Happy New Year!

Happy 2011!  Welcome to a New Year and to my new blog, Sweet Dreams.  This is a blog devoted to cakes, cookies, gingerbread houses and all other things that can be baked and decorated.

Michelle Airbrushing at the 2010 Oklahoma State Sugar Art Show

I should probably start by introducing myself.  I am Michelle Davis.  You have probably never heard of me.  I’m not famous; I don’t own a bakery, or work in one.  I am a stay-at-home mom who has a passion for decorating cakes and making gingerbread houses. I don’t do this as a business,  I decorate for the pure joy of bringing a smile to other people’s faces when I present them with a sweet masterpiece that I created.  Plus I love to hear the question, “You MADE that?!”

I decorated my first cake almost 14 years ago after taking a Wilton® cake decorating class at a local Michaels® Craft Store.  From the moment I piped the last star on my Winnie the Pooh character cake, I was hooked!  As it sometimes does, life got in the way, and for several years,  I hardly touched my cake supplies. When my children were little, changing diapers and late night feedings pretty much consumed all the energy I had.  It wasn’t until they were in school full time that my desire for buttercream and fondant returned.

Over the years, my style of decorating has slowly changed due to my changing interest and change in cake trends.  I now find myself doing less and less with tips and piping and more and more with fondant and gum paste.  I have also found that my true love is creating three-dimensional cakes that look like something that isn’t cake.  These cakes usually require some creative thinking when it comes to structural components such as bases and supports. Because of this, I am also finding that power tools are becoming some of my most used cake tools.  Plus, I am very blessed to have a handy husband who helps me design and create most of these structures.

My intention with this blog is to take decorators (and even non-decorators) of all skills and interests into my frosting-coated world, and show you how I create my cakes and gingerbread structures.  I will also share with you my many mistakes, which provide most of my learning experiences.  I hope to bring you product and class reviews, share great recipes, interview other decorators, and most of all, have fun sharing my passion for sweets with you.

Along with the start of this blog, I am also in the beginning stages of a cake decorating app called Sweet Dreams.  It will be a resource for decorators of all levels and will include charts, directions and how-to video clips.  I will keep you posted on the progress with that and be sure to let you know when it is released.

As I wrap up this first blog entry I will leave you with a picture of my most recent cake which I made for my brother who happens to have a Christmas birthday.  Does anyone remember the movie A Christmas Story?  You can check out more of my work by clicking on this link to view my cake photo gallery.  I will be posting instructions for this leg lamp cake in an upcoming blog entry.

“A Christmas Story” Leg Lamp Cake

Be sure to check in with me next week as I take you through the steps I used to build my award winning gingerbread house for our local gingerbread contest last month.  You can also use any one of the services below to subscribe to this blog.  I’ll be putting up a Facebook page soon which will allow you to share the blog with your friends.

Until next time, God Bless and Sweet Dreams!