I really wasn't ready to try and sell cakes when I ordered these cards, but Vistaprint had a great sale going on, and I knew I would eventually need them. 

After being asked for business cards at dad's birthday party, I decided that i needed to start really practicing if i was ever to actually sell a cake. This strawberry topped chocolate ganache cake, was that first practice cake. I had such a good time making it. the bottom tier is 3-9" rounds and the top is 2-6" rounds. Each round was separated by a thin layer of buttercream, and a made from scratch strawberry filling. the entire cake is was iced in a bourbon vanilla buttercream and topped with dark chocolate ganache and glazed strawberries. it was delicious.

Record Cake for dad's 50th

This record cake was my next lesson in cake decorating. It was baked for my dad's 50th birthday and presented at a 50's themed surprise party. I did all the baking and decorating at my aunts house to avoid spoiling the surprise.  I was really nervous about this one because the party was kind of my culinary debut. But despite my trepidation I think it turned out pretty great, and the party goers started asking me for business cards! a very awesome experience
     The cake is a cherry-chip cake with a black cherry filling. the decorating was pretty simple. My biggest problem was making the icing as black as possible. It seemed like no matter how much color gel I used, I could only manage a darker shade of gray. I did some research online, and found out that if you start with dark blue or purple, then add the black from there, the icing will become black. I started with a dark blue base and added about half a bottle of Wiltons black gel into it, and eventually came out with a suitable black. after frosting the cake, I used the serrated edge of a bread knife to get the record's grooves and a piece of white fondant for the label.
       If I could go back and do it again I would have changed the border around the record to a black and white twisted rope, and replaced that white center-piece fondant with an actual food-safe printed record label that read "Randy's 50 greatest hits."