As promised, here is the story of my biggest cake disaster. You all of course know of my Ultimate Cake Off disaster with my wires being taped down, which lost us a competition. I would say that is on of my biggest disasters. But the one that sticks out most in my mind was for my sisters wedding.

She wanted a beautiful 5 tiered wedding cake that had a stand for each individual cake. She had a cake stand custom made for the cake that had a fountain built in so the water would start out at the highest tier and pour down into the next largest tier until at the end it trickled out into a pool of water in which all of the cake stands were resting. It was a very ambitious cake with a lot of details and a bouquet of flowers for each tier.

No, this cake wasn’t the disaster. It turned out beautifully. However, with such an intense cake and a two month old baby, I had run out of time and had to decorate the grooms cake in Arizona. The grooms cake was a 3-D Seattle Seahawks cake since my brother-in-law is a big fan. I had made and sculpted the cake and had shaped the beak out of rice krispies. All I had to do was cover the cake and decorate it. When I went to pull out my fondant to cover the cake, I noticed that the large beak that hung over the edge of the stand had completely fallen apart. I had not taken into consideration that Arizona is a lot hotter than Utah. I tried to salvage the rice krispies but to no avail. So, I hurried and ran to the craft store for some styrofoam.

I tried so hard to get the cake finished but it didn’t work. Did I mention that I was also the Matron of Honor? Yes. I was. With the problem I had with the beak, time just ran out. I wasn’t able to finish the grooms cake. So, my poor brother in law had a white buttercream covered cake in the shape of a seahawk.

It’s official! I just reached 1000 fans today. Or should I say “Likes”? A little confusing, but I’ll take it. I’ll just say I have 1000 Friends. My husband was a little optimistic with his guess and I was a little conservative. We met in the middle with 4 weeks. I am so lucky to have the friends and fans that I have to support me and share with. I love what I do.

So now for my giveaway! Here’s how it’ll work. Everyone that posts a comment on my Facebook status that shares the link to this page will be in the drawing. I will leave it open for entries for 24 hours and I will be giving my signature Raspberry Cake recipe to five lucky winners. It will be a random draw chosen by my husband.

So what should you write in your post, you ask? I want to hear about cake experiences. Your best or worst experience. Cake is always linked to momentous occasions whether it be weddings, birthdays, baby showers, anything. I would love to hear some great stories from decorators as well as customers.

So there you go. Go post, and in 24 hours you can be testing out a delicious Raspberry Cake. If you’re not a Facebook fan yet and want to participate, here is a link to my Facebook Fan Page or just click on the Facebook icon.

I have been doing my homework. I am going to go “where no man has gone before”. That’s right. I am going to be making the Star Trek USS Enterprise. I must be perfectly honest… I am not much of a Treky. My brother watched the show years ago and I remember a few things. I remember the rather dashing Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard, and LeVar Burton (the Reading Rainbow guy) as Geordi LaForge, and of course Worf the Klingon and Data. But honestly, I couldn’t tell you anything about what happened on any of the shows. Something about crazy aliens wanting to take over the ship and destroy the people. That’s my extent of knowledge on the subject.

So, of course, when you need to know more you Google. I found several pictures of the Enterprise and had an idea of how to approach this cake. And then I came across this website http://www.ketzer.com/enterprise/index.html. I was so impressed by this guys work. I don’t know if this was the actual model of the Star Trek Enterprise or if it is a remake for a super fan but it is an amazing model. I am so glad that I found it. It will be very helpful in my cake designs to be able to see closeups of what things should really look like. If you are a Treky or even just someone who appreciates great work, go check out this artists work.

I have so many cool ideas going now. I guess we’ll see which ones will make the cut. I’ll let you know in a few weeks how it turns out. In the mean time I will continue to “explore strange new worlds”… through Google.

A: Thinking about the post I wrote yesterday, I wanted to add a few thoughts. I have people ask me all the time how I do it all. The answer is…. I don’t! Nobody can.

Unfortunately, there is a limited number of hours in a day, and the older I get the more I realize how fast time flies. It is easy to feel like there is too much to do. It’s easy to look at your life and see all of the hundreds of things that you could be doing but are not, and think that you’re not accomplishing anything. It can be very overwhelming. I’ve felt that way so many times and still do. I used to think that I was just plain lazy.

Now I know better. I think that being overwhelmed is misdiagnosed for laziness all too often.  If we just know what we want and then list how that needs to happen and have a focus, we are a lot more likely to get up and do the things that need to be done in order to get us there.

So, here’s what I do. I make goals. But not in the traditional way. I don’t think about all of the things that I need to do better. That method is too negative and then I don’t feel like doing anything to reach those “guilt goals”.  I think about the things that I want. I make a list of the 5 things that I want most. This way, the goals are something that I am happy to work toward.

Then when it comes time to make my list of things to do, I line them up with my goals. If they don’t do anything to help achieve those goals, they are pushed to a lower priority. The things that need to be done that match up with those goals are put on the top of my list. This is how I “do it all”. . . I don’t. I do the things that are the most important and if I have time, I’ll do the lower priority things.

It’s impossible to do everything. You just have to figure out what is important to you and do the things that will help you get there. Don’t waste your time trying to do everything that comes along. Life is short. Make everything you do worthwhile. My wise grandpa had this verse written on a card in his scriptures and now I have it hanging on my wall.

“Let all things be done decently and in order.” 1 Corinthians 14:40

I finished a cake last night and have the rest of the week cake free. That really is unusual for us cake decorators. Most people have a Monday through Friday work week. Because wedding cakes and most cakes for that matter are usually needed on weekends, we decorators have a Wednesday through Saturday work week. So, now I don’t know exactly what to do with myself. It’s not due to a lack of things to do. In fact it’s the exact opposite. I have a list a mile long of things that need to be done. The question is where to start.

I definitely have my top priorities but keep thinking of all of the little things that need to happen as well. I guess it’s time to make another list. I live by the list. My life (as I’m sure most of yours are too) is very hectic. With running a business, being a mom to five kids, and trying not to drown in the housework, there is always somewhere to go and something to do. With all of that, deadlines are always looming. If I did not make lists, it would be impossible for me to accomplish anything. My mind goes a mile a minute going over all of the things that need to be done. . . over . . . and over . . . and over . . . until I write them down. Without getting all of those things out of my mind and onto paper, it’s so easy to get overwhelmed to the point of exhaustion, and then nothing is accomplished. And that is what I call, “less than productive”.

So, pen and paper, here I come!

Things in the class department are going quite a bit slower than I had anticipated. I apologize for the long drawn out process. I should have gone through all of the negotiations before announcing things. I do have pending dates though. They may change if the location changes, but we will do our best to keep these dates.

June 10th- Gumpaste Flower Class

August 27-28th- Sculpted Fairy Cake Class

I have had to drop everything for a special project this week (more on that if it works out). So, I will hopefully have everything finalized within the next week or two. Thank you for your patience with me. I know the classes will be great!

Last week, I mentioned the idea of some kind of giveaway once I reach 1000 Facebook fans. Since I have both decorators as well as non decorators as fans, I thought it might be difficult to come up with something that would work for either one. I have had a really great suggestion for the item to give away. Thank you to Cat Larabie for the suggestion. I will be giving away a signature cake recipe of mine. I still need to figure out how to go about choosing a winner. Maybe I’ll pick a few winners just to make it exciting.

As far as the friendly wager between me and my husband, if things continue at the rate they are now, he will be winning the bet. That’s ok with me though. I don’t mind. He was a lot more optimistic with his guess.

Every year I like to choose a charity to support. This November, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation is having a fundraising banquet in which I will be donating a cake. The mission of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation is to ensure the future of Elk and other wildlife. They raise money and awareness to conserve the habitat that supports wild animals. It will be a great banquet for a great cause. Here is more information on the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation for those that would be interested in supporting a good cause. The information for the November Banquet can be found here.

I know you are all so terribly interested in my kitchen remodel, aren’t you? I decided that it was past time that this kitchen got some much needed TLC. I would love to do a complete remodel and get new cupboards and appliances but unfortunately, my budget won’t allow. I started this remodel with a few fairly minor but necessary things. I got new bi-fold doors for my pantry, a new garbage can, and replaced our over the range hood with a microwave. It was looking so good, I decided I needed to scrub down my cupboards. After spending hours trying to make the cupboards white again, I decided that soap and water were not going to cure the problem.

My awesome husband putting in my microwave.

Here's my microwave all ready to go!

I thought an easy update would be to get new knobs for the cupboard doors. The silver is the new. It improved the look but then I started noticing other things....

So, a couple of cans of paint, a few packages of sand paper, some new knobs, and hinges later and I am in full kitchen makeover mode. It may not sound really major, but it has left my kitchen in quite the disarray. The sanding is the biggest part of the project. There is a lot of paint on these cabinets and the paint streaks and drip marks have all added up over the years. They need to all be sanded down before this coat of Navajo White goes on.  I’m hoping to be completely finished by next week. That’s the goal. In the mean time, I am working at keeping the kitchen orderly in the midst of chaos.

These were the paint samples. I narrowed it down to four. I'm going to be daring and go with the darkest one. I know it's hard to see the real color through my picture. Hopefully the end result will show well.

Here's my hard work in progress. So much more to do!

As an added bonus to my remodel, my awesome husband is installing some ceiling speakers so I can listen to music while I work in my fabulous new(er) kitchen. Isn’t he great?

After the Oklahoma State Sugar Art Show last year, I decided that I needed to set timelines and if I didn’t reach those timelines, I would not be entering in 2010. It was a real strain on myself but more importantly a strain on my family. The last few weeks leading up to the competition were especially stressful. I didn’t want to put that kind of burden on my family again, so I set my deadlines.

The first major deadline was to have a design sketched out for my cake by the end of December. It was down to the wire, but I did it. I designed my cake and was happy with it. But going against my second deadline, I decided to sit on the design and see if I still liked it after a month. I’ve had second thoughts on it though which means I can’t do that cake. I have to be 100% on the design. I truly believe that it affects the outcome of the cake. If I’m 90% sure of the cake, I’ll end up with a cake that is 90% perfect and that’s just not good enough for the national competition. So, I decided to start again.

I’ve designed another cake and I am LOVING it. I think this is “The One”. Of course, I need to give it a little time again to see if it’s true love or just a little crush. Only time will tell. The clock is ticking though. Deadlines are looming. We’ll see if I make my deadlines from here on out.