Dreaming in Buttercream

Milton the Dancing Christmas Mouse Cake

2011-12-16T15:58:00.000-08:00

Here is the cake I made for my daughter's kindergarten Christmas program today. They were going to be performing the song "Milton the Dancing Christmas Mouse," and since it's a favorite of mine from when my middle child performed it, I wanted to turn it into a cake. Originally, the plan was to have the fondant mouse on top of a Lego motor tucked down into the cake so that it would actually spin around in front of the tree. That did not work, and rather than pull my hair completely out (lol), I decided to abandon it and just do the still version. I think it was still cute.
I will try to get a version of the song to put on here if I can find it, for those of you who are not familiar...it's super cute.
Merry Christmas, everybody!

Fairytale Tangled Cake

2011-11-13T07:34:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was my daughter Julia's 6th birthday. She and I both fell in love with the magic of the Tangled movie, and so she had a Tangled theme birthday party at our local aquatic center. I decided to try to re-create a favorite scene in the movie, which is the night where Rapunzel and Flynn sing "At Last I See the Light" to one another in the boat, with floating lanterns all around. I made the lanterns out of gumpaste and then dusted them with sanding sugar. The castle is mostly cake, with 2 plastic columns used from the Wilton castle set. The little boat toy was purchased because I decided making a boat out of gumpaste might be a little beyond my skill level :). This cake was really hard to photograph because there was so much dimension to it and I'm not a professional photographer. You'll have to take my word that it was beautiful in person. I often do not like the cakes I make once I'm done, but this one was just my very favorite of all time. I loved everything about it, including the yellow buttercream roses that I conned my husband into making (I took the Wilton class but couldn't ever get it, and then he picked up the decorator bag, looked at the diagram and made them perfectly lol :) Julia insisted on a lemon cake with vanilla buttercream, so most of it was that. The upper sections were butter recipe yellow with buttercream for those of us who don't particularly love the lemon. Anyway, after I got into this project I looked around online some more and saw that others have had the same idea (I thought I was being all original). It's neat to see how everyone tries to re-create this love scene and they all come up with something a little different. Here's my addition to that collection.
Happy Birthday, Julia!

Baby Shower Cupcakes

2011-11-09T12:44:00.000-08:00

I made these sweet baby shower cupcakes for a shower the teachers were having at my kids' school. One of the kindergarten teachers is expecting a little boy soon, and since there was no specific theme, we just went with simple blues, greens, whites, and browns. I made the little booties, the baby quilts, and the onesies out of marshmallow fondant and piped the details on.

Monstrous Bake Day!

2011-09-30T20:50:00.000-07:00

Today was a very busy day of baking for me. It was our kiddos' fall carnival at school and I was asked to bake a Halloweenish cake for the silent auction. I decided to add a cake pop bouquet and an apple pie in hopes that they would earn more money to buy the school a new copy machine.
I found a super awesome monster cake that I absolutely loved and decided to try to make my version of him in purple. Thank you so much, to the original designer (I think it was Jen Adkins) for the idea. Here is the address for the blog where I found the monster cake idea: http://jenadkinsdesigns.blogspot.com/2011/06/sorry-ive-been-miapic-heavy.html I thought it was the most adorable thing I've seen in a long time. I also saw some super cute vampire and Frankenstein cake pops on Bakerella.com that I wanted to turn into a cake pop bouquet. The apple pie is just because I love baking pie the best and we are fortunate to have some of the best apples in the world grown right here in New Mexico. These were the famous champagne apples from Dixon apple farm. Hopefully the school made some good money at the auction!

Happy Dragon Cake

2011-09-23T12:05:00.000-07:00

Today I made a special cake for my daughter's kindergarten class. She goes to a school whose mascot is the dragon, so we decided to make a happy dragon cake for the occasion of their first reward party. Her class has earned a special reward for showing excellent behavior, and so they were rewarded with what they call a "dragon party." The bottom of this cake is a 14" round in devil's food chocolate and the dragon body is made from a Wilton mini doll pan that I figure piped the dragon onto in vanilla buttercream. The wings, ears, and facial features are made of gumpaste.

Orange Creamsicle Cake

2011-08-17T16:14:00.000-07:00

Today I tried a new recipe that I found online. I had tasted some "orange dreamsicle" cupcakes at a cupcake shop this summer and really wanted to try making something like them in the form of a big cake. One of my best friends was having a birthday today and she happens to love fruit; she's always making this mandarin orange chicken salad for dinner it seems, so I thought she might like this. The recipe is at this web address (I baked it in rounds instead of the recommended 13 x9 pan):
http://busycooks.about.com/od/sheetcakes/r/orangecreamsiclecake.htm?p=1
I made the little creamsicle pops and center orange out of gumpaste and the orange slices around the border were little gummy candies I found in the candy aisle of our Walmart.
Happy Birthday, Amy!

Harry Potter Cake

2011-07-28T15:45:00.000-07:00

So, this is my tribute to the Harry Potter Series...a birthday cake for my #1 fan, Griffin (or Griffindor as I called him in my mind all week while working on this cake :). I was intrigued with the messenger owls, particularly Harry's friend Hedwig, so I wanted to feature her in this cake.
The books in the back are covered in marshmallow fondant and the scarf is made of marshmallow fondant. I used edible gold spray paint to do the pages and I also painted edible silver leaf on the wings and feathers of the owl. The owl wings are made out of gumpaste that I rolled out very thin and let dry on a roll of paper towels so that they would be curved. The tiny gold stars are edible and came from Wilton. At the end, I dusted the whole thing in edible glitter.
Hope you have a magical birthday, Griff!

Karate Cake

2011-07-05T16:51:00.000-07:00

Today I made this karate themed cake for my good friend's son who is turning 10. She saw a picture of a cake very similar to this (thanks to the idea, whoever you are on Flicker!) and I switched it to a yellow belt since that is his current level. The gi is made out of homemade marshmallow fondant. I used an embossing tool to get the details on the edges. I don't feel it looks as good as the example, but it was easy and fun to make. For some added interest, I googled how to write "Happy Birthday" in Japanese and piped that on to the top. I hope it's correct :) The cake is butter recipe yellow with chocolate buttercream.
Happy Birthday, Trev!

It all started when...

2011-06-19T22:56:00.000-07:00

So, my mom has been busy going through all of our old family pictures and organizing them, transferring them to other media forms, etc. and she sent me these pictures today of my first experiences with cake decorating. It's good to go back sometimes and remember your roots.
In these pictures, I'm about 6 years old (little older than my daughter is now) and my mom who decorated cakes has just given me the leveling pieces and icing bags to play with. I made my little cakes to stand alongside my brother Jon's birthday cake that she made (he is/was a drummer back then). Love that 70's decorating style, right on! :)

Sweet Sixteen Cake

2011-06-16T16:20:00.000-07:00

Today I finished up a special sweet sixteen cake for a friend's daughter. Her favorite colors are brown, orange, purple, and green, so I worked 3 out of the 4 into the mix (I think green would have made this a mess:) The bottom is a 12" square, butter recipe yellow cake with a vanilla custard filling. The top is a 8" square , butter recipe yellow with raspberry filling. It was freakishly heavy and my husband was out of town, so I managed to haul it out to the back of the van and had my friend drive my van during delivery so I could crouch down in the back and hover over this cake (I was really afraid it would fall or lose pieces). We made quite a picture on the roadway, I'm sure.
This teenager is in colorguard, plays violin and piano, and loves Taylor Swift, so I used edible images to incorporate her interests. I made the gerber daisies and whimsical smaller flowers out of gumpaste. I could tell she really liked it, so it was worth the work and time. I think this will be my last cake for awhile. I am trying to do summer school and raise kids, so I know it needs to be :)

Fox Motocross Cupcakes

2011-06-08T08:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I made these cupcakes for another Fox motocross fan (the brother of the one I did the cake for previously--see picture). I made the stencil out of cardstock and spray painted these using Duff Goldman's new edible cake graffiti color spray in blue.

Red Poppy Cake

2011-05-25T10:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I made this cake for one of my very best friends, who turns 32 this week. I was inspired by a cake I saw online as well as a favorite Georgia O'Keeffe painting we have hanging in our living room. These are gumpaste flowers that I made with real black thread in the middles. It was fun experimenting with flowers again...I think I learn a little more each time I try. The bottom layer is golden vanilla with raspberry filling and the top is triple chocolate fudge with vanilla buttercream. I used the "healthy" shortening this time since my friend is very health conscious (I'm trying to get that way too), and it tasted very good and similar to regular Crisco which is what I usually use. This time I used the "Spectrum" brand shortening that you can find in places like Whole Foods, Sunflower Market, or just the health food section of your grocery store. It is all natural and non-hydrogenated but creates almost an identical texture to traditional buttercream.

New Mexico State Flag Cake

2011-05-13T09:51:00.000-07:00

I made this cake of the flag of New Mexico for my good friend's son's class, as they were having a 2nd grade Fiesta to celebrate the culmination of their studies of our state. "Oh Fair New Mexico, We Love, We Love You So!"

NBA All-Stars Cake

2011-05-07T15:34:00.000-07:00

Today was my middle child's 8th birthday and he was having an NBA basketball party. I asked him if instead of finding a cake idea from the internet, if maybe he would just let me make up a cake from my own imagination. This is the result. We used edible images of his favorite NBA stars (as well as one of him playing b-ball) and put them on sugar cookie stars with colored sanding sugar in the corresponding team colors. My husband made the hoop out of fondant wrapped around a heavy gauge wire and then the basket netting he weaved out of white pipe cleaners (later it was turned upside down to create a basketball crown type of thing for the birthday boy). I piped a border around the bottom of the cake in red, white, and blue for the NBA colors.
Happy Birthday, Clay!

Rainbows & Lollipops

2011-03-20T09:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I got to make some really cute springtime cupcakes for one of my favorite little girls. She is the daughter of one of my best friends and has played with my daughter since they were very little. She was having a rainbow themed party, so her mom saw something similar to these online and ordered the swirly lollipops for these cupcakes. Some were red velvet with vanilla buttercream and some were lemon with vanilla buttercream that I added creme bouquet flavoring to (gives it a lemony, tropical flavor).
Happy Birthday, Savannah!

Motocross Cake

2011-02-25T15:56:00.000-08:00

Today I made a FOX motocross helmet cake for our very favorite kindergarten teacher's son, who was turning 13. She taught both of our boys and became almost part of the family, so it was an honor to make this cake. I had never seen a motocross helmet before she sent me the picture, so it was a little daunting at first, but he really seemed to like the end result! The bottom square is devil's food chocolate and the helmet is red velvet and French vanilla sort of marbled together (see batter picture). I stacked half of a ball cake on top of a 6 inch round on top of an 8 inch round, froze it solid, then carved it to get the shape of the vortex helmet. The sides of the base cake have edible images of the various motocross logos for the equipment he uses. I free hand piped the graphic on the helmet. The visor of the helmet is part of a styrofoam cup that I frosted and put on the top. Tyler's first reaction was the word "siiiiiiick," which I understand is a good thing :)
Happy Birthday, Tyler!

VW Bus Cake

2011-02-05T15:41:00.000-08:00

This cake will be hard for most people to appreciate, I think, but as long as the birthday boy likes it, that's all that matters to me. A friend asked me to make this cake for her brother-in-law who is a Volkswagen fanatic and enjoys restoring these classic VW Buses. This one is not the norm, but rather a rare, VW pick-up style bus with a big metal rack basket thing on top. I had a picture of his most favorite van that he just restored and was trying to copy that, but it's very difficult to translate certain things like that metal rack to cake form. I tried building it out of royal frosting at first, then painting it with edible silver leaf, only to have it break apart (it's very, very fragile stuff). Ultimately, I gave up and cut up a thin wire wastebasket to put back there. Afterwards, I realized it would have been much better if I'd formed the basket, then dipped it in white chocolate, then painted it in edible silver, but some things you just don't think of until it's too late.
Anyway, hopefully the birthday boy likes it. Happy 31st, Jon!

Spencer's Lego Cake

2011-01-23T19:01:00.000-08:00

This Saturday, my oldest child turned 10 and we celebrated with a Lego party. My kids and my husband are all addicted to Legos right now, so our house has been somewhat of a mini Legoland, and the party reflected that. I wanted to do something much more elaborate with this theme for his cake, but he's old enough and opinionated enough now to dictate his own design. This is exactly what he asked for...a 10" round with the Lego logo on a yellow colored buttercream background (Devil's Food chocolate cake) with a simple outline of black piping around the top and bottom edges. I also made these Lego mini fig cake pops that I saw a picture of on Bakerella.com...we gave one to each of the party guests to take home. I thought they turned out cute. The best part of this cake was the cake table (my kitchen island), which had a lego train track positioned around it for the party. The train ran around the cake and was really cool looking (kind of jazzed up an otherwise boring cake)...

Eeyore!

2011-01-03T09:29:00.000-08:00

I made this cake on Saturday, having seen a version of it online that I wanted to copy. My mom-in-law is a huge Eeyore fan, so we decided she had to have a special cake of him on her b-day. Happy Birthday, G-M-O-M!

Lego Cake

2010-12-13T17:59:00.000-08:00

Here is a cake I made for a friend's son who is an avid Lego enthusiast. I guess it looks simple enough, but I think this was probably the most challenging cake I've made to date...because there is so little there to cover your mistakes :)
I think I used a total of 7 cake mixes to make this, as well as some Little Debbie snack cake things (cherry sandwich something or others) to make the studs? whatever those raised up parts of the Lego are called. This was extremely tricky, because if you get the proportions of the cakes or the studs wrong, it looks ridiculous. The cool thing about this cake was that each of the cake's inside matched the outside, like a real Lego brick would be, since I colored the batter to match the frosting. The whole thing is covered in buttercream, rather than fondant, for taste reasons, so that has a tendency to look sloppy, too...overall, I was happy that it came out at all, and that Jacob and his family liked it!

Minnie Mouse Birthday

2010-11-06T18:20:00.000-07:00

Today was my daughter Julia's 5th birthday party with her friends and ever since we went to Disneyland this last summer, she's in love with Minnie & Mickey Mouse. This cake was super simple to do and came together fast...the apples--not so much. I kind of wanted to slap the woman who teaches the little tutorial on YouTube for making it look so simple. The reality was that it was messy, cumbersome, time-consuming, frustrating, you name it. Her little video makes it look like these come together so fast and effortlessly, but that just simply is not true when trying to re-create them at home. If you are feeling masochistic, though, you can watch the video and attempt them yourself. Here's the link: The kids really loved them, though, so I guess it was worth it anyway. Basically you dip a Granny Smith apple in melted caramel, then add 2 large marshmallows for the ears (she makes it look like they just stay in place with a gentle push of the finger, but I had to stab toothpicks in to keep them from sliding off)dip all of that into melted chocolate, attach a red bow (I made them out of fondant), then let all that set up firm, then dip them halfway up in melted white chocolate, quickly put 5 or 6 white dots on (I used white M & M s) then dip in red sanding sugar. Some of the steps I photographed, but by the end, I was so frustrated I had cracked open a bottle of wine and put the camera away to begin cursing this woman :)

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-30T06:51:00.000-07:00

Made these super easy Halloween cakes yesterday for a Halloween party my kids were going to. I wanted something cute and not too scary since it was a little kid party. There is a You Tube video of the tutorial for how to do these if you're interested, go to http://www.mahalo.com/halloween-cakes and scroll down partway down the screen (will say "from YummyArts.com) Very fun and easy to do...

Toy Story Cake

2010-10-19T19:15:00.000-07:00

I came out of my self-declared "cake retirement" last week to make this little cake for my friend's son. He wanted a Toy Story themed cake and I saw this idea on some other blogs; thought it looked cute. I made the headboard and footboard out of sugar cookie dough (colored brown with food coloring), and the comforter for Andy's bed is made out of marshmallow fondant. I've been wanting to try to make marshmallow fondant forever, just never got around to it until now. It was pretty easy to make and I had fun using an embossing roller to give the quilted look to the comforter. The pillows are made out of little pieces of cake covered in frosting and then fondant. The figures are just a little plastic set my friend had bought at Target. Hope you had a great birthday, Jude!

A Blast from the Past...Freddy Fish & Luther Cakes

2010-10-17T09:02:00.000-07:00

As promised, I am going to attempt to put pics up from my first few years of cake decorating. This one was an old favorite...I was asked by 2 of my closest friends to create these 3D Freddy Fish and Luther cakes for their sons who were having a combined b-day party. My boys were into this same computer game at the time, so I was very familiar with the characters. It's a super cute and fun computer game series, if you haven't already seen it.

50th Birthday Cake

2010-10-01T06:54:00.000-07:00

This past summer I was asked to make a very special birthday cake for 2 people celebrating their 50th birthdays. **A word of warning...this will be a lengthy post as this is a complicated, detailed cake that requires a lot of explanation to understand it! One side of the cake represents the husband's interests (fishing & reading), the other represents the wife's fondness for the TV show MONK. The cake top is blue buttercream symbolizing water that falls down either side of the cake. On one side (the side for the wife), the water represents the San Francisco Bay (has Golden Gate Bridge made out of hardened royal icing) and then tons of references to Monk made out of fondant and edible images. If you are not familiar with the show, it is about a germophobe police detective who works with the San Francisco PD. On the other side (the husband's side), that same water becomes a river for him to fish in. He is a prominent businessman here in town, and the scene shows him (made out of fondant and wearing his favorite "Life is Good" t-shirt) sitting on a river bank fishing and reading. His work van is made out of rice krispy treats covered in fondant with an edible image of the company logo. It is parked near the river, as if to show him taking an extended break from work to enjoy his favorite pastimes. This was perhaps the most difficult cake I've ever made. It was completely exhausting! It took about 3 days to make, including baking, sculpting fondant pieces, making the bridge pieces & drying them, and of course making tons of vanilla buttercream. It was a huge cake (wedding cake size), because there were over a hundred guests for the party. It was 3 tiers (16", 12", and 8" squares stacked 2 layers high). When all was said and done, I think I made a total of 9 double batches of buttercream. I was totally stressed out by it and worried that no one would understand the cake, even if I could pull it off. I wonder how people are able to do wedding cakes on a regular basis...my hats off to those of you who do! I was amazed that my Kitchen Aid did not give out from making that quantity of buttercream and by the time I delivered the cake all I could do was sit down and have a bottle of wine to relax :) I doubt I will ever take on a cake of the size again, but I was very honored to have been asked to make it.

Sweet Ballerina Cupcakes

2010-09-26T07:48:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I again broke from my temporary "retirement" and made these cupcakes for Julia's ballet teacher, who was having a recital for the other class she teaches. I thought these turned out really sweet and feminine looking. They are Devil's food chocolate with vanilla buttercream. I made the little ballet slippers using white chocolate candy melts and light pink candy melts. I used my smallest round writing tip, filled a disposable decorator bag with the melted candy and piped them onto waxed paper. It only takes about 30 minutes for them to harden nicely (at least here in New Mexico...) I sprinkled them with sugar pearls in pink, cream, and some of them with little silver dragees.

Playing Catch Up

2010-09-19T20:22:00.001-07:00

Hi there. I wanted to write a little note of thanks to any of you who kindly visit my blog and follow me along on my journeys in cake decorating. I apologize for leaving this blog a little high and dry of late! I recently went back to school for a second degree and am adjusting to life as a student once again. I am hoping to still do a few new cakes here and there this semester, but for the next few weeks I will likely return to the archives of photos I have from my earliest cakes that I never got around to blogging about. It will be fun to take a look back at some of the failures and some of the favorites while I take a little break from baking. I hope you will enjoy seeing some of the cakes I made 9 years ago when I first began this journey...for now, scroll down and you can see the cakes I did in the last month, before I take you back down memory lane :)

Barbie Mermaidia Stage Cake

2010-09-19T20:05:00.000-07:00

Today I made a Barbie themed cake inspired by the Fairytopia/Mermaida movie for my friend's daughter who was turning 5. I always enjoy making cakes for kids, but most especially when the kids know exactly what they want and tell me all kinds of details to include. For this little girl, she really wanted to see blue frosting for ocean with yellow cake inside to remind her of sand, a turtle & dolphin character from the movie, the Bibble character, a sparkly orange or red starfish, and seashells made out of candy. At first, she asked for "saltwater flavored buttercream," but her mom and I agreed that maybe it might be less offensive to the palette if we instead sprinkled the frosting with chunky sugar crystals. I found a chocolate mold and made the shells and starfish out of white chocolate (dusted the starfish in colored sanding sugar to make them sparkle), and then made a key lime filling between layers that was bright green to look like seaweed. The pebbles are edible chocolate rocks I found at Walmart. I was really disappointed with how the Bibble character came out (*had such high hopes for him!), but after 2 hours of re-doing him and fussing over him, I gave up and decided to just accept him the way he was. Hopefully the birthday girl liked this one! It was my first time doing a stage cake. If you are curious about this technique, they are fun to do and very easy. You just bake 2 rounds of equal size (these were 10"), then cut one of them exactly in half and lay it on top of its other half. You can use the elevated area to set the scene/background for all kinds of character cakes.

Ballerina Bunnies

2010-09-11T19:19:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was my daughter's ballet recital. I had volunteered to make a special cake for the occasion and ended up with this. My husband (loyal fondant animal sculptor) made the bunnies and I drew faces and slippers on them using my edible markers and dressed them in little tutus made of tulle. The cake itself was butter recipe yellow with a vanilla pudding filling and vanilla buttercream. The girls had dressed as bunnies, flowers, and pretended to be butterflies throughout this "Spring" themed recital, so that's why all 3 of those elements are on the cake. It was very cute to see the girls checking themselves out in bunny form on the cake (there were 6 girls, thus the 6 fondant bunnies). I was glad to be able to help out!

Gumballs for Griffin

2010-08-08T19:48:00.000-07:00

When we got back from our summer vacation, I stumbled back into cake decorating from a brief hiatus and made this little gumball cake for my good friend Amy's son, Griffin. He was turning seven and has a great love of gumball machines, so it was his wish to have a small family style celebration with a gumball theme. It only took about 20 minutes to decorate this cake (what a refreshing change from some of my 3 day decorating cakes!) I thought it was really cute and we did the inside of the cake with rainbow colored batter with different fruit flavors...I added orange, lemon, and strawberry extracts to the batter and bright vivid food colors. Amy said it tasted good and Griffin really liked it.

iCarly Cake

2010-07-26T14:52:00.000-07:00

I made this iCarly cake for my friend's daughter a couple of weeks ago. She had found a picture of a cake she liked online (thank you to whoever posted it :) and then I changed it a bit by adding the sugar cookie pops which I made by icing round cookies white, placing an edible image of the main show characters on them, and then dusting the edges with colored sanding sugar. I really liked the way the cookies came out with the sugar borders, and the kids at the party enjoyed eating them! The cake itself is a butter recipe yellow, and I divided the batter up and colored some of it purple and some pink (left some the light yellow) and layered it in the pan for a marbled effect upon slicing.

Cute Vampire Cake

2010-07-06T10:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I had so much fun making this birthday cake for my friend's son who was turning 9. His favorite computer game to play right now is called "Transylmania II." It is a super cute game where a little vampire is trying to find his favorite teddy bear that has been snatched by some bad guys. Here is the link if you'd like to play: http://funschool.kaboose.com/fun-blaster/halloween/games/game_transylmania_2.html I had lots of fun playing the game myself before making the cake (so I would have some clue what it should look like :)...He had no idea I was making this cake for him (they did a great job keeping it a secret), he just knew he'd told his mom that he would most like an oreo cookies n' cream cake. While they took him out for a family dinner, my husband and I went over to their house and staged the cake. My friend said that he walked in and immediately recognized the game characters and was so excited. This is the kind of cake that I get the most excited about and enjoy doing, because it's like the child's dream coming true. The cake itself is a deep chocolate from scratch cake that I torted and layered with a cream cheese filling. It has homemade whipped cream frosting with crushed up oreos covering the sides. The top is a circle of fondant that I tinted purple. I had such great fun playing with a food safe paintbrush and black coloring to make the vine details and lettering from the game. My favorite part of this whole cake was the candleabra that I made out of fondant. The coffin is made out of Hershey's chocolate bars that I "glued" together with melted chocolate. This will be one of my favorite cake experiences...Happy Birthday, Trevor!

Galactic Blast VBS Cake

2010-06-25T12:17:00.000-07:00

Today I made a "thank you" cake for my sons' teachers at Vacation Bible School. The kids had so much fun there, as they do every summer, and so we wanted to bake something special to thank all the great staff who make it possible. The theme for this VBS was "Galactic Blast!" My boys suggested that we copy the logo from their camp t-shirts and pipe it on a 14" round cake. The cake itself is golden vanilla and I colored the batter different bright colors with food coloring similar to the rainbow cupcakes featured on Family Fun. We are hoping that when they cut into it, they will be pleasantly surprised by the "blast" of color (pardon the pun)...

Sweet First Birthday Cake

2010-06-19T19:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I made this birthday cake for my friend's niece who was turning one. The top 2 tiers are carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and the bottom tier is butter recipe yellow with vanilla buttercream.

Braces Cake

2010-06-19T13:42:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I was asked to make this cake for my son's soccer coach who is an orthodontist. They were having an open house to show off his new office to the community and the mayor came out for a ribbon cutting ceremony. Dr. Chartier is young and has an easygoing, fun personality, so I suggested we design a novelty cake like this huge smile with braces. The cake itself wasn't cut during the event, so I made these cupcakes and used a cupcake wrapper template to create the wrappers using cardstock in the colors of their practice's logo.

Bakugan Battle Cake

2010-05-09T14:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my son Clay's 7th birthday party. He is really into Bakugan right now, so I tried my best to do something cool with it, and this is what we got. The main cake is a 14" round (3" tall) of Devil's food chocolate with vanilla buttercream. He arranged all of his favorite figures on the cake just the way he wanted. He was very proud of his work :) I cheated a little and used an edible image this time since I was feeling intimidated by the Japanese anime`. My piping skills just aren't quite there yet :)...the fun part of this cake that I thought made it unique, was that I made 6, 6" round cheesecakes using my brother's special recipe. It is special b/c it is made with a sugar cookie crust, so the sides of the cheesecake are all sugar cookie. I made 6" cookie circles out of the same dough and piped the 6 different attributes associated with Bakugan using royal icing. It was great because we were able to offer the traditional cake and ice cream to the kiddos, but also have the cheesecake to serve to the adults. I loved the fact that there were a total of 7 cakes and he was turning 7 (that was just a happy accident :)

Soccer Cake for End of Season Party

2010-04-24T18:00:00.001-07:00

Today we celebrated my son Clay's last game of soccer. His team, the Rams, did a great job and he really grew up a lot through the course of the year as a player. I enjoyed making this cake which is a Devil's food chocolate sheet cake that I decorated with vanilla buttercream using the grass pull out tip and sugar cookies made to look like each of the boy's jersey. Congratulations, Rams!

Rich Chocolate Mocha Cake

2010-04-14T06:42:00.000-07:00

I enjoyed making this cake last Sunday for my friend Erin's mom. She loves mocha and chocolate things, so it is a Devil's Food cake that I torted and layered with chocolate mousse, then frosted in a homemade mocha buttercream. Her mom recently went to Hawaii, so the flowers I made out of gumpaste were inspired by that region.

Strawberry Shortcake Tiered Cake

2010-04-11T09:17:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, I made this Strawberry Shortcake inspired cake for a good friend's daughter turning 3. She is an adorable and super sweet girl, so she deserved a cake to match. I'm so glad it came out cute and she liked it...Happy Birthday, Abby!

Sparkling Twilight Cake

2010-04-04T08:21:00.000-07:00

This weekend had me busy making this enormous Twilight cake for a friend turning 26 who can't help falling in love with Edward :) The smallest tier was her favorite flavor combination (lemon cake with lemon filling), the middle tier is Devil's Food chocolate cake with a rich dark chocolate pastry creme filling, and the bottom tier is a French vanilla cake with vanilla creme filling. Each tier is torted and covered in vanilla buttercream. I sculpted the chess pieces (featured on the cover of the last book, Breaking Dawn) in fondant and made the little plaques out of fondant (wrote favorite quotes on each in edible marker). We added the roses, the feather, the lace ribbon, and the edible glitter to give it that romantic feeling the birthday girl wanted. The entire house was decorated in keeping with the Twilight theme, from life-size Edward, to movie posters and book covers, framed book quotes, and lit candles all over. It was lots of fun. I'm so glad the birthday girl liked her cake...Happy Birthday, Danielle!

Lightning McQueen--Then & Now

2010-04-02T17:12:00.000-07:00

Kapow, Kachow!! Today I made a little 3D Cars cake for my friend's son who is turning 2. Happy Birthday, Jordan! Hope you loved your cake...

Lightning McQueen--Then

2010-04-02T17:03:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of the first Cars themed cake I made (back in 2007)...don't know why I never got around to posting it until now.

Doggy Cake

2010-03-26T18:32:00.000-07:00

One of my closest friends has a little girl who is absolutely crazy about dogs. She decided to have a girly doggie party in honor of her 5th birthday, and this is the cake I created for it. The dog itself was made using the Wilton 3D lamb cake pan. I added a muzzle to make it more doglike by attached a small rice crispy treat to the nose with a toothpick. The tail and legs are also made of rice crispy treats that I frosted. The "fur" is piped on using the grass pull out tip. I extended the ears by adding a lot of piped chocolate buttercream to make them look more like a floppy dog's ears. The hat is just a sugar cone (ice cream cone) that I frosted in pink buttercream and then rolled in pink sugar crystals. The bottom round cake had a slight strawberry flavor to it because that is her favorite flavor. I think the strawberry cake mixes have an overwhelmingly artificial taste to them, so I used a golden vanilla Betty Crocker mix and then took about 1 cup of batter out. I colored this separated cup of batter with a pink gel coloring and added some strawberry Nestle Quick syrup to it, then marbled that into the golden vanilla. It looked really cool and girly and had just enough strawberry flavor. I then made a homemade vanilla buttercream and added the same pink gel coloring and a little bit of Strawberry Nestle Quick to that for the strawberry frosting. The dog was made of triple chocolate fudge cake with homemade chocolate buttercream. I think everyone really liked it...minus the part where the poor dog's head fell off midway thru the party :) Happy Birthday, Savannah!

Happy Birthday, Spencer

2010-01-22T13:26:00.000-08:00

Today is my oldest child's 9th birthday. This is my son who does not like buttercream frosting and usually asks for a donut cake instead (sigh...who can understand that???) He does, however, love homemade chocolate buttercream and some fresh whipped cream type frostings. This year, for his class party he requested a giant cupcake cake. I made the cupcake out of a homemade "oreo cookies n cream cake) which had layers of chocolate fudge cake, cream cheese frosting, and whipped cream, plus crumbled oreos on the sides of the cake. The bottom round is devil's food chocolate with chocolate buttercream. Hopefully I can get it to his classroom intact. Happy Birthday, Spence!

Hello Kitty Ballerina Cake

2009-11-07T18:42:00.000-08:00

Today was my daughter Julia's 4th birthday party. I had so much fun making this super girly ballerina style Hello Kitty cake. I copied a cake I had seen online (thank you to whoever put the original picture up), though I didn't have the same plastic ballerina cat figure, so my husband ended up sculpting this one for me out of fondant. He's getting really good at that! I made the skirt out of a piece of tulle I had bought at Hobby Lobby and made the flowers out of gumpaste. Though it took awhile to make each individual flower, it really wasn't that difficult to do. This is my favorite of all the girl cakes I've done so far.

Yo Gabba Gabba!

2009-10-25T09:55:00.001-07:00

Ok, so personally the Yo Gabba Gabba! show really freaks me out...however, the little boy I made this cake for dearly loves it. I set my feelings to the side and tried to embrace the passion Jude has for this show by covering the cake in bright, fun colors. I think it turned out cute. Happy Birthday, Jude!

Little Mermaid Cake

2009-10-25T09:50:00.001-07:00

I made 2 more cakes this week for a friend who has 3 kid birthdays back to back to back! Her kids (amazingly) were born on Oct. 16, 17, and 18 and are each like 2 years apart. She combined the younger 2 for a party this year and I did simple cakes for the occasion (this one and Yo Gabba Gabba). The weekend before this party I did the wizard cake (see below) for her oldest. It was a fun and busy cake week!

Wizard Cake

2009-10-20T18:24:00.000-07:00

I made this wizard themed cake for my friend's son who was turning 8. I wanted to do an old looking book with these wizard and griffin figurines I had found at Michael's. We thought he might like to have those as a keepsake from his party. My husband thought of looking for some sort of incantation online, and so we found this one and just modified it a bit. I tried copying various Harry Potter fonts and piping them on the pages and then made the bookmark out of fondant. My husband couldn't stop shouting "The Wiiiiizaaard!" (as from the cell phone commericals). It was hilarious...

Harley Davidson Cake

2009-10-01T19:04:00.000-07:00

My husband's boss came to town from out of state today and it was his birthday. Apparently he is really into Harley Davidson, so his wife requested this theme for a small cake they could enjoy at their hotel (he brought the family here for Balloon Fiesta). I saw some really cool Harley cakes online and borrowed this idea for the fondant flames on the sides and the logo on top. The cake itself is butter recipe yellow with a vanilla pudding filling and homemade chocolate buttercream. He was super excited and surprised and even asked to have his picture taken with my husband and the cake. I liked how it came out, and my 8 year old liked it so much that he now wants to have this theme and the same exact cake for his next birthday party. This is the same child I've mentioned before who normally hates frosting. He's decided he loves chocolate buttercream with yellow cake and he's nuts for the filling in between layers. I think it reminds him of the creme fillings they put in donuts (he's my donut kid). Hopefully he'll change his mind before his birthday since I don't really like making the same exact cake more than once. Time will tell...

Peaches & Strawberries & Cream Cheese Oh My!

2009-09-26T19:10:00.000-07:00

Today was my good friend's birthday, and she had asked me if I thought I could re-create a special cake she remembered from her childhood. I was happy to have a challenge like this. It was challenging because we were dealing with nostalgia (which you can never really compete with) and also because she and her husband are vegan now. The original cake was made with all of the usual ingredients, but this one had to be 100% vegan. What she remembered of the first cake was that it had fresh peaches, strawberries, and white cake, with some kind of creamy & tangy frosting. I ended up making a butter recipe yellow cake with a vegan cake mix (Cherrybrook Kitchen using Nucoa non-dairy margarine instead of butter) and torting it. In between each of the 3 bottom layers, I put slices of peaches & strawberries and drizzled some of the syrup they were in (I had put them in water with fresh lemon juice and sugar) over the fruit. The frosting was homemade vegan cream cheese which I made using the Tofutti "Better than Cream Cheese," Nucoa non-dairy margarine, powdered sugar, and vanilla. I thought the fake cream cheese had a nasty aftertaste, so I added fresh lemon zest and some creme bouquet cake flavoring. I doubt it was too much like the original, but she seemed to really like it!

Firetruck Cake

2009-09-20T10:05:00.000-07:00

This weekend I made a fire truck cake for a friend's little boy who was turning 5 and is just crazy about all things from the rescue theme. I love making cakes for kids who are this dedicated to the subject matter! I saw this little guy playing at the park last week and he was all decked out in his rubber boots, rescue vest, and plastic fire helmet insisting that the other kids at the park were in need of a rescue. My husband made 2 of the little dalmations for this cake out of fondant (thanks Travis!) and my friend Amy suggested making the border look like flames by using red and yellow buttercream piped on with the leaf tip. The bottom sheet cake is a butter recipe yellow cake made with my favorite recipe for homemade chocolate buttercream (added super black coloring to it), and the top truck is devil's food chocolate cake (cut up a 13 x 9) with vanilla buttercream. Most of the truck details we made out of fondant, and some of them we painted with edible silver dust (horn on top, side gauge paneles, side mirrors, etc.) I hope you loved your cake, Philip! Happy Birthday...

Homemade Chocolate Buttercream

2009-09-19T17:15:00.000-07:00

I found this recipe a couple of years ago online and have been using it ever since, any time I need chocolate frosting. It is the best chocolate frosting I've ever had...it tastes like homemade chocolate ice cream. I usually double the recipe...
*Tip* If you want a deep black color like I have on the secret agent cake or Star Wars cheesecake shown in this blog, it is better to start with a chocolate frosting like this rather than going from a white frosting (will take much less color). My favorite cake colorings are the gel paste colors sold by Americolor. I particularly love their "super black" and "super red" because I can't detect a taste, they come in a plastic bottle with a flip top lid, and are far less messy and troublesome than the Wilton cake colors. You can order Americolors online at the pastry shop websites...they make really awesome colors to pick from.

Ingredients:
1 stick butter
1/2 cup cocoa
4 cups confectioner's sugar
~1/4 cup milk

Directions:
1. Beat butter on high for about 30 seconds, until soft.
2. Add cocoa and 1 cup of sugar and beat until incorporated.
3. Add half of the milk and the remainder of the sugar and beat until well incorporated.
4. Continue to add milk until you get to the consistency you want.

Tinkerbell & Friends

2009-09-05T18:16:00.001-07:00

Today I made a cake for my friend's daughter who was turning 5. She bought the set of Disney Tinkerbell & friends figurines and I arranged them on tiers of cake done in the Wilton Petal pans. I used fondant cutouts of leaves and the grass pull-out tip to make the grassy border and the inner part of the flower. The birthday girl was super excited about her special cake and her mom even decorated the whole house to look like Pixie Hollow. It was really pretty and I was happy to be a part of it.

A Look Back at Tinkerbell

2009-09-04T06:59:00.000-07:00

Tinkerbell's House

2009-09-04T06:52:00.000-07:00

Last year I created a fairytale mushroom house for my friend's daughter who was turning 4. This is what we imagined Tink's house might look like. I made the cobblestone walkway out of fondant with the cobblestone patterned roller and then brushed brown cake coloring over it. My friend wanted the overall feel of it to be less Tinkerbell and more fairy woodland fantasy, so the cupcakes I made are just of butterflies and caterpillars (I made the butterflies out of white chocolate).

Tinkerbell Fantasy

2009-09-04T06:41:00.000-07:00

Super Mario Cake

2009-08-14T18:18:00.000-07:00

Here's my most recent boy cake, a Super Mario cake for a friend's child. He was turning 6. I ordered the figures from Ebay (they were each about an inch tall) and had him arrange them the way he wanted. I piped the "goombas" and other key characters from the game out of buttercream. The clouds were my favorite part of this cake! I piped them on with my largest star tip at a swooping angle like I would if I were piping buttercream onto the top of a cupcake. This gave it more of a 3D effect that I was very happy with.

July Cakes

2009-07-30T20:42:00.000-07:00

July found me making a simple wedding cake for fun (not a real wedding...thank goodness!) and Fancy Nancy themed purse cakes for my friend's daughter. I learned how to do a couple new things this month...attaching real satin ribbon to a wedding cake (I lightly "glued it on by patting it gently onto completely dry/set buttercream and then pinning it with a satin hatpin) and covering a mini cake entirely in fondant to make a bag-shaped purse (see slideshow). It is always a rewarding month for me when I try something new and even better when I'm successful!

Sweet Wedding Cake

2009-07-12T20:30:00.000-07:00

My MOMS Club had a special wedding themed Moms' Night Out activity in July of this year. I offered to make a cake for it and came up with something I thought was very simple and sweet. This is a small wedding cake made entirely vanilla...layers of French vanilla and golden vanilla cake with my favorite vanilla buttercream frosting (I use Paula Deen's recipe b/c it has more butter than shortening and it tastes awesome). If I had it to do over, I would add a vanilla custard in between the layers. The topper is one of my favorite figurines from the "Pretty as a Picture" collection of keepsakes. I loved these so much that the characters were on my actual wedding invitations 12 years ago. It was great to see them atop this little cake.

Purse Cakes

2009-07-05T13:48:00.000-07:00

I made small individual cakes for my friend's daughter and each of her guests at her 4th birthday party. She chose which purse would be for each of her friends and then I monogrammed the cakes for each guest. This was for a Fancy Nancy themed birthday party.

June Cakes

2009-06-30T20:58:00.000-07:00

I only did one cake in June of 2009, but it was an interesting cake for me since it was so different from what I usually do! I attempted free-hand piping a corporate logo for my husband's company picnic. This was 2 half sheet cakes stacked on top of each other, so it was very tall (and very yummy!)...devil's food cake with vanilla buttercream (my personal favorite flavor combo).

The Best Vanilla Buttercream

2009-06-20T18:47:00.000-07:00

This is my very favorite buttercream recipe. It is Paula Deen's, so it's extra buttery and really amazing. It is a bit thicker than the traditional buttercreams used in cake decorating, but if you whip it a bit longer it is totally workable. I do a non-dairy version of it using Nucoa non-dairy margarine (comes in the gold box) that is possibly even better than the regular. I love to use that one when I'm making cakes for kiddos who have dairy allergies.

This recipe makes about 5 cups of frosting

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
1 cup vegetable shortening (I use regular Crisco)
8 cups confectioner's sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:
In a large bowl, beat butter and shortening at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually beat in confectioner's sugar until smooth. Beat in vanilla.

Applied Materials Cake

2009-06-06T20:52:00.000-07:00

My husband worked for Applied Materials for about 10 years, and as he was leaving them to begin a new career with another company, he asked me to create a special cake with their logo on it for the company picnic. Here is my attempt at a corporate, semi-professional looking cake (those of you who know me know I mostly just do goofy kid cakes :)

May Cakes

2009-05-30T08:30:00.000-07:00

May was an extremely busy cake making month for me! I made my son Clay's 6th birthday cake, cupcakes for his kindergarten class, a graduation cake for his class, and one of my best friend's 3oth birthday cake. It was lots and lots of frosting, all month long...busy, busy, but I was really happy with how everything turned out. Here are some pictures of the cakes I did in May.

30th Birthday cake

2009-05-29T12:23:00.000-07:00

For my friend's 30th birthday, she was having a very special Hawaiian themed girly party. The invitations were handmade by another friend of hers in a scrapbook style with tropical paper flowers. I tried to duplicate the flowers in fondant and handpainted each one with a pink pearl dusting powder. I made the number 30 for the top out of fondant as well and painted it with the pink pearl powder. I was happy with the glossy effect and overall it captured the spirit of the party. The cake colors also matched the invitation, with the pinks, black, and cream colors.

Modern Girl Baby Shower Cake

2009-05-20T12:15:00.000-07:00

I did a baby shower cake for a friend who wanted a super modern, clean looking girl shower cake. She found a picture of one online that I tried to duplicate with a few personal touches. I used fondant cut outs for the polka dots and to make the large bow on top. I used the Wilton square wedding pan set for the cake itself.

Kindergarten Graduation Cake

2009-05-15T12:03:00.000-07:00

My son's kindergarten class was known as the "Berglund Bears." I decided to do a 3 dimensional teddy bear cake using the mini Wilton 3D pan on top of a sheet cake. Each student's name was written on tiny fondant bear cut outs which make up the border for this cake.

Beach Monkey Cake

2009-05-07T08:33:00.000-07:00

Extreme Chocolate Monkey Cupcakes

2009-05-05T12:10:00.000-07:00

For my middle son's 6th birthday, I made him monkey themed cupcakes for his class celebration. He is really into what he calls "extreme chocolate" thanks to Dairy Queen's blizzard campaign of that name. These were extreme chocolate in that they were made of Devil's food cake, homemade rich chocolate buttercream, and chocolate fondant monkeys. He was super happy with them.

Girly Bowling Cake

2009-02-16T18:37:00.000-08:00

In February of this year, my friend's daughter was having a party for her 9th birthday at a local bowling alley. She's a girly girl who wanted a semi-sporty bowling themed cake all done in pinks, so I made her a pink bowling ball cake (used the Wilton 3D ball pan) iced with pink buttercream frosting (used wax paper to smooth it out after the buttercream dried) with a border of tiny bowling pins I had pre-made the day before out of royal icing. After I finished the cake, I decided I really wasn't happy with how it looked, so I went back into the kitchen and baked giant sugar cookies in the shape of bowling pins (baked a cookie stick in each one), so that the mom could stand the pins up behind the ball once they got to the alley. I felt like that added detail gave the cake the balance, symmetry, and height it needed. In the end, I was happy with it and I really hope they were too!

Super Mario Donut Cake

2009-01-22T16:53:00.000-08:00

As I've said in another post, my oldest child hates frosting...such a disappointment! This past year, he turned 8 and had a slumber party birthday with only 3 other boys. It was a nice size party and they had a great time. He requested a donut cake instead of a traditional cake b/c of the frosting issue. He absolutely loves donuts. So, we decided to do "cake" for breakfast right before the guests were picked up and arranged donuts from Dunkin Doughnuts on a cupcake stand. He decorated the stand with his favorite print out of Super Mario (the fire Mario) and put a cupcake pick of different video game characters on all the different donuts. It was colorful and fun and took about 5 minutes to assemble once we had donuts in hand. The boys really loved it.

Pokemon Cookies

2009-01-22T16:47:00.000-08:00

Much to my horror as a cake baker, my oldest child hates frosting! He did not want a cake or cupcakes for his class party or home party this year, when he turned 8. He asked if I would make sugar cookies for his 2nd grade class instead. He wanted a Pokemon theme, so I just cut out circles and iced them to look like Pok-e-Balls using powdered sugar glaze in red, black, and white. He was thrilled with how they looked and tasted and said the class loved them...something a little different from the usual cupcakes. What's wrong with these children? Everyone knows cupcakes are the most wonderful thing in the world :)

Girl's 1st Birthday Cake

2008-12-12T21:12:00.000-08:00

My good friend and neighbor wanted to have a Christmas party birthday celebration for her daughter who was turning 1. Her birthday was the middle of December. I decided to do a present cake for her in red & white, with silver snowflakes. I thought it looked sweet and festive.

Curious George Cake

2008-10-16T19:33:00.000-07:00

My friend asked me to make a Curious George themed cake for her son who was turning 2. I was a bit nervous to make it, because I had never made a vegan cake before, and she had bought me a special vegan box cake to make. It was the Cherrybrook brand in a vanilla flavor and it was actually really delicious. I loved the buttery flavor and the unique texture it had. My favorite part about this cake is the little beach ball next to George. It just didn't look right with a one dimensional piped ball on the top since Curious George is 3D (it was a candle she gave me), so I rolled a little ball of fondant and piped the beach ball details onto it. It's funny how sometimes the best parts of a cake are the parts you really didn't plan on initially!

Pirates of the Caribbean

2008-10-15T19:42:00.000-07:00

My friend's son who was turning 7 wanted a Pirates of the Caribbean cake. She had originally planned to make his cake herself, so she had ordered a special edible image online that he loved. When she asked me to make it instead, she gave me the image to work with, and I was a bit unsure of how it would come out, since I'd never worked with one of those before. It was so cool! I was really surprised at how easy it was and how much I liked it. I don't think I'd use them all the time, but I definitely think they are a fantastic option if you need a whole lot of photographic-like detail on your cake. My favorite part of this one was the frosting I smoothed onto the sides. I loved the way the color of the buttercream came out. It took a lot of trial and error, but I eventually got the color to exactly match one of the reddish brown colors in the image.

Cinderella Cake

2008-10-15T08:39:00.000-07:00

This was a very simple cake I made for my friend who is vegan. She had ordered the edible image online and the Cherrybrook brand cake mix, then ran short on time and asked if I would bake and put it together for her. We thought it looked very sweet with the glass slipper on top and it tasted great.

Sophisticated Princess Cake

2008-10-12T08:17:00.000-07:00

Last year, one of my husband's best friends wanted to surprise his girlfriend with a romantic birthday surprise. He had planned to take her to Santa Fe for the day at one of those upscale day spas for an afternoon of pampering and then a special dinner at a fancy restaurant. He wanted a cake worthy of a princess for the occasion and this is what we came up with. I made the cake and then he hid it from her on the drive up there and had the wait staff at the restaurant bring it out after their dinner. This was a French vanilla cake with a raspberry filling, iced in vanilla buttercream, chocolate ganache over the top, and then dusted with powdered sugar and embellished with fresh raspberries. I found the little crystal tiara at Walmart in the wedding section for less than $5. Sigh, it was so romantic and he was just so cute about the whole thing...made me kind of miss those dating days.

Circus Cake

2008-09-28T14:25:00.000-07:00

This was a clown themed cake I did for my friend's son who was turning 6. He had a huge carnival themed party.

Dragon Cupcakes

2008-09-14T06:27:00.000-07:00

My kids go to an elementary school where dragons are the mascot. Their school colors are red and gold. Last fall, my younger son's kinder class earned what they call a "dragon party" for doing good deeds. We decided to make these little dragon cupcakes for the class party. They were a big hit and easy to make...just lots of figure piping.

Tropical Flower Cupcakes

2008-09-03T20:18:00.000-07:00

I made these cupcakes for a friend whose daughter was turning 1. She had a beautiful tropical backyard party and had custom ordered invitations to match the flowers on her daughter's dress. I tried to match the colors and flower shape exactly. I added coconut extract to the vanilla cake batter and a little bit of creme bouquet flavoring (has a light tropical flavor) to the buttercream and filled each cupcake with apricot/pineapple preserves. The flowers were made of gumpaste. I had to cut out each petal by hand and then push them together and let them dry upside down before applying them to the cupcakes in order to make each one look exactly like the flowers used in the invitation. It was tedious and time-consuming, but the results were worth it.

Cinderella Doll Cake

2008-07-05T21:08:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I do a cake and I just never end up liking it. That's the case with this cake...Cinderella should have been so simple, but because her dress was so very simple, there really wasn't enough detail in it to look special in cake form. Oh well, maybe someday I'll tackle her again...

Flower Pot Cupcakes

2008-06-10T08:49:00.000-07:00

One year, my MOMS Club had a garden themed end of the year banquet. I offered to make the favors, which were individual terra cotta pots with cupcakes inside. I used the grass pull out tip to frost them in a bright green and then put a fresh flower in each one (I put the stem of the flower into a cut up plastic straw to protect the cake from the stem), and bought little plastic gardening picks wrote each mom's name on the pick, so they became like name cards for the table. It made the table very colorful and was lots of fun to do.

Crazy Monkey

2008-05-07T10:31:00.000-07:00

When my middle son who is obsessed with monkeys turned 5, we had this huge monkey birthday party for him at the park. We hired someone to come out in a monkey suit and play games with the kids. It was super fun. He wanted the craziest looking monkey we could come up with for his cake, so here it is. I didn't like the way it looked at all, but he loved it, so that's what matters. Many of the details on the monkey face are made out of homemade modeling chocolate. This was my first time making modeling chocolate and I couldn't believe how easy it was to make or how much fun it was to work with. I found the idea for the cupcakes online and tried to copy it and the cupcakes went to his preschool class celebration. They were a big hit! His favorites were the ones with the red m & m eyes because they looked the craziest to him.

Goodluck in Vegas Cheesecake

2008-03-16T08:03:00.000-07:00

A couple of years ago, a good friend moved to Las Vegas and we wanted to have a special going away party for her. She's not much into traditional cake, but she's a real cheesecake lover. Fortunately, my brother Jon has the best cheesecake recipe on the planet (he created it). It is unique in that it has a sugar cookie crust. The crust has almond extract and tons of real butter in it, so it's rich and buttery and just awesome. He often doubles the crust recipe and uses the rest of the sugar cookie dough to make cut outs for embellishing the cakes and then he usually puts some type of frosting on them. My favorite part of this cheesecake was the sides. My husband suggested cutting out little dice out of the cookie dough and having pairs of dice all the way around the outside of the cake, with each pair adding up to 7 for good luck. She loved it! We miss her so much, but we hope she's having a good life in Vegas.

Jungle Diaper Cake

2008-03-10T19:35:00.000-07:00

Yes, my love of cakes extends to non-edible cakes as well. I love making themed diaper cakes for baby showers when the occasion arises. This one was for a friend who was having a boy and had registered at Target. One of my best friends who was also invited to the shower went together with me on purchasing all the diapers, ribbons, stuffed animal, and lots of different baby care products to tuck in (most of it was the Burt's Bees line). We thought it turned out super cute!

Snow White

2008-03-06T20:58:00.000-08:00

I have made many different doll cakes over the years, but I think this Snow White one may be my favorite so far. I love the details of her dress...they were so distinctive & colorful, that they made it very easy to copy and translate to cake form.

Sally

2008-03-06T19:46:00.000-08:00

Last year, I was asked to make a feminine looking car cake (in the style of Cars the movie) for a little girl who was turning 5. I decided to do a car using the Wilton 3D cruiser pan and to copy some of the features/colors of the Sally character from Cars, but instead of blue, a more purplish blue since purple was her favorite color. I absolutely loved the way it came out! I have done car cakes before, but never one like this. I brushed edible silver leaf powder onto the fondant hubcaps and used fondant and food coloring markers to create the cartoon face. My favorite part of this cake, was a last minute detail...decided to do a license plate with her name and age on it.

Strawberry Shortcake

2008-03-06T19:42:00.000-08:00

This was a Wilton cake project they had titled "Bevy of Berries," which uses the newly updated Strawberry Shortcake pan (not the one from my own childhood). It was time-consuming to make, but I loved the way it turned out. I made this for twin girls who were turning 5, for their preschool class party.

Wiimote Mini Cakes

2007-11-08T09:06:00.000-08:00

So, my husband's birthday has kind of been pushed into the shadows ever since our daughter was born...her birthday is just a few days after his in November and it tends to take our attention front and center. One year, I took the leftover cake batter from her huge cake and made these little Nintendo Wiimotes out of mini bread loaf pans. They were cute and only took a few minutes to make and he was just happy to get a birthday cake again...sorry Travis!

Pokemon Cake

2007-09-16T21:18:00.000-07:00

A couple of years ago, my boys and their friends started to get into the whole Pokemon craze. Will it ever go away? I was asked to make a Pikachu cake for a friend's nephew and decided to try doing him in 3D form. I used the vintage Wilton Care Bears pan, trimmed off the ears and part of the face, made the Pikachu ears and tail out of yellow fondant, and then drew some of the details onto the fondant with edible markers in order to give it that cartoon/animae feeling. Since the party was going to be pretty big, I placed the character on top of a 12 inch round cake that I had iced in red, black, and white to look like a Pok-e-ball. I learned so much about Pokemon doing this cake!

Boy's 1st Birthday

2007-09-10T08:13:00.000-07:00

One year I had a friend whose little boy was turning 1 and she wanted a simple, but special cake in the shape of a number 1. I made a half sheet cake and cut it out in the 1 shape, then decorated it by free hand piping designs of all of his favorite things (balls, firetrucks, etc.). It was very cute. Sometimes the simplest cakes are the best cakes.

Girl Baby Shower Cake-Jungle Theme

2007-09-03T16:33:00.000-07:00

One of my friends was throwing a baby shower for our mutual friend a couple of years ago and she asked if I would make the cake for it. This was the guest of honor's 2nd child (1st baby girl), and she is very modern, sophisticated, and likes clean lines. I tried to match the design of the cake to the invitations for the shower, which had the nursery colors of lavender and green in them. The invitations had little jungle animals in the pastel colors (lions, giraffes, etc.), and so I free hand piped them onto pure white vanilla buttercream. I then measured where the lines would be piped for that part of the design, spacing over exactly 1 1/2 inches so that it would look neat and perfect. In the end, I felt this cake really reflected her style and was a nice centerpiece at the shower, so I was happy with it and I could tell she loved it.

Race Car Cake

2007-08-14T12:43:00.000-07:00

I used the Wilton race car pan to make this simple cake for my friend's son who was super into cars. This was devil's food chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream.

Summer Flip Flop Cake

2007-07-29T12:32:00.000-07:00

One of my best friend's was having a "shoe" themed party for her daughter who was turning 2 and all about shoes (as was my daughter at the time...fun party for us!) We decided that since this was a summery birthday (July), that we would do a brightly colored flip flop cake. The bottom cake that the flip flops are resting on was a homemade scratch carrot cake with a yummy cream cheese frosting colored pale pink (this one was for all the grown ups at the party). The flip flops were cut cakes (I think they were yellow cake) with vanilla buttercream. I used fondant cut outs to make most of the flowers in the pattern, 2 pre-made icing flowers for the toe piece, and rolled pieces of fondant to make that part of the shoe itself. It was a really cute party.

Space Shuttle Cake

2007-07-07T19:56:00.000-07:00

One of my best friends has 2 boys whose birthdays fall in the same month, so sometimes they have a combined birthday party. One year their party together was a space theme, and so she and I came up with this idea of a 3 dimensional rocket ship with a picture of each boy inside the capsule. I love the way it came out! She took pictures of each of them and printed them out on digital "shrinky dink" paper and baked them, so they stood up and were hard cut out type figures. We used a clear plastic cup for the capsule. The sheet cake that the shuttle sits upon was iced black and then decorated with sugar cookies I had made in the shape of all the planets. I used a powdered sugar glaze in different bright colors and swirled some together to make them look more interesting. It was really a neat looking cake and I think the boys got a kick out of seeing themselves inside the shuttle, ready for blast off!

Superman!

2007-05-07T08:26:00.000-07:00

When my middle son turned 4, he was completely absorbed in superheroes. He absolutely loved putting on his superman jammies with the cape and running around saving the day. I was lucky enough to find a vintage Wilton Superman pan at a yard sale which I picked up for a song. Sometimes you can find real treasures for cake decorating just by yard saling a bit. There's always someone's grandmother getting ready to retire her pans, so keep your eyes open for this stuff if you ever want to get into cake decorating. At this party, we had a kiddo coming with dairy allergies, and at the time I didn't know how to make a good non-dairy buttercream. We ended up making chocolate cupcakes with the superman stencil (my husband cut one out of cardstock) and powdered sugar. I loved the way they turned out. The biggest thing I remember about this cake was how sick I was when I made it! I had a really bad sore throat virus and was just miserable, but I was determined to make it through the party. If I had been feeling well, I'm sure I would have had a better plan for where to place his candle! It's now the running joke, when we look back at the pictures...

Chocolate Chip Moose Cake

2007-04-24T19:28:00.000-07:00

My little nephew's nickname is "Moose," (we are originally from Alaska), so when he turned 1, I told my brother (his dad) that I wanted to make him a moose cake. I cut out the shape of the moose's head and ears out of a half sheet cake and then made antlers out of homemade chocolate chip cookie dough. I frosted him smooth in homemade chocolate buttercream frosting and then added the eyes and other details by piping them on with vanilla buttercream. We thought it was really cute & fitting for him on such a special day.

Pirates of the Caribbean Treasure Chest

2007-04-07T12:16:00.000-07:00

A couple years ago I made this treasure chest cake for my nephew. You can see how I got the shape of the treasure chest propped open by cutting pieces of cake. What I did was to bake cakes out of a rectangle shaped casserole dish/stoneware pan I had (2) and then I baked 2 mini loaf pans of the same cake and cut them at a diagonal to make little wedge shaped cake pieces that would hold it open. I then frosted it with chocolate buttercream and decorated it with mini yellow and red m & m candies and red fruit by the foot. My kids helped to stuff the treasures inside that are spilling out. We used chocolate coins, candy necklaces, ring pops, and plastic jewel rings. My husband had the idea to put a piece of purple Laffy Taffy candy in the microwave for a few seconds and then shape it into a keyhole/lock for the front of the chest. Unfortunately, the cake never made it to the party as we got stuck in an ice storm trying to get it there and had to turn around and come back. We enjoyed the cake, but the other guests never got a piece. I guess that's what happens when you live in New Mexico. Sorry, Cameron! Thank goodness G-MOM came to the rescue and made an emergency sheet cake that she decorated with pirate ships. That's what grandmas are best at...

Secret Agent Cake

2007-01-22T16:35:00.000-08:00

When my oldest son turned 6, he had the coolest spy themed party. We searched everywhere for a fun cake idea and came up with this briefcase. It was one of the easiest cakes I've ever made...just a half sheet frosted black with fondant details that I brushed edible silver powder on. My mom suggested making the magnifying glass out of sugar cookie dough. We drew a pattern onto the dough, cut it out, and cut a circle out of it. We then crushed pineapple lifesavers up into tiny pieces and baked them into the cut out hole. The result is that they melt clear, so you get a cool stained glass effect. I had to post a picture of the boys dressed up as spies for this party, because it's one of my all time favorite pics of them.