Hi! I'm off on a vacation next week and therefore I am also taking a blog break. Hopefully you'll come back, I will share my photos from Costa Rica! See you soon.

Beast: I want to do something for her... but what?
Cogsworth: Well, there's the usual things: flowers... chocolates... promises you don't intend to keep...

This is a Belle from Beauty and the Beast and Ariel from The Little Mermaid on this  Disney themed cake. Both characters were created out of fondant. I had the pleasure of baking and designing for a set of twins who are in love with Disney. Happy birthday Christina and Alexandria!

These are photos I took with hipstamatic.
I was too focused on making Belle that I couldn't stop and grab my Canon. Sorry. Next time :)

So pretty much what you see here is the character formed by building the shapes individually out of fondant and put together in layers. Starting with the largest layer, the skin.

Um. I didn't know they had this much cleavage, I guess as a kid you don't notice these things.. but wow. I wanted to incorporate the rose symbolism from Beauty and the Beast so I made a single rose out of gumpaste and brushed with gold.

ps. Can you believe the Little Mermaid was made in 1989?!!

A brilliant, functional design for an espresso set and not surprisingly a best seller from MOMA. We have the best coffee machine in the world, Saeco, but it makes one espresso at a time. When we have family over and all 100 of them would like an espresso, this set would save me from making six trips from the kitchen. Plus I also like that this way everyone gets to enjoy their espresso at the same time. Sure I could just get a tray, or make one, but this is much more fun.

A useful coffee chart from lokeshdhakar.com:

It's a new year and the resolutions are in full force. I am going to guess many of you have committed yourself to eating better, getting in shape, cutting out bad foods. This is excellent. However if you have a sweet tooth like myself it's difficult to cut out dessert. That's where portion control comes in. You can have a slice, just don't eat half a cake. Check out this neat "Wheel of Portion" cake platter at Fred Flare. It's on sale too. $19.

*I am sure this product was designed for fun and is not a tool for portion control, but it inspired me to write this post and it is too cute not to share with you.

ps. Have you written any resolutions for 2012? You should, it helps you to stay on track, accomplish things you want to, and be the person you want to be. Sometimes life gets too busy to set these goals at a random time within the year... the start of a new one really is a good excuse to think about what those goals are. Then subconsciously you have them stored, and you will end up accomplishing them. Winning the lottery is not a resolution or a goal. Tried that.

Have a 2012 resolution you like to share? These are good ones.