"I carried a watermelon?"

I did the following cake for my oldest niece, Emma, who's turning 13 (Remember 13? Oy. Let the good times roll, people...).
She had a pool party at my parents' house and the best part about it was when I got to the party a little late, walked in and had the following exchange with one of her friends:

Meghan: "Um, Emma's aunt?(I love that that's how they address me) Are you a professional cake-maker?

Me: "Nope, I'm not!"

Meghan: "Wow. Well, then, are you an artist?"

Me: "Well...no? Not really."

Meghan: "Oh. Well, then what DO you do for a living?"

Ahh, the glory that is a child's thought process...the idea that if you're good at something, that must be what you do. We should all be so lucky, right? I actually think the kid might be onto something.

The second shining moment was when we gathered around the cake to light candles and sing, and Meghan (bless her Tweener heart) yelled, "Let's all have a round of applause for Emma's aunt!"

I about died.

So, here's the cake that was the source of so much joy for me (I have to admit, it's one of my favorites)...

And baby makes three...

I love my cousin Rachel--so I asked if I could make her baby shower cake. And to prove how much I love her, I spent 2 days making said cake--that's a personal record, for me, folks.

But I think it turned out pretty spectacular...

Guess who's back...

I know. It's been a year. The thing is, I got a new job last July, picked up and moved my life 2 hours north and spent my year living with 215 college students. It's been glorious--and I'm headed back next week for another go-round!

The small catch with my awesome apartment, on our awesome campus, is that I'm kind of, well, missing an oven. Which has made baking things a bit of bigger task than I sometimes felt like taking on--but I did get a chance to make some fun cakes and goodies--so here's the update!

Just a quick glimpse of my small, oven-less kitchen. It's super cute, though!


My nephew Carter had requested his birthday cake be a police car..."with a gun mounted on top." Righto. (It's all cake...but that gun is plastic. I'm ambitious, not crazy.)


This was Ella's butterfly cake. I have to be honest, this was a last-minute one, I wasn't sure I was going to be able to pull off...


Max's Steeler/Super Bowl/Birthday cake!


Valentine's Day cupcakes that I made for my RAs. They were pink. And lovely.