Happy Birthday, Leah!

Little Miss Leah Davis just turned two, so to celebrate, her mother and daddy threw her a beautiful, bright pink, polka-dotted, Minnie Mouse themed birthday party! But what kind of party would it be without the cake to match the plates and napkins?

This cake is literally screaming pink from the inside out! The top tier is a vanilla cake dyed pink, iced in hot-pink classic buttercream. The bottom tier is a delicious fudge chocolate recipe, also iced in classic buttercream. This cake is only complete with its whimsical, Minnie Mouse fondant decor! It was a really fun cake to make, but even more fun was the designing process with Leah's mom, Kristina!

Happy Birthday, Leah! I hope you enjoyed squealing at the top of your lungs with all of your favorite gals. :)

Live Sweetly!

Chara

Family Update: Hello, 2011!

May 2010... seriously? Is that really my last entry? Wow! Where do I start?

In June 2010, we bought our home in Virginia Beach. It was the most ridiculous home-buying experience EVER! We made the big offer on our home in April, but then waited 6 weeks for a closing date to be established, causing not only countless moments of frustration, but SIX moves from rental to rental during those six long weeks. It was insane! But, well worth it all. :)

(Photo taken during the Christmas 2010 Blizzard)

We didn't wait very long to bring in a new addition to our new home... Judah Levi! Our baby boy was born December 23, 2010 at a whopping 9 lbs., 3.5 oz. and 23.5" long. He is now 2.5 months and weighs 13 lbs. and over 2' long!

(Judah at 4 weeks. Photo taken by Leslie Woodruff of Woodruff Photography, Virginia Beach)

Josiah has grown 8" taller since our March 2010 move to Virginia, and is a solid 40 lbs., 40" and will be 4 years old in just THREE months! He enjoys swinging on his swingset, riding his new bicycle, taking extremely long bubble baths and singing to his baby brother. He recently began gardening with his daddy and enjoys that very much! I am working with him at home to get a headstart on the PreSchool stuff, using different books and teaching methods to make sure we're having fun and taking it slow, while building a nice foundation for when his school years begin. He is LOVING tracing his letters and numbers every morning, learning to write his name and doing hands-on activities to learn basic, "little boy" stuff.

(Josiah, Age 3, February 2011)

Now that our family update is complete, I'll get back to the ol' cake thing. ;)

Live Sweetly!

XO,

Chara & Her Gents'

My Wedding Cake!

So, I told you I made my own wedding & groom's cake, so here is a picture of the first cake! This is a sneak peek from our wedding photographer, so I don't have further pictures of either cakes. This will have to do for now. :)

Live sweetly!

My First Cakes!

Hello, all!

I decided I cannot wait any longer to post something sweet. My tools are still in storage while we are living in a temporary beach condo in Sandbridge Beach in Virginia Beach. The condo is fun and the beach is beautiful, but we're very excited to move into our new home next month (1st time homeowners!) and I am SO excited to have all of my tools returnd to me! My inspiration has been flowing and I have so many fun ideas to try!

I made our wedding cake and Josh's groom's cake at our "vow wedding" last weekend, so I am patiently waiting for the photographer to deliver the beautiful photographs of every detail. :)

For now, please enjoy laughing at my very first cakes! I was so proud of myself at the time, but looking back at these pictures I cannot help but criticize every flaw in each picture. But, despite any flaws, they sure did taste great! ;)

Live Sweetly!

Chara

Hitched in Vegas!

We got married in Las Vegas, February 20, 2010!

More pictures & details coming soon... Stay tuned & live sweetly!

Two Tickets for California Sunshine!

Tomorrow morning, very early, Josiah and I will be venturing off into the sunrise to arrive in San Diego where we will visit our long lost loved ones! We are happily anticipating our time spent with my brother, Josh, his wife, Chrissy, and their three children, Blaine, Tessa & Jackson (with one on the way!). Josiah is gearing up for some amazing adventures with his cousins, and thankfully he is jumbled in with all of their ages just perfectly! I cannot wait to experience the 6.5 hour flight with my very curious, adventurous & sometimes cranky, toddler. :)

While we're in California, we'll also be spending a lot of time with Josh (Stevenson) who is there for training during the entire month of February. We miss him bunches & cannot wait to see him! Josiah has asked every evening, "Where did Daddy go?" For the first few days, he insisted, "Daddy went to the Doctor." Hmmm...?

I'll post pictures & notes soon of the most recent Sweet Contemporary designs & updates. Stay tuned & Live Sweetly!

Aahhh... and the truffles!

Chocolate is Nature's way of apologizing for Mondays.

Sitting up late into the night waiting for a 4-tier cake to finish baking, I finally found some time to begin researching something I've been very anxious to try: Modeling Chocolate! It looks so fun & interesting, and some of the most beautiful cakes I've seen have been designed with modeling chocolate.

It might be a while, as everything else going on will detain me from doing anything with it for the moment, but that's my new challenge! Stay tuned... Live Sweetly :)

I'll Be Yours, if You'll Be Mine!

This week I had the pleasure of designing a Valentine's Day cake for a very dear friend of mine, who is recently married and is now expecting a sweet baby boy! I am very excited, as this is the first cake Sweet Contemporary has sold so far, so of course, I'll be framing the beautiful green tender! :)

When my friend came to get this cake, we ended up sitting down and talking to one another about life changes, friendships, relationships and so on... for hours! It was a great visit and so wonderful getting to catch up with her after not seeing her for so long. I hope and pray that Sweet Contemporary is always available to establish that kind of relationship with its clients. I hope and pray that instead of one-time visitors, we can build a clientele-family, so every cake delivery/pick-up is a warm visit over coffee.

This cake got me pondering as to whether Josh and I will be celebrating Valentine's Day this year. He is in San Diego and well, I'm here. I don't really understand the concept of taking ONE day in a year to show how much we care. Instead, we should all sit down with our calendars and write 1 small thing daily we can do to show our significant other how much we love them. When you are loved (and you are!) and when you have individuals in your life you love (which you do!)... then everyday should be Valentine's Day!

Hug your Friends. Call Your Parents. Kiss Your Lover. & Live Sweetly!

Bake it Pretty!

Today I would just like to share with you, with much enthusiasm, my recent discovery of a little website I like to call, "Heavenly." Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some drooling to do! ;)

www.bakeitpretty.com

Lions and Tigers and Zebras, oh my!

Happy Birthday, Sarah Anne!

For my sister's 13th birthday celebration, I decided to bless her by challenging myself to do something I've never done - Zebra fondant! As I began pulling together recipes to design the flavors of each layer & fold, my inner creativity came alive and my night owl tendencies shon through. I worked all through the night to produce this animal print confection, and let me just say, it was well worth it!

The cake you see here is stripes through and through! The inside cake is layers of Devil's Chocolate & Classic French Vanilla to make black & white stripes when cut. The layers are "glued" together with a Classic Buttercream frosting, then the entire mountain of sugar is gently draped in the hand-made, marshmallow based, Zebra print fondant. The bow is made from the same fondant. I used a beautiful lavender gel to hand-knead the color shown.

I got so excited when this cake came to life right before my eyes, after I had draped the Zebra fondant, smoothed it, and added the bow. Adding the pearls around the base gave it the finishing touch, which also, were hand-rolled on my kitchen countertop.

Once I finished I had many, many ounces left of the purple & black fondant. I wasn't sure what to do with it, except store it for a rainy day. Just to my luck... it rained the following day. :)

So, I created the daisy-themed cake you see here, just because I could!

Welcome to the Studio!

I've decided to kick-off February by posting my current project details & pictures, instead of waiting until March. I am really excited about all the happenings in the studio and I want to start sharing! Though we are hoping to have a business established in Virginia by March, the cake science doesn't stop for a minute in Florida! That's the wonderful nature of such a service... sweet treats are needed anywhere I go!

The studio is hopping this week with birthday thrills, wedding frills and newlywed's in need of a sweet treat for Valentine's Day! This weekend I set up the kitchen as my studio workshop for the next ten days so I can accomplish all the sweet projects before me. Poor Josiah just wants a cheese sandwhich... thus we venture to the living room to make a cheese sandwhich on the living room coffee table!

Currently, I'm working on a wedding cake for Feb. 13th, as well as building a 4-tier, tuxedo theme cupcake stand & 6 dozen cupcakes for the happy couple's Groom's cake. I'll also enjoy devoting myself to a very special Valentine's Day cake for a sweet friend of mine who is recently married.

This past Friday I catered my sister's 13th birthday celebration at my house (which was a slumber part, minus the slumber). She is nuts about zebras..anything and everything zebra print! So, of course I dropped everything else (family first!) and constructed for her special day the greatest zebra-print cake I could muster! Needless to say... she was quite please. :)

Pictures of all are coming soon! You can also check out our Facebook page for updates, or follow us on Twitter!