Allison Annear, whose husband is in the Army,  makes cakes for soldiers. She created her first masterpiece in March of 2010.  Photo by Christian Murdock/The Gazette.

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By Erin Prater/Special to The Gazette

It was a recipe for success, though Army wife Allison Annear didn’t know it at the time.

The Fort Carson newcomer was bored to tears after transitioning from busy, single college student to married stay-at-home mom in a matter of months.

“I needed a hobby.”

She also needed a dessert to bring to an Army wives’ barbecue she’d organized.

In an attempt to kill two birds with one stone, Annear crafted a cake that wasn’t just decadent but downright ornate — shaped like a bathtub with a rubber duck surrounded by copious bubbles.

“It’s still one of my favorite cakes, actually,” said Annear, who with a friend organized the popular Facebook group Army Wives Club of Fort Carson — now more than 2,700 members strong — after the barbecue’s success.

“I just thought it looked really cute.”

Her friends did, too. A few get-togethers and cakes later, Annear’s newfound hobby blossomed into Sweetly Sifted, a home-based business specializing in iced cakes and cupcakes adorned with fondant.

“It gives it ‘the look,’” Annear said of fondant, which she described as “similar to Play-Doh” but better-tasting.

Nearly two years after her landmark duck-in-a-bathtub cake, Annear is booking an average of a cake a week, many through her business Facebook page.

“Most of what I do is kid parties because there are a million Army wives, and they all have five kids, apparently,” said Annear, who also bakes “smash” cakes for first birthdays.

If you can picture it, Annear — a former college art major — can replicate it with cake.

Though many of her orders are for cakes shaped like popular characters — My Little Pony, Dora the Explorer, Mickey Mouse — she most enjoys using fondant to fashion original designs and replicate obscure characters.

Her first truly original cake was a massive headless bust of a soldier wearing Army dress greens.

“Everyone was really wowed,” Annear said. “It was a monster of a cake. There were 30 people at the barbecue and I ended up having to take almost half of the cake home.

“I love that cake.”

Like any good soldier, Annear can perform her job in the most austere conditions.

“A lot of my tools aren’t traditional cake tools,” Annear said. “They’re things that I can find just about anywhere.”

So her business is highly portable and perfect for the military lifestyle.

She travels light — except for her 20-pound container of fondant.

“It’s the size of a 5-gallon paint bucket,” said Annear, who moved her daughter and cake business home to Missouri during her husband’s recent deployment.

Though Annear and her family live on the Air Force Academy, most of her clients are wives who live on Fort Carson. Few of them order military-themed cakes.

“I did my first Air Force cake a couple weekends ago for my neighbor,” she said. “I’m hoping that’s going to open doors up here.”

“A lady contacted me about an airplane cake, and I drew up some plans and got real excited about it,” she added. “Then she canceled. Now I’m just waiting to make this cake. I’m working on plans to do a helicopter, too, but I haven’t figured out exactly how to do it yet.

“It’s on my list.”

Annear hopes to find full-time work at a cake bakery. She recently joined Icing Smiles Inc., a network of volunteer bakers who create custom celebration cakes for critically ill children.

Regardless of what deployments and duty stations military life brings her way, Annear knows one thing — cakemaking will always be her creative outlet.

“It’s something that I like to do,” she said. “It’s my ‘me’ time.”