A Touch of Golden

A Touch of Golden: original watercolor paintings and greeting cards, as well as custom cake information.

From creative cakes to art lessons, I’ve always used my passion for art to express my love to family and friends. Growing up, I remember watching my Mom bake birthday cakes for my siblings and me. Each year, she would pull out two baking books filled with pictures of “cutout” cakes made with elaborate shapes for us to choose our favorite design. From lions to Mickey Mouse, this always felt so special, and the tradition stuck with me.

As I grew older, I began to tap into my own artistic expression, eventually earning a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts degree. When my husband and I started our family, we chose to homeschool our three girls. Moving around as an Army family, I decided to stay at home with the girls, and we created our own traditions to keep us grounded in the midst of life’s changes, including designing elaborate cutout birthday cakes. My mom gave me copies of her books, and I started with elephants and Winnie the Pooh characters when they were young. As my girls grew older, they began to request themed cakes based on their favorite activities or interests, so I set the recipe book aside. My cake design portfolio grew to include ladybugs, castles, horses, teapots, violins, ice skates, candy replicas, and stacks of books. I planned and sketched each of these cakes in advance, decorating them using a simple butter cream and a butter knife. I would often get creative and use candy or cookies for the details.

Throughout their younger years, I also taught my girls art basics, either one-on-one during their schooling or alongside their peers through local homeschool groups. These basic lessons on perspective, drawing shapes, and shading helped maintain my own art skills in the midst of full-time motherhood.

After my youngest daughter went to college, I decided to extend my skills and began to practice baking more unique flavors, designing more traditional layered and tiered cakes, and learning to pipe, spin, and scrape for detail. At the same time, I also dove into refreshing my painting skills. Watercolor was one of my favorite college art classes, so I started refresher painting courses to revive the skill. In addition to the “assigned” projects, I began painting my own landscapes and flowers, and my daughters suggested my artwork should be on greeting cards.

In 2021, my eldest daughter asked me to make her wedding cake. Tiered, with multiple flavors, and decorated with mountains and forest, I was so pleased with the finished product. I felt like I had perfected my cake baking and flavoring with altitude adjustments and I received many compliments. After this event, the initial idea of an artistic business evolved into an actual goal. With even more cakes baked for family and friends’ birthdays, graduations, and anniversaries under my belt since then, and many more paintings completed, I now feel prepared to offer cake decorating and design and beautiful greeting cards to a broader audience. I’ve so enjoyed tapping back into my creative side through watercolor and cake design, and I am excited to share that work with you.