A wedding to remember

This is probably the most important cake I had to make ever, in all of my caking. I got to make it for my brother's wedding. It meant the world to me, to get to make it. What's even better is the memory of working on it in Mom's kitchen, the night before the wedding. Mom worked on stamping the bottom tier and we just chatted while we got the cake done. The cake for me holds so much emotion... the time spent with my mom, the day my baby brother got married and the fact that I pulled off a wedding cake which is my most feared cake of all!

Road of Life Retirement Cake

My Dad's retirement cake. Topper is a fondant "Dad" driving a golf cart. The cake is called "road of life". The road follows signs with different milestones in Dad's life. Speed limit signs indicate his age when he accomplished those milestones.

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Take 2

What are the chances of getting 2 clubhouse cakes 2 days a part for 2, 3 year old boys. Not only that, both clients sent me photos and the bottom tier of the second is IDENTICAL to the cake the first client sent me.

Top tier is chocolate fudge, bottom tier is one layer vanilla pound, one layer chocolate fudge. Covered in Vanilla buttercream and fondant. Mickey Mouse clubhouse cake...with tootles on top. :) So much fun to make! Happy Birthday Reid!

Surprise Minnie Mouse

Lemon pound cake with vanilla buttercream and fondant. Minnie Mouse is made of rice krispies and fondant.

Sock Monkey

Sock Monkey cake... Cake is chocolate fudge with peanut butter buttercream filling and vanilla buttercream exterior. Sock Monkey is made of rice krispies and fondant. Fondant accents.

Evan's Baptism

Here’s a simple 2 tiered chocolate pound baptism cake.  Bottom tier is 8” top tier is 6”. The name is piped with royal icing and the cross is made of fondant. A nice sleek simple design, that I may be duplicating for our little guys baptism, coming up in a few weeks. The heat gave me a bit of a hard time with this cake, but in the end I’m pleased with how it turned out.

Tip:

If you want to add a fondant bead border roll out the fondant flat (and even) and use a shape cutter (I use a small quarter inch pansy flower cutter). Cut out as many as possible. Then take the ‘pansies’ and roll them into balls. This will ensure a consistent sized bead to border your cake.  That said, I used my new bead mold for this cake… LOVE it.

FHS Grad Cake

Another 2011 grad cake… this was HUGE. It’s a 2 layer 12” square (total of 4” high) topped with a 2 layer 8” square (also 4” high) and the grad cap, made of Rice Krispy treats. Now that’s a lot of fudge marble cake! I guess this would be a good time to note… cake is HEAVY. So many people seem so surprised when they get a 2 tier cake and grab it from me, how heavy it actually is. Well it’s probably at least 2 recipes of pound cake, plus buttercream, plus fondant…. It’s going to weigh a lot.  

As for this cake.. I really enjoyed the clean lines, clean design. It was a nice change from kiddish cakes.

Tip:

Ever wonder how much batter you should use to get a nice high cake? Sometimes a recipe is not enough. Some recipes are actually meant for 1 x 9 inch pan, while others are for 2 x 8 inch pans. Most often I just use my recipe, and experience baking with my recipe. But if you are sure and want a nice high cake refer to this chart… it’s awesome! http://www.wilton.com/cakes/making-cakes/baking-party-cake-2-inch-pans.cfm

iCarly

Don’t you just love those fun, bright colors? There’s something about this cake that just makes me happy. Maybe it’s because I would have LOVED a cake like this when I was younger? Maybe I would love it now! All the same, I think it’s just so fun. My client sent me a photo of a cake she liked and asked me to make it the top tier of a 2 tier cake. I had to make a few modifications but in the end the birthday girl did love it, and that’s what’s most important to me! The cake is vanilla pound, covered in buttercream and fondant and decorated with fondant accents.

Tip:

Want to know how to easily get a scalloped edge on the bottom of a cake? Get a round cookie cutter, cut out some fondant circles, then cut those in half with a pizza roller and tada…. Put them side by side along the base of the cake. What a nice neat border, and you didn’t have to spend any money on fancy tools!

Mermaid cake - Tough customer

This was a big order. Not only was it my first order of the year, or 10 days after having a baby. It was for my daughter who must have been telling me she's wanting a mermaid cake for at least 6 months now. Lucky for me she was VERY pleased with the cake. I'm pleased with it too, given we had a newborn in the house!

First Birthday Cake

This cake had many 'lives' before it became what it did. Chosing a first birthday cake for your little one isn't always easy. :) The mom sent me 2 photos to sort of bring together to make 1 kdfCREATION especially for her little girl. The cake is vanilla pound with vanilla buttercream and fondant accents. The smash cake is the same, with a fondant bow.

A little bit for him and a little bit for her

I made a joint birthday cake for my sister in law and her boyfriend. He's a swat/cop guy, and she's a girly girl. This is the combination I came up with so that a little bit of each of them was represented in the cake. It's fudge marble cake covered in vanilla and chocolate buttercream. The gun is made of rice krispies covered in fondant. The hand cuffs, badge, glasses and shoe were made of gumpaste. The cake was made for my sister in law and her boyfriend.

Boy Oh Boy

Boy oh boy is right... This cake has an entire story of it's own. As I was loading it in the truck the top tier decided it would look better smashed into our backseat. I don't know how I did it, but I rushed inside, assessed the damage and realized that if I scraped all the buttercream off, the cake was ok. It was more surface damage than anything. So that's what I did. Delivering the cake had to be the most stressful trip. I brought my equipment with me in case I'd have to do emergency cake surgery on the seen. Lucky for me, take 2 held together and looked pretty good at the shower. The clients seemed very pleased with the cake, which is all that matters in the end. Bottom tier is vanilla pound, middle is fake, top is chocolate fudge. The letters were rice krispy treats covered in fondant. I think my heart will always skip a beat when I look at this photo!

Doodlebops Take 3

When I did my first Doodlebops cake I vaguely knew who they were. Since then my daughter has certainly brought us up to speed on who exactly are Deedee, Roony and Moe. Making this cake was quite fun, cause I had an excuse to be singing the Doodlebops songs. The best was the following morning when my daughter saw the cake she screamed DOODLEBOPS. Yay...she recognizes them! It's a vanilla pound cake covered and decorate with vanilla buttercream. The image is a hand piped buttercream transfer. (pipe each color one at a time and freeze to put on the cake smoothly.)

65th Birthday...

A 'fun' cake for a sophisticated lady. The cake is 1 tier - strawberry yogurt, 1 tier - lemon pound. Covered in vanilla buttercream and marshmallow fondant (note to self: marshmallow fondant in high humidity SUCKS)

Just another Minnie Mouse

I think this might be my favorite Minnie Mouse cake of the bunch I've made. Cake was vanilla pound with vanilla buttercream.

Dora the Explorer Castle

A cake any young girl would like! Dora the explorer and a castle cake! My daughter thought it was the best cake ever and insisted that it should be hers. It's my first castle cake...I was pleased with it. It's chocolate fudge cake. The turrets were made of rice krispies, the top steeple is an ice cream cone. It's is completely buttercream. Birthday girl apparently loved it!

Cake for a Princess

This cake was lot's of fun to make. Bottom layer is chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream, top layer is vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream, all covered in fondant, with fondant accessories. Crown is made from gumpaste. All is edible, minus the wire holding the stars. My daughter Mia LOVED it and wanted to try on the crown. :)

Super Mario Cake

I know you're told not to play with food, but don't you want to just take the little mario and smash the bricks? I was tempted to "play" this cake. It's a Fudge marble cake with chocolate filling and vanilla buttercream, and fondant accents. Everything you see is edible.

First Birthday

This was a great cake to work on. It was a collaboration of designs that the birthday girls parents chose. It was vanilla pound, with vanilla buttercream and marshmallow fondant. The accents are all fondant except for the "1" which is modelling chocolate.

Graduation Cake

I was initially asked to do a cake in the graduates school colors. About a week or two before the order was due I received an email saying scrap the school colors and do something fun. The graduate wants the cake to reflect her, her personality, her favorite colors and not her boring old school colors. I ended up having a lot of fun with this cake and the client really liked it.