And because I'm crazy like that...

I carved a piece of cake into a pumpkin. Seriously. I thought the cake maker should have a cake o'lantern. So I made one.

Number Eight-Frank

Frank is my favorite. He's just cool. Seriously...he has bolts in his neck. And his head is square. What's up with that? Ridiculously fun.

And so the cake maker has survived her traumatic cake week. She even survived it with only a few minor mishaps. Like running out of black food coloring when she only had an hour to finish 3 huge cakes. And sitting down to take a phone call and waking up in the chair 3 hours later to the sudden realization that she had not finished the cakes that needed to be finished and she was going to have to do some major speed decorating to get them finished after work the next day.

Ah, the perils of cake...

Number Seven-Bride Of Frankenstein

I had a hard time deciding which monsters to use. But I dig the Frank's Bride. She has fun hair. And I can never see a Bride of Frankenstein without thinking of Madeline Kahn in Young Frankenstein. Love that movie. If you haven't seen it, go get it right now! Wait a minute. Finish looking at my fun cakes first, then go get it!

Anyway, here she is.

Number Six-Dracula

The final three cakes were for the Arts Ball at Winthrop University. My friend Jill was in charge of the Arts Ball, so Speppy Cake was a requirement. They needed three half-sheet cakes and didn't care what they looked like, as long as they were Halloween-y. I wanted them to kinda match so that they looked like a set. It's hard to do pumpkins or ghosts or cats on cake without it looking like it was made for little kids, so I had to put on my thinking cap. I decided classic monsters would be fun. So here they come...

Classic Monster Number One: DRACULA! (Apparently, he wants to suck your blood.)

Number Five-The Deer Slayer

So I was making this cake last night for my friend Jennifer when I realized that I didn't know what she wanted written on it. She had asked for a chocolate cake, somehow deer related, for her dad's birthday. Not knowing whether she wanted a "Happy Birthday Dad" or a "Happy Birthday Daddy" or a "Happy Birthday whatever", I sent her a text message to ask. She sent back "Don't think I'm weird, but Jake (her husband) said put 'deer slayer'." So "Happy Birthday Deer Slayer" was born.

I just make 'em, folks.

Number Four-Jacob's Candy Corn

My friend Jacob's birthday was in July. He didn't get a cake. Slack cake maker. =(

I should probably be fired as a friend.

At any rate, this is his replacement birthday cake. I don't remember how he decided on candy corn. I think it came as the result of one of our very random conversations. Perhaps he'll leave a comment on the blog to shed some light on the subject.

This one was fun. It's a good thing he wanted candy corn and not a thousand angels dancing on the head of a pin (as we used to say at Pat-A-Cakes). The cake maker is tired.

Cakes 5-8 tomorrow. Oy.

Number Three-Veteran's Birthday

This one is for a friend at the Elks Lodge. He is a Veteran and he spends a lot of his time and energy working with Veterans.

Number Two-Halloween Party

This one is for a friend's daughter to take to school for their Halloween party. The kids are very young, so I thought a cake based on "Five Little Pumpkins" would be fun. You know...

Five little pumpkins, sitting on a gate.

The first one said, "Oh my, it's getting late!"

The second one said, "There are witches in the air."

The third one said, "But we don't care."

The fourth one said, "Let's run and run and run."

The fifth one said, "I'm ready for some fun."

Woooo went the wind and OUT went the light,

And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.

See what happens when elementary music teachers are allowed to play with cake...

And please don't ask me how pumpkins run. I have absolutely no idea.

Number One-Another Gamecock

I love football season. And my Gamecocks. This cake is for a friend of a friend who has seen my Gamecock cakes before. The Cocks are playing Tennessee on Saturday. We need a win, boys! USC...Gooooo Cocks!

One cake down, seven to go!

Two days, eight cakes. Seriously.

For this Thursday and Friday, the cake maker must produce eight cakes. By herself.

Each cake has its own story, so I'll save all the info for each blog post. I can't believe I'm actually taking the time to blog right now, but I'm actually giving up the baking for tonight.

Polka Dots!

OK, so sometimes the cake maker is really tired and has absolutely nothing creative to offer to the world of cake. But people still have birthdays and it is my duty as the cake maker to provide birthday calories.

Happy Birthday, Carey!

To celebrate Carey's 29th birthday and our appreciation for our pastor, we had a dinner after morning worship today. It was my pleasure to make his birthday cake. Looking at the cake, it is important to say that my preacher is not a snake, nor is he one of those snake handling preachers. Carey had a bit of a run-in with a snake at his house a few months ago. He was not particularly fond of said snake. I believe there was an injury involved as well. But he did what he had to do to protect Amanda and Carrigan. (Look for Carrigan's birthday cake in the coming weeks!) =)

I am very thankful for Carey and his family, and I love them very much!

Happy Anniversary!!

I have some more friends whose parents are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary tomorrow. They're having a big party and needed a big cake. Enter the cakemaker! Very simple decoration with some lovely yellow roses. They were very pleased. I hope they have a wonderful party!

Where's the cake?

I have a friend who has a husband who is a big fan of hunting. Poor little woodland creatures...Bless their hearts. Except the crazy deer that like to attack innocent vehicles. I say shoot them! At any rate, he hunts therefore he gets camouflage cake. They are going to have some seriously green teeth.

Another One of My Favorites

I made this Candy Land cake for my cousin Shelby's daughter, Becca. It was huge and it took a really long time, but I loved it!

Katie's Graduation Cake

Instead of doing the work I'm supposed to be doing, I'm opting to blog instead...

I made this cake last May for my cousin Katie's high school graduation. The whole place was decorated with pink and brown polka dots. I love Katie!!!! =)

I'm a Little Teapot...you know the rest.

Cake time! I enjoyed my little break last week, but I was ready to get back into the kitchen. This one was for Carleigh's birthday. I hope she enjoyed her tea party!

It is finished...

The final cake is complete. The science coach at school requested a thank you cake for the guys that built the butterfly boxes for our second graders. So here it is. Thanks for the butterfly boxes, dudes!

My kitchen looks like a cake bomb exploded in it. I guess I'll be cleaning that up tomorrow. I certainly don't have the energy to do that now! It's been a crazy couple of days in there!!!!

Three Down, One to Go...

It's Geri's birthday. Geri loves flamingos. Geri gets a flamingo cake. It's pretty simple logic, folks.

The cake baker is kinda tired, can you tell? One more to go!

The Beast

My brain has just imploded. No really, I think it did. I honestly cannot describe how I am feeling right now. Extremely exhausted, in a slight panic because there are still 2 naked cakes sitting in my kitchen, yet oddly satisfied, because I think I might have done a good job. I'm almost sure I did a good job.... I'll let you decide. Here's the cake story:

This cake is for a friend of a friend. Hopefully, after this cake, she will be my friend too! Actually it's for her teenage daughter who is a big fan of art. Anyway, I'm out with my friend last Thursday and she asks me if I think I could make a cake for her friend's daughter. Sure, no problem....She speaks to the mother who has this idea for the cake. It seems they are buying their daughter a piece of art for her room and would it be possible to recreate the painting on the cake? "Um...okie dokie," says the decorator with no further information. It just a piece of abstract art with a couple of clocks on it. Ok...clocks are easy. Circles, some numbers...big hand, little hand. First grade stuff, thinks the decorator. Silly decorator. Skip to Saturday...I see my friend again. "Are you familiar with Salvador Dali?" she asks. Yep, nice to see you too. What? Decorator immediately starts thinking there could be trouble....

So here I am, after 4.5 hours of serious cake labor, posting the proof of all my hard work before somebody eats it. I am also including in this post a picture of the picture that I used for reference. Make your own judgments. If they're harsh, please don't share them. =)

The cake baker is freaking out...

This is the first of a series of four posts to be made in the next 24 hours. Four, you say?? Yepper. Four. It's like a dysfunctional factory in this place today. Why dysfunctional? Because my moronic oven (which up 'til now has been a lovely piece of equipment) decided to burn 2 cakes last night. But only on the bottom. The tops were beautiful, perfect cake specimens. And then I flipped them out on boards to decorate them. AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! What in the name of cat hair happened to my cakes?????????? Shoot a monkey, now I have to dash off to the store (in the pouring rain) to buy more eggs, etc. I only have what seems like 80 billion hours worth of cake work to do tonight. Sure...I'd love to redo things. Seriously.

At this point, replacement cakes have been baked. One of them has already been decorated and has left the house. Mom needed a cake for a teacher at her school who will be celebrating (?) her 30th birthday tomorrow. I'm sure you can guess from the picture that she is a math teacher. Not my favorite cake ever...I'm sure it would have been better had I not been in overdrive mode, flinging batter and icing around the kitchen. Who is going to clean this mess up, anyway?? Any volunteers??

Stay tuned for more of the madness...

Birthday Witch

I made this cake today too. Personally, I don't think you can go wrong with a pink witch!!

Go Cocks!

I made a cake for the game. If they play like morons, at least there will be plenty of sugar to get us through! Go Gamecocks!!!!

Just Plain Cute

I made this Shih Tzu cake for my friend Jeanette. She had a white Shih Tzu for 16 years and she really wants another one. I don't care who you are, this cake is just cute! Puppies are always cute! =)

My Birthday!

Ok, so I made my own birthday cake. Seriously. And I was super busy all day trying to get ready for my taco party. So I took about 15 minutes and made myself an elephant cake. 'Cause elephants are awesome. And pink polka dot elephants are even better! =) Not the prettiest cake ever, but I'm not that picky. It was strawberry cake. Yum!