FAVORITE FRIDAYS!

Happy New Year to All! And with that one of my resolutions is I am going to trying to stay in touch with you all more. (Yeah, yeah, I know it's only January... let's see if I will say in December that I was successful.)

So in the spirit of that, I have developed...(Wait for it) FAVORITE FRIDAYS!!
Every Friday I will showcase one of my FAVORITE and inspiring Talents!

This week..
Anna Hightower - of Anna Cakes!!!
"Me and my daughter Marlee at the Your Wedding TV bridal show in September. (above) She is the best helper/mascot ever!"

For those of you who don't know Anna, you are missing out.. She is INCREDIBLY talented, and one of the most fun and positive people I've ever met. Oh and her cakes not bad either :)

As you can see by the cakes below, she is very talented. I can't even make cupcakes look this good. Some of you may know that I have a quiet obsession with (yes paper, that's a given and not quiet..) Amazing Wedding Cake reality shows.. And this girls deserves one of her own. She not only has the talent for it, but a sense of humor and personality to rival Cake Boss, Ace of Cakes, the list goes on. Then I can sit cozy on my coach and watch her genius weekly- on Sundays. (yes that is what I do on lazy sunday afternoons. I call it WORK RELATED RESEARCH!!)

I sat down with Anna recently and I found out some interesting things! Take a gander below at the amazing cakes and her commentary on each!!

I always love when I get to see the invitations at a cake design session, because they are so graphic and literal -- a good one will jump-start my creativity. It is very easy for me to translate that into a cake design. The above is based on an invite one bride brought to me. :-) 

This was my 1st ever sea shell cake -- made it my 1st year in business. It was a last minute order, and I had no idea how to make it when I agreed to the contract...so it was a total experiment. I used molds for the shells and free-handed the coral in white chocolate. I was so proud of this thing! Since, I have done a million of these, but this was the original.

This was my cake for the charity fundraiser cake competition "Let's Eat Cake" in Gainesville last year. Kerry Vincent was one of the judges (ala Food Network fame) and as evil as she seems on tv, she was actually extremely sweet in person. I didn't win, but I was happy with our cake. It was definitely the most original wedding cake there.

Cake I made for my friend Molly Brown (Cinematique Films) and Sharia Riley's (Style House)
Grand Opening Soiree!

another cake inspired by their invitations...

Getting to meet new and interesting people is one of the best parts of my job! This suitcase wedding cake was for one of the coolest couples I have had the chance to work with. The bride was American, and the groom was English (OMG his accent!) and they LOVED to travel. Each of the luggage "stickers" represented something or someplace meaningful to them.


For those of you who get so frustrated with planning your wedding you want to shoot someone... DRUM ROLL....... THE GUN CAKE!

  This cake was absolutely the hardest cake I have ever had to do. My husband and I worked all day and night on this thing! It was 2' x 3' and had to be the EXACT replica of the Beretta 92 FS handgun. I was hired by Beretta last year to make this cake to feed 200 people. It was given to Mr. Beretta himself, (the richest man in Europe, they kept telling me. Ok! I get it!!! LOL) to commemorate the signing of the largest gun contract with the US Military since...I don't know, WW1 or something. Anyway, it was a big deal...and they said Senator Clinton and Tom Seleck would be there. But they weren't. pahaha
 

This is just a tip of the iceberg people. Check her out, you will NOT be disappointed. Oh and P.S. I hear she can replicate WOOD texture like mother nature herself!! :) (sorry a little inside humor there.)

Thanks Anna for taking the time to sit down and contribute!