Animal Print Birthday Cake!

Zeth wanted a "super girlie" birthday cake for his wife. He knew it should be about shopping, purses, shoes and knew she wanted animal print, pink, and black. We came up with this design together. There are 4 separate cakes here and everything else is made out of sugar.

I made this high heel out of gumpaste and waited till it dried before painting on the leopard print. The box underneath was also cake with a hand-painted leopard design. The zebra print shopping bag in the back was so much fun because making tissue paper out of sugar is actually super easy! Roll out your fondant (marshmallow fondant in this cake) very thin. Cut into different size squares and rectangles. Bunch up some plastic wrap and place on a cookie sheet. Now, lay the squares and rectangles over the plastic wrap so that they are taking on the shape of the valleys and hills of the plastic. Let them dry over night and then you'll have  sugar tissue paper :)

This purse cake was covered in white marshmallow fondant and then I painted it black so that it would keep its shine. I dried the purse strap over a round piece of styrofoam until it was hardened and then it stood up on its own. I made the bow and flowers out of marshmallow fondant as well. I used a pattern tracing wheel to create the stitched look on the purse itself. So simple but gives it a really nice detail. The square cake behind it has a sugar bow and a stenciled buttercream design on the sides.

The cakes were 24-Carrot Cake, Brownie Lovers, Cookies & Cake, and White Raspberry Kiss Cake. Yum!

Purple Zebra and Flowers!

Here comes an adorable story! Wendy emailed me and said her birthday was coming up and wanted to get a cake from me since she had some of her friend's wedding cake a while back and loved the flavor (Tuxedo cake, one layer of chocolate and 2 layers of vanilla cake layered with chocolate and vanilla buttercream and mini chocolate chips). Her request was to have a purple cake, maybe zebra stripes with colorful flowers on it. We planned it all out and came up with this design:

 That same week, I got a request from Sean for a purple cake with a black design on it and pretty flowers on it. He requested Tuxedo cake too, same specifications of 1 layer of chocolate, 2 vanilla, and mini chocolate chips! I thought it was strange but made it anyway and we came up with this design:

Turns out, Sean is Wendy's boyfriend who wanted to surprise her with a cake for her birthday! Wendy ended up with 2 Tuxedo cakes both in purple with flowers on it. I was pretty impressed at how well Sean did with describing what Wendy wanted. When Wendy came to get the surprise cake that Sean ordered, I asked if she still wanted it since she had just picked up the other one. She laughed and said of course, more cake for her! :) haha.

Penguin Wedding Cake

Norman is from the east coast and wanted to surprise his fiance with a penguin wedding cake for their wedding out here in Utah. She loves this penguin stuffed animal she has and so he sent me pictures of it and I modeled this cake as closely as possible to the stuffed animal. The whole thing is cake and covered in marshmallow fondant and then I hand-painted the coloring to match the toy. The cake had three flavors inside of the little guy, Mom's Apple Pie Cake, Southern Butter Pecan Cake, and Ruby Red Velvet Cake. He was surprisingly heavy! haha

Pink Cowgirl Birthday Cake

Adison's cowgirl birthday party needed a sweet cowgirl cake to match her theme. We went with brown cow print for the bottom and then I made the paisley design on the top tier using leaf cutters and piping. There were marshmallow fondant sunflower/daisies and a MMF star. So fun! It was Strawberry Cheesecake Cake on the inside so even that matched the theme :)

Ladies that Luncheon (or Ladies that Cake :)

WOW! That's not me patting myself on the back, I promise :) I believe it stands for Women of Worship. Carol wanted a unique cake for her women's church group gathering. She specifically wanted "girlie" and "pink" and more "girlie." We decided that a purse, hatbox, and present box would be perfect. I accented the cake with some edible sugar pearls, sugar brooch, sugar flower, and sugar bow. The whole cake is edible, including the "tissue paper" in the present and hat box. 

I had so much fun making this zebra printed purse. First, I made the sugar flower with a pearl center and the brooch that's all sugar pearls and let those set up for a few days. I didn't want this whole cake to be black and white because Carol was pretty specific in her need for PINK! Haha. I shaped out the purse, frosted it, then covered it in marshmallow fondant. I added a flap over the top and used a quilting tool to add seams to the purse. I cut out zebra stripes freehand because it's way more fun that way. I added a purse strap, the flower, and brooch and Ta-Da!

 I used a cool stencil design I found a while back for this present box and topped it off with a fondant bow. The lid was made out of rice krispies and then I propped it up just a bit to add the edible tissue paper.

 The hatbox was extra tall (to fit a hat, of course) and topped off with a rice-krispie hatbox lid. I draped the sugar pearls around the box to give it a little more detail.

I believe the flavors were Banana Cream Pie, Mocha Java, and Brownie Lovers. Yum! I would've stayed to eat all three flavors, especially because the ladies were so much fun! They were shocked that this was their cake! They were setting up for the ladies weekend and stopped to come huddle around the cake. They took pictures of the cake and with the cake. Haha... they were awesome! Thank you ladies!!

Sassy Hippo Cake

Aimee wanted a cutesy hippo cake for Laci's birthday. Aimee basically said, "I want a hippo, I want purple, now do whatever you want." It was great! I had made a 3-D hippo cake not too long ago but wanted to take a different route with this one. The cake was Brownie Lovers Cake with a rice krispie head covered in marshmallow fondant (because carving chewy brownies can be quite difficult). For the head, I shaped it out of rice krispies, covered that in buttercream, then in fondant. I indented the nostrils using a fondant ball tool and then added the exaggerated eyes, eye lids, lashes, ears, and teeth. I dyed buttercream different shades of blue and piped it around the hippo (I should have named her!). Finally, I used an angled spatula to make the buttercream look a little messier so that it looked more like water.

I really did love this cake. My parents were in town visiting when I made this cake and I rarely get a chance to show them what I do. My mom gave her input on the eyes, ears, waves, etc. which made this order so memorable. Thanks, Aimee for all of your trust!

Baby Blue Animal Print Cupcakes

Shandell wanted cute cupcakes for a baby shower she was throwing. Since it was a baby boy's shower, we matched the shower invitations by doing baby blue animal print designs on the tops of the cupcakes. Here's the invitation:

For the cupcakes, she chose two flavors. The first is After Dinner Mint cupcakes which are minty chocolate cupcakes topped with mint chocolate ganache. Here's a shot of the cupcakes before the toppers:

The second flavor was Carnival Caramel Apple cupcakes which are spice cake with baked apples topped with cinnamon buttercream and caramel. YUM!
Shandell's been one of my clients for a few years now and I was so happy to make these cute little cupcakes for her. She later wrote me and said they were delicious and quite the hit at the party. Thanks, Shandell! :)

Bright Zebra Birthday

Whitney wanted a bright & fun birthday cake with a zebra print theme somewhere in there so we came up with this design for her 13th birthday party. To make it a little more whimsical, I tapered in the sides and made it slightly topsy so that it almost looks like it's falling over. The cake was Cookies & Cake (vanilla cake layerd with crushed Oreo cookies) and white cake with raspberry filling (the birthday girl's choices, of course). The balls and the number "13" are all made out of fondant and the whole cake was covered and decorated with marshmallow fondant. I had a ton of fun with this cake because it was just bright and colorful. Hmm... I don't think there's much else to it! :)