Easter made easy

Tip - use a 1M (also called a cupcake tip) to quickly and easily fill deviled eggs.

AT&T is going to drive the cake ninja crazy

So I'm switching day jobs, and tried to take my phone number with me and that has failed horribly.

So if you were using 303-862-1060 to get to the cake ninja, that number won't work. Email cakeninja at earthlink dot net instead :)

Cake in progress

So here is a cake in progress for my husband's birthday. Right now I am working on the gum paste portions. I am using ready made gum paste from a package, which requires kneading in a small amount of shortening. You can also see my planning pages - both inspiration shots and actual measurements. This cake will be roughly 5.5 inches square by 12 inches tall. I will be using an 8" round cake pan and cutting out the squares from it.

Cake flavor is yet to be determined - the husband has not made his request yet. Next steps will be more structural pieces and some decorative bits. Then the painting and any piping of wording.

Based on the photos, can you tell what the cake Ninja is making? (Family members are not allowed to guess.)

Cake 101: Filling and Frosting

It's been a while since we've had a cake 101 video, but here is the latest installment in Cake University -- filling and frosting. See the Cake Ninja wrangle with her most loved/hated tool -- the cake leveler!

An experiment

As you may have noticed, I am not so great on keeping up with blog content. I mean well, but life gets in the way.

So, I am going to try an experiment. For the next two cakes, I will be taking photos and posting on the process from start (concept and reference art) to finish (happy recipients eating cake).

It dovetails nicely into Cake 101, because I'm doing gumpaste for one of them. (Speaking of Cake 101/Cake University, yes there are videos coming, as soon as my editor has time.)

So we'll see how it goes. I am not promising any specific sort of posting schedule, but both cakes are due September 15th, so expect to see more posts soon.

A slight uptick in jobs

I know I haven't posted in forever, mostly because it's been a very busy life at Chez Cake Ninja.

However, I now have two different cake jobs coming up. For Sunday I am doing pastel cupcakes with flowers, birds, and butterflies for a first birthday party. And for the following Saturday I am doing a carrot cake for a baby shower.

Both are for friends, so it's customers I already had in my rolodex, but there's always the hope that some new business will come out of it.

I did not, as of yet, see any new business due to Handmade Homemade, and with the August HaHo having been canceled, and having to bow out of the September and October ones due to personal business, I am not sure I will. But there's always the December holiday market, and next year.

It takes time and energy to build a clientele, and I need to work on having more of both available.

Handmade Homemade

I still owe a post about the whole HaHo experience, but I am thrilled to announce that I will be vending at the next three Handmade Homemade markets at Green Spaces (26th and Larimer) in Denver.

Come out and eat cupcakes on August 11th, September 9th, and October 13th.

(Of course, this means the first two weeks of September will be crazy cake time - cupcakes for HaHo, a rapunzel tower for Eldest Monkey's 4th birthday (unless she changers her mind, again), and a Tardis for the husband.)