Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Great American Bake Sale

Valentine's Season came early for myself and my friend Christine Ver from Feed My Sole Blog.  Food is very important to us and what we do, so we decided to partner up to organize a Great American Bake Sale early this month to spread some of our love and help end childhood hunger in America so that no kid goes hungry. With the help of my friend David Leonard from the Treasure Box, we were able to get a vendor spot during Long Beach's First Friday Artwalk. Together we were able to raise funds and bake a difference. Here are some photos of the event taken by June Nichole Photography...

An Abs of Cakes and Feed My Sole Collabo
Cheescake Bites and our business cards
Greeting guests.
I worked behind the table as Christine worked the front...we made a great team!
Visitors were happy to support a good cause :)
Showing off the yummy treats to my friend Josh.
I didn't forget about my fellow dog owners, I made some doggie treats with some fun messages.
The day before our Great American Bake Sale was Chinese New Year, so I was inspired to make a cake in honor of the Year of the Rabbit to raffle off. I hope it brings good fortune to the lucky winner!
My Chinese New Year Cake and Salted Caramel Chocolate Cupcakes
Thanks June for all the lovely photos!
Christine and I had a lot of fun...Check out the story from her point of view here.
Congratulations to Alyssa for winning the lucky cake!!
We would like to give a special THANKS to our friend April Arrozal for playing "cashier" that night!
Our first Great American Bake Sale was a success because of all our friends that helped us out and all those that contributed to this important cause. We'd like to acknowledge these very important people:

DAVID LEONARD [www.thetreasurebox.org] - vendor spot hookup 
LONG BEACH FIRST FRIDAYS [www.firstfridayslongbeach.com] - venue
JUNE NICHOLE CRUZ [www.junenicholephoto.com] - photographs
RONALD LODEVICO JR. [www.stayloded.com] - truck for transportation 
APRIL ARROZAL - cashier and money handler

I was on such a roll with our first bake sale, that I agreed to do another one the next week during Long Beach's Second Saturday Artwalk. Christine had work, so I did this one solo, but made new fun friends that helped me that day. Our friend Patrick Santa Ana (whose birthday is Feb. 13...HAPPY BIRTHDAY) owns a retail shop called ELEV8, and invited me to join their vendor booth along with Hearts & Things and Lok'd Jewelry by Gadgiz Galore. I had a blast!
The table set up.
Our vendor booth with ELEV8 in the back.
My S'mores cupcakes were a big hit and so fun to make!
Visitors checking out the table.
Hearts & Things by Jr. Luat
I love this guy's story on how he started making these cute pins and keychains...you can support him here!
Lok'd Jewelry by Gadgiz Galore
I can't thank these guys enough for their help! It was a pleasure being surrounded by other creative individuals that love their craft! Hopefully I'll get to work with them again next month. I had so much fun and was truly inspired by them....THANK YOU!

Now that I've got a couple of Great American Bake Sales under my belt, I look forward to raising more funds for children all across America. 

~Abs of Cakes~

Friday, February 11, 2011

Hello Kitty....as a Zombie

Do you love Hello Kitty? Do you love Zombies? Now picture this....a Zombie Hello Kitty...in cake form! Back in December, Stephanie stumbled across my blog and liked what she saw. She requested that I make a cake for her best friend Charlie who was turning 25. Apparently Charlie loooves Hello Kitty, but not just any Hello Kitty, a Zombie one in particular. I loved it! I've been a huuuuge HK and Sanrio fan since I can remember, so I have a lot of references to work with, but I never even knew Hello Kitty as a Zombie! This is one HK I HAD to research and Google. Then I realized.....a LOT of people love her in Zombie form! Here's the image that Stephanie sent to me:

As creepy as it may seem, HK is still cute as ever....I couldn't wait to work on this cake.  It always helps to have a master plan, and my sketches helped me smoothly execute my concept to the final product. 
Whether it's an animal, person, or beloved icon like Hello Kitty, I normally have a problem with sculpting a head/body out of cake, because I have an issue with picturing the cake cutting part...but since this HK was a Zombie, I actually found it fitting to cut into her head. I knew HK's head would carry most of the weight in this cake so I needed a strong stable body to hold it up....I figured that rice cereal would do the trick. As the cake was baking, I made rice cereal treat to mold  into her body. Kinda looked like the "Crab" Cake I made.
I tinted fondant in that Zombie green color. I let that rest as I worked on the cake, so the colors would come out to it's fullest vibrancy. 
Here comes the fun part...working on HK herself. I'll let the pics speak for themselves....
I decided to add some purple buttons to HK's outfit. Here's how I did it...
 Doesn't she look naked without her nose, whiskers, and bow???
I used spaghetti sticks that I colored with a Black Foodwriter for her whiskers. Then I made her big bow.....zombie-esque of course.
All that was left to do with this cake was to add the zombie touch. If there were any flaws on HK, I was okay with it and used it to my advantage. I used them as cuts and scrapes as any normal zombie would have. A Red Foodwriter pen helped make the bloody-looking mess.  In a way, I was happy Stephanie decided on a chocolate cake....I was able to use the extra cake crumbs as dirt to place around her body and tombstone.
I was very pleased with how my first Hello Kitty Cake turned out...she was my favorite cake to make to date :) Here's how she looked during the day...

I had a Hello Kitty ribbon that was perfect to decorate the cake board with.
HK's signature bow. The skull makes it zombie-esque.
Bird's Eye View
Left Profile View
Right Profile View
Closer look at Zombie Hello Kitty's scars and wounds
Here are a few pics that Stephanie sent to me from her own camera...looks like she made it in one piece.
Stephanie informed me that Charlie LOVED the cake....so much so that she's still in their fridge and she won't let anyone touch her :) They did however eat the tombstone cake for her birthday. I'd like to thank Stephanie again for this fun cake order and for driving all the way from Simi Valley to pick her up! 

The next week after this cake order, I got a request for another HK cake....so stay tuned for that blog post. 

~Abs of Cakes~



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