I wanna be a cowboy...

This was the cake I have been most excited about to date. I sculpted the cowboy and horse by hand. They were then covered in fondant and painted. Everyone loved the cake, however, they were more impressed when they found out the figures were not purchased at the store as cake toppers.

Ginny's Birthday Cake 12-06

My wife is a Tea-a-holic. She loves going to tea. For her birthday I took her to her favorite tea room and and gave her this cake. She again was pretty stoked. And all the ladies were pretty jealous!

Niece and Nephew Birthday cake August 2007

My niece was turning 6 and my nephew was turning 3. With their birthday's being 5 days apart in August, it was crunch time for me! My nephew was having a Pirate themed birthday and my niece told me exactly what she wanted her cake to look like...just like a little lady!

Up for the challange

With my manhood at stake, I told everyone at work about the enrollment of my cake decorating classes. Everyone thought it was hilarious. They thought the cake I made must have been so terrible, that my wife signed me up for these classes to ensure the fate of any future cakes I would ever embark on decorating. After seeing the pictures, however, they were pretty surprised that this prior Special Ops guy had it in him to make something so "pretty." I then started bringing in all my class projects just so they wouldn't go to waste at my house (my wife and I were really getting burned out on cake and butter cream frosting). Of course they didn't complain and there were always requests for more icing. A few weeks later, I was presented with a request to make a birthday cake for a co-worker. And then another...and another...and another. I then became the official birthday/special events cake decorator of the squadron. Each cake was more of a challenge. How could I make it more unique and fun than the last? I wanted to take each person's personality and capture it in a cake. The X-Box was for a gamer, The Saddle-a Rider, The Kareoke Machine-you guessed it--This guy really LOVED to do Kareoke...A Lot! I really dove in and was up all hours of the night trying to perfect the little details. I really had no idea what I was doing, but was determined to make it something amazing. Something to shock and awe. With each cake, the results were more and more rewarding. Emails started going out at work and people from other squadrons were coming over to see "the cake Capt. Reeves brought in." And of course the story of how it all started became more and more colorful and elaborate each time. Then the requests got bigger...

How it all began...2006

Just weeks before my wife's very first Mother's Day, she nonchalantly told me she loved the cakes off of a Mrs. Field's catalog we got in the mail. I flipped through pages of beautifully decorated hat box style cakes complete with ribbons on top. Nice enough, I thought. After all, this is her very first Mother's Day, it should be special...memorable. I glanced down at the price for one of these highly decorated, special occasion cakes. $70. FOR A CAKE!! I thought to myself...I could make that! So, off I went to the local craft store to start this easy enough project. Strolling up and down the cake decorating aisle, I had no idea it would involve so many tools and gadgets to get started. All I can say is that after purchasing all that was needed to duplicate the hat box cake, not to mention all the hours of hard labor, which by the way I was doing with our 3 month old, $70 would have been the easy way out! All the while, I was keeping this a surprise. Well, surprised she was...shocked to say the least! The funny part was, I really had fun designing and creating this (hopefully) look-a-like Mrs. Field's cake. After all, I had always enjoyed working with my hands. Shortly after sharing my whole decorating experience with my wife, the wheels in her head started turning. The very next month on Father's Day, my wife told me to get in the car and she drove me to the very same craft store I had purchased all the cake decorating supplies. With an ear to ear grin she handed me an envelope. Upon opening "my gift" I was a little surprised/humored/oh geez! She had signed me up for Cake Decorating Classes! Wait till the guys at work hear about this...

Hello Summer! 2008

My niece was having a Farewell to 1st grade and Hello to Summer swimming party this past year. I was pretty short on time, but I liked the way it turned out. Pretty unique.

More requests

I had all kinds of requests after that. More birthdays of course. One of my favorites was the Dragon Baby Shower cake. "A Dragon Baby Shower?" you say?? The Mother-to-be squadron's name was The Dragons...hence the cake theme. It was my first attempt on free hand sculpting. It was a lot of fun to do.

The Colonel's Cake

As in the Colonel of SOC (fellow military will know, all others... a big boss), as in the Colonel whom I don't really talk to besides "Yes, Ma'am", as in a few hundred people attending this ceremony?! It was a tall order. I worked on that cake for days and days and days. I found out all I could about all her hobbies...running, biking, racket ball, golfing. Anything I found out was special to her, I put on that cake! I wanted to make sure it was memorable for her. I tried to capture her personality in sugar form! Come presentation time, all the hard work paid off. Everyone loved it. After all, it was so much better than a sheet cake from Wal-Mart that served 200 people with the barely legible words "Farewell" in red ,white and blue piped on it. It was an honor and I was pretty darn flattered to have been asked to rise to such an occasion.

Can you make a cake for...???

The requests at work started pouring in. "Can you make a cake for my daughter's birthday, my niece's birthday, the Capt.'s promotion, the Lt.'s baby shower, the Squadron's Chili Cook Off, the Colonel's going away"...wait a minute...did you just say the Colonel's Going Away??