the best gift ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A while back I participated in a lovely initiative on yafa's blog. We were supposed to send a gift to another blogger and of course receive one from someone else. 

I thought it was a lovely gesture, you had the chance to send someone a gift and make someone's  day a little happier just because you wanted to. And let's not forget the element of surprise in the gift you were getting! I wanted to be a part of this for all of the above, little did I know that my gift would turn out to be the BEST GIFT EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just read we are supposed to reveal our gifts a bit later but I just couldn't wait anymore. I am soooooo excited to show you all the wonderful things I got. Sorry to be disappointing some of you. I'll post again on the tenth, but in Romanian.

My gift comes from  Brandusa from Cooking with my soul, a lovely blog full of recipes which you should definitely not miss. 

This is what she sent me

2 cake decorating books: 

50 easy party cakes, by Debbie Brown

Sweet and simple party cakes, by May Clee-Cadman

The coolest gift anyone could have sent me!!!!! right?

look at all this cakes in debbie's brown book!!!!

just a quick sneak preview:) but I promise to post pictures from these books with all the instructions every time I make something from them.

Brandusa, THANK YOU sooooooo much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

You have no idea how much your generosity touched me. I absolutely, totally love your gift. I couldn't have gotten a better gift! you totally brightened up my day!

And another thing, your gift came just on time! I am doing a Christening cake this weekend, and I've already decided to make fondant buttons for this cake. And guess what? One of the books has step by step instructions on how to make them!!!!!!!! I'll take pictures of the pages and show all of you how you can make them.

ice-cream cake

A blogger friend showed me this cake the other day and told me to make it myself. It seemed easy and I went for it, as I had to make another birthday cake for Rebeca to celebrate her with the family this time.

I loved making it; really easy and ready in no time.

ashtray cake

Made for someone who smokes a lot, L&M being the brand of her choice:)

In spite of some fondant problems, I had fun making this cake.

Looking forward to making it again.

ladybug cake

I haven't done one of these in a while. This time I chose to do the ladybug a bit different. I like the new style, but now that I look at the cake I see I should have done the head much smaller.

new girl diaper cake

and this is a close up of the decoration details

under the sea cake

made for a 3 year old boy. I was given total freedom when making this cake. I did not know what to do and so I went with this under the sea theme. I am sure all kids love it.

I hope it was a success with the little ones.

fruit fantasy

Just two cakes I did; one on Saturday morning and one today.

ladybug diaper cake

I made this for a friend to take as a gift to a little cute ladybug:) I am told it was a huge success.
here is a detail of the middle tier

gift box cake tutorial

This post is dedicated to Bianca from Bucataria din casa mea, who is learning the cake decorating secrets and I promised her this tutorial.

you need to shape your cake as square as possible, if you don't have a perfect shape mold you should use a knife and cut it, so that you have straight edges.

Cover you cake in butter cream, as smoothly as you can.

Roll out your fondant/ sugar paste/ MM fondant and cut it into equal stripes.

Place them on the cake one by one and cut off the excess.

Continue to do so until you have the whole cake covered.

Then roll out a big piece of fondant and cover your cake with it.

Then with a knife and a ruler cut off the margins on all four sides and you have the lid.

There is your box cake. You can decorate it as you please.

This time I decorated mine with fresh flowers, but I'll make a bow tutorial soon, so that you can see how to do it.

 I hope it helped!

fresh flower gift box cake

This is today's cake and I rushed to post it as soon as I finished it. 

Bianca from Sarea in bucate, trusted me to make a cake for someone very special to her, as she could not be here herself.

She sent me a picture of what she wanted and I did my best to give her just that and more:), if possible. We went with fresh flowers, as I am not at all talented in that area.

I didn't go overboard with the flowers, as I wanted the cake to be seen. I did not want the flowers to overcome the cake, I just wanted them to compliment it. I did not want to make a flower bouquet, I wanted to make a topper for my cake. I feel I made the right choice. I just hope Bianca feels the same way!

Really anxious to hear from you Bianca. Be truthful!

close up of the flower arrangement

check out the real thing!!!!!!!!!!

I am so happy to show you, once more, photos from the special events my cakes go to.

the real thing!!!!! who can resist it????? I love this photo!

such a cute lady bug! isn't she?

close up of the cake

I hope you enjoyed the photos. I did!

carp cake

A while back I saw a carp cake and  I wanted to do it ever since. So when I was asked to do a cake for someone who's hobby was fishing, I obviously jumped at the chance.
So here you have my humble first try at a carp.

 side view

Nova and her cake!!!!

Remember this cake? It gives me great pleasure to introduce you all to NOVA, the birthday girl! 

Check out her eyes!!!!!!! Amazing, right?

 

And now, meet her little cute friend:) This explains the cake. right?

I love this photo!!! This is the cutest and most gentle hamster I've seen. Rebeca also has one, but hers bites! and so we don't get to have any kind of closeness with ours.

baby rump Christening cake

Cake entirely designed by one talented mother. I was very excited to make it.

I love how it turned out, in spite of all the heat problems.

back of the cake

another converse cake

Another Converse cake, this time without the shoe box. It was supposed to feed 15 people. The inside was chocolate and wild berries.

I wanted to make the shoe gray but when I add Wilton black to white it turns into purple and not gray.

back of the cake