That Takes The Cake show entries

"That Takes The Cake" 

Austin Cake Show

my entries:

"Peacock"

I took first in the Adult Intermediate Wedding Tiered category.

Close up on the Oriental string work

Spheres were dipped in royal icing and then I piped different designs on each one.

Ruffles and petals were sprayed with a shimmer and edged in gold.

Gold was hand painted on all the piped decorations and dragees attached.

This was my 4th year entering the show but my 1st First Place in the wedding category which is coveted. Next year I will be entering the Adult Advanced category.

I entered two buttercream cakes this year. There were hardly any entries in this category. I don't know why because I love working in buttercream.

"Koi"

The top design was taken from a 1920's greeting card that I stylized and changed the colors to. Small oriental fish decorated the sides of the cake. Hence the name of the cake.

"Efflorescent"

The darker blue/green around the edges was airbrushed onto my light green cake before the leaves, roses, and mums were added.

The leaves were piped with color striped pasty bags to give them a two toned effect.

My cakes took first and second in the Adult Intermediate Buttercream Only category.

My family at the cake show.

Like what you see? Visit my webpage to view the cake gallery and/or order cakes for your next event.

http://cakesbycassandra.weebly.com/ 

Photo Book

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Create your own personalized photo books at Shutterfly.com.

Nathaniel is One Today!

Nathaniel is One Today!

He's no longer zero. I guess that means my baby has moved on to toddler-hood, though to be fair, he's been walking for a couple of months now so he hasn't seemed much like a baby in awhile. Well, except that I still cuddle him and call him my baby. Anyhow, this picture is from just before Easter so a few months old (in fact that outfit doesn't even fit him anymore). I will try and get some new shots to post this weekend. I'm pretty sure he's got more hair now but it's so light that he really doesn't look much different than he does in this photo.

He still only has two teeth and we'll see what the doc says his measurements are on Monday but I'm pretty sure the kid weighs at least 25 pounds already. He's sturdy. He loves to climb things, open and close doors, play hide and seek, wants music on all the time, and water...I think he would live in the water if it didn't cost so much to let him have the hose everyday. He's a big Daddy's boy. He giggles a lot. He's a mover and keeps us busy and we love him tons! 

Happy Birthday Nathaniel!!!!

Addendum: I found some pictures from the end of May. Enjoy!

Austin Cake Show results are in.

Well, the annual Austin cake show "That takes the cake" is officially behind me once again. It's always my busiest time of year as I spend months planning and then weeks creating my cakes for the show. This year my wedding cake didn't place, but I'm alright with that. It was stiff competition and I moved up to the Adult Intermediate category this year. However, my 'buttercream only' cake got first place again this year. That was fun.

Here are some pictures:

Here I am with the two cakes I entered this year.

Purple ribbon for 1st place.

The buttercream cake can only be decorated with buttercream icing. So everything on this cake is piped on. I used frozen transfers again this year which enables to me to get a lot of detail. There are 8 frozen transfers as well as piped mini roses.

This cake was entitles "Once Upon a Time".

Next, my wedding cake:

My wedding cake was entitled "Resplendent in Rose".

It took 41 hours to decorate.

It is definitely the most complicated cake I've ever decorated. The topper is a Victorian inspired hat with white and pale pink roses, a gold fabric flower with a pearl button center, and a feather on top. The entire thing is made of fondant except for the sugar pearls in the center of the fabric flower. I've been working on getting my rose petals very thin, and I'm super happy with them this year.
The first (top) tier is covered in the darkest pink fondant and then decorated with royal icing, two different colors, piped in a lacy pattern around the entire tier and then adorned with pale pink and ivory sugar pearls that were placed one by one with a pair of tweezers.
On the second tier I attempted to make the fondant look like fluffy fabric and between each segment are jewels made from fondant and lots of luster dust.
Following that, the middle tier is covered again with lots of lacy patterns and then cinched like a corset with a white patterned ribbon.
The forth layer has a ruffle pattern that I piped on with buttercream frosting, and then the last layer is a hexagon tier covered with over a hundred individual heart shaped pieces of pure white fondant that are shaped and ruffled to create a fabric skirt appearance along with more pink jewels.

I call it my dress cake. I wanted to give the impression of a dress without actually making it look like a dress. I still wanted it to look like cake. It didn't place at the show, but I rather like it. What do you think?

If you would like to see more pictures you can view all the pictures that my friend took for me at her website here: C's Photos of my cakes.

And if you would like to see all the winners at the cake show you can view them at this site: http://thattakesthecake.org/

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Also, I have been getting quite a few emails from friends wondering how I made that cake while having my 8 month old around and so I would like to thank Elin so very much for watching Nathaniel for many hours over the three week period that I spent decorating, including the 11 hours I put in the last two days before the show when she not only watched my son but encouraged me to finish my buttercream cake which I was planning on giving up on because I was too tired and Nathaniel had been sick and not sleeping at night and everything was crazy. So, thanks very much Elin!

And thanks to my husband who also put in lots of man hours each evening and weekend to help me out. Thanks honey! We don't have to worry about the cake show for another whole year...and by then we'll have a toddler. :)

I need your help.

For those of you who do not live in Texas and maybe for those of you that do I would like to explain about the Texas Cottage Food Law and why I need your help.

Awhile back it was illegal to run a "food establishment" from a residential kitchen, even if your product was low-risk baked foods like cakes and cookies. Basically, you could not have a legal home bakery. I found out about this as I was making cakes for friends of mine. I've been following this law as it was fought for by everyday home bakers all across Texas and they finally won! Our governor signed it into law last June, 2011.

This was great news! But of course even though the law already went into effect there are political groups that "couldn't win in the Legislature, so they're trying to circumvent the system and re-write our law behind closed doors", basically creating so much red tape that it would make it nearly impossible for anyone to run a home bakery.

One of the new regulations of the Texas Cottage Food Law is that all the baked goods will have a label attached to them letting the customer know where this product was made and that it was baked in a home kitchen. This is very reasonable. However, the DSHS bureaucrats want to make these labels so complex as to discourage anyone from even attempting a home business.

"In a nutshell, DSHS has taken these simple labels (which were simply supposed to inform the consumer who they bought their food from, where the food was made, and that the food was made in a home kitchen), and turned them into a bureaucratic string of red tape a foot long. NONE of the labeling rules proposed by DSHS apply to licensed bakeries, food establishments, coffee shops, or doughnut shops. But for some reason DSHS has concluded that in the name of public health, a home baker must weigh a wedding cake and list that weight (in metric) in order to operate a legal business."

Realistically, no customer that orders a wedding cake from me cares how much the final cake weighs in metric. That has no bearing on safety. DSHS also wants to add little things like all ingredients have to be listed in order by weight, and your font size needs to be this, net weight of contents needs to be placed here in the bottom 1/3 of the label, and a special ink needs to be used (so a regular inkjet printer won't make the cut) etc. etc. etc. It's all rather ridiculous and is being used to make the labels so time consuming, expensive, and difficult that home bakes will be discouraged from doing them and therefore make their business illegal. And none of the new additions add to the safety of the consumer.

So here's how you can help me.

At this website:
http://www.texascottagefoodlaw.com/Home.aspx

You can find information about the law and sample letters that can be emailed or snail mailed to help make sure these bureaucratic red tapes rules do not get added on to the already approved Texas Cottage Food Law.

I know you're all busy and this isn't necessarily your fight, especially if you don't live in Texas, but I want to keep making cakes, and I want to sell them, and I want to do it all legally. So, Please help me by sending in a letter. Even a short letter will do. The more, the better.

Thank you so much!

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The 30-day public comment period starts January 27 and ends February 26, 2012.
Comments on the proposed new rule may be submitted to Cheryl Wilson, Food Establishments Group, Policy, Standards and Quality Assurance Unit, Division of Regulatory Services, Environmental and Consumer Safety Section, Department of State Health Services, Mail Code 1987, P. O. Box 149347, Austin, Texas 78714-9347, (512) 834-6770, extension 2053, or by email to cheryl.wilson@dshs.state.tx.us. Comments will be accepted for 30 days following publication of the proposal in the Texas Register.