I’ve been so very blessed since we moved to Austin & I relaunched Cakes ROCK!!! here, literally starting over from scratch, knowing not a soul, & flying by the seat of my powdered-sugar-covered yoga pants.  Not only is the market here unbelievable with the focus on supporting local artisans, but the people are so friendly and open. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to cross paths with clients that have become friends, but I’ve been even MORE fortunate with my incredible Cake Minions that have helped me build the bakery faster & further than my wildest dreams in just 2 short years.

You hear so many bad things about Millenials & them being ‘special snowflakes’–a derogatory term of entitlement & fragility. My experience has been exactly the opposite. My young Cake Minions have all had the utmost integrity, supreme work ethic, exceptional talent, & impressive ambitious inner drive to succeed.

One day out of the blue, I received a sweet inquiry into whether I would be open to hosting an internship. I hadn’t ever had one & didn’t know anything about it, but I knew I needed help, so I agreed. I can’t believe how blessed I was that I met Amanda Powers. She was finishing culinary school at Stephen F. Austin but lived in Austin, so was looking for an internship here.

I was immediately impressed with Amanda, & was thrilled to add her to my newly-formed team, along with Jessica Swingler, an awesome cake artist I met when we took a class together.  I was totally new to having any help & had to find my way.  Both Amanda & Jessica were incredibly helpful, & both are WAYYY more organized than I am.  I’m a classic creative person, & I struggle with staying organized, to put it mildly.  I appreciate Amanda’s willingness to put up with me while I figured everything out.

Amanda took over the baking & did such a phenomenal job.  There was ZERO dropoff from when I was doing all the baking, & clients continued to rave about how delicious all the cakes were.  Best of all, I could go out & work on marketing the company, & do all the other things required from an owner, & completely trust that everything was being handled perfectly back at home.  She is so efficient & does everything with excellence.

We do a lot of open houses at various venues, & on several occasions, people asked me if Amanda was my daughter!  I could only wish to have a daughter as wonderful as Amanda!  I always took that question as a huge compliment!

I hated when Amanda’s internship came to an end & she went back to school. We stayed in touch over the school year, & we were all THRILLED when she was selected to a very prestigious internship in France at the Cannes Film Festival, one of only 20 culinary students chosen nationwide!  Upon returning from France, Amanda joined my team full time, although I knew I would not be able to keep her forever!

Over the past months that Amanda has been with me, we went through MAJOR changes. My landlords needed to sell the house we had been living in for 2 years so I had to find another home & move both us & the business into it. Then, less than 6 months after moving, I was presented with an opportunity that I HAD to grab to move into a commercial kitchen. Amanda was a trooper & invaluable through both crazy moves. And we were in full cake production the entire time!  She grew into a great cake artist as well, learning so much about designing cakes & created some beautiful designs!

The Proposal

Amanda’s soul mate, Josh Hill, surprised her with an epic proposal, & even had a photographer hiding in the bushes to capture the moment!  He is such a special young man, & they make an amazing couple. Their love & devotion to each other continually shone, despite being separated by many miles.

They set their wedding date for December 30, 2016 & it seemed so far away at first. Wow, it got here fast!  I knew I would be losing Amanda when they were married, but we didn’t know until recently where Josh would find a job. When he was hired for an ideal position near Dallas, I was so happy that they would still be close, as so many opportunities were out of state. But alas, not close enough to stay with me.

The Snowflake Wedding Cake

Amanda knew EXACTLY from day one what her vision for her wedding cake was, & naturally I was thrilled & honored to have the opportunity to create it for her.  Her wedding was winter themed with lots of snowflakes, & colors of white, silver, turquoise & plum.  She picked out her favorite flavors–Vanilla Ice with White Chocolate buttercream, Dark Chocolate with chocolate chip cookie dough, 2 Lemons with Lemon Meringue filling, Strawberry with cream cheese, Butter Rum with Spiced rum buttercream filling–for the 6 tiers of the cake, & Josh chose red velvet with peanut butter filling for his grooms’ cake.

How stunning is this towering beauty of cake?  The snowflakes were created of cake lace. The turquoise & plum lace was hand-mixed from scratch & colored to get the tones just right. The cake lace mats have the most incredible detail & variety available, & we used 3 different ones to create all the looks.

Dragees were added as accents to offset the snowflakes & bring in additional sparkle. Edible glitter was embedded into the snowflakes. LOOK at the detail in the gorgeous snowflakes!

To add an element of fun, Amanda had me include a little football smashing into the back side of the cake. She is a Patriot & Josh is a Cowboy, so that’s one of the few things they don’t agree on!  But they are both HUGE football fans!

‘Cool’ Groom’s Cake

Of course, Josh had to have a super cool groom’s cake!  So we created a Yeti cooler with his beloved Arizona Iced Tea cans, nestled in sugar ‘ice’. The bottom of the cooler was the cake, the lid was styrofoam covered in fondant, & the cans were real cans.  Everything else was edible.

 

The wedding was wonderful.  Amanda looked so beautiful, & even had a sparkly snowflake barrette in her hair. The setting at the Canyonwood Ridge venue in Dripping Springs was absolutely beautiful.  It was a magical night.  I wish Amanda & Josh all the best in their new life together.  I know they will be blessed beyond measure, as both of them are such awesome people & truly are soul mates.

Click here to watch the live video of the wedding cake & groom’s cake at beautiful Canyonwood Ridge!

Amanda, you will always be my Special Little Snowflake!  I love you dearly & know you will be super successful up there in the Big D!  Thank you for everything you’ve done for me & Cakes ROCK!!! over the past year and a half. You will truly be missed!