40th Birthday Cake

This cake was made for a friend's birthday this past week.



It's a white sheet cake, frosted with buttercream and filled with my dulce de leche filling.

Hope you had a Happy Birthday, Kim!

Butterfly Cake

This cake was for the granddaughter of a very good friend of mine.

A very frilly, girly butterfly cake!!

Hope you were feeling better, Nadia, and had a very grand first birthday party!!

This cake is a stacked 6" and 8" set on stacked 12" and 16" white covered boards. The 6" is white cake with a dulce de leche filling and the 8" is devil's food chocolate with a chocolate mousse filling. Covered with traditional buttercream (palest pink) with pink fondant add-ons. The butterflies are silk and the wording is pre-cut craft foam. Boa feathers around the bottom of each tier as well as the first board. Serves approximately 23.

Pictures of Our New Grandbaby

I just had to share these pics!! They're of Peyton, our brand new grandson. He's eight days old here.

His angelic pose!!

Enough with the pictures already!!

And big sis, Emily, came in at the end of the photo shoot and just had to give her baby a kiss. Isn't that sweet?

These were taken by Naomi, my oldest daughter.

Another Favorite Grandkid Picture!!

Here's another of these 'favorite grandkid pics'. It was taken by my daughter of two of her daughters in the midst of an altercation.

Isn't this hilarious? They are so intent! And this was taken at church, no less!!

My daughter gets asked all the time if they are twins. The four year old is small for her age and the two year old is big for her age. And they have the same dark hair and eyes.

Just thought I'd share another of those priceless 'grandma' moments.

Decorated Cookies: Hats, Purses and Dresses

I made these decorated cookies for a tea party we had at my home today. My mom is out from CA and we always try to fit in a tea party when she visits. It was so much fun and the 'girlie' cookies were the perfect accent!!

There were twelve of us counting my four granddaughters, ages 2 - 6. They had their own separate table complete with cookies and teacups!

I used this cookie recipe and this glaze recipe. A double batch of dough made fifty-five hats, purses and dresses. A double batch of the glaze was more than enough to this amount of cookies.

Here's a picture of our table all set and ready to enjoy! I think it looked better in person - the napkins look a bit floppy and disorganized here.

Safari Birthday Cake

Another cake from this weekend! I've been busy!!

This one was for my oldest son's friend, Tim. He turned 30 on Sunday. It was supposed to have animals on top, but it was decided that it would be too 'kid' looking! Then, I didn't get a picture with the '30' on top. Sorry!

Tim has all kinds of animals at his place, so the cake was appropriate. My grandkids love visiting them!

The 10" bottom tier was white cake with dulce de leche filling. The 8" top tier was chocolate with chocolate mousse filling. It is covered with fondant. Approximately 45 servings.

25th Wedding Anniversary Cake

I did this cake this past weekend for a customer's in-laws 25th wedding celebration!

I didn't see the finished product since my customer set it up herself. But she was kind enough to send me a couple of pictures! Thank you, Rachel!!



The Precious Moments figurines graced their original wedding cake. Hmm, I wonder if I have the cake topper from my wedding cake anywhere? I'll have to look.

The 10" bottom tier was chocolate with chocolate mousse filling. The 6" tier was white with a dulce de leche filling. I used buttercream frosting. The flowers were made of fondant. Approximately 45 servings.

About Making Dulce de Leche

If you use the recipe for Dulce de Leche recipe that I posted here, don't use Great Value sweetened condensed milk. It doesn't thicken like the other brands do!

Yesterday, I sent my hubby to the store and he bought the GV brand. I stuck it in the oven and it took forever. I kept checking it, but it was still white. Finally, I stirred it and there was a white liquid layer on top with the caramelized milk on bottom. So I stirred it in with a whisk and baked it a while longer, but it still didn't thicken like it's supposed to. Great Value must add a LOT of water to their sweetened condensed milk! Stick to Eagle's Brand or Carnation. I've used Golden Meadow and it did fine.

Just wanted to let you know!!

Just Gotta Love Those Grandkids!!

Our grandson, Peyton Nathan, arrived a little after midnight on Wednesday, January 6.

Here's a picture of Peyton and his big sister, Emily.

You can't really see the baby, but it was just soooo sweet that I had to post it! And it was taken on a cell phone, so the quality isn't the best. That's daddy holding both of them.

Peyton's mom and dad had another middle name picked out prior to his birth, but his Uncle Nathan left for Santo, Vanuatu just five days before his birth and won't return for two years, so mom and dad decided they wanted to name him after his uncle.

They got on Skype last night at the hospital and let Uncle Nate meet his namesake. Isn't modern technology wonderful??

Congratulations on a beautiful baby boy, Bobby and Kelly!!

They're Gone - Update

Nate & Jen made it to Santo, Vanuatu on schedule, despite a delayed flight, rescheduling flights and dashing through Denver and LAX to catch their plane. But, they arrived in Santo without all seven of their trunks!

Actually, it is seven trunks and one really large duffel bag they purchased at the airport to put all the stuff from their overweight trunks in!

Their trunks went on the delayed flight, but Nate & Jen couldn't wait for that one or they would have missed all their connections along the way. So hopefully their trunks will be on the next flight into Santo on Monday. Keep your fingers crossed!!

They're Gone!

My son and daughter-in-law left yesterday to spend two years on the island of Santo, Vanuatu.


They will be teaching school. They packed seven trunks full of clothing, bedding, kitchenware and everything else one might need to live.

Could you live for two years with only what you could pack in these seven trunks??



I'm not sure I could. My daughter, Ruth, said she would need at least fifteen or sixteen trunks, with one being devoted solely to hair care products!!

Could you do it? Think of everything you use everyday, in the kitchen, the laundry room, the bathroom, even the garage. And your clothes. Now, do you think you could pack it all in seven trunks? I wouldn't even want to try!!

The town Nate & Jen will be living in, at least for the near future, is Luganville. The population is about 2,000.

But it's not quite like living in a town that size in the United States. There's definitely no Wal-Mart to run to! They will have to make their own bread, hand wash their clothes (or hire a local to do it for them), suffer through the heat without air conditioning, sleep under mosquito netting to avoid getting Malaria, and drive on dirt roads or trails (if they are lucky enough to get a vehicle)! Eggs cost about 46 cents each, ground beef is around $4 per pound and bobby pins that cost ninety-six cents at Wal-Mart would cost about $8! So they had to take as much as they could in those seven trunks!!

Godspeed, Nate & Jen! You will be in our thoughts and prayers continually.