Best day of my life

I have to say that Monday, December 1, 2008 was the most memorable day of my life, besides my wedding day and the birth of my son. The reason is...........MY HUSBAND CAME BACK HOME!!!! He had been deployed to Saudi Arabia since May 2008 and it was a long wait for my son and I. The most precious site was seeing my husband walk off that plane and our 5 year old son running up into his arms. I am so very proud of my husband and his dedication to not only to our family, but to our country as well.

The cake made it

The Marine Corps birthday cake made it all the way over to the Middle East. It may not have been in the best condition after the long travel, but it made it just in time.

Here are the guys thanking me from across the desert!

My son is growing up fast.

I can't believe my son will turn 5 years old this week. I'm realizing everyday that he's no longer my baby boy, but growing fast into my big boy.

Yesterday was his 5th birthday party and of course, we had to have a Spongebob theme. He wanted a Krabby Patty cake with Spongebob sitting on top. He specifically wanted only cheese and lettuce on the krabby patty and that's what he got.

Here it is!

Here's also a shot of it with all the party decorations:

Tale of the traveling cake

I just had a first. I mailed my first cake today. My husband, who is a former Marine, wanted me to send him a special cake all the way over to the Middle East where he is deployed. The Marine Corps 233rd birthday is coming up on November 10th and my husband is going to celebrate it with a few of the former Marines that are on his base. I can't let them celebrate without a special cake!

Sooooo, here is the cake that I hope will make it over to the Middle East in one piece:


Let's hope it makes it! Happy 233rd birthday United States Marine Corps!

Orders due for mid November to mid December

It's been a long 6 months, but my husband is coming home soon! He's been gone for 6 months and life sure has been different. I've had my son, my work, and my cakes to keep my mind occupied and the time sure has gone by fast.

In order to spend the much needed and over-due quality time with my family, I am going to suspend taking any cake orders that are due from mid-November 08 to mid-December 08. I can't really qive a specific dates, since I really don't know myself yet. However, I will be available for wedding cake consults/tastings and any cake order inquiries that will be due after mid December.

Thank you for being so understanding!

I have the best husband!

My 33rd birthday (yes, I said it....the big 3-3) is coming up this week. This is the first birthday in 8 years since I've been with my husband that he will miss. Sooooooo, from all the way from the Middle East he surprised me with an awesome gift! He enlisted the help of one of his co-workers as well as his dad to give me a special gift! He had some sweatshirts custom made for me with the Enchanted Sweets logo! If you ever see this around town, you know it's me!

I love you Trevor! Thank you so very much. I miss you!

Special wedding discount!

Here it is folks! I've decided to start a special wedding discount for all the prospective brides and grooms out there. It's the end of the year and it's been a great year for me and Enchanted Sweets. Also, I'm in a generous mood since my husband will be coming home soon! YAY!!! Anyway, to any bride and groom who schedule a consult/tasting with me and then BOOKS Enchanted Sweets for their 2009 wedding, I will give you a 10% discount and work with you on your delivery fee! So, all you Knotties out there who have been inquiring as well as you other potential brides, consider this offer when selecting your cake decorator. You won't be sorry! This offer is only valid through December 31, 2008.

Just refer to the End of the Year special!

Increase in Military and Law Enforcement discount

In 2009, I am increasing my discount for all active military and law enforcement to 20%. The service these men and women provide to us and our country is outstanding. I am proud of the work my husband does both as a deputy sheriff and a soldier!

Ultimate Bridal Show and Gift Boutique

I will be participating in the Ultimate Bridal Show and Gift Boutique and I am so excited! This will take place at St. Anthony Parish Hall on January 10, 2009 from 11 to 2. Come visit me and see what I can offer you on your wedding day! I'll have several samples, examples of my work, and I will also hand out a discount to all brides who schedule a consult/tasting with me and book me for their wedding.

Look forward to seeing you there!

2009 prices

Due to this terrible economy, I'm having to adjust my prices just a tad. For 2009, my starting prices will be buttercream cakes $2.50 per serving and fondant cakes are $3.50 per serving. Plain cupcakes with no fillings will be $1.75 and cupcakes with a fodant design and/or filling will be $2.25. If you are planning a wedding for 2009, book soon to get my current 2008 rates!

Darth Vader groom's cake

Special thanks to Ashley for requesting a Darth Vader groom's cake for her October 4th wedding. I hope they enjoyed it!

Sara and Jason's wedding

On October 3rd, I was able to take part of Sara and Jason's beautiful wedding. The day was perfect! The wedding and reception took place out at Jester Park. Sara showed me a picture of the cake she liked, but wanted half of it to be a light orange color. I think the cake turned out awesome! I also made some caramel apples to go on the cake table.

3D cakes are so much fun!

Many people do not realize that cakes can be made to look like anything....I mean ANYTHING! This weekend I will be making 2 of them. The first will be a huge cheeseburger with french fries and the other will be a Huskey puppy. The cheeseburger will be for a potluck we'll be attending for the families of the deployed soldiers. What says potluck better than a cheeseburger?!?!?! The huskey will be for a little girl's birthday party for Tuesday.

The cheeseburger will be great to do because my son is wanting a Spongebob birthday party this year. He'll be 5 years old in November and he totally loves Spongebob. He was debating between Spongebob, Wall-E, and Power Rangers Jungle Fury. He's finally decided on Spongebob so his birthday cake will be a Krabby Patty (cheeseburger) with Spongebob on top.

Stay tuned for pictures!

Enchanted Sweets has gone INTERNATIONAL!

For those of you who don't know, my husband is deployed overseas. It's very hard not having him around and my son and I are counting down the days until he is home with us again!

Since I know the hardships, first-hand, of being a military wife I decided to help my fellow military families out. I will be more than honored to decorate a cake for any deployed soldier as my gift to them. I just recently made this Spiderman cake for a little girl whose mom is deployed with my husband. Next month, I am making a cake for a soldier's wife who will be celebrating her birthday without him. He too is deployed with my husband. Of course, I'm going to love the look of surprise on her face when I deliver it because I know how special it will be.

Again, for any Iowa soldier deployed fighting for our country, please contact me regarding a special surprise cake for a birthday, anniversary, baby, etc. I will be more than happy to do this for you since you are doing so much for us on the homefront. I will try my best to deliver within so many miles of Des Moines.

Cupcake stand

Check out this beautiful cupcake stand that my wonderful husband and father-in-law made for me. I think it turned out beautiful! Jessica used it for her wedding in May and she said she received so many compliments!

Been MIA lately

It's been a few months since I last posted on the blog. So much has happened. The cake business is going great! In fact, I've had to turn down several orders because I just don't have that much time in the day. LOL

My mind has been in another place for the last few weeks. I found I out I pregnant with baby #2 back in April. However, I lost the baby this past week. On top of that, my husband is getting ready to deploy in the next few days. Craziness I tell ya.

I promise, more cakes will be put on display soon! Special thanks to my husband and father-in-law for creating an awesome wedding cupcake stand. It's massive and beautiful. I will use it this weekend for Jessica and Jerrid's wedding. YAY!

1st birthday cakes

I am so excited! I've got two 1st birthday cakes to do and they have the cutest themes! First, I'll be doing an Elmo theme for Parker's first birthday. Elmo will be a 3d figure on top of a 9 inch round cake. Elmo is going to be made out of rice krispie treats. Let me tell ya, this stuff is awesome to work with.

The next one will be for Carter and he'll get a Baby Einstein two tiered cake. It will look so cute!

I remember for my son's birthday we had a puppy dog theme. No, I didn't make his cake. I sort of wish I did though. Anyway, his 1st birthday was so memorable and he had the cutest look on his face as he ate away at his smash cake.

I am so excited about these cakes!

The Knot message board

A big huge shout out to the girls on the Iowa message board on The Knot. Apparently, a bride from one of my tastings, Isabelle, posted a good review about me on there and I've had a GREAT response and inquiries. Thanks so much. It's kind of funny because someone thought Isabelle was ME! Those silly girls. Anyway, yes I would LOVE to branch out and do more wedding cakes. Luckilly I have several brides and grooms in the area that like my style and creativity, and hopefully just ME and want me to do their cakes.

New cakes and cookies for Jan 21st

First, I was contacted by the sweetest person, Cathy. She wanted a cookie bouquet for her step-MIL who wasn't too thrilled about turning 60. Here is her cookie bouquet:


Second, Tracy wanted a cool Spiderman cake for her son, Cameron's, 5th birthday. She sent me a picture of a cake she found and I made it up for her. This is the cake where my son, Brennan, who is 4...told me that the web should've been white instead of black. LOL

A big shout out to more future Brides & Grooms

Isabelle and Hayden...It was great speaking with the two of you regarding your wedding cake. Please let me know if I can answer any more questions!

Casie and Matthew...call me back once you get an idea on the amount of servings and any ideas you have in mind!

Orders for the upcoming weeks

Tracy has contacted me to do an awesome Spiderman cake for Cameron. This is due Jan. 21. A co-worker ordered an Indianapolis Colts football helmet cake for her grandson, Gearet for Sunday the 20th. Darla has ordered a custom carved 3D cake for her husband which will be a total surprise for her husband's 40th birthday. This is due Feb. 9th.

Wedding consultations

Special thanks to Sandro and Dinah, Jason, Tina and Zac, Tianh and Miro, and Eliza and Stefan for contacting me regarding wedding cakes. Hopefully you all received all the information you were looking for and enjoyed the cake samples. The wedding season is fast approaching so try to book when you can! If you need more info please feel free to contact me.

Concerns about pricing

I want to share with all my potential customers why I charge what I do. A lot of hard work, dedication, and love go into each and every cake I make. Some may consider it just cake and frosting....Hey how hard could it be? Wrongo....each cake takes lots of planning, preparing, and executing the designs. I usually start many of my cake decorations such as fondant bows, figures, or even gumpaste flowers at least a week ahead of time. This gives the pieces time to dry. By the time you mix the cake, bake it, prepare the frosting just right, prepare the cakeboard, stack the cakes, and so on.....hours and hours can go by without realizing it. I just want to stress that when I prepare a cake for someone it's not something frozen and whipped up in a second from the grocery store, or Wally world. Maybe it's the mom in me, but I want to make sure I create something that my own child would love. There's nothing better in the world to experience as a cake decorator than seeing the face of the child when they see their cake for the first time. It's awesome to see their faces erupt in squeals, screams, and laughter.

I find my prices are VERY reasonable for the Des Moines area. I seem to fall in the middle because there are some that are lower, and some that are higher. I don't want to undercut competition at all, but I charge what I am comfortable with and being a former cake customer myself, I know what I would want to spend. However, I also have to realize all the hard work I put into each cake needs to be the focus of my pricing. I quarantee you won't be sorry at all with any cake from Enchanted Sweets!

No orders this week.

Whew....a week without doing cakes! Don't get me wrong...I love doing cakes, but it's weird having a week without having an order. I turned down a couple for this week because Trevor and I are going to celebrate our 6th anniversary Saturday. The orders were for Saturday and Sunday. I knew we would be gone Saturday evening so I couldn't commit to the cakes. The customers didn't want them delivered any sooner, so I unfortunately had to say no. I hate turning down any orders, but due to this special time for me, I just couldn't. Since Trevor will be deployed starting in April, we are going to make this anniversary special!

Website design

When I first created my website, I wanted something different that showcased my work. I had a friend who started her own photography business and she told me about Winklet web design. Winklet specializes in flash templates and they are so easy and AWESOME! I'm about to "upgrade" my site to a new template she created and I can't wait. If anyone needs a flash template, definately check out www.winklet.com.

Then, another company is Blu Domain. Again, another company that creates flash websites that you can customize yourself. They cater a lot to photographers, but I find that I'm able to showcase my cakes and creations a lot better with a flash gallery. Maybe one day I'll get one of their website, but gotta save some money for that! Their site is www.bludomain.com.

Cakes so far for January 08

First, here's Saylor's Hannah Montana cake. It's a two tiered strawberry cake with buttercream icing. Trevor is my official icing taste tester and he loved it. Hopefully Saylor loved her girly Hannah cake!

Second one is for Landon. I got a call from his mom on Kim on Thursday the 3rd wanting to know if I could make it for her. She had bought one originally from a bakery, but no creative service from them at all! LOL I asked what the birthday theme was and once she told me I knew this would be a fun cake. It was a wild west birthday party theme so I had an idea of red paisley bandana, lasso, sheriff star, etc. When she showed me the actually theme itself, my ideas matched it perfectly. So, here's the 9x13 chocolate cake with hazelnut coffee creamer added. Talk about yummy! Also, I added some vanilla coffee creamer to the buttercream icing. It smells and tastes great! I added the cowboy fringe on the bottom as an added touch.