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.