Castle Cake

This week I made a Princess Castle cake for a little girl's 4th birthday party. I was given the instructions that the cake should be pink and purple, and girly. Here is the result.

I have never made anything like this before, so it was fun to try. I think on the whole it turned out well.

CARS

And for my next trick...I will turn this lump of cake and icing into a cute little "Cars" cake :)

First you make and stack the cake.

I started making some of the add-on's a couple days ago. That way, you can put the cake together pretty quickly after it's stacked and baked.

I made some of the signs that would go around the cake.

These are letters of his name done first in chocolate, then covered in non-perils and outlined in icing.

Then carve our the road, cover it in fondant, stack that bad boy up, and start assembling:)

I think the little touches like are the things I enjoy doing the most.

A view from the top.

I suppose this is the back, but it's decorated all the way around. I really liked the street light sign...thought it turned out super cute.

And here is a view from what I suppose is the front of the cake. Not bad for a days work.

Beach Blanket Bingo anyone?

This cake was made by request for a woman named Donna who is having a birthday. I was asked to make Choc. cake with Raspberry butter cream. Really...it's hard to go wrong from there.

There were 3, 9 inch layers.

It was to be a beach/ocean theme, so I went with it. I made sure not to fully incorporate the color into the fondant so it would be swirled. I made the shells out of molded chocolate, and used crushed graham crackers for the sand.

The fish and sea weed was made out of fondant. The treasure chest is 2 chocolate bars with yellow non perils.


I think it turned out very fun, and summer-y which was the goal.

I think Donna will enjoy it.

Old Faithful

So today I decided to make one of my favorite things...Jam Thumbprint cookies. The recipe is from the barefoot contessa (I will post the recipe later). It's totally simple, and delicious!!!

There are just some basic ingredients...in fact you probably already have this all in your kitchen...except maybe the coconut.

After the dough is mixed and chilled. You roll it into one oz. balls and put them first in the egg wash, then roll them in the coconut.

You press down the middle and fill it with Jam. I use raspberry preserve...


and apricot...both flavors work really well.



bake and enjoy...SOOOOO good.

Fun with cupcakes

So, today I thought I would play around and decorate some cupcakes that I had left over. And here are the results.

it's amazing what you can do with some jelly belly's and a cupcake.

Put 3 together end to end and...

Throw one of those corn on the cob holders on the end, and there you have it.

I used some melting chocolate to try to make the butterflies.



I think the blue one turned out the best. Also, they were supposed to have antenna, but I didn't make them thick enough to stand up...so for next time, I will do that.

Pretty though.

SPLAT!!!

This is a cake I made for an 11year old paintball birthday party. It is yellow cake with vanilla butter cream. I really liked the way this cake turned out...but more importantly...I had SO much fun making. it.

I made the guns out of gum paste...my first time working with it. So many possibilities...cant wait to do more. The "paint balls" are gobstoppers. I covered the board with different colored fondant that I rolled together. I thought it just brought it all together a little more.

I made the paint splatters and the bulls eye out of fondant. I really like the effect with the bright colors.

Jen does like a good martini

So I volunteered my services for a cake for my good friend Jen. She is quite the happy hour hostess, so a cake celebrating that seemed appropriate.

I covered it in yellow fondant and piped on the words, and the martini glasses. When they were dried, I painted the stars and the drink in the glass.
I used fondant to make the olives and thought they were super cute for being so simple.

It was a chocolate cake with vanilla butter cream...a good way to end a fun night.

Little Einsteins

So my neighbor has a little boy, and he is into little Einsteins. She asked if I would make the cake, and I figured this would be the perfect time to start working with fondant. I never took a class, but I guess I thought it couldn't be THAT hard. Surprisingly enough...it's not.

So I covered the cake in white, and used food coloring to paint it blue. I rolled out some green fondant to make the hill border, and painted on the trees around the side.

The clouds are made with white fondant and brushed with luster dust to make it shimmer. They wont taste good, but they looked great. Luckily there was a large amount of butter cream inside.

I piped the border on and put the figures on that the mom had bought for it. I was pretty easy, and looked perfect for a 2year old.

Party Time

So for Abbey's 6th birthday we decided to have a Wall-E / Eco friendly party for her. All the kids got planter boxes full of "green" themed treats. All green M & M's, seed packets, ect. They were all personalized (hello time consuming), and had matching pots in which they planted plants at the party. It went over well, and the kids all seemed to really enjoy it.

I have decided that everything is better for kids if you personalize it.

Abbey had a Wall-E and Eve cake. The lettering didn't turn out quite right, but it didn't matter too much since I decided to go with "plant" cupcakes instead.

These are the "plant" cupcakes. They are Chocolate cake with choc. frosting. I then crumbled up left over choc. cake and rolled the cupcakes in it to look like dirt. I made the plants out of green melting chocolate on some wax paper freehand.

When they were set up, I brushed them with some luster dust to get them to sparkle a little bit. Then set all the cupcakes on a tray and put the "plants" in them. Over all...very cute, and pretty easy too.

Close, but...

So, I should start by saying the I wish I had taken better pictures of these...I didn't think they were too special, so my phone picture will have to do.

These are "pool ball" brownie bites that I iced and rolled in sprinkles to look like pool balls. They were a fun little snack to have at our "beer fest" party where we christened our new pool table.

Here are some "spaghetti and meatball" cupcakes. Really they are just chocolate cupcakes that are in a baking dish instead of on a tray, and rather than frosting them you pipe out a small string of vanilla icing. The "meatballs" are Ferrero Rocher dipped in strawberry ice cream sunday topping. The kids liked them, and they didn't taste half bad either.

What a Zoo

A friend and I worked on treats for her daughters 1st birthday party. It was a zoo theme.

First we worked on sugar cookies. A little time consuming, but well worth it. Be careful though, if it's humid, that black will bleed.

The flamingo was my favorite.

I called this one Harry Elefonte

You can see this one starting to bleed a little bit...august sucks.

And here is the cake (mostly board) that I made for her to dive into. There were cupcakes for everyone else to eat...but this one turned out nicely. We used Cheerio crumbs for the dirt, and different colors and piping tips for the grass, stones and water.

3 for 5

So for Abbey's 5th birthday, I decided to make a 3 teir cake. It was my first attempt at something this big, but it wasn't too bad.

I started with the crumb coat.

Next was icing the whole thing yellow. It was going to be a Curious George birthday party, so I went for a more golden yellow

Then came the red border with little white sprinkles.

Finally came the fondant balloons, and the gifts for the top.

And last was putting George on top and piping the words around the side. Over all I think it turned out really well.