I cannot believe that it is already November 1st! Crazy how this year has just completely flown by!! The pictures below are creations from last year, but I just wanted to throw out the reminder that they are available! I am also offering dessert platters this year-email me for pricing. They will include, but are not limited to: pumpkin pie bites, pecan pie bites, pumpkin whoopie pies, pumpkin roll slices, decorated sugar cookies, cupcakes and of course cake pops and pie pops. I may even come up with some new yummy dessert items as well.

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Just a quick reminder!

November is my last month of this year for orders. I will be taking my break from December 1st through probably March-I will play it by ear as the time gets closer. I can't believe I only have 2 more months before I meet my little girl!! I hope everyone has a safe and happy couple of Holidays coming up and I will keep you updated on baby girl's arrival!

Love,

Ashley

One small change

As many of my customers know that have worked with me in the past, I usually don't require payment until the time you pick up your order. Due to some recent events, I feel I need to change the way I do business. For small orders, or orders under $40, you can still pay in full at the time of pick up. But for orders over $40, I will need 1/2 the money down as deposit and then the remainder when you pick up your order. The deposit money will be refundable if you decide you do not want to complete your order with me and let me know at least 4 days before your order is due. For wedding orders, I will need 1/2 the payment as deposit and will need the order to be paid in full 1 week before order is due. Payments can be mailed to me or can be dropped off in person. If it's a weekend, I am even available most of the time to meet up anywhere in the Omaha area.
Thank you for your continued business and I look forward to continuing to work with each and every one of you!

Future orders...

So, as you know, I am due with our little girl in January. This means, that I will be taking some time off from the baking world for a few months while Baby Girl and I get adjusted to one another and I can get her on a schedule. I have decided to take December through April off from any orders. My reasoning for December is, I have a feeling that with the end being so near at that point, and with how overwhelming the Christmas orders can get, it would just be better for me and baby if I don't stress myself out. I apologize in advance to all my faithful customers at that time of the year. Keep me in mind for the next Christmas season as I will be back up and running :) My last holiday orders for the year of 2011 will be Thanksgiving. This year, I will not be traveling to Tennessee like I usually do, so I will be around through that holiday, making ordering easier for those of you who like to order the turkey pops, pumpkin rolls and so forth! Be looking for Platter options that month as well!

I will send out another reminder as the time gets closer to Thanksgiving!

Abby Cadabby

I LOVE my giant cupcake pan! The cakes always turn out so fun! This particular cake was for a friend of mine's daughter's birthday! She is a fan of Abby Cadabby, so I used the colors from the character to create the cake!

And of course, what cake order would be complete without cake pops?? Abby Cadabby pops to be exact??!!

Apples please!

Now, these yummy looking treats below are not something I would sell as a part of Sweet Bites, but I just had to share them!

I got the recipe for these amazing desserts from Pioneer Woman's blog. They are Apple Dumplings and they literally are AMAZING! And super easy to make too! Pair it with Vanilla ice cream and I'm set for life! These are my go-to bakes when I need to bring something to a potluck or to any party really!

Happy Birthday Fun!

This cake honestly had to be one of the most fun looking cakes I have ever had the pleasure of making. The order came from a woman wanting a cake for her daughter's birthday. She had seen a cake like this on the invitations that she was using for the party and thought it would be cute to have a matching cake. I think she was right!

As usual, most the decorations on the cake are edible. The hands are candy melt drawn out in the shape of hands and hardened, the eyes and cheeks are candy melt wafers, the nose and dots around the bottom are candy sugared dots, the eyebrows are Good n Plenty's and the candles are cake pops of course!

The Beach never tasted so good :)

This tastey beach cake was made for a co-worker. Actually it was made for the people she was house-sitting for. They went on a trip to Hawaii and she thought it would be nice to have a Hawaiian theme cake waiting for them when they got back! So I created a beach cake complete with little umbrellas and pineapples!

The piers around the cake are french cookies, the pineapples are cheesecake pops, and the "sand" is actually graham cracker crumbs. My favorite part of the cake though has to be the water. I love how the swirling came out to make it look like small waves and such!

Update

I am sooooo sorry that I have not updated my blog until now. This pregnancy has kept me busy as have alot of orders I've been working on and family things as well. I promise to try to be better about updating my blog in the future!

Last time I updated, our little peanut was only about 15 weeks along. We are now 22 weeks today and we found out 2 weeks ago that our peanut is a GIRL!! How exciting! I cannot wait to show her all the things she can do in the kitchen and even just to have a lil helper! We are still due January 12th and even though it may seem like a long way off, to me, it's just around the corner! :)

Thank you for your patience with my blog and with me. Now, be prepared for a bunch of postings in a row ;)

Updated pic on the Littlest Sweet Bite

Here is the most recent picture of our lil peanut! This one was taken at 13 weeks, so about 3 weeks ago! Baby had given us a huge scare around that time, but everything turned out to be ok. One trip to the ER, and a trip to my Dr. the next day turned up to be a sub-chorionic hemorrhage behind the placenta, but wasn't anywhere near the placenta or the baby so all was well! Just a bit of bed rest and we are good as new!

I got to hear the heart beat a week later and we were actually able to find it on the doppler! yay! I'll post more updates as they come :)

ooooo.....Cheesecake!

Let me just say, I have never made a cheesecake completely from scratch before. I've always been slightly intimidated by the concept. Which is ridiculous seeing as I've made way more difficult cakes than this before! So, when I was asked to make a cheesecake for a baby shower, I was nervous!!

I made a small mistake along the way, but this cheesecake came out sooooo yummy that I just cannot wait to make another one!!!!

My mistake was overfilling the springform pan. It caused the cheesecake to rise well above the pan and crack around the edges and across the middle. Never the less, it was still tasty.
And to make up for some of the cracking, I decorated it with some dark chocolate and strawberries! YUM!

Flower pops!

It's been pretty busy around here, but my main reason for not posting pictures is because alot of the orders I've been working on, you've already seen them! I like to try and post more when something new is created. However, in saying that, here are some flower pops I did recently for a mother's birthday. The request was for flower pops and to be arranged in a flower/window box. I thought this was a great idea! Here is what I came up with.

Aren't they adorable! You almost don't even want to eat them!

It's been a while....

It's been a while since my last post, and for that I must appologize to my fans and loyal readers.Since my last post, I have been very busy! I wasn't feeling well for the last part of May and early June, and then when I did feel better, I got swamped with lots and lots of baking projects. One project in particular has been most special to me....

Yup! That's right! I am having my own little Sweet Bite! ;) The picture above was taken at 8 weeks, and the picture below at 12 weeks.
My hubby and I are super excited about our little bundle of joy and can't wait to meet him or her in January!!

Birthday cakes!

I love making cakes! I honestly do! And I love a new challenging cake as well! But this cake, this one takes... well it takes the cake. LOL.

A good friend of mine asked me if I could make a Lightning McQueen cake for her son's birthday. I said, sure! No problem.

Well, then I got a problem. My air conditioner decided to go out in my apartment. So I called the people and begged them to fix it b/c of course it would go out in the middle of the afternoon on the hottest day of the year so far. 97 degrees outside and humid to boot. So, I baked the cake and got the crumb coat on and then got the ready to decorate layer on and stuck it in the freezer. I thought for sure they would have the air fixed by that evening, so I left for a while with the hubs, only to return to a sweltering hot apartment with no sign that they'd even been there to look at it!

That's just great! And I had to finish the cake since it was due to be picked up the next day. Now, have you ever tried to decorate a cake with humidity and heat? It sucks. The cake kept sweating something fierce, I had to keep putting it back in the freezer in between decorations, and then the fondant starting to melt and drip. Finally, I just had to say it was done. I wanted to do so many more things to it and really take my time with it, but it was beyond my control. :( But, I will say, for all the trouble, it really did turn out pretty decent and they were happy! So here I give you...Exhibit A :)

I used candy melt for his spoiler and his nose, chocolate donuts for his tires and fondant pieces for his headlights, lightning bolts, eyes, windows and flames/numbers.

Not exactly how I wanted him to turn out, but he still looks good :)

Now this cake was fun! It's a smash cake I had to do a few days later, once my air was fixed thankfully :). I put a real rubber ducky on this one b/c I just felt that the one year old might appreciate a toy she could play with rather than a hard piece of sugar her mommy was just going to toss out. It even gages how hot your bath water is! How great is that?

The bubbles are frosting that I piped on.

Sassy Girl's Afternoon Out!

I was asked to showcase my goodies at a local vender show. I jumped at the chance! What a great way to get more business and get my name out there more! And we had an awesome turn out!

I made roughly a little over 100 cake pops in 3 different flavors: chocolate, vanilla, and cheesecake! The cheesecake ones were a hit of course, because no one was expecting it!

This is how I set up my table:

I made sure I printed off some of my best ones and then I set them up on platters and stands, separating them by flavor.
I also made a few surprise ones in arrangements, just so people could see that I really can make fancier pops, and it's not all just in pictures :)

I love the whole Satisfy your Sweet Tooth by using what else? Sweet Teeth! lol.

I also made an arrangement for the upcoming holiday: Father's Day!

Bobbers and gummy worms in a metal bucket!

I know my dad would love this as he loves to fish!

I have a few other Father's Day ideas up my sleeve so stay tuned!!!

The Sassy Girl's Afternoon Out was a total success in my opinion. I booked 2 orders on the spot and even sold off the remaining cake pops I had at the end :)

Sock Monkey!

Ok, so who doesn't like sock monkeys?? I think they are so ugly they are cute! And they have become quite popular again! So, I just had to try out some sock monkey cake pops! These are just prototypes for now. I plan on trying them again and making them better look like actual sock monkeys! But you can tell what they are by looking at them now too!

Sugar Cookie Pizzas

Individual style that is! These were amazing! I made these for an Easter dessert for my Grandma and Grandpa's house this weekend and they went like Hot Cakes! I have a pan I got for Christmas from there that makes individual square treats. I pulled that down from my cake closet, pushed sugar cookie dough into each spot and baked. They came out like perfect little square cups. I then made a cream cheese/sugar mixture and spread that onto each one and topped with fresh fruit! So yummy and refreshing!

Easter;Part 2

Here are some Easter Decorated Sugar cookies.

My favorite is the yellow chick and the ones where all you can see is the chick's feet!

Next: You've seen the bunny cakes before-you know the ones. One cake cut in half and the 2 sides stuck together to make the backside of the bunny and then paper ears put on and a jelly bean for a nose? Well, I took it to another level lol.
I made mini versions and covered them in candy melt to make Lil Debbie snack cake style treats!

Here is one of my lil critters :) Candy Melt ears, sprinkle eyes and a jelly bean nose!

Head On...How can you resist that face? lol.

This is what they looked like before they were covered!

I thought they turned out great and may have to do them again next year!

Easter 2011; Part 1

This may take a couple of posts! Easter has come and gone and boy was it busy this year!

The fun part is though that I got to create a couple more new pops for the Holiday! I love when my mind comes up with new ideas ;)

Here is the first arrangement I did for Easter.
I has bunnies, lambs, chicks and chicks hatching out of their eggs!

The next arrangment was slightly bigger than the first. It has some of the same pops as the first one, but also has some baby roosters, and Easter eggs that spell out EASTER!

I always love to use those eggs in the front spelling out EASTER. :) They just make the basket look more complete to me.

SURPRISE!!

I belong to an online network called The Nest (thenest.com) and I have had the opportunity to meet so many nice women my age in the Omaha area. S is one of them! I have done many orders in the past for her and I'm always looking forward to doing more! So when her hubby contacted me about doing a cake as a surprise for her birthday, I jumped! It was definetly a challenging cake. S is on a strict vegan adventure right now, so the cake had to be vegan as well. If you've never made a vegan cake, I recommend trying it sometime!

What he asked was that the cake be red velvet and maybe 2 layers and that her favorite color was green and then basically said, have at it! lol. I love when I get to play around with cakes and try new things out!

What I did is made a 2 layer vegan red velvet cake, covered it in vegan frosting tinted green and then made fondant in various colors and cut strips, laid them out on the cake, used the leftover to make little balls and a ribbon...
And then the polka dots on the top before piping the message. She was definetly surprised!
This was the message she left on my facebook page:

"Thank you soooooooooooooo much, Ashley!! Everyone (including me!) loved the cake. In fact, my friend Kellie said she liked it better than regular cake!!"

I'm glad she and her friends/family enjoyed it!

It's a Zoo!

A very colorful Zoo that is and for a Baby Shower!

I got the chance to make really cute animals for a baby shower a few weeks ago. The Grandma to be gave me a picture of a plate that was being used at the party and I went from there!

We've got Pink Elephants! I love how cute they ended up being!

Baby Lions with M&M manes. What do you give a crabby baby lion? A pacifier of course! That oughta stop the roaring for a bit lol.

Baby Monkeys-these look a bit different from my past baby monkeys because I wanted them to match the plate and theme.

And my favorite of the zoo animals: The giraffe!!!!! I love giraffes and I'm always excited to make new ones!

Puppies for Auction

Not real puppies, but these cute little cake puppies are being auctioned off silently for a charity event!

And how cute is it that I found this bucket about 3 years ago in the Target dollar bin and finally have a chance to use it!!

Here we have a puppy with a bone in his mouth and he is surrounded by...

Puppy paws, tennis balls and fire hydrants!

Hope they get a good amount of interest in these little guys!

Thomas the Train Cake

Cupcake cake that is!

When B asked me to make a cupcake cake for her son's 2nd birthday, I semi-freaked out in my mind. I have never done a cupcake cake! I've done the Giant Cupcake cake, but not the ones involving regular cupcakes put into a shape and then frosted over to look like a cake!

So, I just put my fears aside, baked the cupcakes and then started playing.

I first arranged the cupcakes on the board into the shape I thought it should be. Then I "glued" down the cupcakes with frosting and transfered the blue frosting into a piping bag. I piped out the blue area and then used my spatula and covered the area. I did the same with the black frosting and the grey, yellow and red areas as well.

For his face: I think next time I would make it bigger for one, but for the decorations I used white candy wafers for his eyes and black frosting for the eyes as well and the outline on his mouth. For the inside of his mouth, I went a different direction and used melted white candy wafers and filled in the mouth area.

All in all, I was pretty pleased with this cake as it was my first cupcake cake. Now I'm not quite as fearful when someone mentions doing one again. lol.

Winnie the Pooh...

I was asked to make a very special baby shower cake this past weekend and I want to share it with you all :)

A wife and soon-to-be-new mom worked out a compromise with her husband. The theme of their nursery is Winnie the Pooh, and he wants Pooh's butt on the wall somewhere. So the mom asked me if I could make a cake that had Pooh's tush on it and she could take a picture of it and then hang the picture on the wall.

That's a lot of pressure LOL. To need to create something that is photo worthy lol.

What they wanted was the scene where Pooh is stuck in Rabbit's hole. If you haven't seen it before, here is the youtube link that gives a brief example.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csipCXuF47Q

It may not match the scene perfectly, but I tried my best ;)

Here is the front of the cake... Pooh is stuck!

And a side view of the cake... And lastly, the back of the cake with Pooh's tush!! Naughty Pooh, shouldn't have gotten into all those Hunny Jars :)

Thomas the Train...

Thomas the Train has arrived! About a year ago, a friend of mine-Maria with The Cake Pop Lady, asked me what my thoughts were on how to make a Thomas the train cake pop. Since I hadn't made those yet, the best I could was give her a step by step process of how I thought they should look. Well, when I was asked to make them recently myself, I had to go back to my step-by-step process and try it out! I think they came out adorable!!!

Below, you will find Thomas himself...

His buddy Percy the Engine...

And James joins the group as well!

I had also done Toby the Tram engine as well, but he was not one of my favorites so I opted not to post him. You win some, you lose some. Hope you enjoy!

Coming soon: Thomas the train cupcake cake! I will post it when I finish it!