Portal of Power!

Sarah has become a fan of my work.  I didn't take much... She had a cake I made for my niece and she was sold.  Her husband was the lucky recipient of the Milenium Falcon this past winter, and she warned me a few weeks later that the little man's birthday was at the end of the summer.  Sure enough a reminder email came in:

"Jen... Skylander cake... go!"

That pretty much summed up the conversation.  I swear she was describing it in Greek or Mandarin.... Barely any words made sense.  I got cake, figure and online out of it.

So Skylander (which is not Highlander in space, much to my disappointment) is uber popular for the little guys these days.  Apparently.  Do you know Skylander?  I didn't have a clue.  So you get an action figure to play with in real life, then a stand for it that acts as an online portal... place the figure on the base and you get to play with that character in an online world.  Or so I'm told.  If you place 2 on it... apparently they will go into battle mode.  Fancy!

"Sure Sarah.  I can make that work"

Research away, and yep... A streamlined cake for a family dinner was easily doable.  I could have gone into crazy detail for this, but as usual, timing wasn't easy (I have to stop taking orders on weekends I'm working).  I knew cutting a few corners wouldn't take anything away from the cake, and little W would know it right away.

I decided to get a little fancy and  make it in action... it glows to tell you the character is online.  So I had some fun with bright orange for the portal and the fun symbols around the side.  

I got carried away doing the stone effect, but I think it looks great.

Sarah was blown away, and I can't wait to hear how the little guy liked it.  And hopefully I'll get a picture with his new figure on the cake, making it look all official like.

The cakes that almost weren't

If you are a cake fan, there would be nothing worse than losing your baker two weeks before your wedding.

Sadly for Kendra and Nate this is exactly what happened.  

Luckily for Kendra and Nate, their photographer was my friend Samantha.  They mentioned their plight, and were sent my way.  Normally, bakers like a good 4-6 months before a wedding to plan everything and get their schedule arranged. Looking for a baker 14 days before your wedding generally means you aren't getting a cake.

It was tight, but I knew I could make it work.  

His and Hers Cakes

The neat thing about this cake is that there was actually 2 of them... a his and hers - something to reflect both of their interests.

From our first conversation, it was clear that their previous baker didn't really include them in the decision making process, and they had no idea what their cake was going to look like.  After asking a few questions, I came up with a quick sketch that they fell in love with.  Not bad for 20 minutes while at work:

I mean on break... I was definitely on break and not neglecting my duties at all. 

We met a few days later and made a few small changes, and they could rest easy and focus on more important things. 

It wasn't easy - they took a lot of time to figure out how to make everything work.  I had never really done anything like this.  My monkey cake was just a couple of monkeys I made following a tutorial.  There was no tutorial for all of these - just pictures and stuff around the house.

It took a better part of a week to get all the bits made just right, but man was it fun!

Have a look:

Congratulations Kendra and Nate.