Irish Eyes

According to the 2003 US Census, 34 million Americans have Irish ancestry. I, however, am not Irish. Not even a little bit. Neither is Becki. Despite us not being irish, a very wonderful customer entrusted us to help her celebrate St. Patrick's Day by creating an Irish themed cake. After much thought and research, we came up with this:


Made from chocolate and Bailey's with Bailey's buttercream, the cake was designed to have an Irish Cream taste to match its Irish look. Things we learned while making this cake:

1. There are about 10,000 regular three-leaf clovers for every lucky four-leaf clover.


2. A cake made from chocolate and Bailey's is on my top 3 favorite cakes of all time.


3. The history behind St. Patrick's Day is amazing and worth researching.

(And come to find out...on a personal note...4. My husband is Irish. He informed me of this while I was telling him about this cake. This, of course, means this cake will become a tradition at my house every March 17th!)

A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankroll smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for.
-- Anonymous

Chaos is the word of the week.

I am blessed with three little girls, all under 6. Two of them did not sleep through the night and the other one woke up at 5am. I am pretty confident that I can actually feel a wrinkle forming on my face from lack of sleep and stress over a sick baby this week. And I as I sit here writing this, I am staring at the GINORMOUS pile of laundry that is in front of me ... 90 percent of it is pink. The other 10 percent is my husbands. Its weeks like this that makes Starbucks all of its money - sleep deprived over worked mothers keep them in business. But even with all the chaos, there is nothing in my life I would change. It may be chaotic and I may be on the verge of going crazy... but I'm in good company- right Becki?

It was our pleasure this week to make the cake shown above for a new mommy to be. One of the greatest joys of our job is that most of the time when we make a cake, it is because there is a celebration going on- and what a great thing to be able to help celebrate! The life of a new baby girl! So to the soon to be new mommy- we say congratulations! You are about to meet the biggest joy you will ever encounter, lose more sleep than you ever thought possible and become part of the growing group of mommies who woke up this morning to find yet another wrinkle forming on our faces from wearing our heart on our sleeve. But it is so so worth it! Thank you for the opportunity of serving you in creating a cake to celebrate the life inside of you- we are excited for your journey!

Life according to Jimmy Buffett

Jimmy Buffett once said, " If life gives you limes, make margaritas". This week, we put his logic to good use - in the kitchen. The outcome was amazing. Pictured on the left is a margarita cupcake - our new favorite cake flavor. The uses for this flavor are endless - it would make a memorable wedding cake and would be unique at a bridal shower.

With Jimmy Buffet's quote in mind, we tried a few other ideas while we were experimenting. Vanilla Chai Cake with a honey lemon buttercream and Pina Colada cake with coconut-pineapple buttercream both made the list of amazing flavors that need to be tasted! Stay tuned- in honor of Saint Patty's Day, an Irish Creme cake is in the works!

After three successful new flavors, we thought we would experiment a little more dangerously with an Avocado buttercream. No lie, this tasted like grass. While I hear that adding grass to smoothies for health purposes is quite popular in some places, Becki and I prefer to leave the taste of grass out of our repertoire. However, for the hippies and vegetarians everywhere, we will make the exception.... Maybe.

Memories

One of the greatest joys that Becki and I have in our lives is that we are mothers. Between the two of us, there are 5 children. My little girl just had her 5th birthday three weeks ago... and she is already talking about what she wants her cake next year to look like. Each year the requests get a little more crazy, a little more elaborate. But there is no greater joy as a cake designer than seeing the look on your own children's faces when they wake up on their birthdays and rush downstairs to see their cake. It's priceless. Its been interesting to look back at pictures of our cakes and see how life has changed over the years. We both remember picking our wedding cake and seeing it for the first time. We both remember what our cakes looked like at our baby showers and what we made for their first birthdays. And now, as our children grow older, we get to look back at each of their cakes and seeing the progression from Elmo to Cinderella and beyond. It's amazing how each cakes brings back memories that we treasure so much . Its an amazing reminder of things that God has blessed us with - two amazingly supportive husbands who have pushed us to chase our dreams and 5 little blessings who daily remind us that life is worth celebrating. So even if my oldest wants a castle cake to rival Cinderalla's castle and even if one of Becki's crew asks for an exact replica of the Toy Story Cast - we will build it with joy -- with the knowledge that we are not just building a cake- we are building memories.