The Show Must Go On....The Great Pumpkin Cake

I was asked to make a fancy cake for a charity bake-off.  The bake-off was scheduled for Monday, October 31st and it was Halloween themed.  I'd heard reports over the weekend that Connecticut was going to get an early snow storm and my husband mentioned that there was a possibility of some branches breaking from the weight of snow taking power lines out.  "Some" i thought, ok so that means there is going to be one poor schmuck who loses some tree branches.  I totally didn't expect the storm to be anything big.  Still though, I'd planned to start baking early on Saturday just in case we lost power.  The morning ended up being consumed by other important things...trips to Target for diapers, trips to Starbucks for coffee, trips to the grocery store for supplies....my early baking actually didn't start until 2pm.  I was making a huge double batch and it started to snow while I was mixing everything.  Starting to worry a bit, I popped the first cake into the oven....then 15minutes later some flickering of the lights.....worry.....25minutes later the power was gone.  WORRY.  Cake in oven, power gone.  In a mad attempt to save the cake, I started searching for friends who had power.  Glastonbury, out.  Manchester, out.  In-laws house, out.  It was starting to look like much of the state was without power. Was winter storm Alfred going to cancel the bake-off?!?!

My stress and concern for the cake and bake off was short lived.  Almost immediately, we started losing branches and what continued throughout the evening and night into Sunday morning was like nothing I'd ever seen...or heard.  Cracking branches every few minutes sounded like shotguns going off.  My husband and I decided that it was too unsafe to sleep on the second floor, so the family camped out in the living room.  We didn't exactly sleep though, with the constant Craaaaackkkkk!!! Thunk!!! of trees breaking and falling all around us, who could sleep?

My cake concern was gone and my concern soon became...WHAT are we going to wake up to in the morning.  Here it is; this is what we woke up to.  Needless to say, the bake off was cancelled.  Just under 1 million customers in Connecticut were without power.

Standing in front of my house looking down the street.

Half of this tree landed on my neighbor's fence; the other half took out their porch. 

These branches used to be pointing up.  This is the remainder of our Maple Tree.

Branches cracked and hanging down.  This is the top of an oak tree.

Wires down, everywhere.  There is an entire uprooted Oak tree behind this house.

Well, the bake off was cancelled. Sadly, the committee decided that it was an impossibility to reschedule it.  I had 30-40 hours of work already into my cake and I wanted the satisfaction of seeing the final product.  That, combined with numerous requests to bring the Great Pumpkin cake into work despite the bake off being cancelled was enough to keep me going.  I'm glad I finished it because the end product...WOW.  This just might be my best cake ever.  Take a look!

 

 

 

 

   

Pumpkin cake with maple buttercream.  All figures hand crafted from fondant and gumpaste.

Congrats Melissa! Pregnant momma topper shower cake.

This cake was made for a very dear friend of mine.  Melissa and I were pregnant at the same time in 2009 and our toddlers are now about 3 months apart.  Melissa is now pregnant with baby #2 and due in just a few weeks.  I wanted to make her a special baby cake to celebrate and surprised her last week with one.

Now, before I get to any pics of this cake, a quick (and necessary, I must add) background story.....    I wanted to do something different for Melissa's cake.  My signature baby cake is a sleeping little baby with its little butt up in the air...she's seen this one before.  So, I decided to try to re-create one of the Pink Cake Box cakes that are so fantastically adorable.  I started the topper for this cake after a work party at about 9:30pm.  I made the torso (chest and pregnant belly) and then wrapped a different color gumpaste around it for a cute little maternity shirt.  Well.....when I wrapped the shirt around, the belly somehow got a bit smushed and the chest ended up sticking out.  Now, since it was about 11:30pm when I put this little figure up in the cabinet to dry, I somehow (!?!?!) failed to notice this. 

In the AM, my hubby opened the cabinet to get some cereal and started laughing hysterically. Realizing he was looking strait at the pregnant lady cake topper I'd made the night before, I panicked and  cornered him, demanding to know what was so funny.  His response "I just didn't expect to see a pregnant gumpaste lady when I was getting my Cheerios."  I looked at the figure at that moment and all of a sudden thought - HOLY MOLY, her chest quadrupled overnight! 

Realizing that he might have been laughing about the gigantic chest on the Melissa look-a-like pregnant gumpaste woman in the cabinet, I grilled him about whether they were too big.  "Too big?"  he said, "well, they are a bit large, but who says that's too big."  "Even if they are a bit big, she'll find it hilarious and she could probably use a good laugh."  Knowing I didn't have time to re-create the gum paste woman and knowing he was probably right and she'd probably get quite a laugh out of this, I decided to give the it a go...Melissa was getting a cute, though busty, topper on her cake.  I crossed my fingers and hoped she'd find it as amusing as we'd started to....

Well, Melissa did get a good laugh out of this cake (as did everyone).  More importantly, the flavor combination turned out wonderfully and the cake was absolutely delish!  AND most importantly - she loved it!

With the background story and explanation out of the way, here are the pics:

The bow was made from fondant, as were the dots.   I made the dots pink and blue and yellow, as Melissa and her hubby decided to have the sex of this baby be a surprise. 

(Though I'm convinced that she's carrying a baby boy.)

Here is a close-up:

This cake was my signature white cake layered with lemon curd, buttercream and raspberry fillings.  The frosting was vanilla buttercream. 

And of course, one last picture.  Here is Melissa with her cake.  Isn't she adorable!?!