Saturday, February 18, 2012

Hello Kitty!


My little Valentine had her 4th birthday party this week - Hello Kitty style! She asked for a strawberry Hello Kitty cake. The cake consisted of a large (14 in?) single layer strawberry round covered in pink fondant topped with a shaped Hello Kitty strawberry cake decorated with butter cream frosting. I added a black feather boa around the base for a little girly pizazz. I put the cake together in about 45 minutes (not counting baking time, of course) and seriously placed the last frosting star 30 seconds before the first guest arrived! Whew!
Sadly, these are the best pictures we got of the cake. I was so preoccupied with the party that I didn't get a good head-on shot of the cake! Sheesh, what was I thinking?! Where are my priorities?! ;) Did you get any good pics of the cake, Mom?
 Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Purse Cake

I work with the teenage girls' group in my church. Every Fall, we hold an event called Young Women in Excellence which celebrates the girls' goals and accomplishments that year. This year, our chosen theme was, "The PURSEuit of Excellence". The whole program was purse-themed - we played purse games, decorated with purses on the tables, gave the girls hand-made purses for favors, and ate purse cake!
I've seen so many amazing purse cakes online and have been wanting to make one for a while, so I was pretty excited to make this!

I started with a four-layer rectangular chocolate cake, filled with buttercream, and then carved it to the shape I wanted. After frosting with more buttercream, I covered the cake in pink fondant and added the "leather" details with chocolate fondant and "metal" details with tan fondant brushed with edible gold dust.

I originally made two upright handles, but as they dried, they cracked and completely fell apart. So I had to salvage the broken pieces to make one handle lying down handle instead. If I were to do this cake again, I would make the purse handles from gum paste rather than fondant and given them a few days to dry and harden before placing them on the cake.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Baby Girls are a HOOT!

I was so excited to make this owl cake for my sister's baby shower! I started with a 10" round chocolate cake, filled and frosted with buttercream and covered in white fondant. The cake side features fondant cherry bossom branches and a monogrammed fondant medallion.

The baby owl, inspired by the invitations, was made of Rice Crispies and covered with fondant.
Cherry blossom branch details.
O is for Okey! With matching (and delicious) cupcakes made by my mom.
Congrats, Sis! I can't wait to meet sweet baby Okey!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Ooh La La!

I made this fun birthday cake for super sweet Jordan, who loves all things French.
This was my first attempt at red velvet cake, as it has always been mysterious and a little intimidating to me before. I mean how do they make it so red?! Well, I discovered the secret - a little cocoa and LOTS of red food coloring! :)

The cake was covered in buttercream frosting and white fondant. The bow and heart cut-outs were made from pink fondant, and the Eiffel Tower and poodles were piped color flow royal icing.

Inspiration for this cake here.
Bon Anniversaire, Jordan!

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Monogrammed Sugar Cookies

I had the pleasure of making some monogrammed sugar cookies for a friend's wedding reception. I loved the colors - teal and orchid!
"R" for the bride's first initial...
...and "J" for the groom's first initial.
Heading off to the reception.
Congratulations, VanLieshouts!

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Three, Two, One, Let it RIP!

Pegasus Beyblade cake for Logan's 6th birthday.


Thursday, February 10, 2011

Kit Kat and M&Ms Cake


Andrew told me he was too old for a themed birthday cake this year, so I threw together this cake based on his love of M&Ms and Kit Kats. I layered two round 12" chocolate cakes with chocolate frosting, surrounded the cakes with Kit Kats, tied the curly ribbon around to hold them in place, and dumped a huge bag of M&M's on the top! Seriously the easiest cake I have ever made! I think the birthday boy liked it too!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Chocolate Baumkuchen

My Mom shows you how to make this very impressive and delicious cake HERE. Yum!

Thursday, April 1, 2010

April Foolin'!

My camera is broken right now, so I thought I would post some pictures from last year's April Fool's Day dinner.

First - dessert for dinner! "Ice Cream Sundaes" made from popcorn chicken, corn, mashed potatoes, gravy, and a cherry tomato on top.
I really got Logan good on this one! He was so excited to have ice cream for dinner! Then he took a bite, got a confused look on his face and said, "This isn't ice cream! It's smashed potatoes!"
Next - veggies for dessert. This awesome cupcake idea is from the coolest cupcake book ever, Hello Cupcake! The "mixed veggies" are really green Runts candies and cut orange Starburst candies.
The "mashed potatoes" are just vanilla frosting with a yellow Starburst candy "butter" swimming in caramel sauce "gravy." For once, the kids didn't mind eating all their veggies!

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Happy Birthday, BSA!

I know this is a little late, but the Boy Scouts of America celebrated their 100th birthday last month. Andrew and I made a cake together for his Blue and Gold Banquet. I wanted to make a rectangle cake decorated with fondant to look like a Scout shirt with the patches and neckerchief and everything, BUT Bryan said I needed to "tone it down a bit" this time. So this is what we came up with. Andrew helped me mix the batter and bake the chocolate cake, then I frosted it with butter cream and piped the royal icing design and Andrew helped me flood the design. Then I added the blue shell border. When we were finished, Andrew asked, "Is there going to be a contest for the best cake? Not that OURS would ever win or anything, I was just wondering." Thanks a lot, Buddy!It's so funny that I have a son in Scouts! I remember going to Pack Meetings and Blue and Gold Banquets with my brothers....and now it's MY SON up there in the uniform doing the silly skit with his den! Crazy! Andrew is really loving Scouting and is especially proud of his uniform. He's even asked me on more than one occasion if he can wear his Scout shirt to school! He has already completed his Bobcat and is working on his Wolf. It's fun to see him so excited about it!