Knights in Shining Armor--Icing Smiles Cake

Thank you for the sweet comments and thoughts on my last post. We do still miss Cindi, but I am enjoying getting to know her kids and grand kids through this awesome thing we call social networking. Just wish they would hurry up and invent some kind of teleporter so we could visit each other more often. :o)

I know I've been pretty terrible at posting here, and it's usually because life is pretty busy. Busy with home schooling, making cakes, taking care of the house, making cakes, yard work, more cakes. I think you get the idea. Anyway, we are done with our school year and I have 2 cake-free weeks, so I thought this would be a good time to try and catch up here a bit. 

This cake was done a couple of months ago for Icing Smiles. This is the second time I've been able to do a cake for them. You can see my first one here. This time I was asked to do a cake for the siblings of the sick child and it happened to be for two brothers. They wanted a "knight in shining armor" theme and I was pretty much given free reign to do what I wanted. I only wish I hadn't been so swamped with other cakes that week and would have been able to put more details in.  

My very first, ever castle cake was a disaster. It was in my early, early years as a decorator and I knew absolutely nothing about fondant. I decided to stack cupcakes and skewer them together for the turrets and just cover them with buttercream. Yeah, not such a great idea. I actually had two castles to make for that party...one for a girl and one for a boy. When we arrived, one of the boy's turrets was completely fallen down and ripped right down the middle. There was no saving it. I was nearly in tears when the dad ran back to his kid's room and brought out his toy knights and cannons. He quickly set them up by the cake and pronounced that castle as "under siege". He saved the day and probably my future as a decorator. :o)

This time I made the turrets of rice crispy treats and I am SOOO glad I did. I ended up driving down a horrible dirt road to deliver this and we had another downed turret. :o( Two downed knights as well, but since they were made from gumpaste with wire supports inside, they were fine. We just placed the turret back up and re-positioned the knights and we were good to go. :o) If I ever decide to do one of those amazing multi-tiered, turreted castles like this one, I may just have heart attack getting it delivered.

This story is about more than just cake though. These two brothers have two younger sisters, one of which has been very ill. She has been on dialysis for most of her life and desperately waiting for a new kidney. That prayer was answered yesterday as a complete stranger was willing to donate hers and they have finally been able to have the surgery. I've been so blessed to see how God has taken care of this little one and I pray she will continue to heal well and have no issues with the new kidney they've dubbed "Bruce". I also pray for the sweet lady who was willing to travel thousands of miles and undergo major surgery to give a piece of herself to this little girl. Amazing love there! Simply amazing. I am sure they would covet your prayers as well. You can read more about it and see updates  here.

Well, I'm finding that my two weeks of cake-freeness is quickly slipping away, so I am going to close this and go do some fun crafty stuff (my other hobby :o).

Till next time...
God's love and blessings!

Emma's Rainbow

Hello there! If you follow my Facebook page, you are aware that the last few weeks has been "guy month" in my kitchen...knives, shotgun shells, snowmobiles and tractors. I think I need to make something pink and sparkly next week. ;o) Till then, I thought I'd share this pretty cake with you.

I actually can't believe I haven't posted this cake yet. It was one of my favorite ones to do last year. It was done for Icing Smiles. Icing Smiles is a nonprofit organization that provides custom celebration cakes and other treats to families impacted by the critical illness of a child. (From the Icing Smiles site)

I was so excited when I got an email asking me if I could do a cake for little Emma. I designed the cake around several things her mom told me were special to Emma--pretty flowers, rainbows, a heart and her new stuffed puppy.

The rainbow was made with gumpaste and dried flat. I attached lollipop sticks to the back to insert into the cake once it was dried. The puppy was made from fondant. I think this was one of the first cakes I used my new Tappits on too. Love those.

Emmas' mom gave me permission to post this photo. This, my friends, is what it's all about. That smile. This is why I love baking, to give a blessing to someone else and give them a smile.

So blessed to get to do this cake and looking forward to doing another one for Icing Smiles in May. Well, I've got a tractor waiting for its tires to be attached. Guess I better get in the kitchen. :o)

Till next time...
God's love and blessings!