Courtney Lea: Kinda Like Chocolate and Vanilla...Different But Together They Make a Great Combo!

I have a great sister. We are best friends, and I praise the Lord for her often!

While Amber and I are close now though, that has not always been the case. We are five years apart and so growing up we didn't really have much to do with each other. We didn't fight, but we weren't very close either. We were just different and so we did our own thing.

Amber was into things like fashion, make-up, dance, the Royal family (she was a big Princess Di fan!), and socializing. We've always said that my sister could talk to the wall just to be talking. She's still that way, but it's a GREAT part of her personality. She is comfortable with anyone and makes them feel comfortable too.

Me on the other hand, growing up, I was into things like Transformers, Legos, my fashion consisted (daily until about the 6-7th grade) of spandex shorts, a t-shirt, side pony tail and slip-on Keds (NO socks...they were annoying!) My social life looked more like going to catch tadpoles and frogs with my friends on a rainy day or making traps to catch snakes (don't worry we didn't ever actually catch anything).

So I understand how siblings (even twins often) can be COMPLETELY different.

Last week I had the opportunity to be challenged with two sisters who are on opposite spectrums when it comes to their likes and dislikes.

My friend, Liz, has five daughters. Two of them, Emma and Savanna, recently had birthdays. They are two years apart, but their birthdays are only about 9 days apart. Liz wanted to have a party for both of them together, and I LOVE to bake and decorate so I told Liz I wanted to make their cake. And OH! WHAT A BLAST!!!

I talked with Emma and Savanna about what they wanted. I already know these girls fairly well, so I was aware of the challenge ahead of me. Just to give you an idea of my "clientele" here's a rundown on Savanna (turning 6) and Emma (turning 8).

Emma is silly. She makes people laugh all the time just because she is so goofy! She loves Legos, ANYTHING to do with dinosaurs, she wants to be an archaeolgists when she grows up, her favorite colors are green and "sometimes blue", and she is VERY strong-willed and determined.

Savanna on the other hand is the EPIDEMY of a girl! She LOVES fashion, make up, doing her nails, she is sassy as can be, loves pink and purple and ANYTHING that sparkles. In an email I recieved from Liz before moving here she was telling me about her girls and said, "Savanna is 5 going on 35." And that about sums up Savanna :)

They are both beautiful, precious girls!

When talking with them Savanna (who is a bit dramatic...actually "bit" is an understatement) looked at me with pouty eyes when I told them I was making a cake for them together and said, "Uh! That means we have to have a dinosaur cake because Emma loves dinosaurs. I hate dinosaurs." :)

I told her not to worry and asked what she would like. She responded, "Ponies. I want ponies on my cake." Emma with a disgusted face said, "Can you even make a cake that has dinosaurs AND ponies?" I again assured them both that the cake would be fine.

I then asked about flavor (that should be easy), if they wanted chocolate or vanilla.

Emma: "I LOVE vanilla."

Savanna: "I LOVE chocolate SO much!"

Yep...this was gonna be F.U.N!

So I came up with a plan to make a cake they would (hopefully) both like. I have made many cakes before, but not one this big! It was GI-NORMOUS!

I decided to make a rainbow layered cake. I figured with all the colors this would be a good neutral theme for two girls who like completely different colors. I also wanted to give them both their flavors so I decided to make them their own "pedestals" with cupcakes (one with a dino and the other a pony) on top of the main base cake.

My mom sent some cake mixes a while back so I used the chocolate cake mix for Savanna's pedestal and made the rest of the yellow cake from scratch. (The recipe I found was REALLY good, so if you're interested let me know and I'll be happy to pass it on).

I made regular royal icing for the majority of the cake, but used fondant to give each of the girls their respective dinosaur and pony. This was my first experience making and using fondant, and I learned something: fondant and I have a love/hate relationship. It goes like this...fondant LOVES to not cooperate with me, and I HATE working with fondant :)

In the end, the fondant and I found a compromise and I was just happy to be able to give each of the girls what they wanted.

Both Emma and Savanna were EXTREMELY happy with how it turned out. And this of course made it all worth it.

After we started eating the cake Savanna looked at me and said, "Courtney, I can't finish. It's too much sugar." I looked down to see that she had eaten the entire body of her pony! I started laughing and said, "Sweetie, you didn't have to eat that thing. It's pure sugar! It was really just for decoration." Relieved she said, "Okay, good. I think I just want to eat my cake." :)