The Making of a Doxie Cake: A RUFF Night

Beware of Dog: Very Long Post Ahead

So... Earlier in the week we talked a big game about a weekend filled with three (3) projects. Yes, we actually thought we would not get sick of cake, sugar, fondant, more sugar and each other after three projects!! We were officially WRONG.

It all started on Thursday evening with several hours of fondant preparation... We have learned how to perfect the fondant coloring process, but it must be done atleast a day ahead of the cakes. This particular evening we made three colors... big mistake... late night #1.

Last night we got started on two of our projects and finished one of them (as was the plan for last night). The other one (not two) we will finish today, so check back for pictures of that cake soon!! But back to the one we actually completed... It's a dachshund cake for Bethany's friend's party today...

It started out really well... After a lot of planning and drawing and more planning, we got the shape cut out of the cakes pretty easily. This left us feeling way too optimistic about the rest of the project...



Of course it went downhill from there... It was hard to get the buttercream to stick to the intricate little pieces of the cake, but the buttercream is a very important part of the process... (The fondant won't stick without it, and you also need some icing that tastes good since the fondant is just for aesthetics.) Then we had to actually get the fondant onto the tricky little guy (or girl as we think he transformed into as we decorated) which was another challenge... If you read the post about the onesie cake, you know that the fondant used on that cake was a new recipe, and it worked so much better than the old recipe. Apparently, either that cake was a fluke or this one was because we followed the same recipe and it did not turn out the same way!!

In the end, we are so glad that we made the doxie cake... We think it turned out to be really cute, but we were definitely questioning this cake-baking-and-decorating hobby of ours during all of the middle hours... Mallory was ready to call it quits for good until she got some supper into her system... At one point she even said, "Can you just please not be friends with Bethany anymore so that we don't have to finish this?"



We have decided to take it back to basics for awhile until we have gotten the fondant-making down to more of a science... but I don't think we'll be quitting all together anytime soon!!

-Laura

This Weekend

This weekend will be a VERY BUSY, VERY EXCITING, and VERY SWEET weekend! Check back next week when Laura and I have finished THREE projects. . . that's right! THREE!!!

Have a GREAT week!

-Mallory

P.S. Check out Abby's new blog for the Lili Pad. . . the CUTEST children's clothing store EVER. . . http://lilipadland.blogspot.com/

Serendipity Sweets

Richie's sweet friend Victor from work has partnered with a friend of his to open Serendipity Sweets in Vestavia next to Leonardo's! I'm so proud of him, and I have no idea how he does it...he puts in a full day++ at McGriff, travels, has a little girl and another baby on the way with his beautiful wife, and he STILL has time to give to this fantastic project!!! I'm not sure what you would call this place besides PERFECTION for a sweet tooth like me...ice cream, a case of locally made chocolates and other sweets, and a WALL of candy...and it's all in the most adorable shop! Kids can even create their own buckets filled with candy and little toys.

CHECK IT OUT SOON!

-Mallory

Ellie's Party/Baby Shower

I've finally decided I have some time to write about my busy busy Saturday...making the cakes without Laura was NOT as fun! I still enjoyed it, and I think the results were pretty decent for doing nearly all of it on my own (Laura did help make the fondant and the hot pink buttercream earlier in the week). I was SO excited about the blue fondant though...it rolled out PERFECTLY and went on easily. The cupcakes were actually more time consuming than the cake...it really hurts your hand after you've piped icing onto 2 cupcakes...and I did 24...plus a few for myself to snack on along the way...

I must say our biggest success this time around was the deliciousness factor of the buttercream icing...mmmmmm.....

-Mallory

Baby Hopkins is a...

BOY! We are so excited to find out that Cassandra and Jeremy's little one is a little boy! We can now start calling the baby "he" and "him" instead of "it" and Cass can start deciding on his name and decorating his nursery with little boy things...

More importantly, we can start deciding what we want to do for his cake!! (Okay... so maybe not "more importantly" in real life, but for the purposes of this blog, it is...)

-Laura

Adam THE GENIUS Fergwad

So... after we posted about Leah and Adam's SECOND ANNUAL BIRTHDAY EXTRAVAGANZA, we figured out that some of you don't know who Adam is... Bless your hearts.

We have known Adam since high school, and we've never been the same. Adam was that kid who sat in the back of the classroom... and said everything that entered his mind... right out loud. Most of the time those kids are annoying, but the thing about Adam was that he was pretty much smarter than everyone in the room... including our teachers (especially a certain two). He would poke at them, but did it so well that they didn't even understand what was happening... So it was funny.

(Now that I think about it, this is probably what happened in our "Friendship Biography" and "About Us" section, both of which he authored for us...)

Even though he went to Alabama and we both went to Auburn, we kept in touch through college. As in high school, he kept us distracted from our school work even from quite a few more miles away... And now he is the guy whose emails make us laugh out loud at our desks during the middle of the day at work -- and you don't know how embarrassing that really is until you've lived through it in an "open concept studio" full of serious architects and designers...

Love,
US!

Such a Busy Week!!

Our sweet little friend, Miss Ellie O., is turning 1 this month! Her birthday party is this Sunday afternoon and we're making her cupcakes! We also MAY have the opportunity to make our first baby shower cake! We have wanted to try a baby shower or child's birthday cake for awhile, so you can imagine our delight when we got two opportunities on the same weekend!

Unfortunately, I'm going to miss it.

(Of course I'm really not complaining at all because Lee and I are heading to the beach with Ben and Bethany for a few days, and we've been looking forward to it ALL summer!!!)

We are spending all of our evenings this week getting ready for the weekend since Mallory will be going solo on the actual cake assembly! There's so much to do to get everything ready... choosing a final design, purchasing all the ingredients, making the fondant and buttercream, tinting the icing and creating the templates for the shapes of the cakes... Getting two cakes done with half the team will be no small feat!!!

-Laura