Missionary cake for the Harkers

There's another young man from our ward about to embark on a mission to Argentina. Today was his farewell at church. His friends and him sang a beautiful song together. It was very touching. Then he gave a fantastic talk. In fact, all the talks today were great.

I was privileged to be able to make him a cake for the Open House tonight.
I made a cake that I made before, but wanted to do something a little different, to make it unique for him. Since he'll be serving in Argentina, and Argentina's got a funky flag, I decided to make the tie on the cake look like the Argentina flag. Also, I asked for a variety of favorite scriptures and quotes that I could use if there was room. I ended up deciding to use just one, a quote from President Taylor. I was so glad I did, because as I was listening to his talk today, Elder Harker finished his talk with the quote I had used on his cake. It tied it all together so nicely.


Elder Harker is going to be a fantastic missionary. He'll do so well and we wish him all the best over the next two years. We look forward to hearing about some of the fantastic experiences he'll have there in Argentina.

Missionary Homecoming Cake for the Whitneys

The Whitneys left 23 months ago, to serve a mission in Peru. They returned home just a few days ago and my friend, Meg, is hosting an Open House tonight to celebrate their return. Meg asked me to make a cake for the open house. I was happy that she allowed me to have free reign on the cake and do whatever I wanted.

For this cake, I wanted to make it unique. Something just for them. A cake that would tell a bit of a story and share some of their experiences from Peru. I sat down one day to brain storm, and I came up with this sketch....

Each of the rectangles around the side of the cake, I wanted to have a quote from their blog. Either an experience or saying or a cultural fact about Peru.
I think I read their entire blog yesterday looking for stuff. They had an amazing mission and I'm glad they kept a blog about it and were willing to share what they've been doing for the last 2 years.
Anyways, the cake turned out fantastic! Here's a look at some of the pictures I took of it finished....

In case it's hard to read in the pictures (and not all I took pictures of...) Here's all the quotes I wrote on the side of the cake....

"You are in PERU now"

Aug. 2009 On our way to Peru after 1 week in the MTC in Utah

Sep. 2009 "Jorge was our "tele-tutor" that tried to teach us espanol over the phone. He did a really good job, we didn't."

"It was good going down."

"Picture with the gorgeous GRINGA"

Oct. 2009 "We ventured out with a prayer on our lips and in our hearts that we may do someone some good today."

Sep. 2009 "There is no baptismal font at the chapel, so we charter a bus to the ocean. It was a really spiritual meeting."

Oct. 2009 "The favorite security company in Peru is DOG."

Oct. 2009 "This week our service project was on a Cuy (guinea pig) ranch. Cuy is considered a delicacy in many places in South America.

June 2010 "Life is not about how much you have got, rather it is about the attitude that you have about what you have got."

July 2010 "People even said that they understood my talk, which was surprising but gratifying.

Sept. 2010 "Yahoo! Looks like we are planning another wedding.... maybe even 3 more."

Feb. 2011 "That DOG BIT me" (Debbie was bitten by a dog and had to have numerous rabies shots.... and that's the reason there's a dog on the top of the cake in Debbie's arms.... cause I thought that would be humorous, since I'm sure Debbie is no longer keen on dogs)

May 2011 Upon finding a SCORPION in their hotel..... "Quiet or everyone will want one"

May 2011 "I have come to understand that when the Spirit instructs you what to day or do, you need to do it."

Oh, and just so you know, everything is completely edible except the skewers used for the flag poles and stablization within the cake. The people, dog, flags are made from fondant. The writing of all the quotes was done with Wilton's Food Writers (this was the first time that I've used them. They're quicker to use than my usual small paintbrush....)

And lastly, this is a 10" and 6" Pumpkin Spice cake with cream cheese icing (under a thin layer of fondant).

Another missionary cake

It was a busy day of decorating today. Today I decorated and put together another missionary cake, a cupcake bouquet and additional 80+ mini cupcakes. Phew! I'm tired just thinking about it all. All of this is for a good friend whose son is leaving to serve a mission in Guatemala soon. Tomorrow is his farewell and a family dinner. I hope it's a good day for them and they enjoy their cake. Here's some pictures....

Once again, I made another missionary out of fondant. This time I tried a few new things.... like making a mouth with teeth. Think he looks like Tanner??

This is the Guatemala flag. I love the detail on the flag. Did you know you can paint with food coloring?? It was the first time I've "painted" on fondant and I was happy with how well it turned out.