Luke... I am your Father!... in cake form

My step son turned 9 last week and has been telling me he wants a Star Wars themed cake since I can remember. In an effort to pull through on that promise, I tried to make a Darth Vader helmet. Turns out, that's a hard thing to do! Darth is made out of rice crispies and covered in marshmallow fondant. The dimensions of his face are hard to see because of the lighting and because he was really dark in the first place (get it, he was dark... the dark side... get it? Sorry, that was my feeble attempt at a Star Wars joke. In the words of my best friend, Rosie... I don't get it.)

Anywho, the cake to the right is a lemon cake layered with buttercream and the stars, logo, and light sabers are made out of marshmallow fondant. My brother emailed me to say that technically speaking, one of the light sabers should have been red for some nerdy Star Wars reason.... haha. So I apologize for the inaccuracies of this cake in the realm of Star Wars :) Hyrum loved the cake and the first things that went were the marshmallow light sabers. Yummy! Thank you for checking it out!

Shoutout to my apprentice

My apprentice, Alex, made a cake for her dad's birthday last week. He loves to golf and bike (is it called biking? I just never know about those darn active sports things :) This was completely her design, completely her work, and I have to say, I'm SO impressed with her skills. That golf bag there is REALLY impressive, especially with the details and the golf clubs coming out of the top. The balls around the top tier also say, "Titleist" (I hope I spelled that right). All of the decorations are made out of homemade marshmallow fondant and the creative genius of Alex's brain. It was a spice cake layered with cheesecake filling and buttercream. Great job, Alex!!

Christmas Present Cake

I had a work party this morning and decided to make a cake at the last minute. I found the inspiration from a cake I saw on Cake Central (my favorite website addiction). The cake was a Mom's Apple Pie Cake and all of the decorations are handmade from homemade marshmallow fondant. The presents are fondant and the "snow" is buttercream covered in crystallized sugar.

My friend brought his two daughters to the party (ages 3 and 5, I think). They ate all three of the main characters and loved it! I kept telling my friend that I was sorry because that was going to be two little kids on a giant sugar high. Ah, it was fun to watch. :)

Treasure Chest Cake

Summer needed a huge cake for her huge luau party (around 400 guests!) for her son's 1st birthday. The party was a pirate themed extravaganza with a kiddie "walk the plank" and pirate costumes and decor everywhere. I knew I had to make something awesome when Summer asked me to recreate a pirate treasure chest that she'd seen online. Although she didn't want it to feed all of the guests, she wanted it to be a nice centerpiece. Here's what we came up with. This cake was a foot long, over 8 inches wide, over a foot tall, and super heavy! The picture doesn't do the size any justice.

The cake was a chocolate cake layered with buttercream and chocolate chips. Because the base was so tall, I made two separate layers of cake stacked on top of itself. Now for the nitty gritty... if you're not interested on how to make cakes, no need to read on :)

The top lid of the cake was made out of rice krispies and covered in marshmallow fondant. In order to keep the lid opened, I put in support under the lid and then skewered it into the cake till it was steady. The whole cake is covered and decorated with MMF. I first colored the the fondant brown and then let is sit till it dried. I "scratched" the dried fondant with a knife and made sure to leave nicks and different lines. Once that dried, I painted on layers of brown food coloring making sure to dye some areas darker than others until I thought it looked like wood. Then, I took the hardened fondant and simply adhered it to the side of the cake that was covered in buttercream. This gives the cake a pretty crisp edge.

The corners of the chest were painted with gold food coloring. The pearl necklace, "gold coins" and sword are all fondant. The green and red gems are peanut M&Ms and the yellow gems are both reeses pieces and fondant. The silver nuggets are tootsie rolls and dove chocolates covered in tin foil and the sand on the bottom is crushed graham crackers.

Hmm, I think that's about it :) It was SOOOOO MUCH FUN to make this cake. Summer was amazing to work with because she basically said, "here's kind of what I'm looking for but do whatever you think is best." I tried to make it look as "pirate treasure chest" as possible and really just loved every second of making this. I wasn't able to be there when Summer came to pick up the cake but she called me immediately after picking up the cake. She kept screaming (in a good way) and just told me how much she loved it. I wish I could've made it to the party to see the amazingness of a 1-year-old-Pirate-themed-Hawaiian-Luau :) Maybe next year, right?

Happy 1/2 Birthday to you!

Sarah wanted to take advantage of having family in town for the holidays and chose to celebrate her son's 1/2 birthday. That's right, not one, not two, but half birthday. :) She came up with this awesome idea of having the cake look like it had been cut straight down the middle, like in the end of the Willy Wonka movie where everything in his office is sliced down the middle. She wanted the cake to be fun, colorful and whimsical and here's what we came up with. It looks like a totally normal cake from this side and then as you turn it, you realize it's a bit odd. The cake was a Coconutty Almond Cake with a light coconut cream cheese frosting layered with sliced almonds, coconut cream filling, and coconut flakes. All of the decorations are made out of marshmallow fondant, including the "1/2" sign on the top. I hope Evan loved the cake (or at least registered that he was the luckiest kid in the world to get a half birthday).

Here is another shot for you to check out:

The Andromeda Galaxy in Cake Form

Sarah wanted this cake for her friend's birthday. The first was the Alien Head (below) and the second was a cake of the Andromeda Galaxy. Hmm.... how will I ever do that? That was definitely my first question. If you're unfamiliar with the galaxy, google it and see if I did it justice. In order to make this cake look as "galaxy-like" as possible, I placed dragees (edible pearl-sized balls) around the cake to be like stars. Then I hand-painted the swirls of shimmery stars with edible pearl dust as well as pearl and silver edible paint. It was pretty cool to see the shimmer. Again, my photography skills are AWFUL so I tried to get as good a picture as I could of the shimmer but there's something with shimmer and flashes that just don't like to go together.

The cake was Mom's Apple Pie flavor (one of my faves) which is spiced apple cake with apple slices baked in layered with cheesecake cream filling and buttercream.

Here's another shot for you.

It's an Alien Head... I warned you!

Sarah wanted to have two cakes to surprise her two friends for their birthdays. She wanted the first to be an alien head. Yup, an alien head. This was a really fun cake for a few reasons. First, I had to sculpt this cake and then I had to paint the cake. Sculpting the cake wasn't too bad because it was just a giant dome-head! :) In order to get the contours of the face, I shaped and then layered fondant directly onto the cake. Then after I covered the cake in fondant, I smoothed out those areas so that it looked seamless (does that make sense?). I didn't have to paint the head but I wanted there to be shading with the green. Taking a picture of the cake did the color and the shading no justice.

In any case, the cake was a Strawberry Cheesecake Cake so when they cut into it, it was slightly pink. It's hard to see the angle of the cake and just how big this dude's forehead was so I'm attaching another picture. Sarah said they loved it! Yay!

Champagne and Chocolate Cake

Have you ever wondered what a 25 pound cake looks like? Well here it is! Lacey got married today and wanted a Champagne and Chocolate colored cake to match her theme. We went through a few designs and came up with this one.

She chose the three flavors that I would likely choose if I were to order a wedding cake (I kid you not! These are the three flavors I would've ordered too!). The top tier is a Lemon Supreme Cake (lemon cake layered with lemon filling and buttercream), the middle tier is Mom's Apple Pie Cake (apple spice cake with apple slices baked into the cake layered with cheesecake filling and buttercream), and the bottom tier is Brownie Lovers Cake (chocolate cake layered with chocolate ganache and a middle layer of actual brownies).

Now for the funny part... When Rosie and I went to deliver the cake (because I clearly couldn't carry this puppy!), we walked into the room and Lacey's aunt walked up and said, "Did you know that this is what she does for a living?" It turns out that Lacey is a pastry chef and she withheld that very important information from me so as to not stress me out. I totally felt like I was being punked! haha. Then everyone in the room swarmed around the cake before I even had a chance to move it to the main cake table. I learned two valuable lessons with this cake. 1. Always deliver the cake WAY earlier than expected so that people don't start taking pictures of you when you walk in with the cake and 2. Always ask if the bride is a pastry chef! :) In all honesty, Lacey was SO awesome to work with because she knew what she wanted but was also really flexible with the details. In retrospect, I remember saying, "wow, you totally read my mind!" when it came to cake construction, which makes so much sense now! I keep lucking out with my brides and haven't had to deal with a bridezilla yet (Thank goodness for that!).

The cake is covered in marshmallow fondant and if you're interested, I'm going to go into quite of bit of detail on the decorations so if you're not into it, read no further :) Here we go... The bow on the top is made out of marshmallow fondant. In order to get the bow to stay, I roll out the fondant into strips and then lay the strips over a rolling pin until they dry in that shape(be sure to connect the ends of the piece so that it almost looks like a look) . After they've all dried, I place each loop into the shape you see using a 6-inch baking pan that is lined with wax paper. I spray the whole bow with water (or vodka, because it dries faster) and again, let the bow dry in place. This takes a few days to complete but when it's done, it's totally worth it!

In order to get the edges of the cake to look so crisp, I roll out fondant to fit the sizes of the cake (so four of each size, 6x6x4 for the top, 8x8x4 for the middle, and 10x10x4 for the bottom). Then, I let those rectangles dry so that they are hardened. Meanwhile, I covered each tier of cake with marshmallow fondant as I would any other cake and then I simply adhere the hardened sides of fondant to the cake with buttercream or water and decorate.

Now for the color... Champagne is a very odd color to make from white fondant. In addition, the color swatch that Lacey gave me was a shimmery, shiny color. In order to match this color as best as I could, I first tinted the fondant a slight tan-pink color. Then, I brushed on an edible gold luster dust to each piece that's champagne colored. After applying the pieces to the cake, I sprayed the whole cake with edible pearl dust to give it an extra shine. In the process of applying pieces, moving the cakes, stacking the cakes, etc., I smudged several places and couldn't dare leave smudges on the cake. In order to fix that problem, I painted on a second layer of edible gold luster dust. Then, I wanted to make sure that the chocolate color stayed dark chocolate so that it contrasted with the champagne. In order to do that, I had to remove the luster dust that was sprayed onto the chocolate colored pieces of fondant using a paintbrush and water to remove the shimmer.

Although this all sounds like a lot of tedious work, I really LOVED making this cake. Hours flew by and in the end, I was pretty pleased with the result. Oh and check out my new cake stand! Woo-hoo! I'm WAY excited about that beauty. Lastly, I have to thank Lacey for being truly wonderful to work with and making my job fun and (relatively) stress-free. I appreciate all of your support in my work and faith in my ability. Congratulations!

Lots of Pink and a Horsey Cake

In addition to the Elmo cake (read below), Keri wanted to order a cake for her niece, Makyah. This cake was a bit of surprise to Keri and to me so we had two days to come up with something cute. Keri said, "she loves horses but anything would be just fine." With all of that freedom and so little time, this is what we came up with. The cake was chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream covered in fondant. The horse is made out of marshmallow fondant as are the flowers and the rope. Keri and her husband were really excited about this one too :) I guess they were expecting a small picture of a horse on a cake. I'm glad I could exceed their expectations!

Elmo Birthday Present Surprise

Keri emailed me several months ago (yes, that's right, several MONTHS ago) and asked for the Sesame Street Cake that I made a while back. I love it when people plan ahead! Instead of remaking the same cake, I suggested we create something new and unique for her daughter, Tahlen. This was the result.... a giant Elmo (made out of rice krispies covered in fondant) popping out of a cake. Elmo was quite the challenge because the sheer weight of his head made it almost impossible to keep together (which kept reminding me of that scene in "So I Married an Axe Murderer" when he says, "head! Move!"... Anyway....). We ended up putting skewers into his head in order to stop him from splitting in half because that would've been quite traumatic for the kids at the party. This cake was so colorful and fun to make... a challenge, but VERY fun!

The top tier was Rainbow Bright Cake (colored red, blue, and green, with vanilla cream filling and buttercream) and the bottom tier was Strawberry Cheesecake Cake (Strawberry cake with strawberries baked inside of the cake layered with cheesecake filling and buttercream).

I really couldn't have asked for a better reaction from Keri and her husband. Although the week has been very long and hard, they made this cake pick up so wonderful and just expressed how much they loved it. I didn't get to see Tahlen's reaction, I hope she bit into Elmo's arm and just loved it :) Thank you so much, Keri!

Haunted Halloween House Cake

My apprentice, Alex, technically made this cake. I made the decorations for another cake order that fell through so she made this cake in its stead. She covered the cakes in marshmallow fondant and placed all the decorations lovingly on the cake just where they belong. She did an awesome job! The colors of the decorations are just muted enough to have the house stand out against backdrop. I had to take this picture without the flash because the purple kept looking blue in the photos with the flash. Isn't she doing wonderfully? This was the first time she tried covering square cakes and she covered them both perfectly! There wasn't a single flaw! I was totally impressed! Great job, Alex!!!

Halloween Shadows

Corrinne wanted to surprise her husband with a birthday cake. She wanted it to be zombie-esque and just something in the Halloween spirit. The cake is an All Caramel Cake (caramel flavored cake layered with caramel filling, and caramel buttercream) and is covered in marshmallow fondant. Some of the shadows on the cake are cut out of fondant (I simply found examples of spooky trees and houses and tried to mimic those here). I hand-painted all of the other decorations (clouds, tombstones, zombies, etc.) and it was so much fun! The moon is made out of marshmallow fondant that I dried really well. Then, I simple cut into the cake to place the moon. All in all, I really enjoyed making this cake. I rarely get a chance to use new techniques and the hand painting was really exciting (yes, I'm a nerd).

Corrinne was pleasantly surprised by the cake because she was expecting a small one-tiered cake. I hope it tasted delicious and that her husband was totally excited too!

Polka Dots and Roses go so well together

A while back, I made a Batman cake for Gabriel. I guess Reena, Gabe's mom, told her husband, Spencer to have me make her a birthday cake (getting all this? :) So Spencer called me recently saying that his wife wanted a black and white polka dot cake. Spencer wanted to surprise Reena and so he took her on a birthday date and said that the date was a replacement for the cake. Then, he threw her a party and had the cake ready to surprise her. He drove 50 minutes each way to get this cake so I hope the surprise went over well. I threw in the roses to give it an extra little touch. I hope she loved it!

The top tier is Cookies & Cake (sweet white cake layered with crushed Oreos and buttercream) and the bottom tier is Chunky Monkey (chocolate cake layered with banana slices, banana cream filling, and chocolate ganache).

Here's a shot of the mini-roses. I wanted to keep them very simple and delicate.

Phineas and Ferb Cake

Never heard of Phineas and Ferb? Me neither! Turns out, it's a pretty popular show. Ian was turning 4 and his mom, Sarah, thought it would be good to have his favorite show in cake form. In fact, she wanted his favorite episode of his favorite show in cake form and so this was the outcome. In the episode, Phineas and Ferb build their own rollercoaster (pictured on the bottom tier) while Doofenschmirtz is being apprehended by Perry the Platypus (depicted on the top tier). At the end of the episode, Phineas and Ferb are about to be caught by their parents but luckily their rollercoaster car falls into the backyard tree leaving the two boys sitting innocently under the tree (on top of the cake).

Last year, I made a set of cupcakes for Ian's 3rd birthday (the Blues Clues Cupcakes) and so I was really excited to have them want me to make his 4th birthday dessert as well. The top tier is Cherry Pie Cake (cherry flavored cake with cherries baked layered with cherry filling and buttercream) and the bottom tier is Chunky Monkey Cake (chocolate cake layered with banana slices, banana cream filling, and rich, chocolate ganache). The cake is covered with marshmallow fondant and all of the decorations are handmade from MMF. The tree on the top is rice crispies mixed with puffed rice covered in MMF.

Will you....?

For those of you that don't know, I am a PhD student by weekday and a caker by weekend. In graduate school, asking a professor to be on your committee is like asking someone to the prom, if the prom lasted 4 hours. Asking someone to be the chair of your committee is an even bigger deal because the chair works with you day and night to make sure you pass the 20 hour or so comprehensive exams and also write your dissertation. Because of this, my man-friend wanted to really surprise his future committee chair and ask her in a creative and fun way (and so that she really couldn't say no :) The professor he chose to ask is one of the most amazing instructors I've had and is just such a strong support for us grad students. Paul told me that he had scheduled a meeting with her to officially ask her to the metaphoric graduate school prom and so we started of thinking of cake plans. What emerged was a Tiffany's themed engagement ring box. The cake was a Strawberry Cheesecake Cake (Strawberry cake with strawberries baked into the cake layered with cheesecake cream filling and buttercream). The lid to the box is styrofoam covered in fondant with a fondant bow and the "box" itself is cake covered in fondant. The ring is also completely edible and made out of fondant. The whole cake was then sprayed with edible shimmer dust so that the whole cake sparkled.

Paul told me that he walked into the meeting with her and said, "oh, could you wait one second? I forgot something." He went out to get the cake and when he returned, she was looking down at her desk writing something. He got down on one knee, held out the cake and said, "Will you chair me?" haha.... I thought it was hilarious! She turned bright red and of course, accepted his offer. Here's a shot of the lid of the cake box.

Happy Anniversary, Liz and Daniel!

Liz and Daniel have ordered several cakes from me now and I was so honored a few weeks back when Liz emailed me about their latest cake order. The couple was celebrating their anniversary and wanted to order each other personalized cakes as their anniversary presents. I had each of them email me their ideas and made sure that the other didn't know what they were receiving. Daniel wanted Liz's cake to have a black fleur de lis on a very pink background. Liz wanted to center her cake around their favorite game, rock-paper-scissor. They both wanted Ruby Red Velvet cakes with cream cheese frosting and all of the decorations are handmade from marshmallow fondant. Making the paper was actually really exciting for me (yes, I'm a nerd) because I deal with paper all day long as a student. Ah, the joys of mixing my two jobs :) Anyway, I packaged the cakes separately in boxes that said "His" and "Hers" and sealed them up so that they could open them together on the night of their anniversary. It was so cool to be a part of their special day and I just thought it was the cutest idea. Here are the pictures of their celebration. Enjoy!

Transformers Bumblebee Cake

Last week, I made the Fish Tank cake for Nychole's husband's birthday. This week, Nychole's son, Brayden is turning 5 and wanted a Bumblebee themed cake, not the insect but rather the Transformer. A while back, I made another Bumblebee cake and thought it looked more like a taxi than what I had envisioned. Because of that, I really wanted to make sure this cake made up for my inability last time. I'm trying very hard to know when to stop when I'm doing cakes and really focus in on a few elements rather than including everything under the sun. What do you think? I hope Brayden and Nychole love the cake!

The top tier is a Ruby Red Velvet cake (red velvet cake layered with cream cheese frosting) and the bottom tier is a White Chocolate Chip Cake (sweet white cake with chocolate chips baked in and layered with buttercream and more chocolate chips). In case you didn't notice, it's suppose to look like the front grill of Bumblebee the car. No? Yes? I hope so :)

Birthday at Tiffany's Cake

Sarah was having a birthday party and called me up to ask for a cake. She said, "Do whatever you'd like." She told me that she likes black and white colors and Breakfast at Tiffany's. I tried to blend those as nicely as possible. I didn't tell her today how difficult this cake was but it was literally my worst nightmare. I covered the cake three separate times with fondant and for some reason, it just would not cooperate. At around 2:30am, I ripped off all of the fondant and started over yet again. I did the border detail four times and screamed a dozen times. Naw, just kidding (well, not really kidding :) Without getting into too much detail, let's just say I went to sleep at 4am completely exhausted! I hope the Audrey Hepburn look comes across on the top. Oh, I have to say that Sarah had the most unique cake flavor I've ever had to make. She wanted a chocolate cherry cake (chocolate cake with cherries baked into it) layered with sliced almonds and coffee flavored cream-cheese frosting. Sarah said she wanted a gourmet flavored cake so hopefully the flavors all worked together. I'll keep you posted!

Addison's Birthday Cupcakes

My friends, Kyle and Jen, have a one-year old... Wow! Addison is ONE! One year ago I went to the hospital to hold the tiniest most adorable baby (and to bring the new parents pumpkin bagels). We celebrated her birthday yesterday and she went to town on the blue monkey. It's so fun to see a baby cover themselves in frosting :)

These cupcakes are modeled after the monkeys, Ooh and Aah, from Playhouse Disney. They are Rainbow Bright cupcakes with buttercream frosting. Here's a picture of the inside of the cupcakes. I meant for them to be pink, white, and blue to match the colors of the cupcakes but they look more patriotic than I was anticipating. Haha. Oh well.

Fish Tank Cake.... harder than it sounds

So it turns out that making cake look transparent is quite difficult so making a fish tank cake was pretty darn challenging. Nychole's husband has several salt water fish tanks and so she wanted to celebrate that hobby in cake. The cake was 8-inches tall, 8-inches long, and 6-inches wide. It has two separate cake flavors, one stacked on the other. The top flavor is a Coconutty Almond Cake (coconut cake layered with coconut buttercream, light coconut cream filling, sliced almonds, and coconut flakes... I know it sounds like a lot of coconut but it's actually quite a nice balance) and the bottom flavor was Chunky Monkey Cake (chocolate cake layered with chocolate ganache, banana cream filling, and banana slices).

In order to pull this off to look as much like a real fish tank as possible, I layered fondant to look like coral popping out of the cake then I covered the whole cake in marshmallow fondant. Then I molded the fondant around the coral so it really looks like it's coming out of the tank. I sprayed the cake with a light sky blue color even though water in a fish tank doesn't look blue at all (weird!). The sand at the bottom of the tank is brown sugar stuck to the side (a genius idea by my new apprentice, Alex). I have to thank Alex for all of her help on this cake. She's more of a perfectionist than I am!! Anyway, here's another view of the cake for you.

Tinkerbell's Fairy Garden Cake

Carey wanted a cake for Cadence's third birthday this weekend and wanted it to be Tinkerbell themed. We decided on a cake that used lots of pinks, purples, and greens. For those of you who haven't watched the new Tinkerbell movie, well then you clearly don't have kids :) In any case, the top tier was a Spices & Cake cake (Spice cake layered with buttercream) while the bottom cake was a Brownie Lovers Cake (chocolate cake layered with chocolate ganache and a layer of brownies). I wanted to show another side of the cake so that you could get a feel for the whole design, and not just the leading lady. I also wanted to show what the inside of the Brownie Lovers Cake looks like. It's SO decadent and chocolately that it would fix anyone's chocolate craving (especially mine).

Dallen's 3rd Birthday with Lego Batman

One of my step-son's birthdays was this weekend and so we celebrated his third year with a Lego Batman Cake. He was totally thrilled and it was just really fun to see the kids love a cake and be there to witness it. As I was cutting into the cake, the kids got a hole of Robin's arms and legs and downed those before I even had a chance to limit the amount of sugar intake. Ah well, birthdays don't come around that often, right? This was a Rainbow Bright Cake (this flavor is really popular with kid birthdays... I think it's all the sugar!) which means it was a vanilla cake colored to match the decor of the cake and then layered with buttercream and sprinkles. Each side of the cake is supposed to look like a different building from Lego Batman's Gotham city. I made the characters out of fondant and I found Batman's abs the funniest part to make on these characters!

Here are another few pictures for you.

This is an inside shot of the Lego Batman Cake. Many people who ate the cake thought that the bottom layer was chocolate. Interesting idea... I'm not sure how I feel about a Neapolitan Cake flavor but if anyone's interesting, let me know!

This was Dallen's mini-cake so that he could tear apart his own little cake which is why it's pretty simple and fun for him. He didn't even care about this cake after he saw the Lego Batman cake. Oh well, more cake for me.

Scooby Dooby Doo, Where are you?

Apparently Scooby's right here! Shandell wanted to celebrate Brady's 2nd birthday with a Scooby inspired birthday cake. Brady and Scooby both love hamburgers so instead of Scooby eating a cake, he was eating a hamburger for his birthday celebration. Brady specifically asked for a rainbow colored cake with orange frosting (I know, smart kid, right! I KNOW!). So I made a Rainbow Bright cake (vanilla cake with sprinkles baked into the batter with a layer colored blue, yellow and green to match the design) and layered the cakes with orange buttercream. This cake ended up being 5-inches tall! Here's another look for you of the other characters. Alex and Rosie were diligent in helping with this cake as well. It's like I throw a cake-making party and we sit in the kitchen for hours just cakin' it up. haha. Anyway, I hope Brady loved his vanilla and orange cake :)

A Topsy Turvy First

Vanessa wanted a unique cake for her 16th birthday. She wanted teals and greens and a touch of black. Vanessa's birthday was 09-09-09 which is pretty cool so we wanted to highlight that as well. The top tier was a Cookies & Cake cake (vanilla cake layered with buttercream and crushed oreos). The middle tier was a Brownie Lovers cake (chocolate cake layered with rich chocolate ganache and a layer of actual brownies in between the chocolate cake). The bottom tier was a Mint Chocolate Chip Cake (vanilla cake with chocolate chips baked in layered with lightly flavored mint buttercream with chopped chocolate chips).

This was my first attempt at a topsy turvy cake and I was surprised at how subtly easy and subtly difficult it was at the same time. My two lovely assistants, Rosie and 13-year old cake-apprentice, Alex, were awesome in helping with this cake. We worked late into the night to make sure that every detail was right. I wanted to show another view of the cake without the writing on it so that you could see the design. Rosie said this cake reminded her of Alice in Wonderland. Awesome! haha

My New Apprentice

I'm breaking a personal rule of mine to not put photos of myself on the internet... and I might take this off later but I promised my new apprentice that I would show off her skills. This is Alex who helped me with the last cake I did that had the various super heroes on it. That same night, Alex made her second fondant cake ever and came up with the design on the spot! It was amazing to watch her work and I was so impressed with the outcome. This is a Spices & Cake cake (spice cake with cheesecake filling and cream cheese frosting) covered in homemade marshmallow fondant. She put the cake together, covered it in the fondant that she made and decorated it with her genius ability and creativity.

Although we both look like we're 13, I'm the one on the left with the proud mama smile and she's the one on the right with the glow of self-satisfaction. We will continue to work together and I'll keep her progress posted on here as well. Great job, Alex! I'm still in awe of your intrinsic talent!!

With our Powers Combined...

No, this isn't a Captain Planet cake but wow, I would LOVE to make one of those.

This cake was for Hunter who turned three. He wanted a Super Hero themed cake, specifically the Hulk and Spiderman. Rather than making a single tier cake for him, I figured we should go all the way with this one. There's only one real tier of cake and it's a rainbow bright cake. It's a sweet vanilla cake colored to match the theme (green, yellow, and red) with sprinkles baked in and layered with rainbow sprinkle buttercream. The other tiers are fake cakes covered in fondant and decorated with fondant. All of the logos and designs and capes are handmade from fondant.

This time, I had an awesome helper to create this monstrosity of a cake. Alex is an up-and-coming caker herself and has recently started decorating her own cakes with fondant. She's 13 and reminded me so much of myself. We started off the night just talking and sharing how we do cakes but as the night went all, we both focused in and zoned out. I usually put Friends, the show, on in the background and she even knew the lines like I did. I was not only impressed by her caking skills but also her Friends knowledge. I have a feeling that this is the start of a beautiful relationship centered around delicious cake! Thanks for your help, Alex! Hunter LOVED the cake when he came to pick it up today.... I wish you could've seen the reaction to your hard work!

Sue's Grim Reaper Birthday

Trent called asking for a birthday cake for his wife. I won't say how old she is but you can probably infer a timeline based on the design that her husband chose :) He took a page of pictures that his wife drew of a cartoon grim reaper and asked that it be the center of the cake. Then, in order to make the cake less "death-focused" and more fun-birthday focused, we decided to add the purple and the daisies around the grim reaper. There are little skulls around the base dispersed with more daisies. Trent liked the cake so I hope Sue did as well.

The cake is a chocolate cake with buttercream and covered in marshmallow fondant. All of the decorations are also marshmallow fondant. This cake was really fun to make because of its creativity and design. It reminded me of a Tim Burton-esque color scheme and idea (although it reminded Rosie of a Charlie Brown themed-halloween).

Wow, Wow, Wubbzy, I made three cakes!

Kieran turned one yesterday and his mom, Susannah, wanted a Wow, Wow, Wubbzy cake for him. After the giant wedding order from yesterday, I was pretty scared about finishing this cake order by 11am today. The cakes were a chunky monkey cake, which is chocolate cake layered with banana cream filling, chocolate ganache, and sliced bananas. Susannah chose this flavor because of her love for ganache, which is a rich and decadent chocolate frosting consisting of cream and chocolate. I sent her home with a little extra ganache on the side to get her through the party :) There was a lot of detail on this cake that I wanted to share so I tried to get a shot of the top of the cake and then I'm adding a picture of the characters made of fondant.

The yellow guy is Wubbzy, Walden is the purple dude, and Widget is the pink builder-woman. I also made the little birdies that Susannah, I mean Kieran, wanted so badly (hehe). After making this cake, I'm definitely going to invest more time into watching the show :) Kieran needed his own cake to smash open and enjoy so this smaller cake was just for him. Additionally, Susannah wanted to honor her brother's birthday and by honor, I mean make fun of him with a Wow, Wow, Old Wubbzy cake. I thought the idea was hilarious so I whipped up a third cake for Dallas. It's a bit hard to see in picture but the third Wubbzy is old, as evidenced by the little bifocals, the cane, the pants pulled up to his belly button and the gray beard/receding hair. Oh and his tail, which is usually up and curved is more lazy now. These three cakes were so much fun to make and I hope Kieran loved it too!

Two Smurfs, a Gazebo, and 600 Mini-Desserts!!

This weekend was a big one! Kara and Chase got married and wanted a unique set of cakes to match their fun and unique personalities. The first cake was a domed gazebo to match the location of their wedding because this was where they got engaged. The dome cake was nearly 18-inches wide and weighed more than I can imagine (again, I needed my side-kick/muscle to carry the cake to the site... Rosie to the rescue again!). The cake was a lemon raspberry cake with raspberry cream filling and raspberry buttercream. They wanted phrases from their favorite songs to be around the edges of the cake. It's amazing how much smaller this cake looks in this picture!

The second cake is the one they wanted to cut. It's also a lemon raspberry cake. Interestingly, this cake is much bigger in the picture than it was at the wedding because it was a mini-cake. The base cake was 6-inches, the middle was 4-inches and the top was 2-inches wide. The two smurfs at the top were an adorable touch by the bride and groom.

The wedding colors were bright yellow, purple and red so when the bride asked for lemon bars and brownie bites, we made some decisions on how to make the order more vibrant and fun. The couple wanted 350 mint brownie bites and 250 lemon bars. I made extra in the process just in case anything messed up so they ended up with around 380 brownie bites and 280 lemon bars (what was I going to do with 30 brownies and lemon bars? :) It was a long two days to get everything prepared but Rosie and I literally finished without a minute to spare. We topped the brownies with mint-flavored buttercream dyed to match the wedding colors. The lemon bars are inside the fun and colorful cupcake holders that Kara chose herself. I made the cupcake stands a few days ago and matched those to the wedding colors as well. As Rosie and I set up the cakes, lemon bars, and brownie bites, the bride and groom started their wedding photos so I got to see the couple's reaction to the cakes. :) They already looked thrilled and happy from the wedding. It felt great to be a part of a couple's special day like this... totally stressful but totally worth it!