baby shower cake

My neighbor (of the twins) asked for a baby shower cake for her sister. She said it was a book theme & to go with it. I've seen so much ombre lately I wanted to do it. Problem is, when you;'re not there, you don't get a good pic of the interior when it's cut! Here it is before I frosted it. Picture doens't show how vibrant it was, but nonetheless, you get the idea.

I took some of my favorite book & made little flags to hang on a silver thread. Looks cute, no?

I finished it off with a little bit of pink detail and pink glitter.

Voodoo/Mardi Gras cake

My art school friend Jen was turning 40 & I had the pleasure of making her cake - except it was the same day of my son's birthday! And as you only need scroll down to see, I go cazy on his birthdays. So to say I was busy was an understatement.

The party theme was Mardi Gras/Voodoo so I knew the cake had to be a voodoo doll. I made my first secret board on Pinterest since Jen follows me. Here's the voodoo cake I saw & wanted to use for inspiration.

I knew since it was not only Voodoo but Mardi Gras I needed to add in gold/purple/green and a mask. The mask is key I think - it definitely reminds me of Mardi Gras. That & beads of course, but there was no way I was making a ton of finicky gum paste beads.

After some discussion with my friend Kelly, we decided a voodoo doll's guts should be red - because, as Kelly put it, we're all pink on the inside, right? Ha. So it was red velvet with strawberry filling and an amazing rum buttercream (had to do booze since it was her 40th, so in honor of New Orleans' hurricane drinks, rum it is). 

Here she is - I loved it!

I used a cardboard stencil for the shape of the doll, then crumb coated. After that set up in the fridge, I did a thicker buttercream coat & used a knife dipped in hot water to smooth it out. I've found that is the best way to achieve a fondant like look but with buttercream.

I used homemade fondant for the heart & button. The pins are toothpicks with gum paste balls. I made a few cardboard stencils for the stitches. I painted the cake through the stencils with water & shook edible Disco Dust over them. It was a little bit messy but the stencils definitely helped contain the glitter.

Here it is at the party - without the mask (made of gum paste a few days earlier & left to dry)

Masked:

sports cakes

Here are 2 sports cakes I did recently.

This one was for my 3 year old nephew who loves soccer. Between piping the grass with Wilton grass tip and stars all over the ball, whew was my hand crampy! I used the Wilton ball pan mold, and once again, put green sprinkles in for surprise fun when you cut it open. The hardest thing about this was getting the soccer pattern right. I googled cake decorating and soccer pattern & got shapes I could print out. I think placed on the cake & piped the red around the surrounding holes, gradually filling it all in. Contrary to popular belief (mine, anyhow), they are not all the same size - some have 5 sides and some have 6.

Looks cool though!

Here is one for an old neighbor friend's kid. He loves hockey & soccer and these are his team numbers and colors (green/grey/black). She of course said simple and this is what I did, I can't help myself, I get ideas & I like to go with it. The ball, hockey stick & puck are made out of gum paste. He loves it, so I consider it a win.

twins' cakes

I was excited because this was the first year my neighbor did 2 cakes for the twins & she asked me to make them.

For the girl I suggested one of my childhood faves, a doll cake. I distinctly remember getting one as a little girl & I loved it. I was happy to help out, with pink and (edible) glitter aplenty. Her vanilla cake was shades of pink as well - I love surprises inside cakes. Especially for kids. If I had a girl, she'd be dressed in glittery stuff all the time. And probably animal print. So any excuse to use glitter I will.My usual cake place was out of doll pics so I bought a cheap Barbie & took her clothes off & wrapped her in Saran. (Who knows what chemicals are on cheap plastic dolls).  I wish I could show you the saran-wrapped doll but I didn't take any pics.

I piped on a bodice & stars as a headband/tiara type thing so it was all cohesive. Isn't she awesome? Imagine cutting into her ombre pink cake! I don't have any pics, sadly one of the problems of baking for people whose party you aren't invited to...

This pic shows the actual pink better.

The boy loved Superman and I ran with the idea, making a Wilton candy melts plaque of the famous S. I made 2 plaques, it was a learning curve. I piped it on parchment placed over an S printout so I could follow the lines. I used blue icing in his cake too, (blue teeth!) but what kid doesn't love colored frosting? I used gum paste for the stars and stuck them on wires.

And here they are together...

Beer mug cake

My friend had a 'Cheers to 40 years' party for her husband. We debated cake designs and came up with a beer mug. I made a pinterest board, of course.

Here's the happy guy:

I saw this one and this one & decided to attempt a poured sugar stream to hold the can up.

I had to make the sugar twice, I'm still struggling with getting a hard crack on mine (& yes, I went as hot as I was supposed to). End result, you can see the wire but it held up. And it was a hit.

This was a chocolate cake but next time I would do a chocolate stout cake to be more authentic. Or maybe a vanilla lager one.

Here it is crumb coated:

wire in can. Next time I would use a very stiff wire so I don't get the bend down and backwards in it.

Finished cake part. I felt like I was back in art school, I had some food coloring in a dish and dry brush painted on some streaks so it would have texture and depth. I attempted a poured sugar handle but it wouldn't set so I went with white chocolate.

The finished product!

Everyone was impressed and that's all the matters. But I really need to learn poured sugar!

Butterflies cake

I had a request for a 2 year old's birthday cake (nut free). The theme was butterflies. Since I have a son, I love making girly cakes, since it means bright colors & possibly glitter. Obviously glitter is appropriate for older girls as well (like me).

The mom sent me pics to use as a guide for the cake, and I went to work pinning some butterfly cakes. I love this one but it's a lot to do for a birthday cake. I decided on a tree stump since it would set off the colored butterflies well.

I wanted to do chocolate butterflies but Wilton candy melts and other chocolates are not nut free. So then I attempted to make gelatin butterflies, what an utter failure & mess. I decided on gum paste, since I had some leftover from my Wilton class. That way she couldn't eat it (well, she could but it wouldn't taste good) & I got bright colors like I wanted. I'm no longer intimidated by it & will use it more in the future. I would love to learn how to make realistic flowers. I learned some in my Wilton class, but nothing too detailed, which of course are the ones I like.

I made 4 8" vanilla rounds, stacked 4 high then added some roots & a knothole. It was easy since I had little sculpting to do.

Her Mom says she doesn't have a problem with food colors, but I still wanted to minimize any risk. I used a light & a dark chocolate basic buttercream, that way I knew she would be fine. I raked a fork over it for bark texture and added some circles on top for aging. That was about it for the cake - the work was in the gum paste.

I couldn't be happier with it, I loved it!

Here's the final product:

knothole detail:

I wold up making small & large butterflies, 32 total. Since a 2 year old doesn't need subtlety, I added them all. And I loved it! Here's a butterfly detail: 

Here's a 360 view:

Purple/white interior shot, which is always a hit when the partygoers see it.

I try to make some sort of surprise in every cake.

Another baking success!

cake pops and why I will never make them again

I had a request for cake pops. I'm not a fan of mushed up cake & frosting covered in some fake covering but I also like a baking challenge. I must've been drunk the day I decided on a price, because I can't even write it here, I'm so embarrassed. I swear on a Bible I looked at other Cincinnati bakeries & got prices. Clearly I got quotes for plain, no decoration ones because I spent wasted HOURS on these.

The client was going to make a life size Angry Birds game and only wanted 16 pops to use as actual birds in the game. I figured, oh, no biggie.

I will never make cake pops again unless someone pays me $10/each. I think I took 5 pics and that was it. Total waste of effort!

My pops - which frankly, came out damn good:

Her cake with my pops:

See?

Lightning McQueen/CARS cake

I had a request for a Lightning McQueen cake for a 3 year old. She also asked for a dozen plain cupcakes to go with it. Me being the perfectionist, I went a little crazy with the cupcakes. This is the cake that made me realize I do not charge enough either. I'm STILl struggling with that.

I made a Pinterest board of ideas, as usual. That site is great for cake inspiration boards! Also helpful for what I can make better. :)

Here is my cake carved & covered with a crumb coat. I put in the fridge to set up afterwards.

 

I got my inspiration pics out & mixed up candy melts in the correct colors. Then I put in a squeeze bottle and made the shapes. Some required cutting with a knife as you can see with the lightning bolt.

I missed a camera step, apologies! Here is the cake with red buttercream on it. I kept shaping with my hands/paper towels & returning to the fridge to set up. I still can't believe that is buttercream & not that dreaded fondant - I'm very proud how this turned out. My inspiration pic is behind it, I used that for help in carving the shape.

 

Here's the big cake + a cupcake. ADORBS, right?

  

 With writing.

 

The real Lightning McQueen has number 85.
But since this was for a 3 year old, I took liberties.

 

 A mini fleet of the cutest cupcakes ever.

  The whole shebang!

Ready to go

A closeup of the cuteness!

   

I love a challenge, and this one was a good one. The birthday boy tried to pick up the cake he thought it was real. Guess that means I helped make it awesome!

Union Jack flag cake

After my US flag cake, I couldn't wait to try this BBC cake for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

This cake was much harder than the US one, because it requires being more precise. I followed the above recipe but next time would make some modifications to the technique.

I used the cake recipe listed on the BBC site & made this recipe for homemade marzipan. I would add almond extract next time, because frankly I do love a little of that fakey almond taste. This recipe makes a delicious natural tasting recipe, which (as usual) is much better than store bought overly sweet marzipan. It also makes a lot, not sure if you can freeze marzipan so I had some waste.

Overall, it's very impressive & I love it!

Pretty blue batter:

Cake cut into 2 rectangles:

I used my normal buttercream recipe here. Here's 2 sides frosted:

add jam to one of those sides & sandwich together, wrap in saran -

freeze or refrigerate until frosting is hard:

unwrap, slice vertically into 2 equal halves:

apply buttercream & jam as before, wrap & chill:

Now slice diagonally, this part gets really messy & where my shape got a bit distorted.

Next time I would cut the diagonal first then the horizontal & vertical cuts. Wrap & chill again.

Roll out marzipan about 1/4" thick, place cake on it.

wrapped & ready

TA-DA! I covered my board with union jack cupcake wrappers my UK Aunty-in-law sent me.

What a beauty. The fact that my diagonals are not perfect really irks me.

Happy Diamond Jubilee, HRH Queen Elizabeth!

mmm, tasty