Caring & Sharing November 2009

Kayla was once again asked by the Girl Scouts Commonwealth Council of Virginia, Springfield Service Unit to create cakes for their annual event in honor of Juliette Gordon Low's birthday. This year, the service unit held "Caring & Sharing" where the girls did a variety of activities. Kayla created three unique cakes depicting the day's event.

What's a birthday celebration without cake? Kayla created this tie-dye birthday cake with the official contemporary Girl Scout emblem in honor of Girl Scouts founder Juliette Gordon Lowe's birthday.

Each year, girls of the Springfield Service Unit make thousands of "candy crackers" for the Henrico Christmas Mother. Recycled cardboard tubes are stuffed with an assortment of candies, stickers and small toys and they distributed to needy children within the girls community. Kayla decorated this cake using her own memories of stuffing many candy tubes herself during her 8 years of girl scouting.

The girls also created snowflake decorations to be delivered to residents in local care facilities.

Kayla presented three cakes: devils' food, funfetti and white. The reviews were overwhelming:

Kayla's Cookies & Crumbs customer Cheryl exclaimed: "Kayla did great as usual!!!" New fan Anne reported "beautiful cakes for Juliette Lowe's birthday celebration yesterday." And Lynn, who placed the order, said "the cakes were amazing. Everyone thought the cakes were beautiful and of course delicious."

Horse

Repeat customer Christa called in an order for Bella's birthday cake. Kayla baked a classic French vanilla 14" round cake and created this beautiful horse head image.

Client's response: "the cake was a hit. Bella screamed with glee when she was the [surprise] design. When I asked her how it tasted she said GREAT with a thumbs up. When I took a piece I thought the flavor was good and rich, but not too rich. I thought the icing was divine!

I was hovering over the cake when one of the parents came in and she asked me who did the cake. I told her about Kayla and she said she did a really good job-she decorates cakes for a living and was impressed with her talents."

Blue Ribbon!!!

Kayla's Peanut Butter Fudge Layer Cake, inspired by Rick Craven's love of all things peanut butter & chocolate, one the blue ribbon at the Virginia State Fair 2009 in the youth baked goods category for speciality cakes. Way to go Kayla!!!

Thanks to the Lindvall's for the awesome photos.

Pirate Cake for Jake

Jake wanted a Lego pirate party for his birthday and his mom ordered a pirate cake for him. This is one of my favorites to date. He took his friends to Build-a-Bear to help him celebrate and they also ordered bear-shaped cookies as party favors.

Customer response: Jake's mom said "Cake was a huge hit. I thought the cookies were delicious too! Jake wanted a pirate lego party...when he saw Kayla's cake he said 'now that's lego pirate mommy. It was just PERFECT for him.

Spaghetti & Meatballs

Kayla created this "spaghetti & meatballs" cookie cake for her Uncle Skip's birthday. The "spaghetti" and "sauce" are done in icing; the "meatballs" are chocolate cookie balls and the "grated cheese" is white chocolate or coconut.

Twins Baby Shower Cake

Kayla was asked to make a cake for a baby shower celebrating the impending arrival of twins. The shower had a Caribbean theme and the mother-to-be loves chocolate. Kayla made a huge 14" round chocolate layer cake with chocolate filling and two parrots on top.

Our customer reported that "The cake was awesome: The kids devoured it as usual and the adults talked about how GREAT it was. Tell Kayla thank you again!!"

Musical Cupcakes

As a farewell to the Hungary Creek Middle School band she played with for three years, Kayla made Funfetti cupcakes decorated with all of the instruments in the band including bass guitars, trumpets, clarinets & flutes. Each musician enjoyed a cupcake with their instrument on the top.

Graduation Cake 2009

Kayla was asked to make a cake for Elizabeth & Rob's graduation from J.R. Tucker High School, June 2009. Her creation features a marble cake with a collage of graduation-related images including a cap, diplomas, and a Tucker tiger paw.

High Heel Shoe

Kayla was asked to use her creativity to make a high-heeled shoe cake. Her creation is a 9x13 yellow cake with pink floral print shoe on a stiletto heel. They loved it!

Girl Scout Bridging Cakes

Kayla was hired to create cakes for the Girl Scouts Commonwealth Council of Virginia, Springfield Service Unit Bridging Ceremony in June 2009. This event was celebrating girls bridging from daisies to brownies, brownies to juniors, juniors to cadettes and cadettes to seniors. The event also recognized girls who had earned the bronze award.

Kayla made four 1/4-sheet cakes: strawberry, French vanilla, chocolate and white. Each had white frosting and was decorate with symbols related to the four bridging levels. Kayla also created & packaged individual cupcakes for a few of the girls who had to leave the event early.

Kayla's client reports: "Everyone loved Kayla's cakes. Thanks so much!!! The cupcakes were much appreciated! think the overwhelming favorite among those who got to try a taste of a couple was the yellow cake - but we ran out of Devil's Food first."

Tie-Dye Tiki Cake

"Just what the birthday boy ordered..."

Luke was quite specific: "I would really like it if you would make my birthday cake. I like yellow cake but I want the inside to look tie-dyed. We have made cookies before and added sprinkles to the batter to give it some color. I want the frosting to be white with a picture of a palm tree and a tiki head like this one. It does not have to be exact, but similar. I would like the palm tree to be a little bit wider. Does this sound too hard?"

Luke was very pleased with the finished product: a yellow tie-dyed cake with almost exact replica of his Tiki pinata. Happy birthday, Luke!

Flower Basket Cookie Cake

This is a picture of Kayla "in her element" - listening to classic rock on her iPod and creating a flower basket cookie cake. Here's the finished product...

ELES' 10th Birthday - Dolphin

A little bit out of order, this cake was made for Echo Lake Elementary School's 10th Birthday in March 2009. I love the shading she achieved in the dolphin, and blue & green are the school's colors. The school's current principal especially liked the opportunity to showcase a former student's talents.

In the beginning...

This would have been one of Kayla's first experiences in the kitchen. I would have to guess that she's 4 or 5 years old in this photo.

Cougars Cruising into High School

Kayla had an extra sweet time for her 8th grade dance...not only was she celebrating the end of middle school, she was showing off her talents. She was hired to make six double-layer chocolate chip cookie cakes for the dance!

Kayla decorated two of the cakes with all of the high schools who classmates will attend next fall...

Gymnast Sheet Cake

Kayla's Challenge: Create a delicious & fun cake for a team celebrating an UNDEFEATED season! Kayla worked with one of the team members to design this cake which celebrated the team's awesome accomplishment, while honoring the sport that they all love. This is a French vanilla quarter sheet cake with frosting, words & graphic completed with a green border.

Client Response: The coach was so impressed she thought this was a family business -- not completely done by a student!

"Rush" Cake

Kayla's Challenge: We've got an extra cake! Due to an error on mom's part, we had an extra marble quarter sheet cake. What to do? Cut it in half and surprise someone with dessert. Kayla researched a client's favorite rock band, already knowing that he loves her marble cake.

Client's Response: Dessert for dinner tonight! What a great way to start off the weekend.

Rock Band Cake

Kayla's Challenge: We need another cookie cake! This particular client is addicted to Kayla's delicious double-layer chocolate chip cookie cake. This time: birthday cake for Bryce who likes Rock Band. So Kayla made the Rock Band emblem. Happy birthday Bryce!

Bass Guitar Cake

Kayla's Challenge: One of our more anticipated cakes. Brandon had a piece (or two or three) of one of Kayla's cakes at a birthday party back in September. He went home raving about it. The interesting thing is that Brandon's not a cake eater. So his mom called right away and booked Kayla for Brandon's birthday cake. This is a remake of Kayla's marble cake and is a replica of Brandon's bass guitar.

Customer's Response: The cake was awesome! Kayla should know that my sister said the icing was "Percudani worthy"....which means a lot from an Italian family who does nothing but eat :) Brandon was afraid it was going to be gone before he had another piece, so he had three!

Another special order cake, just what the guest of honor wanted. When asked what kind of cake she liked, she told us caramel, so Kayla created a chocolate layer cake with a chewy caramel center and caramel stepping stones along the top (the birthday girl loves to walk.) The bottom is lined with chocolate caramel crunch popcorn.

Patriotic Cookie Birthday Cake

Surprise chocolate chip cookie double layer cookie cake for "military wife's" birthday from her children. Dad had just left for training before being deployed to Iraq. Red, white & blue with perfect roses.

This is a Kings Cake for Mardi Gras. I served it to my french class the day after.

This is a patriotic cake for a soldier. Its a snickerdoodle cake with buttercream frosting.

I made this one for someones reconciliation

What else has she been up to?

Not all of Kayla's creations are as photographic as they are delicious!

Over the holidays, she created:

Striped Delight - a divine combination of Oreo cookies, chocolate pudding, a sweet cream cheese blend and Cool Whip.

Peanut Butter Fudge Cake - this popular dessert first created at the request of a client was ordered for TWO New Year's Eve parties.

Crispy Peanut Butter Balls - given out as holiday gifts

Kayla's Cookies & Crumbs is thriving thanks to your amazing support & encouragement -- remember Kayla's Cookies & Crumbs for your next special occasion. She'll create a memorable dessert for you to share.

Baseball Cookie Cakes

Challenge: Create a baseball cookie cake for your little brother!

Kayla's solution: Kayla baked TWO of her layered chocolate chip cookie cakes -- both with milk chocolate frosting. On one, she created a baseball field and used stand-up players to fill the bases for a homerun with Colin! On the other, she created the image of a baseball.

Reaction: Party-goers were so excited to have one of "Kayla's cakes" (and were very protective of it while they played ball. Very little was left after 11 9-year-old boys devoured their pieces.

Basketball Birthday Cake

Challenge: One of Kayla's "regulars" came to her once again with a fun challenge: "Coach loves your cookie cakes, so please make one for him for his birthday."

Kayla's Solution: Her signature chocolate chip layer cookie cake with milk chocolate filling. The top is tie-dyed frosting with 3-D basketballs and a spider since it was from the team.

Response: Coach loves these cakes so much that he ordered one for his wife!

"It was a big hit today...we shared it with team after practice and it was > gone in 5 mins! Everyone loved it:-)

New Year's Cookie Cake

Kayla's Challenge: Create a cookie cake in celebration of the new year.

Kayla's Solution: A chocolate chip cookie cake with a clock just about to strike midnight. The clock face features images of baby new year and champagne glasses.

Snowman Cookie Cake

Kayla's Challenge: Now one of Kayla's signature items, Kayla was hired to create a winter-theme cookie cake.

Kayla's Solution: Kayla baked a chocolate cookie cake and decorated it with a whimsical snowman.

University of Richmond Spiders Cookie Cake

Challenge: Kayla was hired by the University of Richmond Spiders Women's Basketball Assistant Coach* to create a "Get Caught in the Web" cookie cake.

Kayla's Solution: Kayla created her now signature double-layer chocolate chip cookie cake with milk chocolate center. The top shows a gray web with her rendition of the U of R spider.

Client's Response: So far, they've ordered two more cakes, so I'd say they're happy with her work!

"My boss has eaten most of it as he is raving about it for his 5th and 6th trip back to it on the table. He is amazed at how good it is and how rich it is…EVERYONE in the office has thoroughly enjoyed it….i invited people down to have some from the other offices…and everyone has been RAVING about it…It was a HUGE hit! I showed a few people the website with everything she has done and they are in awe"

* Also known as our neighbor, Ginny, but that title sounds much more impressive, doesn't it?

Christmas Cookies

Challenge: Kayla was hired (yet again by Zofia & Bella) to create holiday cookies as treat bag items for their combined birthday party.

Kayla's Solution: Kayla baked sugar cookies and used my Aunt Barbara's icing recipe to create these colorful concoctions.

Client's Response: "Her cookies were a hit. Everyone was impressed!" and "Bella devoured hers with gusto!"