Cakes by Jodi (Allergy-friendly!)

     So, I was sitting here earlier, wondering why in the world I haven't posted about Cakes by Jodi.  Jodi offers wonderful fondant cake/cupcake/cookie toppers along with cakes, cookies and pastries.
     How did I find Jodi?  It's actually a pretty funny story.  When Logan was diagnosed with food allergies a month before his last birthday, I entered a state of full blown panic when he announced that he wanted a Barney cake.  How could I tell this kid who is accustomed to getting whatever he wants on his birthday cakes that he could not have a Barney cake?!?!? His food allergies aren't his fault and I didn't think he'd understand that I wasn't being mean.  I was determined to get him his Barney cake- even if I had to make it myself.
    As his birthday approached, I searched for a bakery that would do an egg free cake.  None of our grocery stores (or Walmart) will because their cakes are premade and shipped in frozen.  I found ONE place that would do it and that's our local natural store- The House of Nutrition.  I contacted the baker and she was going to make us a cake with Barney colored sugars.
    My next task was to find something to decorate the cake with- and I'm not a baker or a cake decorator so it needed to be easy.  I couldn't find any Barney cake decorations or small Barney toys.  I checked Target, Toys R Us, Party City, and a handful of grocery stores and came up empty handed.
    One day when we were driving home empty handed, I turned to DH and asked, "why haven't I checked Etsy? I'm SURE I can find a cake topper there!".  When we got home, I set out to do exactly that.  I found several but this one stood out the most:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/79360894/kai-lan-edible-fondant-cake-topper

     I contacted the shop owner to ask if she could do a Barney topper.  At some point, I happened to look at her shop location and my jaw just dropped.  She's local to me!  My next question was, "Are you really in Dallas? Could I possibly pick it up instead of having it shipped?  I just looked at your Facebook and see that you do cakes too-do you do egg free cakes by chance?".  Well it turns out that she too has a kid with food allergies so she's all too familiar with egg free cakes!  Jodi saved the day at that point and created a Barney cake for Logan that he was very excited over.

     To give you an idea of how talented she is, I provided a picture and asked for her to alter it a bit.  I wanted Barney and BJ's hands to be closed and holding some balloons. This was the original image:

and here is her end result:

     Her work is truly beautiful and the cake was delicious!  Since August, I've tried some different cake recipes and found one that I like so I'll be making Xander's cake but I turned to Jodi again for our topper because I still haven't tried to work with fondant on my own (though I hope to soon).  I gave her the birthday invitation that I created for her to use as inspiration and she did beautiful work again.
     The invitation:

     The cake topper:

     I couldn't be happier with her work and I love that she's so close by so I don't have to worry about shipping costs.  We hope to have her make Adam's cake topper too.  She has made this journey through a life of food allergies easier.

     Please go check out her Etsy and her Facebook.