Close your eyes, take a deep breath, smell the aroma of hot baking chocolate, as the red velvet pound cake is brought out of the oven….mmmmmm. Now, in your mind’s eye, see and smell the moist, warm, delicious, velvety pound cake  as you cut into it and the steam rises! The white chocolate icing poured over it a minute ago just adds to the anticipation as it slowly slides down the sides. Now open your eyes, and take a bite of that heavenly tasting cake served to you by ….oh my gracious…it’s my daughter Annie! She has become a Pastry Chef!

My husband Max is also quite a good baker, and enjoys it. He learned from his mother, and Max has made decorated cakes for our children and grandchildren for the last 43 years. It should not have surprised me that one of our daughters would take after the two of them. Our daughter Annie  went to Appalachian State University here in North Carolina where she earned a degree in business management and hospitality.  Last year she went back to school, surprising us by deciding she wanted a certificate as a pastry chef! I guess we were so used to Max being the baker in our family, we hadn’t yet realized the student might surpass the teacher, or at least team-up with him! Along the way, she learned a lot of other skills, like working with knives (yikes), sanitation and safety, artisan bread making (yum), and cake baking and decorating!  I remember when she began to make fondant flowers–oh my gracious, I had no idea she had such artistic, sculpting ability inside! (parents are always the last to know, the last to believe the talents of their own children–because they are CHILDREN–even at 30!) LOL  Today I want to show you some of her and some of Max’s incredible baking creations–from wedding cakes to gingerbread houses, they are both  gold medal winners!

Here’s wishing that you always get to eat incredible, mouth-watering, moist and delicious cake!

Annie’s cakes and creations:

 

Max’s cakes, a few: