Pirate Birthday Cake

This single tiered pirate birthday cake was for Makayla's 14th birthday. She loves pirates, Halloween, and skulls so we came up with this design. It was a Chunky Monkey cake (chocolate cake with banana cream filling, fresh bananas, and chocolate ganache). It was covered in marshmallow fondant with piped buttercream spiderwebs. I loved the simplicity of the design :)

It's a Great Pumpkin Cake, Charlie Brown

Effey (who ordered the topsy turvy painting cake) ordered this Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown cake for several birthdays they were celebrating at the same time. This was one side of the cake so you can see the "Wecome Great Pumpkin!" sign and Charlie Brown & Lucy. The other sides had more characters and other happy birthday signs as well. It was Caramel Macchiato Cake covered in marshmallow fondant. As you might be able to tell, I'm getting closer to only 1 year behind in my posts! Yowza!

Two-Sided Grim Reaper Birthday

Shona threw Sue an awesome surprise birthday party and had such great ideas about the birthday cake. Shona wanted a half-paradise, and half-grave birthday cake with the grim reaper on top. She even wanted the grim reaper to have Bermuda shorts on under his robe. I thought the whole idea was hilarious and so I was in from the start!

After a lovely cake tasting with Shona, her son and daughter, they decided on Emerald City Cake (light pistachio flavored cake layered with pistachio cream filling, chopped pistachio nuts, and buttercream), Coconut Cream Pie Cake (coconut cake layered with coconut cream filling, coconut flakes, and buttercream), and White Chocolate Dipped Strawberry Cake (strawberry cake layered with white chocolate ganache). They were so much fun to plan with surprise birthday cake with and loved each new addition to the main cake idea. They were really shooting for a completely unique and fun cake and I think we achieved that together.

This first picture shows the cake with the stark contrasts between the two sides.

This second picture is the graveside shot. First, the marshmallow fondant was marbleized to give it an eerie feel to it. Then, I painted creepy trees and bats onto the cake. I added 3-D gravestones, each with a different names or phrase and some broken fencing.

This side is the tropical ocean side complete with a half-rainbow, birds & clouds, palm trees and flowers, and finally fish and coral at the bottom. This colorful side was so much fun because it really allowed me to keep adding and adding details until my little heart was content. Ah, it finally was :)

Lastly, I wanted to show you an up close shot of the grim reaper, made of fondant. He has little flip flops, flowers on his shorts, and a sickle to boot. This guy was tricky because I had to get his robe to look like it was flowing while still being made of fondant. His sickle also had to stand straight but stay in his hands. It took some messing around but I finally got him to come together.

The night of the delivery, it was pouring down rain. I was so nervous about getting this sucker into the restaurant because it was so heavy and detailed. Luckily, we got it into the room and into place before the birthday girl arrived. I later heard that she absolutely loved the cake and I know Shona did as well. Thank you so much for trusting me with this crazy vision!! :)

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!

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).