I took some time off and I don't regret it one bit.  I still kept my orders that were in place but it allowed me to soak in a few moments here and there over the last 3 months. 

My sister in law got married.  My oldest got his second degree black belt.  My youngest entered her first gingerbread contest and took home first place.  And we got our basement repaired from water damage and I got some painting done.  Time well spent.

I also finished up the gingerbread piece that was meant for nationals.  Nationals take place in Asheville, NC and it was understandably cancelled this year as some places are still dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene that came through in September.  With my mom's advice, I decided to donate our piece to the regional library in my hometown.  They enthusiastically jumped on the opportunity to house the piece. 

Everything is made with food grade materials like construction grade gingerbread, ginger clay, graham crackers, fondant, pasta and cinnamon sticks.

My orders have been slow on purpose lately.  There has been A LOT going on here at the Nadeau household. Kids busy with school and karate, a new robotics club, my sis in-law getting married, prepping for gingerbread nationals, etc.  I'm still posting on Instagram when I can but the blog has been affected. So enjoy just a small snippet of orders here. 

I'm trying to take more  constructive breaks.  I really am.  But cakes and postings and sometimes customers are, honestly, a little draining this year.  I don't know what it is. I am hoping that I get back in the groove of things soon.   

But first up...a vacation to Boston and the Cape next week.

The mom sent me the Moana toys because she was obsessed with the baby Moana on top.  But i just knew I needed to get Tamatoa the crab on there as well.

This one was hard below.  I had to redo the face and hair 3 times.  But I did get to play around with some rice paper and coloring to make some cool edible seaweed.

This was a first for me!  I got to make a cake for a young man earning his Eagle Scout badge!  Don't let the image fool you.  This cake was big enough to feed 50 people!

This next cake had me and the mom going back and forth between plastic toys, sculpted fondant, and printed images.  For budget sake, we stuck with the edible images to make this super sweet first birthday cake.

And...we started baking gingerbread!!!  I am so excited for this year's project!!

I think I just made my 7th soccer cake of the year.  Messi, Ronaldo, Mbappe...they have all been represented.

And I also got my first AI generated inspiration pic!  There was a TON of detail so we stripped out some of the confusing parts and came up with a really sweet 70th bday cake for a friend's mom.

And Mario continues to be strong heading into the summer.  It took forever to smooth out the buttercream on this star but thrilled with how it turned out!

The mom had one request for the below cake.  "I want sad beige mom vibes".  I will be honest in that I had to look that one up!  But she was very happy so I think I nailed it.

Melted frosting splatters, rainbow swirls, and mini lollipops below.  It was a LOT but the bday girl was ecstatic.

I have been busy making all sorts of cakes.  Floral tea cakes, cat astronauts, kindergarten art, and more.  

The cake below uses the amazing digital artwork by Brooke Rankins.  You can find her gallery on Instagram at @brookescanvas

The cake below features the artwork of a homeschool group of young kiddos.  The mom coordinating scanned the images and I was able to print on my edible ink printer.  I did have to go over some of the lines that printed too light but that was easy with food color markers.  

We are almost to the end of the year people!

Mario has made a resurgence in 2023.  A LOT of my cakes went simpler with buttercream sides.  And we still have people who forget that colleges can have graduations in December.  Ha.

Winter grad babies hold a special place in my heart since my husband and I both graduated in December.

One more cake to go after Christmas and we can call this year a wrap!

It's been a little bit and I can explain.  I cheated on cakes a little...with gingerbread.  My neighbor (and gingerbread pro) asked me to team up with her this year for the National Gingerbread Competition that takes place every November in Asheville NC.  The beautiful Grove Park Inn hosts the competition and it is simply a magical time.  

I went with Grier last year as her personal support person and enjoyed the perks of her 2nd place win from the year before.  She didn't place last year and wanted to get back on top.  

Now that the competition is over, I can safely say we made the top 10.  We didn't place in the top 3 that get to claim the prize money.  But as my first ever national competition, I am beyond thrilled to make the place we did.  The other top 10 entries were incredible and I am so happy for everyone that was up at the table with us.  

I will have more pics to come and may even make a "gingerbread" tab to show progress photos.  But until then, here is a photo from registration to enjoy.  

Nevermind.  That was just Hurricane Idalia clipping the area with it's rain and low humidity drop.  

But in other good news, we had a new macaron store come into downtown Cary called Mon Macaron and it's magical.  I grabbed rose, cherry almond, vanilla and wedding cake macarons for this sweet anniversary cake.  

And it's not every day that you get to make a Titanic themed cake for a 9 year old.