Rock On Baby Shower Cake!

I loved making this baby shower cake! It was so much fun to recreate the Rock'n'Roll design based on the baby shower invitation. The cake was Mocha Java Cake (YUUUUUUUM!) and was all buttercream with marshmallow fondant decorations (the blue and skull parts). I used edible food coloring to create the shading on the top of the cake and then hand-piped the little designs all over the sides. Soooo cute!

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! :)

Mod Cake & Cupcakes

Sarah was having a sex-reveal party for her future baby and wanted a modern cake and cupcakes to match. We decided early on that Sarah isn't much of a "pink ducks" and "baby blue rattle" type of mother and since it was her shower, we wanted the theme to match her personality. In our discussions of the party, she mentioned that this baby was her "VERY.LAST.ONE" which I thought was hilarious. I suggested that we integrate those words into the cake because it was too funny to let slide. You can hardly see it in this picture but the cake topper (made of marshmallow fondant) says "VERY LAST ONE" on it.

The cake was covered in marshmallow fondant and the cupcake toppers were also MMF. We went with yellow, orange, brown, red, and white as the color scheme because this was during the fall. The cupcakes are Chocolate Dipped Cherry Pie Cake (chocolate cake with baked cherries) topped with cream cheese frosting while the main cake was White Chocolate Dipped Strawberry Cake (strawberry cake layered with white chocolate ganache).

Because this was a sex reveal party, Sarah had her doctor call me immediately after her ultrasound and told me the sex of their future baby. It was pretty crazy that I was the second person to know :) Anyway, I dyed the cream cheese frosting and the white chocolate ganache blue so that when they cut into the main cake and when the guests bit into their cupcakes, they saw bright blue all at the same time finding out that they were having another boy. Sarah later wrote and told me that the sex reveal was a huge hit and they are thrilled to have another boy. Congratulations, Nathan and Sarah! Very. Last. One, right? If not, I'll be here for another sex-reveal cake. haha

Baby Shoes Cake

Chelsee threw her sister a baby shower and had a cake design and colors in mind. One thing she wanted for sure were a pair of baby shoes to sit on top of the cake. Chelsee was very organized, especially since she was doing the party planning and organizing from out of state and sent me several cake inspirations and ideas through email. We ended up with this colorful and vibrant design. The cake was covered in homemade marshmallow fondant and decorated with fondant flowers and shoes. Each flower had a tiny little edible dragee in the center and although I tried to use the flowers sparingly, I tend to go overboard!

Both tiers were white cake layered with strawberry filling (the mother-to-be's request). The baby shoes ended up taking a few tries to get right but they were surprising easy to make. It's made from three pieces that I "glued" together (with water) and then stuffed with plastic wrap until they dried in shape. Fun, fun, fun!

Pink and Brown Baby Shower Cake

Dominique needed a baby shower cake for a friend and had a cake idea in mind. She had a picture of a cake that was square, blue and brown, and a bow on top. She wanted something similar but for a girl's shower. Dominique had the idea of putting baby feet on the cake as well. This was a 6-9inch cake covered in homemade marshmallow fondant. Both tiers were vanilla cake with raspberry cream filling and raspberry buttercream. The bow on top was also made out of fondant that I let dry overnight to make sure the pieces harden in that shape. I love how simple but cute this cake is. I hope the mommy-to-be was pleased as well.

Baby Shower Cake with Matching Cupcakes

I'm sorry I've taken so long to get some of this cakes posted. It's been quite a long and difficult three weeks getting the semester wrapped up. Thanks for being patient!

One of my closest friends is pregnant (weird for me, I have to be honest! She has a baby bump and everything!) Anyway, I flew out to Monterey, California, to celebrate her first baby by making the cake. She wanted matching cupcakes as well, which I told her would be more labor intensive but I would do it... just for her :) So I matched the theme from the baby shower invites to make the bottom tier of the cake, the decor of the party for the middle tier, and Kelly's favorite type of design for the top tier. I tried not to make it too pink so I threw in some blue to even it out a bit. The cakes were covered in homemade marshmallow fondant as were the decorations. The top and bottom tiers were fake cakes and I had to pack them in my suitcase to get them to Monterey. Talk about the scary plane ride of my life! You know when you're sitting in the plane looking out of the window and you can see the "throwers" throwing your bag onto the conveyor belt? With two fake cakes in my suitcase, I nearly had a heart attack!

Anywho, the middle tier was Spices & Cake (cinnamon spiced cake layered with vanilla cream filling and buttercream) and the cupcakes were strawberry cupcakes with pink and white buttercream and some were sprinkled with crystallized sugar. All in all, I had a great trip out to Monterey, had a break from school and grading, and got to spend time with some great people.

Thank you, Mr. & Mrs. Jones, for letting me shack up at your beautiful home and for letting me use your kitchen to attempt to make a decent-looking cake with your kitchen tools. :) Congrats, Kel and Kevo on your first baby girl! I'll be ready to feed her tons of sugar when I visit!

Topsy Turvy Flowers and Duckys

My apprentice, Alex, needed a cake for her sister's homecoming party and she's always wanted to make a topsy turvy cake. This was the perfect opportunity! She wanted to personalize this cake to her sister's likings and so the top tier has hand painted gerber daisies, the middle tier has doormats (because her sister collects photos of doormats and we specifically modeled these doormats after the ones her sister took pictures of), and the bottom tier has rubber duckys swimming in bubbles. The cake weighed 20 pounds and took hours upon hours to complete. The top tier was a Ruby Red Velvet cake, the middle tier was Chocolaty Chocolate Cake and the bottom tier was a Rainbow Bright Cake (with each layer of cake colored to match the design of the cake, so blue, pink, and yellow layers of cake with buttercream). Here's another view so you can see some more of the doormats.

Now for a little more detail. The gerber daisies were made by using a flower cookie cutter and simply layering two flowers on top of each other to give it some depth. The doormats were really fun because Alex spent a ton of time really getting the details right. They look identical to the ones in the pictures. Essentially, it was like using food coloring as water color painting. Took a while but was totally worth it. Lastly, the duckys were shaped by hand to look like rubber duckys. This is where it takes me back to being a kid and playing with play-doh. I use homemade marshmallow fondant for my cakes and it was really fun to mold that fondant into ducks. The beaks were then painted orange, we put little eyes on them and Alex painted cute eyelashes on them. In total, the cake was really a great reflection of Alex's sister and I hear the cake was a huge success at the party. Great job once again, Alex! :)