Boy? Girl? Either one!

Since I am having to take the year off of the cake making due to going back to get my master's, I haven't made a cake in about 3 months!!! I had already promised my sister awhile ago that I would make this cake for her, so when the time came to actually do it, I was a little scared that I wouldn't remember all of the little "tricks" that I would need! Luckily-it all came back to me! :)

This cake was for a baby shower, for my sister's friend Lauren. Her and her husband did not find out whether they were having a boy or girl, so this cake was for either sex! My sister found napkins that inspired the cake, so my design was based off that. Everything was done in fondant, except for the white swirls that circle the cake, the polkadots on the carriage, and the black beaded boarder. The inside of the cake was strawberry cake, then a layer of vanilla buttercream, then chocolate cake, vanilla buttercream, strawberry cake, vanilla buttercream. Strawberry, chocolate and vanilla in one bite!

Happy Birthday Trevor!

This cake was done for my cousin's son's first birthday. He loves dogs, so that was his birthday theme! Everything was made from fondant, except for the dog face on the larger cake. I tried a new technique for the face; still not sure if it is something I will use in the future or not! One side of the cake was strawberry cake with chocolate ganache filling, and the other half was vanilla cake with strawberry cream cheese filling. Trevor's smash cake was white with buttercream. I love the dogs' faces!!!

An 80's Themed Cake!

This cake was done for my good friend Jenny's surprise birthday party, which happened to be an 80's theme party. I had a lot of fun working on this one, although making the Rubik's cube was WAY harder than I had originally planned! Ms. Pacman was accompanied by a few ghosts, a banana, and the classic Pacman cherries. I was very happy with the way this cake turned out! It was humongous (just the hot pink, bottom tier was almost a foot tall by itself). The bottom tier was chocolate cake with buttercream filling, and the top was vanilla cake with dreamsicle filling.

Happy Birthday Andie!

This cake was done for one of my former student's birthdays. She found a similar cake on a website and sent me the picture. While she changed the colors of the flowers on the cake, the basic design is the same. The flowers were all made from fondant, and I achieved the silver color by painting with silver sparkle powder. The cake was vanilla with strawberry fruit filling, then crumb coated in buttercream. Happy Birthday!

Another Baby Shower!

This cake was done for a little girl's baby shower and, it too, was based off of her bedding! The dragonfly wings are made in fondant, as well as the purple background. The beaded border, scroll work and dragonfly bodies were all done in white icing. The inside of the cake was carrot, with a super-delicious cream cheese filling.

Baby Shower

This cake was done for a little boy's baby shower. It was based off of his "Papagayo" bedding, which is apparently pretty popular! While the monkey was intended to be the main character of the cake, I thought the other creatures were too adorable not to include (especially the toucan). The characters were all made from fondant. The inside of the cake was chocolate with my new favorite filling-orange buttercream (it tastes just like a dreamsicle).

Hello, Kitty Cate!

This cake was done for my niece Cate's 2nd birthday. The background and flower cutouts were made from fondant, and the cat face and details were done in buttercream. Half of the cake was strawberry cake with chocolate ganache filling, and the other half was chocolate cake with mint-chocolate filling. Delicious!

Kissing Fish

This cake was done for a rehearsal dinner. Everyone calls the groom "Fish", and after the wedding, there will be 2 "Fishes," hence the design for the cake. The sheet cake was white with chocolate buttercream, and the fish were chocolate with regular buttercream. Everything was done in fondant, except for the outline of the fish eyes and eyelashes. The top hat and bow tie were made from foam, and I used tule and straight pins to make the bride's veil. I loved the way this cake turned out!

Cake from a Napkin

This cake was done for my cousin's wedding shower. My aunt gave me a sample of the napkins that were being used, and this is the design I came up with based off that. I was extremely happy with the way it turned out! The bottom tier was white cake with strawberry cream cheese filling, and the top tier was strawberry cake with white chocolate ganache. I was a little leery of the strawberry cake and white chocolate ganache flavor combination, but it was delicious (and I don't even like white chocolate, normally). We gave the shower guests a slice of each!

1st Birthday

This cake was designed around a plate for a little girl's first birthday. The bottom tier was white cake with chocolate ganache, and the top tier was chocolate cake with strawberry fruit filling. Both tiers were covered in white marshmallow fondant, and then hand-painted. The "1" on the top tier and the pink flowers, bees and butterflies on the bottom tier were all cut from fondant, and then were also painted. The bead border and lettering were made from buttercream.

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!

When I was first asked to do this cake, I wasn't sure what it was. It appeared to be a dismembered Mickey, halfway buried in the ground. Since I don't have kids, I was out of the loop about Mickey apparently having his own clubhouse (which is what the picture was of).

Anyways, this cake was made for my old assistant principal's son. It was white cake on the inside, filled with chocolate buttercream. The Mickey head, ears and glove were all made from styrofoam. His body was styrofoam covered in fondant. The door to the clubhouse was made from rice krispies and chocolate buttercream, which was then covered in fondant. My favorite part about the whole cake is the grass! :)

The Little Mermaid

This was my first attempt at sculpting modeling chocolate. It has the same "moldability" as clay, but not the same strength. I first had to construct the figure of Ariel out of wire and rice krispies, then covered that in modeling chocolate. I was fairly happy with the majority of the mermaid, but could not get her face the way I wanted it! Once the modeling chocolate is warm from being in your hands, it is extremely easy to manipulate, to a fault. The slightest movement could cause the whole face to mess up, so after 45 minutes of working on it, I decided I had better "let it be" than risk messing it up even further! The seaweed and water were all made from buttercream, and I topped off the blue water with blue sparkles. My sister got me new alphabet cutters (my old ones were horrible!!), and they worked perfectly for this cake! I dusted each letter with pearl luster dust (a very subtle and shimmery, completely edible powder) and like the looks of it so much that I coated the rest of the bubblegum pink fondant with it, too! The inside of the cake was my absolute favorite cake and filling combination-strawberry cake with chocolate ganache.

Painted Cake

This cake was done for a wedding shower. I carved the outline of the flowers and leaves into the fondant, and then painted them using a mixture of food coloring gels and vodka. Vodka on a cake-how weird! It actually evaporated and made the color stick better. The inside of the cake was vanilla cake, filled with chocolate ganache and fresh strawberries. I attended the shower, so I got to sample the cake and it was delicious! Adding the strawberries to the ganache filling was a refreshing and delicious treat!

Baby Cake, take 2

My sister had me recreate this cake for a baby shower of a friend of her's. Very similar to the one I did for my friend's shower except for the colors, and polka dots replaced the stars. I got a little fancier with the ball border, alternating the color and size of the balls. One other thing that changed-I put the baby's arms under the blanket, rather than stretched out over his head, due to the fact that my husband told me that the previous cake's baby looked as if he had sprawled out on his blanket and died like an old man. Hopefully this one looks more "alive"!

Daisies

I had originally planned on putting yellow centers in the middle of these flowers, but a)by the time I had all the flowers on, I was too tired to do it and b) I thought it looked pretty good without the centers! This cake was done for a luncheon at my mom's work. The cake was white with vanilla pudding and chocolate ganache filling.

Baby Graff

So I think this might be my new favorite cake...I LOVE the way it turned out! I made the sleeping baby, his bottle, pacifier, blanket and "welcome" sign out of gum paste. It was was my first time working with gum paste (like fondant, but it quickly dries hard), and I was pleased with the results. The ball border and stars were made from fondant. This was also my first time doing the ball border, and I really liked the look of it. The cake was chocolate and filled with the delicious powdered sugar icing my mom used to make. It was made for a shower for a good friend of mine who is due July 17th!

Birthday!

This lime green and pink cake was the vision of one of my 5th grade students! This cake was for her 11th birthday, and was made of white cake with vanilla pudding and fudgy-chocolate ganache. Happy birthday Seneca!

Baby Einstein caterpillar

This fun cake was made for a little boy's 1st birthday! It was white cake with vanilla pudding mixed in, and filled with buttercream. I really enjoyed making this one-I loved the way it turned out!

Ladybug!

This cake was done for a 1st birthday! I love it-it turned out so cute! I used pipe cleaners and foam to create the antenna; everything else was edible! It was designed around the theme of the party. White cake on the inside, with strawberry buttercream icing. It was quite large-made for 30 people!

Bubblegum pink

This was done for an office wedding shower. The bottom layer was straw- berry cake; the top was my own take on "funfetti" cake. Both were filled with chocolate ganache and covered in fondant.

Present Cake

I LOVED the way this cake turned out! It was for a birthday, and was chocolate cake with chocolate ganach filling-yummy! The outside was covered in purple, blue and white fondant and served about 10 people.

Barney!

So I took a shot at the old-school way of decorating cakes-not too bad! This was done for a 2 year-old's birthday, and was yellow cake with chocolate ganache filling. Rather than using fondant, I retrieved the recipe for frosting my mom used to make when I was little-it was just as good (if not better) than I remembered!

Another swirl cake!

This was my first attempt at free-hand piping! The cake was white with vanilla pudding, and filled with strawberry buttercream. It was covered in hot pink fondant and lime green royal icing.

Swirls!

I love the color of this cake!!! It was done for a friend's mother's birthday, and was white cake with strawberry-buttercream filling and covered in purple fondant.

A "manly" wedding shower cake

This cake was for a "home improvement" themed wedding shower. It took FOREVER, but it turned out better than I thought it would! The inside was white cake with vanilla pudding mixed in, filled with chocolate ganache.

Welcome to the Jungle

This cake was done for my cousin's baby shower. The plates and napkins were the same pattern, so this cake was done to match them. The bottom layer was a yellow cake with buttercream icing, and the top layer was chocolate cake with buttercream icing. It served about 40 people.

Zebra Cake

This cake was made for my aunt's birthday. I got into color coordinating the inside with the outside; the pink, black and white exterior matched the alternating chocolate and strawberry flavors, with a buttercream filling on the inside.

Random Scrollwork

I made this cake just for fun. It was strawberry cake with a chocolate ganache filling, decorated with fondant and black royal icing.

My First Cake

This cake was done for my husband's school counselor's daughter's 3rd birthday! It is still one of my favorites!