Happy Birthday, Kaylee and Sue Ann!

I was commissioned this weekend to make two birthday cakes.

The first is a sheet cake, half yellow & half chocolate, for Kaylee's 10th birthday (if you can't tell, she loves to play soccer).  Kaylee's mom has been a long time reader of my blog so I was pretty stoked that she asked me to make this cake. :D  I had fun making it, even if I never made a 2-flavor cake before, and I thought it turned out pretty awesome.  The soccer ball is a FBCT that I probably should've kept in the freezer longer, but it turned out fine in the end.

I also realize that this isn't the best picture, but I thought I would have time to shave my legs AND take photos before it was time for the cake to be picked up.  Well, time management was never my strong point.

And this second cake is a red velvet cake for my mom's friend Sue Ann.  I decorated it right after I finished Kaylee's cake, so Sunday was quite the cake decorating day for me.  I know this cake is a little more simple than the last few cakes I made (where are the flames?!), but I still like it.

One question that I think we should all think very deeply about is whether or not to use buttercream during the middle of June in the southern United States.  I know that's a thought that will keep me up at night. :-) As in, buttercream with real butter in it.  I know you can't tell, but my 50/50 buttercream (butter/crisco) definitely melted, so I made up another batch of icing with only Crisco and combined the two recipes, so I ended up with a 1/3 butter & 1/3 Crisco formula which still looked a little droopy.  I ended up with a lot of icing, too, so it's a good thing I made two cakes.  I really like the buttery icing, but I have a feeling I won't be using it much over the next few months.

(On second thought, I did use the Costco unsalted sweet cream butter, and I don't let its texture as much as the Kroger or Publix brand, so I may have to try again with one of those brands.)

I'm not sure how much baking I'll be doing this week, but Independence Day is this weekend, and I believe that calls for a cake (and yes, definitely sparklers ), and my friend Brian mentioned that he needed a cake, so we'll see if I'm making that any time soon.