Long Time, No Update :(

Hi Everyone!

The time has finally come to update my site. I am embarrassed to say that before today, the last time I had updated Carat Cakes was back in April. There has been so much going on lately (read on to find out what!!!)

I really appreciate all of the kind words I receive from all of you who check out my site. Please keep coming back- I promise I won't wait that long to update my site again!

I do still have some other cakes/cupcakes that are not on the site, but wanted to put the majority of them in. If you don't see your cake on the site and want it to be featured, please email an electronic version of the picture.

Also, please remember when you get to the bottom of a page, you can click on "older posts" to get to more cakes!!!

Lastly, on the last 5-10 posts I only put up pictures - no descriptions. I will be going back to update each posting to include a description, but thought it was most important to get the pics up.

Special thanks goes out to my entire family- my brother especially- for getting on my case enough times lately for me to get in gear and update!

I really hope you all enjoy!!!

Love,
Cheri @ Carat Cakes

New- Easier to Remember Site Address!!!

Hey All!

I've finally learned how to make navigating to my page much easier! Now, all you have to do is go to:

www.CaratCakes.com!

Gone are those days of having to remember www.CaratCakes.Blogspot.com- wahooo! That address will still work, so don't worry if you have that long site on my business card.

Thanks for all of your support-

I'm happy to make it easier for you all to follow me and my work!

Love,

Cheri @ CaratCakes

It FINALLY Happened- We're Engaged!!!

Like I mentioned, there has been so much going on this summer- including our engagement!!! It's been two months and I'm still super excited and am in full planning mode (even though Dana demands I 'take it easy' since we're not getting married until June 2012)!

In case you're wondering, the answer is YES- at the moment, I do plan on making our wedding cake! My mother's reaction "good, I have until 2012 to talk you out of it!"... ha, ha, ha. I know I can do it- I have the help of so many great friends and family members that I couldn't imaging ordering my cake from someone else... famous last words (stay tuned!)...

Here are a few pictures from our special day and a shot or two of our engagement session. (I will be getting the disc with the pictures soon, I took these off of Jenn's site on Facebook which is why they are smaller than usual- I will update as soon as I get it!)

Pictures were taking by the fabulous Jennifer Cimino. Check out her site- you can also find a like to her blogspot. For all you Facebook fans- she's on there too!

www.jenniferciminophotography.com/

Italy!!!

After almost 2 years of planning, our trip to Italy finally arrived. We left in late June and came back in early July. It was such an amazing experience and was so happy that my parents, sister and boyfriend (now finally fiancee) were with me. I literally took 1500 photos- later narrowing them down to 1,200! Everywhere you looked was another photo opportunity- it was so beautiful! Here are a few pictures of my trip- some breathtaking, some that display what I had always pictured Italy to be!

Enjoy!

Dad, Mom, Dana, Me, Chelsea, Kevin
Amazing view from the Amalfi Coast

The symbol of the Isle of Capri

Flower boxes from Piazza Navona

Typical roadside dinner table

House Party!

This cake was a massive undertaking. A client of mine came to me to ask for a replica of the birthday guy's summer home at the Cape. The guest of honor is an architect and really takes a lot of pride in this home that he designed and restored on his own. Because of his career, I wanted to make him proud and my client was super great about providing me with pictures (40 to be exact) of every angle of the home. It really helped me piece together what a beautiful house this was and there were many symbolic details that I made sure to keep.

The pictures don't do the cake justice in showing the size and detail. I had to immediately put it in the caterer's walk in fridge due to a 3 hour commute in super hot weather. The pictures are foggy because of the humidity meeting the coldness of the walk in fridge.

Click on any picture to make it bigger and view more detail!

The side of the house which is on the main road. The American Flag was waving since the flag is placed out as soon as the owner gets to the house.

This is another angled view of the side and front of the house to show the interesting architectural design:

This is the view of the yard/sitting area where I made sure to include the window above the Adirondack chairs that is usually open, the brick paved patio, the hydrangea bushes along the fence and the greenish-brown grass that is a result of a local water ban!

Another view of the same:

One side of the house that is opposite the patio/yard above. This picture shows details such as shutters (the bottom left shutter is missing in real life), dryer vents and stairway up the side of the house leading to the rental property.

We're back with a second post with even more detailed pictures of my "House Party" blog entry.

This is the back of the house where all three smaller houses come together.

There is a wood and brick patio and a brick chimney with path leading to the front yard.

An aerial view of the back patio- complete with breakfast table (and breakfast), relaxation water fountain, gas grill, and potted plant in blue planter.
This is another view of the side stairway leading up to the rental property. The tenants always hang their towels over the railing so I included that as well:

This is another picture of the stairs but shows the owner's outdoor shower underneath the stairs (red towel is hanging over the door). It also shows the detail of the covered grill.

Breakfast close up (courtesy of Dianne!)

Living the Sweet Life

This post goes out to you, Dianne- Happy "30th" Birthday!!!

Dianne celebrated a big birthday milestone this year and I was so excited to make her cake. Her kitchen is light pink, brown and cupcake themed so I wanted a cake that would go along with that adorable theme! The catch was that I wanted her to help me because we've both been dying to do a themed cake like this, but her party was a surprise. I had to pass it off as a last minute cake order for a school bake sale.

Everything was a success and we had fun making it!

For those of you who don't know, Dianne is my future-mother-in-law and may partner in crime/cake. She is so crafty and is always on hand to help me out. She's graduated from a frosting "Colorist" to a fondant "Detailer". She also comes on almost all of my wedding cake deliveries and many other set ups. I honestly don't know what I would do without her, her assistance, her expanding cake decorating skills, her oven and freezer and her mild

manners at times when mine are not so mild :)

Here is her cake. It said "Live the Sweet Life" in Italian around the top tier:

Close-up of the cupcake topper and 'sprinkles' detail:

Eat Me (Seriously, It's Cake)

This is seriously, one of the most fun cakes I've worked on. I love the whimsical/topsy-turvey nature of the Alice In Wonderland inspired theme. It was made for my company's Administrative Professionals' Appreciation Day. The theme was, as you guessed it- an Alice in Wonderland Tea Party. They even had a tea expert come in to give them some great lessons.

The group that ordered this was really great and open to my ideas. They gave me the theme and I ran with it.

Teapot pouring over the top of the cake along with an "Eat Me" cookie:

This was my favorite part of the cake- Alice falling down the rabbit hole:

Close up of the teapot detail:

Rabbit's pocket watch:

Drink Me.

Spilling teacup and Eat Me cookie under the brim of the Mad Hatter's hat:

A Seaside Soiree

Congratulations, Stephanie & Dave!

Stephanie and Dave came to me through a referral from their neighbor- and a very loyal client of mine. First Stephanie came over one evening to discuss her ideas and I instantly knew I was going to love working with her. She has an infectious energy and is hysterical! She was really open to any ideas and we searched through some beach themed cakes since they were getting married right on the water at the Cape. She loved the idea of cupcakes so we included those.

Next was our second meeting when I got to meet Dave. He is just as funny as Stephanie and I can see how great of a couple they truly are. We talked about size of the cake, number and flavor of cupcakes, etc.

In the end, we went with a smaller two tiered cake to still get the 'wedding cake' feel and enough cupcakes (17 dozen) for everyone at the wedding to have one. There were 8 different flavor cupcakes (Chocolate, Gold, Gold with Key Lime filling, Chocolate with Raspberry filling, Espresso with mascarpone cheese filling, Lemon and Red Velvet with cream cheese buttercream.) An aunt of Stephanie's hand made their wedding cake topper.

Close up of the faded fondant look, sugar sand and white chocolate shells:

Here is the start of each of the different flavor cupcakes. The bride provided me with sand dollars to write the flavors on to display- so cute!

Chocolate with raspberry filling:

Espresso with marscipone cheese filling:
Gold with key lime filling:

Lemon:

Chocolate and gold:

Here are some shots of the table once everything was set up.

The ocean and beach provided the best background!
Cupcakes and cake were displayed using various plates, tiers and stands with brown sugar sand on the bottom of the plates and white chocolate shell accents.

A shot of tiers at different heights:

Sea glass (provided by bride) was also scattered around the open spots on the display:

Last post for this wedding- there were so many pictures, I couldn't make just one (two or three for that matter) blog entries so I went with four :)

The bride printed out quotes on love and framed them to put on tables around the reception site. This also shows the individual shell cupcake holders I used:

This is just one of two of the large totes we hauled the cupcakes in. I thought it was a pretty amazing accomplishment- we didn't loose one in the two hours it took us to get to the site! Dianne came up with a great idea of using plastic under-bed storage containers- brilliant!

Thank you, Dianne for your time and support. We had a great time setting up the display!

... and they lived happily ever after!

Cupcake Registry: Everything but the Kitchen Sink!

These cupcakes were designed for a very close friend's sister on her bridal shower. The invitation were brown and sage green and had "His" and "Hers" towel graphics on them. We decided to run with that theme and make 'registry/appliance' related cupcakes.

This is a picture of the finished display.

This stand can be rented from me directly.

I included one "Groom" and one "Bride" cupcake:

Close up of the Bride & Groom cupcakes: This starts the pictures of the cupcake details.

Up first, a kitchen mixer (handmade of fondant)