I finally bumped into Kami (about 3 hours before her ceremony) that everything magically fell into place – and the reason for that was because her calm was contagious. I knew that no matter what happened, in her eyes, the day was beautiful. Knowing I couldn’t screw it up for her freed me and I relaxed. It took me about 2.5 hours to put the finished tiers together (several mishaps, a couple verging on disastrous, not worth mentioning here), place the fondant pearl border, and snap a few pics (but not this one, which was taken by someone else):

I grew so much making this cake. I almost turned this opportunity down and I’m incredibly grateful that I didn’t. It was an honor and a completely humbling experience to be invited to be part of this event, on this day, for this sweet family.  To Kami and Josh, I hope your future is full of nothing but joy. Nothing but joy.