Two Cakes, Two Celebrations

Thought I'd share the two cakes I made the last couple of days.  The first is a carrot cake I made for my boss, Mary Lou.  We had a small celebration in the office and found a little bit of time between two of her many meetings to sing "Happy Birthday" and wish Mary Lou well and a great year ahead.  She was very appreciative.  My co-worker Dean was Mary Lou's party planner, and came to me early on to see if I'd bake her a special cake, which I was happy to do.  Our office is great that way. Everyone is designated party planner for someone else, so no one person's birthday goes unacknowledged.  It's a special thing.

Here's Mary Lou's cake, which was a carrot spice cake with raisins and pineapple, and cream cheese frosting:

Mary Lou's Birthday Cake

The second cake I made was for my friend Anne's granddaughter, Breanna.  She's celebrating her 13th birthday with a slumber party and six of her close friends.  Anne sent me a photo of an "inspiration" cake that  Breanna liked, and I used it as just that, inspiration.  I always try to make someone else's design unique by incorporating my own touches, and I think it was successful.  This was a white/vanilla cake with butter cream frosting and cut-out fondant decorations.

Here's Breanna's cake:

Breanna's Birthday Cake

And, since I rarely give my oven a rest, right now I'm baking crumb cake muffins.  They've just come out of the oven, and they are pretty.

Today's crumb cake muffins -
hot out of the oven with a little sugar on top!

Photos:  my own