Zombie Walk 2010

Yesterday was Asbury Park's Zombie Walk in which Vivacious Cakes was a vendor!!! It was one of THE BEST times that we had! Let me first start off by saying, I love this time of year and Halloween is my favorite holiday!!!
Vivacious Cakes was part of the Zombie-Con which began before the walk was set to begin! We served up some gruesome treats such as hearts, eye balls, brains and bags of bones. The most common response from Zombies passing our table was, "OH MY GOD that looks gross!" This might be the only time that I could say "THANK YOU!" as it was a great compliment! Many stopped to take pictures, which made me proud!

At the last minute we decided to add the Bleeding Hearts to our list of offerings. We combined red velvet cake with cream cheese icing and sculpted the shape of a heart. Then we covered them with a marshmallow fondant and added some veins to them.

After making the hearts, I thought hmmm these definitely need something else to give it a pop! So I added a little glaze and viola! The most spectacularly, make you want to vomit in your mouth, but in a good way Bleeding Hearts! We couldn't keep the hearts in stock! They were a crowd favorite!!!

What do you think? Gruesome enough?

I added some maggots to the brains, I mean come on what Zombie in their right mind doesn't like a little maggot here and there!! Some of the cupcakes looked so realistic that passers by picked them up thinking they were candles!!! Zombies who chose the brains got a pleasant surprise once they took a bite! We filled the vanilla cupcakes with a raspberry filling!

Zombie treats wouldn't be complete of course without eye balls!!! YUM!That's right we included cake pops in red velvet and chocolate!!

At the end of the day we had the best time!!! We met some amazing and creative people! I loved all of the Zombies! One of the goals of the walk was to beat to the Guinness World record, previously held by Seattle. Not sure if it's been confirmed or not, hopefully it was! We are so looking forward to next years Zombie Walk!! We are already trying to think of other gruesome treats that we can serve up! More hearts, maybe some kidneys, a lung? We shall see! A big big thanks to my helpers! My Mom and Danny!!! You guys are the best!!!

Events and off key topics...

This past week we were honored to join a great group of restaurants to help support the Wellness Community "Celebration of Life" event. The Wellness Community helps to provide residents of Monmouth and Ocean Counties with cancer education, support and most of all, hope.

Vivacious Cakes, LLC. donated over 300 assorted mini-cupcakes. The flavors included pumpkin minis with cream cheese icing, chocolate minis with vanilla or chocolate buttercream and vanilla minis with vanilla or chocolate buttercream.

Our table set up!!!

Many people were coming back to our table for 2nds and 3rds!! Before I knew it, all of the mini cupcakes were gone!!! I love the look on peoples face when then taste our cakes! The smiles and enjoyment is one of the best feelings that one could ever have!

It was one of the best experiences we had! We met with great people all around!

Being a part of this event really meant a lot to me. Cancer has affect my family as well as many others. Both of my parents were affected by cancer...

My Mom was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer about 25 years ago, and thank God, she is in Remission!!

Two years ago, my father succumbed the Bladder cancer. I miss him dearly! At times he was a quiet guy but most of the time he had an infectious laugh that cracked you up. There are days where I wonder if he would be proud of me and my caking adventures...I know he would be. I wish he was around to see some of my creations. When I have my moments of doubt in what I'm doing, I wish I had him there to listen to me and say "keep going, this is your dream, it's gonna be hard...it's tough out there." I wish that I had him here to give me pointers in constructing some designs that include using handy man tools! My dad was a great builder, may have taken him a while to figure out how to build a cabinet, but when he did it was awesome!!! Every day I wish he was here! When he came into the house he would sing an off key song that was just on the radio. I miss him so... A few weeks ago on the Grilled Cheesus episode of Glee, Kurt sang a song to his Dad that made me think of my dad, check it out below:

The Adventure Continues!!!

Wow! It really has been a while since I've posted something to my blog. I do have good intentions on posting my thoughts, feelings and adventures on here as frequently as possible, however, sometimes that just isn't the case. I can be in the middle of something and think "Hmm, that's a good idea for a blog post!" By the time I get home, I forgot what I wanted to say!

Since my last blog post the cake biz has been a fun fun ride! I recently put in a application for a new Cake Boss reality show competition. When I sent the application in, I didn't think anyone would even respond to it! Well, I was wrong!!! I was asked to move on to the next step in the casting process, which was to create a video and answer a few questions. So my camera man and I (Mr. B. Keating) filmed all day and even went on the road; OK we only went to Asbury Park, NJ. It was a fun time and interesting to put together. I even went to a psychic to see if she could predict if I would get on the show. $5 and many failed attempts to get me to upgrade on her services, Madame Marie said I would get on the show...

Sorry to say that I didn't make it to the next round. I was sad, but I must say I had a blast putting everything together! This is furthest that I ever thought that I would get, so perhaps next season, I'll make it!!! Some might say, you're a loser for even writing about this...to be honest, I really don't care what you nay sayers have to say.
The big question is: will I watch the new show when it airs? Of course!!! Should there be any doubt?

If you are interested, feel free to check out my videos, click here

That was the end of my summer... Can I just say that I can't believe it's October? Where did September go??? I really can't remember much, except that it was MY BIRTHDAY!!!! Good Times. Now we are here in October, my favorite of all months!!!! Well, besides my birthday month.

I'm calling this Exposure Month! Why you may ask? Vivacious Cakes, LLC. will be at about 3 events getting in front of people I would never be able to reach on my own.

Last week, we were at the American Heart Association Trunk Show. It was great! A lot of fun and great exposure. It was also in an historic Victorian home, which was beautiful I might add! We donated a cake for the event and had cake pops and cupcakes on sale! This was out lovely table:

The cake was a chocolate lovers dream!! Chocolate cake with chocolate filling! All of the guests enjoyed the cake and some took some delicious cupcakes and cake pops home to enjoy!!!

Our next event will be for The Wellness Community of the Jersey Shore!!! We will be donating mini cupcakes for their upcoming event. I'm so exciting to be donating to a great cause!!!

Our final event for October is ending with a dead bang....We will be vendors at the Zombie Walk in Asbury Park, NJ!!! We will be selling Eye balls on a stick, some bones in a bag and some marshmallow rats =)

Well that's it for now, but I will keep you posted on our next adventures!!!! Stay tuned!!!