...and now for something completely different!

It was Ariella's birthday and sadly I couldn't figure out how to make Mad Men into a cake. But she's pretty logical, so I figured a puzzle could be fun. It was quite amusing watching my colleagues try to sound out the cake, but eventually everyone got it. :D

...it's always a toss-up between taking a picture with or without flash. The flash presents a glare but the no-flash makes the cake look gray instead of purple. oh wells.. just envision a prettier purple!

Central Perk!

This cake was made for my cousin Phyllis. She's a huge fan of Friends (she can do some serious quoting) so naturally this seemed like a good option. Thankfully the recipe is from a box, so there was no Rachel-esque caking disaster (insert Ross saying "This tastes like feet!" in high-pitched voice here. lol)

Fiat 500!

This cake was made for Francesco, a post doc friend of Adam's at Maryland. He's from Italy and took us all around the Napoli area, introduced us to pizzetas, and showed us a good time. This cake was made for his birthday; Adam says the equation is Francesco's favorite.

Anniversaryopoly!

This cake was made for my wonderful grandparents, who celebrated their 65th anniversary this past weekend! (Whoa!) Since the family tends to play games together between dinner and dessert for pretty much any occasion, a board game was in order! The locations represent streets they have lived on, restaurants they have frequented, the kids they had, the hotel they stayed at for their honeymoon, etc. etc. There are two cakes combined - one chocolate and one vanilla. I got the recipes from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything, which turned out pretty well. The icing isn't homemade though - Bittman's recipes were too sweet. (Shoutout to my colleagues who taste-tested lots of different cake/icing combinations, and took their job quite seriously!)

Frank Buck!

This cake was made for my colleague, Frank. He's a huge fan of the Office (best show ever!), hence this cake is modeled after Dwight Schrute's motivational tool: Schrute Bucks. (see Season 3, The Job). He's also from Ghana, hence the references (I was going to make it a Ghanaian cedi rather than a dollar, but a cedi has too many pictures on it to put on a cake!)

iphone cake

I think this is now one of my favorite creations. In addition to being obsessed with Stata, my colleague Matt also happens to love apple. This birthday cake is modeled after the iphone (I say this because some colleagues who I will be kind enough not to name did not know what this was!!!). Some highlights: the maps application is a location in Pittsburgh, where Matt is from. And the "free" section is filled with M&Ms, since Matt has a candy jar that we all tap into every once in a while. I think the rest is relatively self-explanatory in that the apps are things Matt likes.

Vote for Me!

So Adam convinced me to enter an instructables contest:
vote for me: http://www.instructables.com/id/Ketchup-Cake/

Rubik's Cube

So yes, I know someone who can solve a rubik's cube in a surprisingly short amount of time... therefore Ariella gets the rubik's cube cake. This is probably the tallest cake I've ever built. ...didn't travel so well though. icing + metro = landslide-esque icing behavior.

Stata Cake

One of my new colleagues deemed himself 'Stata rockstar,' so a Stata birthday cake it was!
(Stata=stats program, like SPSS, SAS, etc. etc.)

Crime Scene Birthday Cake!

This cake was made for Elizabeth.
She likes crime scenes and gore.
And I can handle gore when it's only in icing.

If you get around to reading the text, you might notice it's somewhat odd.
It's taken off of these funny cards some of my colleagues found on the
internet. Below is Elizabeth posing with her cake!

Pilot's License!

So my supercool brother got his pilot's license, and I couldn't resist but make him a cake! The picture is modeled off of a product he helps sell for Dynon Avionics. It's an electronic flight information system (also known as EFIS). Below is him posing with his cake and all of his nerdy airgear.

Punk!

My friend Lara always jokes around about how she wants to be punk. ...except we're still not clear of the definition! Some things so far that have been classified as Lara punk are: fingernails painted black, big bracelets, black eyeliner, and liking Good Charlotte. Since she likes to dance, her cake is a punk ballerina! The first pic is just the cake.



The second pic has flags sticking out with various definitions of the word 'punk'!

The Face!

Cassie is obsessed with this picture of this lady with her hands on her face. So, of course that became her birthday cake! We've actually been trying to figure out if the picture is a sculpture or drawing... and who it's by. If you know anything about this pic, feel free to post.

My first customer!

One of my colleagues requested my services for her sister's birthday cake. They enjoy going to the beach and they tend to drink Mike's hard lime when they are there. Hence, the beach scene with the limey sun. Yay for a satisfied first customer!!

Dr. B

This cake was made for one of my freqy colleagues. He just got his phd... hence the gown. The end.

Superhero Andrea!

This cake was made in appreciation of one of my colleagues, Andrea. Here she's portrayed as the superhero that she is!

Coffee!

This cake was created for my roommate, Michelle. Not only is she obsessed with coffee, but she used to work for Pura Vida Coffee Company. http://www.puravidacoffee.com/ Hence, this cake was created in the style of a bag of Pura Vida Coffee, with a birthday few modifications and 'OR grown' instead of 'shade grown'.

Alpa as a South Park Character...

If Alpa were a South Park character, she would sooo look like this. hehe :).
The thing you need to know about Alpa is that she has a characteristically Alpa sweater that she wears all of the time at work. It is pink, green, black, and white. (made out of jelly bean pieces) You can kind of see it in the back of the next picture.

Flyin' High!

This plane cake was made for my brother after he got a job working for a company that sells a small computer thinger for recreational aircraft. He loves planes, and now he's learning how to fly them!

Disney + FACS

What happens when you combine a girl who worked at Disney Land with the Facial Action Coding System? ... a Disney Action Coding System cake