© heavenlycastles.com 1999 to Present
Yummy Cakes
Made with Xara
These two cakes were used as props for murder mystery dinners we hosted. The mystery centered on a wedding ceremony gone wrong. The cakes are both iced in a buttercream type icing, but the roses are done with fondant and airbrushed for depth of color. The cake at the top has some edible glitter sprinkled on to give it a little more sparkle.
This next set of photos is from cakes we did in Germany in the early 1980's. Sorry for the poor quality of the pictures, but it was the best camera we had at the time. At least you can get an idea of the cakes I worked on with my husband. Ray did a lot of airbrushing to add extra detail to the cakes.
My mother did a lot of cakes like this for my birthdays when I was young. My sister and I always looked forward to our birthday cakes.
We donated a topsy- turvey cake to the youth group at our church for one of their fund raisers. It was a little extra effort to figure out how to stack it and make it stable, but it looked really great once it was finished.
When a friend contacts you and tells you she wants this specific cake for her daughter’s Sweet 16 birthday party, how can you turn her down? I didn’t think we were capable of making this cake, but we worked on it together and it worked out beautifully. Little girls are fascinated by the Wizard of Oz. Of course, with that story, you have to include the rainbow, the yellow brick road, the lollipop guild, the horse of a different color (in this case, purple) and the wizard’s hot air balloon.
When we knew that the little boy across the street was going to turn 1 year old, we just couldn’t resist asking his mother if we could do a cake for his birthday. She said she didn’t really have a theme for his party, so we decided to make this different castle for the cake.
Boys always seem to be interested in pirates and pirate ships. This was a simple birthday cake for one of the neighbor boys. When we donate cakes for fund raisers, we always try to make each one more unique than the previous one. In this case we decided to do a volcano cake on an island surrounded by water and some grassland. It turned out to be pretty impressive. One of our latest ventures was to make a cake to look like a Lego man. It took a little imagination, but we had fun with it. As you can see, we had different designs, so each of the tables looked a little bit different. Sometimes I volunteer to do things for our local ladies’ ministry at our church. In 2011 I was asked to make heart-shaped cakes for centerpieces for a Valentine dinner.

History of our Cakes

I have decorated cakes since I was a young

girl. My mother took a cake decorating

class from a friend, and I was fortunate

enough to be able to attend the class with

her. I enjoyed doing it, and found I had a

pretty decent talent for decorating and

making cakes look good. When I married

Ray, he loved helping me develop new

ideas and techniques to make the cakes

look even better.

As the neighbor boys get older, their interests change. They have always loved superheroes like Spiderman and the Avengers, but for the past couple years they have LOVED Star Wars and anything related to it. Star Wars Legos are the ultimate! So this year we incorporated some Star Wars Legos onto their cake. Ray airbrushed the skies behind the cake, and we made a sculpted landscape from an imaginary planet for the cake. It turned out really well. There were actually several colors in the foreground, but it doesn't show up too well here.
This is one of our all-time favorite cakes ever. A friend of ours in Germany asked us if we could make a hamburger cake for her daughter's birthday. She had all of the directions that she had saved from a magazine. It was such a hit the first time we made it, we have used it for teen birthdays ever since and used the idea to win cake competitions at our local church. We perfected the decorations, so now we airbrush the "bun" to add depth to the color, we ruffle the lettuce and make the tomato slices show the sections with the seeds completely visible. We obviously love to do things for kids. Our neighbors wanted to have a Thomas the Train cake for one of their sons. They had the cake pan for the train, but we had to sculpt the face from fondant to look like Thomas. Their boys have birthdays less than 10 days apart, so little brother had a train cake for his birthday, too. His was made a little differently, but they were both fun to make. Little brother’s cake was 3 dimensional and stood up on the track on the cake above.
This castle was for the son of one of our friends in Germany. It was our biggest endeavor up to that point. It took a couple days to construct, but the results were worth the effort.
Ray made Joanie a cherry pie for Thanksgiving 2019. Joanie taught Ray how to bake pies several years ago and he has been the chief pie baker in the family ever since.
Ray’s Pumpkin pie. He also baked the perfect pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving 2019.
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Before the beginning of 2020 hot chocolate bombs became a big rage in the food community. Joanie told a friend she would love to try making them, but couldn’t see investing a pan for a just once in a while fun project. The next thing she knew, a package showed up at the door and it was the silicone mold to make the hot chocolate bombs. So of course she had to try making them right away. They were a fun project and turned out really well. She didn’t bother to decorate them for this trial run, but will make the outsides fancier if she does them again.
Toward the beginning of the 2020 Covid-19 Pandemic when people were urged to be isolated to help prevent the spread of the disease, a group of friends began a Facebook page dedicated to people who love to cook and were taking advantage of the time at home to develop their skills. They would change the theme every week or two, and of course, when baking was the theme Joanie jumped right in because she loves to bake. The two loaves above are English Muffin Bread, which is a favorite or ours. This is a little coarser than regular bread and toasts beautifully, which makes an excellent morning bread to enjoy.
Joanie’s next baking task was making homemade scones. We love the cranberry orange scones pictured above, but the blackberry scones in the rear of the plate were delicious, too. In the photo at the right, we have a homemade chocolate cake with a pistachio cake layer in the center and rich chocolate frosting.
Someone mentioned to Joanie that they were thinking of making a gingerbread house for Christmas. It reminded her that in about 1982 a group of friends in Germany met at our house to make gingerbread houses. Ray drew up designs so each of us had the style we wanted, and it was a fun day for the group who worked on them together. This photo is blurry, but it was the best we could do with cheap cameras before digital photography was a thing.
By the time Christmas rolled around in 2021, we were in the mood to bake quite a bit more, so we decided to bake cookies for most of the neighbors. Ray and Joanie spent several days baking and choosing how to decorate all of the different cookies. We had great fun, and we both used our imaginations to make the cookies special for each of the families. It’s always a joy to be able to give to other people during the holidays.
In 2021 we celbrated our 40th wedding anniversary. What better way to commemorate our lives together than to use some of the decorations from our original wedding cake, and add our own touches to a new cake? We made all the roses by hand from fondant and baked cakes with the original orange cake recipe from the wedding cake 40 years before.
In 2022 we thought we would do a Mother’s Day cake for one of our neighbors, since we haven’t done many special cakes in the past few years. We made our own fondant and tried a variety of techniques for the flowers and ribbon trim. We used a vanilla cake for the brim of the hat and a lemon cake for the crown. The rest of the decoration was done in buttercream.
It’s always fun to be able to do something a little extra for someone who has been good to us. Ray and Joanie both enjoy doing a little more in the way of creativity.
One final look at the entire cake before it was taken to its final destination.
© heavenlycastles.com 1999 to Present
Yummy Cakes
Made with Xara
These two cakes were used as props for murder mystery dinners we hosted. The mystery centered on a wedding ceremony gone wrong. The cakes are both iced in a buttercream type icing, but the roses are done with fondant and airbrushed for depth of color. The cake at the top has some edible glitter sprinkled on to give it a little more sparkle.
When we knew that the little boy across the street was going to turn 1 year old, we just couldn’t resist asking his mother if we could do a cake for his birthday. She said she didn’t really have a theme for his party, so we decided to make this different castle for the cake.
Boys always seem to be interested in pirates and pirate ships. This was a simple birthday cake for one of the neighbor boys. When we donate cakes for fund raisers, we always try to make each one more unique than the previous one. In this case we decided to do a volcano cake on an island surrounded by water and some grassland. It turned out to be pretty impressive. As you can see, we had different designs, so each of the tables looked a little bit different. Sometimes I volunteer to do things for our local ladies’ ministry at our church. In 2011 I was asked to make heart-shaped cakes for centerpieces for a Valentine dinner.

History of our

Cakes

I have decorated cakes since I was

a young girl. My mother took a

cake decorating class from a

friend, and I was fortunate enough

to be able to attend the class with

her. I enjoyed doing it, and found I

had a pretty decent talent for

decorating and making cakes look

good. When I married Ray, he

loved helping me develop new

ideas and techniques to make the

cakes look even better.

As the neighbor boys get older, their interests change. They have always loved superheroes like Spiderman and the Avengers, but for the past couple years they have LOVED Star Wars and anything related to it. Star Wars Legos are the ultimate! So this year we incorporated some Star Wars Legos onto their cake. Ray airbrushed the skies behind the cake, and we made a sculpted landscape from an imaginary planet for the cake. It turned out really well. There were actually several colors in the foreground, but it doesn't show up too well here.
This is one of our all-time favorite cakes ever. A friend of ours in Germany asked us if we could make a hamburger cake for her daughter's birthday. She had all of the directions that she had saved from a magazine. It was such a hit the first time we made it, we have used it for teen birthdays ever since and used the idea to win cake competitions at our local church. We perfected the decorations, so now we airbrush the "bun" to add depth to the color, we ruffle the lettuce and make the tomato slices show the sections with the seeds completely visible. We obviously love to do things for kids. Our neighbors wanted to have a Thomas the Train cake for one of their sons. They had the cake pan for the train, but we had to sculpt the face from fondant to look like Thomas. Their boys have birthdays less than 10 days apart, so little brother had a train cake for his birthday, too. His was made a little differently, but they were both fun to make. Little brother’s cake was 3 dimensional and stood up on the track on the cake above.
This next set of photos is from cakes we did in Germany in the early 1980's. Sorry for the poor quality of the pictures, but it was the best camera we had at the time. At least you can get an idea of the cakes I worked on with my husband. Ray did a lot of airbrushing to add extra detail to the cakes.
My mother did a lot of cakes like this for my birthdays when I was young. My sister and I always looked forward to our birthday cakes.
We donated a topsy- turvey cake to the youth group at our church for one of their fund raisers. It was a little extra effort to figure out how to stack it and make it stable, but it looked really great once it was finished.
When a friend contacts you and tells you she wants this specific cake for her daughter’s Sweet 16 birthday party, how can you turn her down? I didn’t think we were capable of making this cake, but we worked on it together and it worked out beautifully. Little girls are fascinated by the Wizard of Oz. Of course, with that story, you have to include the rainbow, the yellow brick road, the lollipop guild, the horse of a different color (in this case, purple) and the wizard’s hot air balloon. One of our latest ventures was to make a cake to look like a Lego man. It took a little imagination, but we had fun with it.
This castle was for the son of one of our friends in Germany. It was our biggest endeavor up to that point. It took a couple days to construct, but the results were worth the effort.
Return to Top
Ray made Joanie a cherry pie for Thanksgiving 2019
Rays Pumpkin pie
Ray made Joanie a beautiful cherry pie for Thanksgiving 2019. Joanie taught Ray how to bake pies several years ago and he has become the chief pie baker for the family ever since.
Ray’s Pumpkin pie. He also baked the perfect pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving 2019.
Before the beginning of 2020 hot chocolate bombs became a big rage in the food community. Joanie told a friend she would love to try making them, but couldn’t see investing a pan for a just once in a while fun project. The next thing she knew, a package showed up at the door and it was the silicone mold to make the hot chocolate bombs. So of course she had to try making them right away. They were a fun project and turned out really well. She didn’t bother to decorate them for this trial run, but will make the outsides fancier if she does them again.
Toward the beginning of the 2020 Covid-19 Pandemic when people were urged to be isolated to help prevent the spread of the disease, a group of friends began a Facebook page dedicated to people who love to cook and were taking advantage of the time at home to develop their skills. They would change the theme every week or two, and of course, when baking was the theme Joanie jumped right in because she loves to bake. The two loaves above are English Muffin Bread, which is a favorite or ours. This is a little coarser than regular bread and toasts beautifully, which makes an excellent morning bread to enjoy.
Joanie’s next baking task was making homemade scones. We love the cranberry orange scones pictured above, but the blackberry scones in the rear of the plate were delicious, too. In the photo at the right, we have a homemade chocolate cake with a pistachio cake layer in the center and rich chocolate frosting.
Someone mentioned to Joanie that they were thinking of making a gingerbread house for Christmas. It reminded her that in about 1982 a group of friends in Germany met at our house to make gingerbread houses. Ray drew up designs so each of us had the style we wanted, and it was a fun day for the group who worked on them together. This photo is blurry, but it was the best we could do with cheap cameras before digital photography was a thing.
In 2021 we celbrated our 40th wedding anniversary. What better way to commemorate our lives together than to use some of the decorations from our original wedding cake, and add our own touches to a new cake? We made all the roses by hand from fondant and baked cakes with the original orange cake recipe from the wedding cake 40 years before.
By the time Christmas rolled around in 2021, we were in the mood to bake quite a bit more, so we decided to bake cookies for most of the neighbors. Ray and Joanie spent several days baking and choosing how to decorate all of the different cookies. We had great fun, and we both used our imaginations to make the cookies special for each of the families. It’s always a joy to be able to give to other people during the holidays.
In 2022 we thought we would do a Mother’s Day cake for one of our neighbors, since we haven’t done many special cakes in the past few years. We made our own fondant and tried a variety of techniques for the flowers and ribbon trim. We used a vanilla cake for the brim of the hat and a lemon cake for the crown. The rest of the decoration was done in buttercream.
It’s always fun to be able to do something a little extra for someone who has been good to us. Ray and Joanie both enjoy doing a little more in the way of creativity.
One final look at the entire cake before it was taken to its final destination.