A wedding in July

This past month I finally got the opportunity to do another wedding cake. This one was square offset tiers (size 14", 10" and 6".) It was a chocolate fudge cake with a buttercream finish. This cake had a very simple and classic design with only the black ribbon and silver dragees. The flowers on the cake are silk flowers that the bride provided and her mom and I placed on the cake when I delivered it. This is a great alternative to sugar flowers if you're trying to watch your budget and I think they looked fabulous.

Feeling Tospy Turvy

A few years ago, when I first set out on this whole cake decorating endeavor I made a topsy turvy cake for my daughters birthday. I didn't have a clue what I was doing and it was a train wreck from start to finish. Seriously, I had yet to even educate myself on the whole crumb coating thing. Luckily, even though the cake looked terrible, it still tasted good. Whew.

Fast forward a couple years and this is what you get. I made this cake for my niece's birthday this summer. It was the first time I had tried making a topsy turvy cake since my first attempt. I was MUCH happier with the results. =) And since I absolutely love the look of topsy turvy cakes I was glad to get the opportunity to redeem myself with this one. I struggled with the fondant a bit, but that's been par for the course lately with the heat. Luckily, a few well placed polka dots took care of the few imperfections. Horray for polka dots!

And at the risk of embarassing myself I have also incuded a pic of the original attempt. UGH! :/

An Apple a Day!

When I think of apples I associate them with fall and . . . teachers! So when I was in need of a clever gift idea for my kids to give their teachers at the end of the year, I knew this was it!! This past Christmas I got a super cute calendar done by the people that do the "Hello Cupcake" books. And I knew there was an apple cupcake in there somewhere. =) Unfortunately, the calendar doesn't give exact instructions on how to prepare the cupcakes, just a labeled picture of the cupcake. For the most part, the pic was sufficient.

I opted to use spice cake and a cream cheese butterecream. Seemed the most appropriate. =) The top of the apple is actually half of a mini donut cut horizontially. This was where I wish the picture had given me a bit more information. My first attempt looked ridiculous because I didn't realize you needed to cut the donut. I chose to use plain donuts so that it didn't distract or clash with the flavor of the cupcake itself. The stem, as well as the seeds, are pieces of tootsie rolls. And the leaves I made with fondant. The ones in the calendar were made with a fruit roll-up but I happened to have a small amount of green fondant leftover from a previous cake.

These cupcakes were overall, very easy to make. The ones with the little bites obviously took a little more time but they wern't difficult. And most importantly, the teachers thought they were great!

Going WILD!

I finally had an opportunity to make an animal print cake! A good friend of mine requested one for her birthday. I always get nervous when I'm trying something for the first time. This was no exception. All those stripes and spots . . . and making BLACK fondant! Oye vey!

First for the cake. The tiers were 8" and 6" of yellow deliciousness. The filling was a simple cream cheese buttercream which I also used as the crumb coat before the fondant. So far, easy peasy. Time to cover it. Now I generally like working with fondant, but this particular batch was being a royal pain in my hiney! I got both the tiers covered, and then stacked. At this point in the process I decided that this was gonna be the ugliest cake I had ever made. For starters, bubbles galore. That's ok, I can handle it. I pulled out my giant sewing needle and started popping. Unfortunately once all the bubbles were taken care of it just looked lumpy and saggy! I honostly don't know what the problem was. But so help me I was determined to make this cake purty! Next, time to tint the fondant black. I've tried making black butterceam in the past and couldn't seem to get past the dark gray stage so I was anticipating a similar problem. Good news for me, it actually wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. The fondant was much easier to color than the buttercream. Granted, my hands turned a lovely shade of purple for about three days but I had BLACK fondant! So now onto the fun part, the actual decorating. Luckily with all the stripes and spots I was able to "hide" the imperfections from the original covering of the cake. Ahh, looks much better now! All it needed was a super fun "topper" (which I just happened to have.) =) and TA-DA! My favorite animal print cake so far. Oh wait, it's my only animal print cake. Oh well, still my favorite!

A boy and his dinosaurs

My son recently celebrated his 7th birthday! The party theme this year . . . dinosaurs! SHOCKER! Although, I am pleased to report that the dino obsession is no longer his ONLY obsession. He has recently started playing flag football. And while he has always "liked" football, now that he's playing, it is making it's way up the ranks and giving dinosaurs a run for their money. But since he had a football party last year, it was a no brainer that the dino's would win the coveted "birthday party theme" award for the year.

My orders were for a cake with a dinosaur scene, including a volcano, as opposed to something carved in the shape of dinosaur. (Thank goodness . . . much less stressful on mommy.) But other than that I had completely creative control. YIPPEE! I love control! =) Haha, another SHOCKER!

So I started with an 11x15 base cake then added a 7" square, and on top of that a 6" round. I then carved the little river out. The volcano is cake as well, made with more stacked and carved 6" rounds. I made the boulders out of fondant and gumpaste and the small rocks are candies. I made some "sand," added a little dino egg nest and wrote his name accross the front. Then finally, I added the little plastic trees and dinosaurs. The cake was my white rasberry almond sour cream cake, filled and topped with chocolate buttercream.

This cake was so much fun to make and the birthday boy (and his friends) loved it. Although at one point I did have to question weather he was really MY son or not because while eating it, the words "too much chocolate" escaped his mouth. WHAT!!?? I have failed as a parent! Ho hum. I just took a deep breath and told him never, ever to repeat those words again. =)

I'm on Purple Overload!

First let me say i'm sorry for the poor quality and coloring of the photo. Bleh! A photographer I am not. =)

Anyway, it's been a very busy and very purply couple weeks for me. =) My daughter is a varsity cheerleader at Rocky Mountain High School. Which, if you've read some of my other posts, you possibly already know. Their colors . . . purple, white and black. This past weekend was their final competition of the cheer season, the Idaho State Championships! And before the big event I hosted a team lunch at our house. And for dessert, I went with cupcakes. I attempted to make the cupcakes look like pom-poms. Because really, is there anything more appropriate for cheerleaders? I also wanted to make them personal so I made little gumpaste pennants and put their names on them. It's hard to tell from the pics but they are also dusted with cake sparkles so that they would look shimmery. =)

And now the most important question . . . how did they do at State? Well, i'm glad you asked. Their squad took first in the stunt routine, first in the sideline routine and second in the show cheer. State champ is then awarded to the team with the most overall points. They ended up in second overall . . . by 2 POINTS! They were truly incredible. I was so proud.

So we had the lunch last Friday. State was then on Saturday. And last night was the end of the year banquet for which I was doing the cake. So more baking, and more PURPLE! I needed to make enough for approximately 130 people. So I opted for a smaller tiered cake and then supplimented with cupcakes. The cake was a white, rasberry almond sour cream cake with a chocolate mousse filling. I did a buttercream finish with fondant decorations. Then I added a gumpaste bow and swirlys. =) The cupcakes were both the white cake as well as a chocolate version with buttercream. It was a hit! Cute and tasty! And people actually commented that they liked my fondant, and that's always a good thing considering there are some mighty yucky versions out there.

Flowers in bloom!!

While it can be completely frustrating, I love trying new things. For my nieces birthday my sister-in-law requested cupcakes that looked like flowers. She tried describing to me something she had seen on a tv show. Not sure if it was my brain, or her explaining but I didn't quite get her description. But I figured I could still make cupcakes look like flowers. And this is what I came up with. A sweet personalized flower pot filled with pretty spring blooms and topped off with pink fondant butterflies! I used tissue paper for the "leaves" but if I were to do this again I would probably go with a silk leaf instead. I opted for a dense white cupcake recipe so that they could handle the "post" through the center without ripping. And the frosting was a straight buttercream. I was really pleased with the result. And the birthday girl was happy as well, and that's really what counts. =)

Are you ready for some football!?

Ok so generally when you think of March you don't usually associate it with football. Well, what can I say... my son started football practice yesterday which reminded me that I hadn't yet done a post of my football cakes. In all fairness, only one is actually a cake. The other is all cupcakes. The football field cake with the helmet on top is something I did for my husbands fantasy football draft. (We're fanatics around here.) =) I was really happy at how the bottom "field" cake turned out. Piping straight lines or number or letters always tends to make me nervous but I think it came out well. I have to admit, however, I wasn't as thrilled with the helmet cake. I'm not sure what color the fondant should have been, but the white just didn't work for me. I'll have to come up with a better plan next time. I considered making the helmet look like his favorite team (the Eagles) but since it was for his fantasy league I decided to take the easy road and just put his league logo, "AQFL." (Armchair Quarterback Football League.) =) And even though it didn't quite look the way I hoped, it still tasted delicious!

The cupcakes were for my sons 6th birthday. Oh my goodness! I can't believe I'm just 4 short weeks away from his 7th birthday! Ouch, my baby is growing up. Ho-hum. Sorry, forgive me, back to the cupcakes. He had a football themed party, obviously. I just grouped cupcakes together in the shape of a football, smothered them in chocolate buttercream and piped on the details. Piece a cake! Haha, pun intended. (Yes, I am dork.) To make sure I had plenty I made some extra cupcakes to look like grass and stuck on the little football decorations that I grabbed from the grocery store. Everyone loved them and with everything else I had to do for the party, I loved how quick and easy this was. Touchdown!!

A Farewell Cake

It's never easy saying goodbye when someone leaves. And while I was bummed out that a friend was moving away, I was pretty excited about making my first "going away" cake. (Shh, don't tell him that. ) ; ) I had been wanting to try my skill at a suitcase for awhile but really had no reason. Finally, a reason presented itself. A friend of ours, Kit, was headed back home to Colorado after living here in Boise for awhile. And what better way to say goodbye then with a party!? And what's a party without a cake!? So to the kitchen I went. I couldn't just make any ole' suitcase cake though. I really wanted it to represent Kit. Now, this is not a guy you would find rolling around some yuppy designer suitcase. He is laid back, grunge at it's finest with a passion for the snow. So with that in mind, this is what I came up with. A snowy hilltop and a vintage leather suitcase propped on top. And of course the little snowboarder in the ball of snow crashing into the suitcase. (It had to have that.) And to make sure everyone new the snowboarder was Kit, I gave him a little red beanie. You'll have to trust me on this one . . . everyone knew it was him. : )

Cookie Creations

One of my favorite things to bake (and eat) is cookies. So while I had originally figured my business would be strictly cakes and cupcakes I have decided to do cookies as well. My first "Cookie Creation" was a Christmas Cookie bouquet. I made 5 of these actually. Chey and Noah's teachers each got one and Isabelle's cheer coaches got them as well. The finished product was wrapped in a clear cellophane bag with a big red bow and lots of ribbon. They were a hit! I also recently made megaphone sugar cookies for Isabelle's cheer squad. For both of these cookies I painted on an icing that dries with a hard glossy finish but isn't super hard like royal icing. And while I am a big fan of buttercream I don't love it for cookie decorating because it can get smooshed too easily. (However, I did use it to put the finishing touches on the Christmas cookies.) The "paint" icing is perfect though. Just the right amount of soft and sweet and it doesn't take away from the delicious flavor of the cookies. For the megaphones I even used lemon as well as vanilla flovoring and it made for a wonderful tasting icing!

Let's hear it for music!

So far i've made two cakes that had a music theme of some sort. One was a guitar cake for the worship leader at our church. He's a good friend of mine and an amazing musician. The other was also a birthday cake for a friend. She a bassoonist and is going to school to be a marching band director. Lucky for me when her mom ordered the cake she specifically said she wanted something simple and round. I don't think I could have made a cake in the shape of a bassoon. = ) The guitar cake is a marble cake. The bottom cake is covered in cream cheese frosting and the guitar itself is covered in a chocolate fondant and decorated with modeling chocolate. I really wanted the guitar to have a wood look to it.

The music notes cake is a rainbow chip cake (the bday girl ALWAYS has a rainbow chip cake on her birthday) with buttercream frosting. The decorations are made with both fondant and modeling chocolate.

A Precious Kitty and A Curious Monkey

This Hello Kitty cake was a cake I made for my brothers girlfriend when they came to visit. (She's a HUGE fan.) It was a chocolate cake with strawberry buttercream frosting and then covered and decorated in fondant. This was actually the first time I made a strawberry buttercream. I sliced up and pureed fresh strawberries and it was delicious! I've seen recipes that offer quicker and easier methods but I don't think I could ever do it another way now. I was eating the leftover frosting on graham crackers for a few days. So yummy! = )

The Curious George cake was for a 4 year old's birthday. It was fun trying to create George flying through the air but I think the puffy clouds and cupcake balloons did the job nicely. This cake was white chocolate cake as well as white chocolate buttercream, with a chocolate buttercream monkey.

I was a little nervous about trying to duplicate well known characters on a cake. I mean, it can't just look like any cat or any monkey. I had to get it right. But overall, I was very pleased at how these two cakes came out and i'm excited about trying more characters.

First Two Weddings

To date I have only done two weddings. The first was cupcakes and the second a three tierd cake. They both were fun and challenging in different ways. And go figure . . . a shade of purple was the main color in both. The cupcakes were a mix of vanilla and chocolate cake with buttercream frosting and little sugar pearls. The topper cake was actually a spice cake with cream cheese frosting, (the brides favorite cake) then covered in fondant.

The three tier cake was a white cake with white chocolate buttercream and then covered in fondant with a fondant ribbon. And I really love the look of the round and square cakes together.