Today was my coworker Don's (affectionately referred to as "Uncle Don") 65th Birthday. I had the freedom to do pretty much whatever I wanted, and boy did I have a hard time deciding! I thought long and hard about doing some kind of "Old Man" cake, but ended up going off one of Don's favorite pastimes- golf!

Happy Birthday Don, I hope you have a wonderful year :)

Graduation!

It's the graduation time of year, so instead of posting a bunch of different blogs, I'm compiling into one! Congratulations to all the graduates :)

First up is my bud Jackson who graduated from Pre-School- Congrats Jackson!! Kindergarten is going to be great!!


My friend Nicole is a big orderer, so of course she asked me to make cookies for her sister Aimee's HS graduation. Their theme was gerbera daisies and bright pink, blue, green & purple, and we threw in some soccer balls to make it a little more personal.


And last but not least, 2 graduations at Iowa last weekend- My wonderful brother-in-law Kevin, and my friend Beth, who after 9 long years has graduated with her MBA and a law degree!

Some fun cookies

Seems like I'm so busy working and baking that I don't have time to blog, so here's a quickie! A couple of the cookies I've made recently included a big order with the "It's great to be 8!" theme for a birthday girl to take to school, and some tasty summery ice cream cones!

That's a LOT of mints!

I don't get a LOT of requests for cream cheese mints, but I do love to make them if anyone needs them! I can do a variety of shapes, sizes, colors, so just let me know what you have in mind!

National Nurse Week

Is May 6-12th this year. My mother-in-law works at a hospital and ordered these cute cookies to give to the cardiac nursing unit as a good deed. I thought they were so cute, I had to share!


Happy Nurses Week to all the women and men out there who help keep us alive and well!

Congratulations on your First Communion John!

My neighbor in Algona, John, is celebrating his First Communion this weekend. It's a little hard for me to believe he's old enough for this already- it seems like he was just born a couple years ago!


The cakes I made for his sister Maria's First Communion a few years ago were a big hit with the family, so I was more than happy to make them cakes again!


John is lucky enough to have all sorts of family around for his big day, including his cousin Josie who is celebrating a birthday. I thought it was very nice of them to have a cake for her too :)

Happy 30th Claire!

I got an email a couple weeks ago from a girl I went to HS with saying she had been looking for an excuse to order some cookies from me, and she finally had it! Claire is celebrating the big 3-0 this weekend with a fun and girly party.

The "prom dress" cookies were inspired by her invitations and the fact that she and her friends are dressing up in old prom & bridesmaid dresses and hitting the town. Sounds like a good time!

Hope you had a fabulous birthday Claire!!

May Day!

Just some fun flower cookies I made for May Day :)

A first time for everything

Believe it or not, I've never made a carrot cake. Well.... hadn't until a week ago when someone asked for one! I was a little worried about making it because I don't like it at all, so I have no idea what makes a good one!


I did a little research, talked to a few people that love it, and came up with a winning recipe. I had no idea carrot cake was such a time-consuming project!


I still didn't try it, but from what I hear, it ended up great, so the time spent researching and baking was well worth it :)

Oz with Orchestra

Since coming back to the Waterloo/Cedar Falls area, I haven't had a chance to attend a symphony concert. When Chris told me they were showing one of my favorite movies- The Wizard of Oz- and playing the score, I couldn't miss it!

In appreciation of their volunteers, the Symphony Director asked me to make some "ruby slipper" cookies to give them. They loved the cookies- they were even covered in (edible) glitter like the real thing but it's hard to tell in the picture.

A reason to celebrate

Some very dear friends of ours recently celebrated the 1st birthday and baptism of their little girl, Janey. They had a nice party with family and friends, and I was fortunate enough to be able to provide the cake!

I don't have any pictures, but even Janey got in on the cake action- she wasn't so sure at first, but the dug right in! She did get some in her mouth, but left quite a bit on her dad and the floor :)

Rylie's birthday extravaganza!

I'm behind on blogging again (sorry!), so between baking and decorating today I'm playing catch-up.

These are all goodies I made for my birthday-buddy Rylie's 3rd birthday. This lucky little girl had cookies to take to "preschool", a cake for her actual birthday at home, and a huge topsy-turvy cake for her big party.
The topsy-turvy cake was such a big hit my fans, I've already gotten requests for similar cakes!