What the deuce?

There is no better way to say happy birthday than with a cute little baby face like Stewie from The Family Guy. Happy Birthday Samantha. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to recreated one of my favorite characters on a cake Sherry!

The Night Before Christmas

These simply cute sweetcakes were made for a little boy's school Christmas party. Rachel Patterson from Pittsburg Art Supply www.pittsburgartsupply.com ordered them for her little elf Townes.

Holiday Sweets Can't Be Beat

These tasty snowflake cookies and cakebites were made for Christel Benson (www.funxionology.com). She ordered several cookies and cakebites for all her Christmas gatherings. Christel reported that everyone enjoyed the sweets very much. We traded our goods with each other. Christel designs personalized cards so I ordered some for my Christmas gifts. Thank you Christel!!!

Christmas Poinsettia

This very large cake was created for PSU's Communication Department Christmas party. Dr. Allan requested that each color have a different flavor just like her mother used to make. The green was mint, red was cinnamon, white was butter rum, and the yellow was lemon. Each flavor seemed to compliment each other and went very well with the chocolate cake. What a unique and incredibly yummy idea. Thank you Dr. Allan!

Rrrrrruffff, Grrrrrreat Cake

Yep, that is a dog licking his lips! Your eyes are not playing tricks on you. This beautiful golden retriever named Homey (Homie) had a birthday recently and his owner Janet ordered him a birthday cake. (was it for the dog or for herself?)



No matter who the cake was for it turned out really cute and both owner and pooch loved the cake.

Pitter Patter, Pitter Patter

Little baby feet are coming! Maia will soon arrive to her happy family. Alicia helped celebrate this joyous occasion by ordering a cake from us. We matched a napkin that she had bought for the party. This cake was too cute to cut! Thank you Alicia.

Delicious Pig Pen

Oink, meow, cock-a-doodle-doo and ruff are all sounds you might hear on a farm. This farm themed cake was created for Memphis Connor's Birthday. He doesn't know it, but he has been a customer to Sweet Designs Cakery since birth! We sure hope he enjoyed his edible farm cake.


Thank you for your continued support and loyalty Angela!

Better Late Than Never Banana!

Yes, B-A-N-A-N-A-S! No, not the pop hit, the cake silly! This cake was done a few weeks back for Breann. She said that it was quit tasty and her surprised mother loved it. A long family 'nanner tradition, this recipe (provided by Breann's daddy-o) was very interesting. The frosting was referred to as "sea foam". Perhaps this tasty tradition was crafted by pirates? Funny, Breann doesn't wear a patch on her eye..... Thank you for this tasty challenge Breann!

Fall Leaves

Isn't this a pretty fall cake. Holly decorated this cake for her grandparents 65th Anniversary Party. I baked it for her and she decorated. We make a good team!

Yummy Cupcakes

I was viewing a photographer's website: www.bellaimagesonline.com and found this cute picture.

I only hope that all the little kiddies who eat our sweets are this enamored by the simple goodness of the cupcake!


Beautiful pictures Bella Images! You may contact Jill Hafner, owner, at: hafnerjill@hotmail.com or call 620.875.9664. She serves Frontenac and surrounding areas.

Prince Sylar's Birthday Party

Sunday was a special day for a little boy named Sylar! It was his 1st Birthday Party. His mom and dad made it extra special by ordering sweets from us! We made Decorated Sugar Cookies, Sweet Cakes, and a mini 3 inch cake for the Prince himself.



His little T-shirt even matched the theme:


What a cutie. We hope you had a memorable 1st Birthday Sylar!

Dolphin Party

Kayla from Boxes of Joy (www.boxesofjoy.com) requested a Dolphin themed cake for her daughters 9th Birthday.

Happy 9th Birthday Olivia!!!


I created this brightly colored ocean scene with a dolphin jumping from the water. I used a stencil that I cut myself for the dolphin. The material I used for the stencil was kinda flimsy. So if anyone knows of a better material for stenciling please let me know.

Homage to Jackson Pollock

The man, the legend, a genius of his time. Pittsburg Art Supply (620.231.1004) pays homage to Pollock by ordering a Pollockesq (yeah, that's not a word) from me for Pittsburg's Fall Art Walk on Broadway last Saturday (www.myspace.com/PittsburgArtWalk).

My inspiration: Convergence 1952


The cake:

I created 2 long skinny canvases from a sheet cake and went to town splattering frosting about, using similar Pollock colors. Whoever got to eat this probably went into a sugar comma afterwards. Reviewing the painting again...I could have used a little more black!

Thanks Pittsburg Art Supply!

Aaaaah Spiders

Well, not really spiders, but Spider Webs! These sugar cookie spider webs were for a little girls Halloween themed birthday party. How fun is that? Halloween AND presents. I think I would like to do that for my next birthday. Do you think that would work in April? =)

I had fun creating these. Sylvia left me a message on my phone telling me how much she appreciated them. I bagged each one with a black bow and put them inside 2 plastic witch cauldrons (is that right?). I LOVE Halloween!

Sip & Shop

You might be asking yourself, "What in the heck is a Sip & Shop?" Well, it's pretty simple, you sip (a beverage) and you shop! A group of local ladies got together and created this wonderful event. Several women who have side businesses (listed below) all gathered in one location (including myself). They each invited guests to the function. The guests arrived, signed in, got name tags then proceeded to walk around to the different stations set up by the business women. They got to try on jewelry, bags, look at stationary, eat yummy food and sweets. If they saw something they liked, they bought it! It was a wonderful networking opportunity for myself and the other ladies! All of the products offered were VERY classy. I felt out of place! Thank you ladies for inviting me!

These were a few things that I offered at the Sip & Shop. I had several platters of Cake Bites also...they took center stage all on their own of course!


From left to right: Chocolate Covered Spice Cookies, Sugar Cookies & Chocolate Covered Pretzels with Almonds

Here are the other ladies that participated:

Cyndee's Accents- cyndee_harvey@hotmail.com

Funxionology (Christel Benson)- funxionology.com/eyecandy.html or christel@funxionology.com 620.687.3560

Boxes of Joy (Kayla Joy) Gourmet Lunch Delivery- boxesofjoy.com or lunch@boxesofjoy.com 620.231.9230

Alberta Ellen Creations (Janet Nichols) "One of a kind, handmade creations"- JanetLNichols@sbcglobal.net 620.365.5251

(I will be adding the others shortly...i have to get the information.)

I almost forgot:
THANK YOU JANET FOR HOSTING THIS FABULOUS EVENT! Your home is amazing and your little boy is the cutest! Thanks.

Dun Dun Da Da, Dun Dun Da Da...

My Wedding march translated to text might not make since to anyone else but me. Sorry! Anyway, while goofing around with some sweets I tried building a Wedding Cake Cookie. It turned out pretty darn cute. So, I took it to work and gave it to a friend for her birthday. Happy Birthday Marissa (a little late getting on the blog, but none the less)!

These are available in any color and any kind of cookie. The sugar, spice and butter cookies work best. They would make super cute gifts at a Wedding reception, Bridal Shower, Baby Shower, etc. They can be customized for ANY occasion. Some brides have these instead of a Wedding cake! Crazy...I know.

Naughty but Nice

My second naughty cake!!! It's naughty but still PG! She's sexy but elegant. Grrr. I hope the birthday boy enjoyed his oh so sweet mistress. I sculpted the boobies from cake scraps (some of you lovingly know it as cake trash). Then I covered it with about a ton of frosting. It felt kinda weird when I was smoothing the frosting =). A little too life like.

Trojan Power and a little history lesson

You would have to be from Girard to know what TPKA means. Trojan Power Kicks Aaaahhhh, oh yeah, this is a G rated page =). Anyway, use your imagination. These two Trojan cakes were created for the Girard Fall Festival. Even though the carnival was a flop the cakes came out in numbers for the yearly cake walk.

You don't know what a cake walk is? Well, let me tell you, it's where a bunch of people walk around in a circle to music and when the music stops they see what square of the circle they are standing on. If their square is called, they win a cake! Pretty AMAZING, huh! This goes on for several hours. It sounds strange, I know, but people do it and they love it! Cheap entertainment.

Most of the pretty decorated cakes are saved for the Cake Auction. The whole town gets in on this one! It's for a good cause. All of the proceeds from the cake walk and the cake auction go to the Senior Class. Tradition rules!

My sister is a Senior this year...but we made her make her own cakes! She's a big girl...right? I know, we are mean. We love you Keish!

Dirty Work becomes Delicious Cake

Photo by: ANDREW D. BROSIG/THE MORNING SUN

Dr. Shirley Drew, a professor at Pittsburg State University, had a book signing yesterday to celebrate the publishing of her book: Dirty Work. Dirty Work can be found on amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com with the ISBN #: 1932792732. The book was edited by Shirley K. Drew, Melanie B. Mills and Bob M. Gassaway.

I was honored to create an over sized rendition of Dirty Work for the book signing. The cake turned out nicely. However, I am still familiarizing myself with the art of sculpting a cake! Thanks for the practice Shirley.

Now, everyone go out and buy this book! It is very interesting and will definitely give you an insight to those jobs that have been tainted by society. We could all use a little insight once in a while.

An Oldie but Goodie

Here is a picture of some SweetCakes I did a while back. I wanted to show you how fun Christel's invites are. I love working with her creations.

Monkey Around!

Yup...a monkey cake for a little monkey boy! I created this fall monkey cake by request of Will's mom. This was a new request to. It seems Will is allergic to nuts. So, not being familiar with allergens, I inquired to Will's mom and did a little research on the web. Very interesting stuff! Thank you guys for opening my eyes to this. I will definitely remember and try to offer "nut less" sweets in my Cakery. If you are not familiar with nut allergies or other food related allergies you can find out more at:

www.kidswithfoodallergies.org OR www.foodallergy.org

Okay, so, to make Will's special birthday cake I started with this invitation:


Invitation created by: Christel Benson You many contact her at: christel8500@yahoo.com

Then I made a stencil from the invitation that Christel created and put it on the cake!


Then I made matching Orange SweetCakes.


I hope all you little monkey's had fun at Will's Birthday Party!

The Story of LaShawna

Happy, Happy Birthday to a girl that loves to read (so says her momma)! We wont say how old/young she is...but if your any good at math...you can figure it out (wink). Sorry LaShawna, it's our subtle way of "giving it away".


From what we can tell your momma loves you dearly. She asked us to make this book cake special for you! We hope you and your co-workers love devouring "The Story of LaShawna". What could be better than curling up with a good book made of chocolate Cake??? NOTHING!

Comments? Suggestions?

Hey everyone! I'm trying to update my logo. Here is what I have so far:


So, what do you think? Please give me suggestions and comments. Feel free to email me at sweetdesigns_confectionillustrations@hotmail.com

THANK YOU!

Pretty N Pink

A simple baptism sheet cake for a baby girl named Kendall. Congratulations!

Bamboo Beauty

My first attempt at rendering a wedding cake in my Wedding Cake Design Pro software actually worked! WOW. Here is the one from the software:



And here is the actual Wedding Cake:


Congratulations Mr. & Mrs. Smalley! Your reception looked beautiful with all the bamboo plants. Thank you for letting us try something new with your cake. A true testiment to our new awesome software!

The colors of the ribbon changed...for the better. It's great to see it brought to life before it is actually created!

Guitar Hero Anyone?

When Sharon first called and asked for a cake that said "Our Guitar Hero" I had no idea why. I just assumed it was an inside joke. Then I realized, there is a game called Guitar Hero. I'm not a gamer so I looked it up. Seems pretty fun. I put a real guitar on Bryant's cake instead of the game guitar (it doesn't have strings). Also...my rendering of a guitar turned into a bass guitar (hence the 4 strings). I just couldn't fit more than 4 on there.

Anyway, thank you Sharon and Bryant for the gamer lesson! I need to keep up with these things...Pop Culture is too much for me :)

Pink and Purple Fun...all in one!

Yeah, I know...my titles are getting a little too silly, even for me.

I constructed this two tier cake for my mother-in-law and my niece-in-law. That sounds sooo strange (is niece-in-law even a word?).

Anyway, it was both of their b-days so my sister-in-law asked that I do a cake for the two of them. I used curly ribbon as the topper, strawberry milkshake whoppers for the border, and finished it off with pink and purple frosting. The kids really liked the whoppers...in fact, I think that might have been all they ate! When I cut it, the purple and pink filling stood out against the chocolate cake. It was very cute.

I did have competition however...the neighbors brought over "Better than Sex" cake. How can I compete with that? It is...exactly what it is called. I'll have to come up with an EVEN BETTER than sex cake! That might be too much for everyone to handle. Hold on to your boot straps! :)

Candy & Cake for a Sweet Girl

This extra sweet cake was made for a young girl who asked for a Candy cake. Delaney, I did my best...I hope you liked it. I wanted to make the cake actually look like candy, but I just didn't have time...

Being a fan of all types of candy myself I had a lot of fun with this! Plus, I got to eat candy :). Thanks Linda and Delaney!

Another Illustration Brought to Life

Stephanie Gemino, a fellow cake decorator, has brought another illustration to life. And, she used my design to do so. This turned out very cute Stephanie! Thank you for sharing.

You may view more Cakes by Stephanie at: www.myspace.com/kenoshacakelady

Wedding Cake Design Pro

YES! We have it! I purchased this amazing 3-D Cake building software when i was at the ICES conference. It is awesome. If you are not sure how you might want your cake to look, just set up an appointment with me and we can build your cake on this software. It is set up for Wedding cakes, but we can do ANY cake you want. After we have designed your cake like you want it, I'll print it for you to see.


To my knowledge we are the only cake decorating business who has this software in this area. So, check it out!

Girl Scouts & Chocolate

What better way to celebrate your birthday than with chocolate cake, chocolate frosting and the Girl Scout logo? Okay, so the chocolate everything probably sounds way better to everyone than the Girl Scout logo, but that is what Samantha wanted! Happy 13th Birthday Samantha.

I remember being in Girl Scouts. It was a lot of fun. Camp Mintahama is where a spent a big part of my summers as a youngin'. I learned to synchronize swim, canoe, sing silly songs, and I even got my certified Sailing certificate. Good times...I recommend Camp Mintahama to any young Girl Scout.

I've lost track...oh, so making this cake was extra fun for me. Although...my husband gets tired of hearing my camp stories. I hope you enjoyed your cake as much as I enjoyed making it Samantha. Thanks for ordering Gail!

Not so Dora :(

Well, what can I say? You can't win them all. This Dora cake was difficult for me! I just could not get Dora's eyes right! Peggy, the awesome lady who ordered the cake, reminded me that it was for a three year old. She said that she wouldn't mind. But still, I like them all to be near perfect! Sorry Peggy. I'll just have to try again. You win some, you lose some...and you just keep trying!

Thanks for letting me use you as a guinea pig Peggy. I do have to say, I love the rest of the cake!

Cotrell/Wade Wedding Finally!

I finally got the pictures of this Wedding Cake! Sorry for the wait. My sister took the pics and I NEVER see her anymore (she's a teenager)! This cake was done solely by my mother. I was away at the ICES conference (see details below).

The cake turned out really simple but elegant. Mr. & Mrs. Wade, we hope you loved your wedding cake! Way to go mom! It's beautiful.

The Longest Baby Shower in the History of Baby Showers

Yes, this baby shower was about two hours long! It is the longest one I have ever been to. There were around 40 people give or take a few. The guest of honor was one of my very good friends, Angela, who is having her first child. We decorated in a jungle theme using stuffed jungle animals as center pieces on the tables and paper confetti around them. It turned out really cute for not a lot of $$$ on the decor.

Angela got lots and lots of presents and even got embarrassed a little. We made her change a dolls diaper blind folded. The whole sha-bang! Clothes, powder, desiten, diaper, etc. It was funny. We concluded that the best part of baby showers is getting to embarrass the mom. It's a crowd pleaser every time. We highly recommend this to future baby shower hosts.

Below is a picture of the cupcakes I decorated for this special occasion. They were simply chocolate with chocolate frosting and jungle animals on top. Simple and sweet. There is a close up of one of the Giraffe cupcakes (Angela's favorite). A little blurry, but you get the point. I think the photographer was drunk or something?

These mints were made by the step-grandma and Angela herself. They turned out REALLY cute! Even though Sweet Designs Cakery did not make these...we can if you would like!

2007 ICES Conference in Omaha

My husband and I, yes I said my husband and I, attended the 2007 ICES (International Cake Exploration Society) Conference in Omaha, Nebraska a couple of weekends ago. You might think that I had to drag my husband by his ear to this. Nope, he was supportive and made it through the entire Conference with me! We only went one day, but one day was plenty for a newbie. We looked at lots and lots of cake tools, new inventions and tasted lots of frosting! At one of the demonstrations my husband even made a fondant rosebud. Pretty impressive! Later on he turned it into a turtle. I guess rosebuds aren't his thing.

Here are some of the cakes that were in the Cake Gallery. There were cakes from all over! The yellow, green, pink and orange one was from Kansas! Maybe you'll see one of my cakes in the Cake Gallery some day!

This & That results...

Well, I hate to say it but...YOU GUYS WERE NO HELP! :) It seems as though everyone likes This & That equally. I guess I'll have to do both. Thank you for your comments!!! Much appreciated. Don't forget, you can subscribe to this blog if you so dare!

Monkey Mania

A woman contacted me a while back about my Monkey cake on CakeCentral.com. She asked if she could use my illustration for a cake she had been asked to make. Of course I said YES! Here is my cake (on the top) and her cake (on the bottom). She did a FANTASTIC job! It turned out very cute for a little girl.

You may view more cakes by Stephanie at: www.myspace.com/kenoshacakelady

Stephanie: Thank you so much for asking to use my confection illustration, and doing it so well!

This or That???

Here you see two types of cake bites. On the top: Original (this). On the bottom: Brand Spankin' New (that). If you were to eat either of these...which one would you rather eat? We are going for the best look here, since you can't actually taste the cake bites through the computer. Leave a comment and let me know which ones you think you like better.