Allergies, coffee, and cake from my camera.

Sneeze, sniff, and 3 more hankies later, I write to you from the pool of dust and pollen that is Augusta, GA.  Apparently Augusta is in a basin, and all of the pollen travels down the mountains and settles in my gigantic nostrils.  The dust- well, take two busy artists and place them in a very old house.  Add a tireless 3-year old, and you get a trio who doesn't dust often.

See?  My nostrils = huge dust and pollen vessels.  

PS- Not our bathroom.

PPS-  I am surprised my husband kisses me when I make this face.  Really surprised.

Anyway, I took some non-drowsy Claritin last night, and I woke up after a normal night of sleep with a head that weighs a ton.  One workout and four hours later (5.5 weeks left of P90X), I am feeling much better with a cuppa in my favorite cup.

As I mentioned the other day, I have been baking up a storm in my kitchen.  The only problem has been that when I finish a cake and it is time to deliver, my husband is usually at work and is not available to catch a picture.  Most of the time I don't even bother, but two cakes I made this week were so gorgeous, I just had to give it a try.

And I failed.  Miserably.  They are so out of focus that out of ten pictures, only one is even slightly acceptable.

This is my S'mores Cake, and probably the best cake I make (in my opinion).  Salty graham baked into layers of rich chocolate cake, topped in creamy marshmallow frosting is finished by a quick flash of the torch.  Don't you love the rosettes???  I am making another for a client on Saturday, and perhaps my sweet husband will take a moment to capture some images.  So thankful for his skills!

The other was my first attempt at a tiered cake, and although we had a bit of an issue placing one tier on top of the other, I'd say it went very well.

Wizards of Waverly Place Cake

This cake was really stunning, and I am so proud of it.  My salon's owner has two little girls, with birthdays that are right on top of each other.  One asked for a Wizards of Waverly Place theme cake, and the other for Tangled.  I was going to attempt a big fondant monstrosity, but I felt more confident in my buttercream powers.

The theme of the cake is not obvious, but it fits in beautifully, I think.

Wizards of Waverly Place Cake

You can see the cups on the right, just barely, which have the peacock feathers on them.  One of the girls picked up the cup and said, "Oh my gosh!  It looks the same!"  Success.

As for the inside of this cake, they wanted "marble."  Marble.  Who do they think I am?

Apparently someone who can figure out a marble cake!  I tell you, putting this thing in the oven- I did not think it would work out.  At all.

And there is the top tier, getting it's crumb coat.

PS- I am not eating any sugar this month (I will explain later), so I took the cake shavings, put them in a baggie, and threw them in the freezer for later.

Yes.  I did.  In my house, no cake shaving goes to waste.

Now, I would love to give you a recipe for this marble cake, but I feel it is something I need to do in a tutorial.  I have tried to explain the process, but I think visuals are in order.

So, someone order a marble cake!

Please.  For the world.  

I hope everyone has a great weekend.  Squeeze someone you love.

Rachel Bee