Nautical Baby Shower Cake

This request came from my cousin's wife. It was a baby shower for a co-worker. The duties were split up to make it easier on everyone and she was assigned the cake. I think she was actually happy to have the cake because she knew she could just show me the invitation and I would handle it...lol. This is what I came up with.

The invitation had chevron on it and the plaque is in exactly the same shape as the one on the invite. The napkin had an anchor on it. I added the whale and sailboat.

Golf Cart Cake

This was my dad's birthday cake. Ideas for his cakes are not easy to come by so I wracked my brain and came up with a recreation of his golf cart. He drives around the back yard and around the neighborhood visiting friends with his ice chest and my dog, Sydney. He is a retired deputy sheriff so he has red and blue lights on it and runs them whenever possible...the only thing missing is a siren.

A really fun cake to do and he was amazed that I was able to build his golf cart to near perfect scale...:) I'll end this post with a valuable lesson that I learned from my dad and use in my cake decorating.

Measure twice, cut once! :)

Avengers Cake

My nephew, Ryder, is turning 3. I can't believe that he is already three. He (meaning him and my brother) chose an Avengers theme this year. I have to think that Ryder may have been nudged in this direction by my brother because he sent me a text Saturday morning asking me how it was coming and for me to send him pictures. He has NEVER done that when I'm working on a cake for the kids, him or my sister in law so I'm thinking he was looking forward to it. Big 'ol kid.

The first thing I made in advance was Thor's hammer and I forgot to take a picture of it before I covered it in fondant. It was made of rice krispy treats with candy melts holding it all together and smoothing everything out. I used pre-made treats again. It worked out perfectly and is way easier than slaving over a big batch of RK treats just to make a 4 inch by 4 inch square.

I always have a great time making cakes for my niece and nephew. Its a labor of love.

My biggest concern was doing the Hulk's face, but I have to say that I did an OK job. This is the picture I followed to get the details right.

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday Rydie! I love you!

 

 

Hawaiian Luau Cake

I had a blast doing this cake. It was my neice, Faith's 12th birthday. My parents, Faith and myself had a HUGELY anticipated trip to Hawaii planned in June and her birthday fell on our first full day there. We celebrated her birthday at home the weekend before our trip with what??? A Luau of course. We had to get geared up for island life.

I put a Tiki Hut on top of the cake, the top tier had "Happy Birthday Faith" written on it in Hawaiian....of course :)....and the bottom tier was a tiki face.

For the topper I wanted to use rice krispy treats as the structure for the base of the hut...however I don't have the time, energy or patience required to make an entire batch of treats for a 3.5" by 3" square. So I took a short cut that I will take again in the future whenever possible...I used the premade treats that come in little squares, individually wrapped. For the shape I was going for they worked like a dream. I put four of them together with white chocolate in between each one to make them stick together and then covered the outside with the white chocolate also.

After that I used a bamboo mold and fondant to cover the base of the hut, stuck each piece on and dusted the whole thing with petal dust until it looked right to me.

For the top of the hut I used wood skewers and Styrofoam to hold it all up...then textured and placed the fondant on the Styrofoam using piping gel to make it adhere. Then dusted on color again.

I just placed the tiki face on piece by piece. I had high hopes for him and he didn't turn out quite how I wanted him to, but he was still pretty cool. I also made gumpaste flowers for the first time...the hibiscus shown were the second set that I made because I broke my first two. I also threw in a couple of pineapples, a drink in a coconut and a surfboard.

Beatrix Potter Baby Shower Cake

Imagine my surprise when I got an email from Cake Central Magazine inviting me to submit a cake for the Beatrix Potter Baby Shower issue. I was asked to send in pictures of a cake designed around Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes. There was no guarantee I would be chosen and the submission was due in March, but the issue wouldn't be released until June.

This was...hands down...the most agonizing three months of my life...waiting to find out if I had been chosen....UUGGHH.

In the end the waiting was worth it. I WAS CHOSEN!!

Yaaaayyyyy....Here are some photos of the cake.

These are the two photos that I used for inspiration.

St. Louis Cardinals Birthday Cake

I did this cake for my co-worker's husband. I did the logo and the pendants that make up the name out of fondant and piped the threads.

Black Veil Brides Cake

I wasn't able to get good pictures of this one but I'm posting it anyway because I'm pretty proud of the Black Veil Brides logo. I made it myself out of gumpaste for a friend's, daughter's 16th birthday. It was a lot of fun putting edible metal spikes on a cake. :))

Young Marines Graduation Cake

This one gave me the opportunity to use the edible ink printer that I got for Christmas. Exciting!! A simple, clean cake for a young man graduating from Young Marines Boot Camp.

Popcorn and A Movie Cake

I can't believe I haven't posted this cake sooner. My camera was dead when I finished this one so I took the pictures with my phone and then never transferred them to my computer...therefore spaced posting them. I LOVE this cake. I did it for my dad and it captured him so well that I honestly don't know what I'll do for him on future birthdays. My family is and always has been very into movies and my dad is all about popcorn and a Snickers bar. The design was perfect and the flavor was pecan praline, which was pretty much heavenly.

The popcorn was made out of marshmallows. These are so small that I worked on popcorn for what felt like forever and this was all I ended up with. Haha. The bag is frosted in buttercream and I printed a picture of a popcorn bag in the size that I needed, cut a template and then cut the stripes out of a red sugar sheet. I made the movie reel out of gumpaste so that it would harden and the clapboard is chocolate fondant colored black. The candy bar is real. : )) I love you dad!!!

Woodland Animals Baby Shower Cake

I did this cake for a co-worker (I have a day job...Boooo). The cake design was based on her invitation.

Really cute right? Woodland animals are so popular right now.  I did the bottom tier with the trees and deer on a blue background. I printed the invitation, cut the deer out and then laid them on rolled out fondant and cut them out with an Xacto knife.

The middle tier is ivory with a band around it that mimics the pink trim on the invite, light pink with darker pink blossoms, and her name.

There is no hedgehog on the invite but I currently have a hedgehog obsession...so she was cool with me adding one. I tied it in by adding the pink blossoms randomly to the top tier as well.

There is a tiny little bird in a nest in the tree so I decided to make that the topper. I made a mommy and daddy bird with an egg.

For the stand I used a bowl I bought at a discount store...obviously made of really thick glass. I did cut dowels and tape them together and put them in the center for added support though. Then I put moss all around the dowels and added some mushrooms and acorns that I made out of fondant. My cousin, Tanya Brown helped me a lot with the stand and took these beautiful photos for me. If there are any bad ones, I took those...haha. You can check out Tanya's blog here: http://iheartstories.typepad.com/i-heart-stories/

Here is one that I took with my phone to get an idea of how the cake looked next to the invitation.