It has been a busy week.  I got notice that I would have to shoot next week's cover of the G food section since my piece on vegetarian tailgating was moving to the cover story.  Thankfully, abuela was on vacation...some vacation - spent helping me bang out a ton of work!  There's a special place in heaven for grandma's...saints, all of them.

After we finished testing the recipes and shooting the photos, we moved on to cake baking and decorating.  Shannon asked me to make a cake for her mom's 60th birthday celebration.  She found her inspiration <a href="http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1478089/purple-and-green-birthday-cake#order=124133&amp;albumId=8&amp;nextId=false&amp;prevId=false&amp;imageId=1478089&amp;imageESOId=859826&amp;fullUrl=%2Fg%2Fi%2F1478089%2F%2F&amp;fullSrc=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn.cakecentral.com%2Fb%2Fb9%2F900x900px-LL-b96632ae_gallery6900561254536667.jpeg&amp;thumbSrc=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn.cakecentral.com%2Fb%2Fb9%2F50x50px-ZC-b96632ae_gallery6900561254536667.jpeg&amp;description=Chocolate+cake+covered+with+fondant.++Fondant+daisies+and+gelatin+butterfly.++Thanks+for+looking.&amp;original=http%3A%2F%2Fcakecentral.com%2Fimage%2Fid%2F859826&amp;setName=Purple+and+Green+Birthday+Cake">here</a>.  Since I don't have a lot of experience working with fondant, I made vanilla cake with strawberry filling and decorated the cake with buttercream and fresh flowers.

<a href="http://www.karolineskitchen.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/cakes-004.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-493" title="tiered cake with fresh flowers" src="http://www.karolineskitchen.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/cakes-004.jpg" alt="buttercream frosting, tiered cake, fresh flowers" width="365" height="500" /></a>

Emi is also celebrating today, but there are a few less candles on her cake.  One, to be exact.   Emi's mom asked me to make a smash cake with a pink elephant to match her invitations.

<a href="http://www.karolineskitchen.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/cakes-024.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-494" title="pink elephant smash cake" src="http://www.karolineskitchen.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/cakes-024.jpg" alt="first birthday cake" width="500" height="474" /></a>