Cake Tuesday?

New idea (still struggling to manage regular updates during The Season, simultaneously heaven and hell): how about a cake feature every Tuesday? It's one of the few days I can take a break and catch up on everything, like laundry, say, and feeding the cat. To kick off the series, I'm showcasing one of my latest favorites, mostly because my clients were so creative and inspiring.

Honestly - you know that feeling as a kid, anticipating Christmas? When you know something so great is coming, and you're bursting with anticipation looking forward to it, and then afterwards, even though it was super fun, you're really sad because it's OVER. That's the way I feel about some cake designs, certainly this one.

We started with the adorable invitations, which the couple created themselves:

We incorporated all these fun graphic elements into the cake design - the toothy flowers, the watchful star,

the beady-eyed mushrooms (I love the mushrooms), the double chocolate bands:

And then came the toppers. The couple said they were making their own toppers, also matching the invitations. And I've never seen anything like them:

Check out the detail. Are these not the cutest, sweetest, coolest toppers of all time? (Which actually describes this couple perfectly.) The groom's head is a separate piece on a tiny gold pin that fits into the car.

I was completely blown away, and hope they think the cake remotely met the topper's standard.

Buy fresh, buy local...

It applies to more than produce, it seems.

My CFO (also known as The Husband) switched to DROA last year because it was cheaper, and he is famous (infamous?) for his bargain-hunting obsessiveness. Which I can appreciate, to a point.

But DROA's email is STILL not working, and after a week, I think it's time to switch to a local provider - more expensive, less customers, faster response time. At least that's the hope. The downside is, this probably means a few more days of broken links and missed emails (and everything in my old mailbox will be lost forever). Thanks again for your patience - ya'll have been wonderful about this - and call me if it's urgent, ok?

Domain Registry of America is letting me down.

I'm really sorry for the inconvenience - my hosting company's email server has apparently been glitchy for a couple of days (hi, Brittany!), and not only can I not get into my email, my incoming mail has been rejected too.

At this point they're trying to forward my incoming mail to my personal (more reliable, apparently) account elsewhere, so if you try to resend whatever's been rejected, it should work...

They're telling me it should be fixed today. Cross your fingers for me, and if you're expecting an email, I'll be in touch soon. Thanks!

Exercise your right to vote.

Somehow I've been nominated in the San Francisco Chronicle's Best of The Bay Contest for best wedding cake baker!

Thank you very much to whomever submitted the nomination, and I'm hoping all you readers/clients/friends, wherever you are, will click on this link and add your vote:

http://baylist.sfgate.com/contests/sfgate-baylist-best

Thank you for your support.

In other news, our carpenter told us cheerfully this morning that our termite damage and rot is the worst he's ever seen. Super! So we win that contest hands down.

it's so nice

when clients tell me how much they liked their cake! I don't expect it, because after the wedding there's often a HONEYMOON, and people have way more important things to do than thank their vendors (like relax, one hopes, with an extra large umbrella drink and some sunshine).

But because I'm generally there and gone before the wedding actually begins, I don't get to see the reactions to the cake, which is a little unsatisfying.

I did recently hear from a bride, who not only told me how much everyone loved the cake, she shared photographic evidence:

Very fun. I've gone from hundreds of cupcakes:

to handmade sugar sand dollars:

Isn't this so serene and simple? I really love it - the bride did an amazing job creating this totally elegant, very clean palette.

On the non-cake front, I just finished A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and loved it. What a beautifully told story, and a fascinating look at real life in the early 1900s. Now on to The Time Traveler's Wife, which two of my very good friends have informed me is their Favorite Book Ever. We've recently seen the Hulk (loved the Ferrigno and Bixby cameos), the Fall (breathtakingly beautiful but gratuitously violent), and Hancock (I think Will Smith did a great job but I'm totally in love with Jason Bateman (Arrested Development was the greatest television show ever created (and the best news of the year might be that a movie based on the series seems imminent)), and he was wonderful as Charlize Theron's unsuspecting husband).

Construction is stalled while we decide what to do about the extensive damage we've uncovered in the demo work. There's termite damage, water damage, entire exterior walls that need replacing. We budgeted for some surprises, but this is a little bigger than we'd thought...

progress.

Here's focusing on the positive - we've got the addition framed and trusses up! It's great to be able to stand in the soon-to-be window nook and look out at the garden - this is probably where I will spend all of my free time. (Ha - free time - what is that again?)

surgery.

This is my house:

For those of you familiar with it, well, it's not quite as familiar anymore. This is the bedroom door, looking into the kitchen. I know it's all going to be wonderful; I'm reassured often by our very reassuring contractor. But it still feels terrible. Like surgery. She's 87 years old, and this is painful for both of us.

(I was not sad, I have to admit, to finally say goodbye to that linoleum in the laundry room.)