Inspired by Twilight

Brynlee was having a pretty awesome birthday bash and to match the party decor (complete with full-sized posters of Jacob, Edward and Bella), her mom, Mette, wanted to get her a large centerpiece cake. This cake was the result. The bottom tier and the second tier were both real cake while the solid white and solid red tier were used to make the cake even bigger. The cake is covered in homemade marshmallow fondant and the ribbon, chess pieces, apple, and flowers were also made out of fondant.

One tier was Mint Chocolate Chip (chocolate cake layered with chocolate chips and mint buttercream) and the other tier was Rainbow Bright cake (vanilla cake that is dyed to match the colors of the theme and then layered with buttercream and sprinkles).

I was lucky enough to deliver this cake and got to see Mette and Brynlee's reactions, not to mention the awesome party scene! I'm so glad they loved it and I hope Brynlee had an AWESOME 10th birthday bash!

Two-Sided Pirate Cake

Last year, I made a two-sided cake for Patty because her three children celebrate their birthdays so closely together. Last year, it was a car and kitty theme but this year, they all three wanted a pirate themed party. The top tier was Strawberry Not So Short Cake (strawberry cake with strawberries baked in layered with vanilla cream filling and buttercream) and the bottom cake was Banana Cream Pie Cake (lightly flavored banana cake with banana cream filling, fresh banana slices, and buttercream).

The whole cake was covered in homemade marshmallow fondant and all of the accents were also fondant. The ladies wanted hearts and a more friendly looking skull while Junior wanted to keep a more classic red and black design. I made the top treasure chest out of rice crispy cereal and then covered it in fondant. In order to keep the top of the chest at an angle, I had to make it separately and angle it by stuffing the chest full of treasure-looking candy. All of coins, pearls, and pirate "booty" were edible made out of either fondant or pearlized dragees (edible balls). I marbelized the fondant on the chest in order to make it look more like wood and brushed brown sugar underneath the treasure chest to give it a beach feel.

I loved make this cake(s) and really like how it turned out! I hope I continue to be a part of Patty, Giselle, Alyssa, and Junior's parties because they definitely keep me on my toes with their cake ideas.

Race Car Cake

Last year, I make Kieran's first birthday cake, which was a Wubbzy Cake. This year, Kieran's mom wanted a race car theme for his birthday so we came up with this idea. The cake was Chunky Monkey, just like last year (chocolate cake layered with banana cream filling, banana slices, and chocolate ganache). The cake was covered in homemade marshmallow fondant and all of the cars and signs were also from fondant. I have to give a shout out to Cake Journal for their adorable race car tutorial. It was definitely my inspiration for these race cars. This cake was small, compact, but pretty darn cute! :)

Black, White, & Silver Birthday

Jim was turning 50 this year and to celebrate, his wife wanted a classy cake. Last year, she surprised him by hanging an over sized picture of him as a baby outside of his office so this year, she wanted to tone it down just a bit. :) The bottom cake was German Chocolate Cake (chocolate cake layered with chocolate buttercream, chopped pecans, and coconut flakes) and the top cake was Carrot Cake (carrot cake layered with cream cheese frosting). The cake was covered in homemade marshmallow fondant and accented with marshmallow fondant pearls and silver dragees. The "50" was also marshmallow fondant painted with edible silver shimmer.

After I made the cake, I stepped back and thought "I'm so happy I spelled 'You're' correctly." Otherwise, I could have been on cake-wrecks and not for a good reason! Phew!

SuperBron

Leona needed a cake for her husband, Bron, who is a big kid. She said he loves Superman and so she wanted a cake in that theme. I kept this cake pretty simple to make it more "adult" rather than kid-friendly. The cake was English Toffee Cake (yellow cake layered with rich, chocolate ganache and crushed toffee bits in between the layers of cake). It was covered in homemade marshmallow fondant with marshmallow fondant words and letters.

Because the cake ended up being a little bit shorter than I had anticipated (my cakes are usually 4-inches tall and this one was more like 3-inches or 3 and a half inches tall), I ended up making cake truffles to accompany the order. These cake truffles were also yellow cake covered in chocolate ganache with a piece of English Toffee right in the center of the bite. Then, I sprinkled a little bit of red sugar on top to match the cake. Yum.... I always "have" to sample the cake truffles when I make them... fun for me! :)

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

Last year I made a cake that I was so unimpressed by and simultaneously disappointed in that I didn't even post it on my blog. Because of that catastrophe, I had to make this second cake awesome. So let me explain....

Lisa, my mentor, was one of the first people to tell me to follow my dreams of caking (which was funny because she was concurrently my mentor helping me earn a Bachelor's, Master's, and PhD degree). When she had Sheridan, her first beautiful baby boy, I HAD to do the cake for his first birthday. The only problem was that I live in Salt Lake and she lives in Sacramento. I decided to make a fake cake for her and ship it to her to put on top of a real cake that she served to the guests. Sheridan was loving the song about monkeys jumping on a bed so I made a bed with Sheridan's favorite afghan on it and then made monkeys that looked like they were jumping on the bed. I lovingly wrapped the monkeys in bubble wrap hoping it would help them stay together which totally backfired because the fondant must have warmed up on the way over and the monkeys all had a bubble wrap texture (NOT what I had originally wanted). Then, it just so happens that monkeys made from fondant don't like to travel very nicely so most of them broke in the mail (I made double the amount needed and I think almost all of them broke). Poor Lisa ended up doing late-night-monkey-surgery in order to get the monkeys back into shape for the cake.

Now, back to this cake. This year, Sheridan's favorite song is the Itsy Bitsy Spider so I wanted to make a cake with that theme. Since I had to go above and beyond the last cake-tastrophe, I made this a three tiered cake with multiple spiders and a huge sun that stood out of the cake. I was so happy with the result and packaged it lovingly once again with plastic wrap. I added special instructions on how to get the legs for the spiders in the corresponding holes and prayed all night for a safe travel. I am happy to report that the cake made it nearly without a scratch. There was a tiny piece on the back of the cake that broke off but all the spiders and tiers made it perfectly.

The general idea here was that the Itsy Bitsy spider was going to go up the water spout on the side of a yellow house with orange rose bushes. Then, the water washed that little spider out, hence his little sad face. Finally, the sun came out and dried up all the rain and that lil' itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again. I think Lisa's description (and singing) is much better so here you go: http://geneticenhancement.blogspot.com/2010/08/minor-spider-surgery.html

Everything on this "cake" was made out of fondant and technically edible. I'm so just so happy that Sheridan got a cake that was up to my standards :) I can't wait for next year's cake!! Happy Birthday, Sheridan!!!

Skateboard Cupcakes

I was so happy to do these cupcakes. Cutting, shaping, and painting each of these skateboards was so much fun... but very time-consuming. Trish wanted to surprise her son, Jacob, with skateboard themed cupcakes for his 16th birthday since they were having the party at a skate park. Half of the cupcakes were chocolate with vanilla buttercream while the others were Cookies & Cake with Oreo buttercream. The skateboards were made out of marshmallow fondant and hand-painted with food coloring to match Jacob's favorite brand of skateboards. Many of them are turned upside down so that you can see the wheels and some of them are right side up. It was a bit tricky to get the wheels to stay on there but I managed to make it work. I have to say a big "Thank you!" to my man-friend for his amazing artistic help here. He's an amazing artist and his help here was invaluable. You can tell the ones that he did because they look AWESOME! :)
Here's a shot of just some of the skateboards. Like I said above, the good ones were done by my lovely man-friend. :)