Barter

I traded services with a friend of mine (well, actually more of a family, he's my brother-in-law's brother) who is a professional photographer. In exchange for his daughter's birthday cake that I made just this past weekend (pictured below),

He took pictures of sample cakes I made the previous weekend, which I intend to use for a future website.  The pictures are awesome! They all look amazing! Such a great photographer! Thank you so much Roeddel Dioquino of Side B Digital Services (and Karen too!) for all the amazing shots! I don't know if the cake was enough trade off for your amazing work! Since Roeddel took a gazillion photos, it would be a little too much to post every single one of them.  But here are a few of them:

Behind the scenes.  I was running late when the photographer, Roeddel, Karen (his wife), and Roen (their adorable, now 6 year old daughter) came to my house.  But actually glad that we got to take some pictures while I was working on them.  Izzie was so excited and happy to see Roen by the way! She was so happy to have a girl to play with!

Cupcakes. Always brings you a smile :) Karen actually helped me decorate some of these!

more cupcakes...

and more!

While tinting the frosting, I was getting worried about the shade of blue it was turning out.  But it actually turned out fine.  The daisies were piped in.

I love my bows :) I know it's not edible, but its a trend that I've been seeing--fabric accents.  Especially fabric flowers added on cakes

Another trend, adding "bling".  This was actually a brooch given to me by a friend of mine that I honestly haven't used until now.

The border on this is also fabric.

Love polka dots!

The rosette. The rosettes were not directly piped on the cake.  I piped them first on a cookie sheet to dry then transferred to the cake. I tried piping them first on the cake but it was not holding its shape so I had to pipe them on a flat surface first to dry.

More of the yellow, polka dot cake, and cupcakes, and giraffe cookies.

Yup, they're the 3-D cookies!  Love those cutters! And the kids get so excited to get these cookies! Its a perfect party favor.

More

This is probably my favorite cake of the five I made for the photoshoot.

Love this angle too.

Ruffles, ruffles, ruffles! Ruffled cake, cupcakes, even the ribbon the cupcakes were on.

A different angle...

Makes me want to have one now!

Ok, last one of the purple cake.

Rosette cakes and matching cupcake

I love these dresses!  My sister gave me the cookie cutter for this.  I think she said she got it from Sur la Table.  I know we have William Sonoma around here, but wish there was a Sur la Table too! 

Everything on my dining table!

Didn't really intend to have a picture taken too (you will rarely see a picture of me, especially on Facebook!) but Roeddel recommended that it's probably good to put a picture on my blog profile :)

With the kiddos

I rarely get to have pictures with my kids because I'm usually the one behind the camera.  I had to bribe these two to get in with me! Yup, one of those cupcakes behind.

I didn't realize she got a shot by the cakes...either Roeddel asked her to be in there or was caught in the act trying to sneak some of the cupcakes!

Maybe she'll take over Vanna White's job someday, hahaha

Lovely shot!

I really can't thank Roeddel enough!  Such lovely pictures! I know I can never snap pictures as lovely as these!  Thank you, thank you!  And if anyone in the Washington DC area need a photographer, please consider Side B Digital Services.  You will not be disappointed!! Such awesome people to work with!!!  Please click on this link to check out their work http://www.sidebdigital.com/main.html