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!

Three, Two, One, Let it RIP!

Pegasus Beyblade cake for Logan's 6th birthday.

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!

Minnie Mouse Birthday Cake

My daughter is a big fan of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, so I decided to make a Minnie Mouse cake for her 2nd birthday. After looking at several cakes on the Internet, I came across this cake by Ban Bakes, and wanted to do something similar.
Notice the sweet little finger pokes on top? They were from the birthday girl, who sneaked up on the table while my back was turned. It was her cake, so I couldn't get too mad at her. ;)
The base is two 10-inch round layers of strawberry cake with butter cream icing, covered in pink fondant with white fondant polka dots. The head is also strawberry cake baked in a little glass mixing bowl on top of a 6-inch round cake and covered in black fondant. The ears and bow were sculpted from gum paste.

Memo to me: Learn how to better color gum paste black! After attempting several methods of dying and painting the ears (unsuccessfully), I ended up spray painting them out of total desperation 30 minutes before the party. I know, it's not edible, how embarrassing! (Don't worry, we didn't serve the top layer of cake!) Gettting the ears to stay in position was also a nightmarish feat of engineering accomplished by my husband, Mom, and Dad. Thanks guys! Next time I'll get longer skewers; little toothpicks didn't do the job very well.


I wanted to pipe, "Happy Birthday, Hannah" in black, but I ran out of time and powdered sugar. I think the birthday girl liked it anyway.Happy Birthday, Little Lady!

Boston Cream Cupcakes

I made these for a birthday lunch for two of my friends. Yummy dense cupcakes filled with pastry cream, dipped in chocolate ganache, and topped with whipped cream and a cherry. This recipe is amazing! Well worth the effort!

Boston Cream Cupcakes From "The Best of America's Test Kitchen, The Year's Best Recipes, Equipment Reviews, and Tastings 2007"

Happy Birthday Linda and Suzan!

What does a droid taste like? R2D2 Cake

For his birthday party cake, my son asked for his favorite Star Wars character - R2D2! I've been looking at R2D2 cakes online for a couple years now, wondering if I could do it. Here was my chance.

I started with six 8-inch round cakes. I stacked four for the torso and shaped the remaining two for the head. Frosted with buttercream frosting.

I covered both pieces with white rolled fondant and painted R2's head with silver Pearl Dust. (This was the first time I've ever worked with Pearl Dust. I think I over-diluted it with lemon juice and it ran all over the place. To compensate, I added a little cornstarch, but that just made it gummy and gloppy. In the future, I will add less lemon juice or just use it dry. Pretty cool stuff though!)

R2's legs were blocks of rice crispie treats cut to shape...

...and covered with fondant.

Here's R2 stacked and getting some details with fondant tinted blue. (Please don't hate me, Star Wars fans; I know he'd not droidatomically correct! He ended up being shorter than I planned as the heavy fondant squished him down a bit. Oh well.)

Here he is finished: an R2D2 cake! He's not perfect, but my son loved him, so that's what's important!

Mmmm...sprinkle cake!