call me ‘bake-a-rella’!

Here is the cake I made to surprise our friend, Angela, for her 40th birthday celebration on Saturday. Everything was AMAZING and we had a blast mingling with Angela, Mitch and all their friends. The day-long party was held at the Hayes Mansion (Dolce hotel) in San Jose. All I can say is, what a gorgeous location for an event and overnight stay. If you’re looking for a beautiful and very reasonable venue for a big event, this is the place. Hotel rooms are $88 a night… fantastic!

I want to give a shout out to my hero, Alex, who let me know his mom’s favorite cake was NOT chocolate; this allowed me to switch to red velvet on Friday evening and make a little cake to honor our love and respect for Angela. I used the Cupcake Project’s chocolate cream cheese frosting as a thick filling layer, then made the vanilla cream cheese frosting recipe from Mariposa’s cake to cover (minus the hot, hot pink). Angela is a lovely, elegant person and I wanted the decorations to reflect her sense of style. What do you think, did I manage it?

I can’t believe what a fun, creative outlet cake baking is. I wish I’d known this was years ago. But, maybe it is for the best; it is too hard to resist tasting frostings every time I make them. Thank goodness I don’t do this every day; my blood sugar would be off the charts. Do any of you like to bake? I would love to see some of your creations and hear your stories!