No, this post is about celebrating the green-thumbs in my life. Though I originally made the following cupcakes for the back-to-back birthdays of my sister-in-law, Ali, and mother-in-law, Robin, I cannot continue this post without offering up a shout out to my sister Arica, who is turning 25 today!

Happy Birthday, Seester! I LOVE YOU!

Now, Arica is a gardener for sure. She gets it from my Grandpa. I, however, get cupcake baking skills from my Grandma (and the book Hello, Cupcake).

This set is meant to resemble garden rows, complete with veggies, tools, and cookie crumb dirt!

The shovels were made from pretzel sticks and candy melts. The “seeds” were candy-coated sunflower seeds.

Heads of lettuce were made using green Tootsie Rolls and icing-covered corn flakes.

The peas were made from green Tootsie Rolls and M&Ms.

Radishes were made from red and white Tootsie Rolls and icing-covered corn flakes

The carrots were my most favorite veggie to make…orange and green Tootsie Rolls. The carrots were then scored with a knife and rubbed with cinnamon to give them a fresh-pulled look. Yum!

So what if I don’t have many outdoor gardening skills…these ‘veggies’ taste better anyway.

After my mom and I spent some time hashing out ideas, she created this cute maternity top for me:

And it fits The Bump and I perfectly!

Tomorrow, I will be 33 weeks pregnant. If my mom’s prediction of Baby’s arrival time (read: early!) turns out to be correct, that leaves me only about 5 weeks before I’m officially on Mama duty.

And there’s still plenty to do, like finish setting up Baby’s space:

Get all of Baby’s clothes and diapers washed and ready to go:

Bake a bunch of lasagnas and quiches and other dinners that can be made ahead and frozen:

(Just because I’ll take a break from baking for clients doesn’t mean I get off the hook completely!)

All that to say, I am taking some time off from creating. A Baby Sabbatical, if you will. In fact, “sabbatical” is defined as “a rest from work, or a hiatus, often lasting from two months to a year.”

I can’t predict whether my break will be closer to the two month end or the one year end of that spectrum. That will depend mostly on Baby’s temperament and my energy level. (I sure hope it’s not a YEAR!)

But I can tell you this for sure: I finished my last cake order this morning and I’m only taking orders for custom books through TUESDAY, MAY 25th.

So…if you are planning to want a journal, photo book, or sketchbook made for an upcoming birthday, anniversary, or other special occasion, please order NOW. I want to be able to guarantee I can get it done for you before Birth Day!

In the meantime, I will continue posting about the projects I have completed…until the queue runs dry!

Thank you so much for your understanding and for your patronage over the past few years. Your loving support and sweet comments mean a lot to me!

–Abbi

When they had their ultrasound, they had the technician write the gender down and place it in a sealed envelope. Then they took the envelope to a cake baker, who made a cake revealing the baby’s gender. They borrowed the idea from a friend, and as a cake baker, I can only wish I would’ve thought of this! Perhaps one day someone will want me to bake them a special announcement cake like this. Enjoy the video:

Boy? or Girl? from Cheyenne Schultz on Vimeo.

Geoff and Cheyenne: I am SO THRILLED for you guys! You are going to make terrific parents!! Congratulations, again!

Since MJ was turning 8 on April 8th, this was her one and only Golden Birthday. So I was extra excited when she asked me if I’d make the cake for her party at Remington Park.

Her request was perfectly ‘MJ’: A tiered chocolate cake with pink icing and polka dots. So that’s what she got!

Her little friends were so cute. They kept saying, “You MADE that?” and “You make really good cakes!” I love kids…they are so easily pleased.

Happy birthday, sweet girl! We love you and are SO proud of you!

Things are crazy at Z as in Zebra lately (due to things being crazy in our life right now). I’m still growing a baby in my belly and creating projects for clients, etc…but on top of all of that, I am traveling this week to see my family before I get any bigger/more uncomfortable. THEN, after I return, my husband and I are moving to the country…which means packing, schlepping everything we own across town, unpacking, and organizing.

That said, there won’t be any new posts for the next two weeks. Feel free to spend some time perusing the archives OR come on back in May to see what’s new!

Here’s a little sneak-peek of what is yet to come:

SEE YOU ON THE FLIP SIDE!!

Admittedly, I’ve never seen a single episode of the show, but I do have the power of Google working on my behalf, so it wasn’t too hard to figure out what kind of cake I was supposed to make.

I started by printing out the logo at the size I would need for the cake (a 12″ round, which I cut into an octagon).

I then used all the bits and pieces from the template to create black fondant pieces (thanks, Anya, for generously giving me your leftover black fondant!! You are awesome!)

I allowed those to dry overnight on hunks of waxed paper, then transferred them over to the octagon-shaped, buttercream-covered cake.

The waxed-paper-backing technique worked really well and allowed me to get everything lined up almost perfectly!

Then, all it needed was a little buttercream lettering to round out the logo.

Not bad, huh? Especially since I have no idea what this logo represents. HA!

Stephen, happy 33rd birthday, pal! Glad to hear your party was a smashing success! Happy to have been a part of it in this way!

It’s…a bowling ball!!

And no bowling ball would be complete without pins! M was going to celebrate her 4th birthday by going bowling with her friends, and M’s mom called me to request a bowling themed cake.

I cut a 11 x 15 sheet cake into a ball-and-pins shape using a template I created on my computer. The whole cake was then iced with classic butter cream in white and hot pink. The ‘holes’ in the bowling ball were actually dark cocoa Candy Melts.

M’s mom send me a photo from the party. Nothing makes me happier than seeing a kid blow out the candles on a cake I’ve made!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, M! Hope you had a great time at your party!

Therese’s daughter Aden was having a birthday and wanted a leopard print cake. So, I set out to find a great pattern I could recreate in royal icing.

I spent several hours piping icing into perfect leopard-like shapes. My shapes are on the left, the pattern I studied is on the right:

Once the spots dried, I iced a 12″ two-layer chocolate cake with pink icing. I then added the birthday phrase, a beaded border, and the leopard spots.

I would loved to see how these spots would look on a tiered cake!

Detail shot of the spots: Outlined in 100% thickness royal icing and filled with a looser version of the same icing to make a ‘pillowy’ look.

Happy Birthday, Aden! I hope it was a great one!!

Well, who better to help you turn this age…

…than this superhero?!

Amy contacted me for some party/gift giving help. 1: she wanted to have a custom journal made for a gift. 2: her son was turning four and only likes Spider-Man. Nothing more, nothing less. Spider-Man. No questions asked. Aren’t 4 year olds great?!

So, I spent some time creating a custom-made Spider-Man cake…better than the regular ol’ sheet cakes you buy with the decal stuck on top, no?

I used homemade marshmallow fondant to create his spidey eyes and layered them on top of rich, dark chocolate icing.

I used Candy Melts (dark cocoa flavored) to create the spider emblem on his spandex suit.

And the edge was finished off with a row of chocolate icing beads.

Happy Birthday!!

Naturally, after being cut to the correct shape, girls’ cakes start with a base coat of pink icing:

I added details in purple to make the cake truly “Hannah-ish”.

To complete the guitar, I used chocolate icing for the frets and screws. All the details were made from homemade marshmallow fondant (which tastes much better than the store-bought kind).

All of the fondant pieces were brushed with a faint gold luster dust to give them a nice, girlie sparkle. Here are the tuning pegs:

The pickups:

The knobs:

And a monogram for the birthday girl herself. A true rockSTAR.

And THIS is the best part…seeing a child’s face light up when they see their custom-designed birthday cake.

Here’s to many more happy, happy birthdays, Mikala!