Trip to Chicago and Manufacturer's wedding....

Sorry I've been so quiet lately!  Lots going on....plus I think in August there are more people on vacation and less people ordering cakes!   The weddings hit hard and heavy again starting next week.....

Anyway....

Two weekends ago I had the privilege of going to Chicago to surprise my sister for her baby shower!  I was requested to make a cake for it as well.  It is really hard to bring a bunch of cake tools and things with me, and rely on local cake shops for the rest, and then bake in somebody else's kitchen, but I managed....mostly.     I had many hiccups....the gumpaste I purchased out there locally would NOT dry, so that was pretty interesting.  Then, the only cupcake boxes the store had were these flimsy little plastic things with like 1/4" dips for the cupcakes to sit.  Well....after we traveled from my family's area in NW Indiana 2 1/2 hours to Chicago for the shower, EVERY cupcake had fallen on its side, or completely upside down.  I could NOT believe it.   So I had to arrange the least messed up ones to the front, and some of the completely destroyed ones I just had to take a knife and smooth them round and put them on the back.  It was pretty messed up.  Luckily, the carved pillow topper survived and the gumpaste dried enough that nothing bent or broke, although I did not care for the shape of the tiered stand as the sizes were not as graduated as I would have liked:

It is REALLY amazing how time consuming it is to put together a cake on someone else's "turf".   Haha.  I was relieved when my part of the shower was over and we could just sit back and relax the rest of the time!  Well, that is, until I arrived home and Southwest Airlines lost my luggage.....I suppose somebody somewhere is enjoying all my strange little cake tools because I haven't gotten anything back yet!!!!

Then last weekend I did a nice tall 6-tiered cake for a bride at the Manufacturer's Golf and Country Club.  I will also be doing another tall cake for the same place next weekend.   This cake was to have a fresh rose topper which the florist added after I left (I presume):

Well today I survived the earthquake, and hopefully will survive Irene (haha) and will be posting a party cake this weekend, and then several weddings next weekend....

Stay safe all!!!!