Gigantic Fruit Cupcake Tower

I received an almost frantic call from Renee a few weeks back. Renee was having a luau themed wedding reception and wanted a unique "cake" for the party. She had this brilliant idea for a cupcake tower that no one in the area would agree to make (I think she said that she called between 7-10 bakers and cakers). She sent me a picture of a cupcake tower covered with fruit in between buttercream covered cupcakes and I agreed to take on the challenge. After I hung up, I realized I had no idea how to get this done, which is why I created the mini-fruit cupcake tower a bit ago. It was definitely a challenge but totally worth it in the end. It's amazing how fast 8 hours flies when you're on a time crunch!

This cupcake tower holds over 6lbs of strawberries, 2lbs of grapes, 1lb of blueberries and two fresh pineapples. There are 46 large cupcakes and 23 mini-cupcakes. Half of the cupcakes were vanilla cupcakes with buttercream and half are red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. The tower stood over 28inches tall and so I can only imagine how much this weighs (obviously, I couldn't carry this monstronsity!). My man-friend nearly passed out from the pressure of driving an hour away with me and the cupcake tower in the back along with having to carry it through the house to the set up site. I rewarded him with his choice of restaurant for dinner :) I wish I could've stayed for the reception because Renee and her guests were seriously having a party! It was my idea of a wedding reception! Renee's reaction was totally worth the work because she was more thrilled than me in a free-candy shop (and I love me some candy!). I'm so glad I helped alleviate her stress at her wedding reception and make the cake that she wanted.

After washing all of the fruit by hand, I sprayed the fruit with sugar water so that when biting into the fruit, there's a bit of extra sweetness. Yummy!

Hello Kitty and Disney Cars Cake

Patty was having a birthday party for all three of her children, a pair of twins and an older daughter. We decided to do the two-sided cake for the party rather than three separate cakes. The two girls wanted a Hello Kitty design and the lil' guy wanted Disney's Cars for his side.

The top tier was a rainbow bright cake with a red layer, white layer, and pink layer of vanilla cake, filled with buttercream and sprinkles. The bottom tier was a strawberry cheesecake cake. This time, I tried a new recipe which had the traditional two layers of strawberry cake, cream cheese frosting, and cheesecake cream filling. What made this cake different was that I added a middle layer of rich strawberry cake with strawberries baked into the cake. I hope they loved it :)

Pirate Ship Cake... Arrg

Dominique wanted a pirate ship cake for Kieran's 3rd birthday... and this cake turned out to be a monstrosity! It was REALLY heavy and took quite some work to fit in the fridge until the pick up. There were several layers of cake (white cake with buttercream for the birthday boy) to build up the body of the ship. The top backside of the ship is rice krispies covered and decorated to match the cake. The masts were made out of fondant that were dried and hardened. I wanted the ship to look as "ship-like" as possible so I cut out individual slats of fondant that I mixed to look like wood and then placed them on after covering the whole cake in fondant. Then I painted on a darker shade of brown food coloring, kind of like staining wood. The treasure chest was made out of fondant as was the pirate. This was definitely a challenge but was so exciting to finish. I hope you likey!

Housewarming Cake

Amanda wanted a surprise housewarming cake for a new house they just bought. The one thing she wanted on the cake for sure were her two dogs. All of the decorations are handmade and the house is rice krispies covered with marshmallow fondant. I tried to get the dogs and the house as accurate as possible. The bottom cake was a german chocolate cake filled with a homemade pecan and coconut filling and the top cake was a carrot cake filled with cheesecake cream.

I wanted to get a closer picture of the doggies, Skuzz and Sox, for you. It's pretty tricky to get a dog to look hairy when their hair is really poofy like Skuzz but I tried my best. Amanda did say the house and Sox looked almost dead on so I was very happy about that :)

Mini-Fruit-Cupcake-Tower and The Dark Knight

Renee asked me to make a cupcake tower that is unlike any other cupcake tower I've seen. She wants cupcakes mixed with various fresh fruit for her summer wedding reception. In order to be sure that I was up to making this potentially 2 ft tall or so reception centerpiece, I made a mini version. This fruit cupcake tower is made with blueberry cupcakes with buttercream, strawberries, grapes, blueberries, and pineapples. Although this one can only hold about 9 cupcakes, the real one will hopefully hold 40 cupcakes! Keep your fingers crossed for me!

On a completely separate note, Gabe was having a Batman themed birthday party (with a batman costume too!) so I made a cookies 'n' cream cake with chocolate buttercream. All of the decorations are handmade from marshmallow fondant. From this angle, it's hard to see the batman shadow so I'm attaching a second picture so that you can see the shadow clearly and also the sides with the buildings and bats.

Blue Dragon Cake and Cake Truffles

Katie and Jered got married today and Katie wanted to surprise her new husband with a dragon cake as the Groom's cake. I showed up, blue dragon cake and all, and Katie's family was very sweet about the cake. The new couple was out taking their wedding photos when the groom walked in to grab some water. All of Katie's guests quickly stood in front of the cake to hide it from him and shoved him back out of the door! I didn't get to see the new couple's reaction to their cake but I hope they loved it.

The body of the cake was a chocolate cake with a cool blue mint buttercream to match the decor. The head was made out of fondant while the neck, tail, and feet were rice crispies covered in buttercream and fondant. Then, I placed each scale on the dragon individually by hand with smaller scales on the end and larger scales in the middle body area. It was very time consuming but I wanted to get the right effect for the dragon. I wanted it to look scale-y (if that's a word). The "dorsal fin" looking scales that are standing up are also made out of homemade marshmallow fondant. The dragon wings were also edible and made out of fondant. I was very happy that everything on this cake was completely edible except the thin wire that attached the wings to the body. I wanted to attach a second photo to show the size of this cake. It twas large :)

After carving the body of the cake, I had lots of cake leftover but wanted to make sure that Katie and Jered had enough servings for their wedding guests. I used the leftover cake and buttercream to make cake truffles, also known as cake balls. They are rich and moist balls of cake mixed with the mint buttercream. I hope they ate all of those too!

Hawaiian Beach Cake

Skylar turned one yesterday with a Hawaiian themed party. Marie, her mother, was really excited about throwing her a 1st birthday and had decked out the backyard to match the theme with Hawaiian decorations. We were joking that although Skylar won't remember the party, Marie will have the pictures to prove it!

The top tier was a cookies'n'cream cake (sweet white cake layered with chocolate buttercream and crushed oreos) and the bottom tier was coconutty cake (just what it sounds like... coconut cake layered with coconut buttercream and coconut flakes). All of the decorations are handmade with marshmallow fondant. There are crabs, fish, octopi (I like to think that's plural for octopus), starfish, flowers, seahorse, seashells, and palm trees around the cake. Then, I sprinkled brown sugar along to edges to look like sand on the beach and on the ocean floor.

Along with the main cake, Marie wanted a smash cake all for Skylar that matched the Hawaiian beach theme. I wanted to keep the decorations simple when compared to the larger cake. It's also a cookies'n'cream cake covered in marshmallow fondant. I hope she just ripped it apart!

Hannah Montana Explosion

This weekend Allie was turning 5 and she wanted a Hannah Montana themed cake for her party. This cake was really fun to make because the colors were just so bright and lively. All of the decorations are handmade with marshmallow fondant, including the guitar and the Happy Birthday sign in "Hannah Montana" fashion :) Allie herself is a huge University of Utah fan and so her mother, Jeri, wanted a figurine of Allie to be on the cake singing into a microphone with a Utah jersey on.

The bottom cake was cheesecake lovers (cheesecake flavored cake layered with cheesecake filling and buttercream) and the top cake was rainbow bright (with three layers of cake, one dyed purple, one dyed yellow and one dyed pink layered with buttercream and sprinkles).

Because of the decorations on the front, I wanted to post a smaller picture of the side of the cake. The top tier was purple with zebra print and the bottom was pink with yellow dots and musical notes along the sides. So much fun to make!!










Jeri just emailed me this inside shot of the rainbow bright cake. She said that Allie loved the cake and even attached an adorable picture of Allie with the cake... she looked pretty happy to me :) Yay!

Dots and Stripes

I wanted to make a more simple cake than my usual themed cakes and so here is a pink and brown cake inspired by other cakes that I've seen made. The cake is covered in fondant and the pink and brown decorations are all fondant as well, including the bow.

Cherry Blossoms on a Cake

I've always wanted to do a Mulan inspired cake... not with samurai swords and dragons but more so with delicate cherry blossoms. As I've mentioned before, I've been known to go overboard with decorations on cakes so I tried pretty hard to censor myself. Feel free to pick off some of those flowers in your mind if you need to :) hehe. Otherwise, I hope you likey!

Mickey Mouse & Safari Animals

Marianne wanted a centerpiece for her daughter's 3rd birthday. She had already made the desserts for the party but wanted a little something else to boot. She wanted the traditional Mickey colors of red, yellow, black and white along with the Mickey symbol and his hand. I sculpted the hand out of rice crispies covered in buttercream and then fondant. I made the hand much larger than planned and then realized that there was no way the hand would fit on the cake itself. Luckily, Marianne was awesome in allowing creativity :) The top tier was also made out of rice crispies and the bottom tier was a Rainbow Bright cake (white cake dyed different colors to match the theme with sprinkles baked in and layered with sweet buttercream and more sprinkles). You can never have enough sprinkles in my opinion.


Jayden turned.... 6! Yes, good job! You got it! Michele, Jayden's mom, wanted a similar cake to the safari/jungle cake that I made a while back. I tried to take that cake idea and add more details to make this cake more special for Jayden and Michele. The top tier was a strawberry lemonade cake (lemon and strawberry cake layered with lemon buttercream) and the bottom tier was a chocolate and white cake layered with sweet buttercream.

The cakes were covered in marshmallow fondant and handmade marshmallow fondant decorations. All of the animals were made from fondant as well. This cake was so much fun to make because it was all about creativity. I wanted to make the animals look friendly and cutesy... (is that even a word?). I hope this cake was an improvement from the previous jungle cake. :)

A Very Very Pink Cake :)

Betsy was so amazing to work with in making her wedding cake. We designed it together through many different sketches and ideas. I was so thankful that she was the complete opposite of a bridezilla :) The bottom four tiers are fake cakes and the top tier was the cake used for the ceremonious cutting of the new couple. The cake was a coconut almond cake (a light coconut cake layered with coconut buttercream, coconut flakes, and sliced almonds). I originally made the bottom four tiers a week in advance (since they were not going to be eaten) but I wasn't satisfied with the color. So I redid the whole cake the night before the wedding to make sure that the colors were spot on and that they all matched in one solid color because I didn't want some tiers being slightly lighter or darker. The second run through took 12-13 hours straight to complete (it was the first time I've seen the sunrise in Utah! haha). It was worth it though because I wanted it to be PERFECT for Betsy.

This is a 6, 8, 10, 12, and 14 inch cake. The top tier has a hand cut design out of marshmallow fondant in the theme of Betsy's wedding. The second tier has the monogram for the couple's last name and is studded with swarovski crystals in a swiss dot pattern. The third tier is a new technique that I was trying and it is buttercream stenciled onto the cake. If you've ever tried stenciling, you might know that it's not as easy as it looks. If you've ever tried stenciling onto a round surface, you might know that it's even more challenging. And lastly, if you've ever tried stenciling buttercream onto a round, and sticky fondant surface, you might know the wonderful joys I experienced at around 2am :) The fourth tier has ivory, fondant swags with fondant dots. Finally, the bottom tier is a diamond pattern, indented by hand, with swarovski crystals to accent where the lines meet.

I can't say enough how great it was to work with someone who was so excited and willing to take a chance on a very pink cake... and also to take a chance on me :) This cake was 20 inches tall without the base and had to be transported in two separate pieces in order to make it. The cake had to last through an 80 minute drive to get to the wedding and luckily it all went well. Thank you so much, Betsy, for being amazing through this process! It really was fun, challenging, and totally worth it in the end!

Rubik's Cube and 2 Mini Cakes

This weekend was a big weekend for me. I had 6 cakes to complete and three of them were quite difficult. The first three cakes were for Emily's wedding. Emily saw a Rubik's cube online and wanted to replicate it for her groom's cake. Each tier was 9 inches by 9 inches by 3 inches. Stacked on top of each other, this cake was 9 by 9 by 9. Phew! The squares were actually more intricate to make than anticipated. Everyone knows what a Rubik's cube is and so it had to be perfect. If those squares were even slightly off, the whole look of the cake would be off. In any case, I tried to be as precise as possible and it was SO much fun to make. The cake is buttery yellow cake layered with chocolate ganache. The whole cake is covered in marshmallow fondant. In order to get the edges as crisp as possible, I cut out the sides and top a few days in advance. I measured them out so that they would fit together and cover the cake perfectly. Then, after they dried and hardened, I simply aligned the edges and (sugar) glued them together. I hope Peter was shocked and that he loved it :)

Emily was one of the most thoughtful brides I've ever seen. On her wedding day, she wanted to give her father and bridesmaid their own cakes in honor of their birthdays. So along with the Rubik's cube cake, I made two mini cakes. The first was a purple flower cake for her bridesmaid. The second cake was a camping themed birthday cake for her father. All of the decorations were made out of marshmallow fondant. Both of the mini-cakes were Peanut Butter No-Cup Cakes (chocolate cake layered with peanut butter cream filling).

Awkward Turtle

Guy wanted to surprise his girlfriend with a cake for her birthday. They are both "awkward turtles" and so he wanted to have a turtle to represent their shared joke. Adorable! This was a brownie lovers cake (chocolate cake with a layer of brownies in between). I wasn't sure what an "awkward" turtle really looks like so I tried my best. His legs and head are made out of rice crispies and then covered in buttercream and fondant. I hope he ate those too!

Graduation & Mustangs

Jenilynne just graduated from high school and so we had to celebrate, cake style. Her school colors were black, white, and red (or at least I hope they were). I tried a new technique on the sides of the cake and was pretty happy with the turn out. The cap and tassel were made out of fondant. The cake was an apple pie cake with cheesecake filling and then layered with buttercream. Here's a shot of the inside of the cake. Yay! On the same day, Liz wanted to celebrate Father's Day early and so I made a 1967 Mustang themed cake for her father. The mustangs were handmade out of fondant, as was the mustang on the top of the cake. Although I was afraid that it looked like a taxi cake, Liz's husband said it was totally recognizable as a mustang cake. Phew! The cake was a chocolate dipped cherry cake layered with chocolate buttercream and cherry filling. I hope they liked it :)

Pirates and Princesses

What 5-year-old doesn't want to be a pirate, right? Well, Grant wanted a pirate cake for his birthday. This cake was a buttery yellow cake layered with chocolate buttercream. Grant's mom wanted some cupcakes to go along with the cake so we came up with some designs that matched the cake theme.

The cupcakes are also buttery yellow cake covered in buttercream and dipped in crystallized sugar. The decorations on the cake and cupcakes are handmade out of marshmallow fondant.

Abbi, on the other hand, wanted to be a princess for her birthday. The top tier is made out of rice crispies and then covered and decorated with marshmallow fondant. The towers are also made of rice crispies and the tower tops are ice cream cones covered in fondant. The bottom tier is strawberry cheesecake cake. I wanted to keep this cake very simple rather than going overboard with colors and decorations. I hope I accomplished that here :)

Sketches

I've had many people ask me how I design these cakes so I thought I'd share a few of the sketches I've made. I sketch each cake out so that the person ordering the cake knows exactly what they're getting.



This is the spring garden cake. As you can see, I try to stick with the sketch as much as possible but there are definitely tweaks here and there.






This was the martini/purse cake. The martinis are very subtle on the bottom tier. Other than the strap that ended up being completely behind the purse, I was pretty happy with the final product.






This one is the Sesame Street cake. Please don't judge my inability to color within the lines. :)


Here is Luke's block cake sketch and final product. This cake was such a challenge. It was one of those situations where I wasn't sure if I was proud of my work until the whole cake was finally put together. Then I loved it! Funsies!

Taking it back to Sonic the Hedgehog

Hellen needed a cake for her two sons who were turning 3 and 6. They both wanted a Sonic the Hedgehog theme and that got me so excited. SONIC! You remember Sonic! Sega's game with the blue supposed hedgehog who runs really fast and gets rings? Ah, yes, those were the days. In any case, this was the finished product. I was a little anxious to get Hellen's reaction because I was afraid I went overboard here (and you're just seeing the front!). I needed Rosie (my official director of limiting the excess) to tell where to stop. Hellen was awesome though. She was so excited as if it were her birthday too! :) It's so much fun to make a cake when the client is as excited as I am! The top is a white cake layered with vanilla cream and buttercream. The bottom is a chocolate cake layered with chocolate cream and rich chocolate buttercream. All of the decorations are handmade with marshmallow fondant.





There were a set of cupcakes to accompany the cake. These were so much fun to make and ended up being larger than expected (which is never a bad thing). The cupcakes are strawberry covered in buttercream and topped with fondant toppers. It's hard to see here but the edges are rolled in crystallized sugar because you never can have enough sugar!

Lastly, I just wanted to add one picture of the detail for this cake. This lil sonic guy and the ring around him were quite the task. Who doesn't love a little challenge in their life though, right? :)

The Utah Jazz in the Springtime

This week, I had two fun cakes to make. The first was a Utah Jazz inspired cake (my man-friend was so excited). Oddly enough, this cake gave me more grief than most of my other cakes because it just wouldn't cooperate. I'm a bit of a perfectionist (just a little bit though ;) and so at 2am last night I just didn't like the way it looked so I ripped off all of the fondant and started over. I wanted it to be awesome for Liz and her mom. It's a red velvet cake with vanilla filling and cream cheese frosting. Kendra's favorite player is Collins in case you were wondering.


The second cake I made was a spring-themed cake for Lizzy's mom (two mom's birthdays on the same day with two different daughters, Liz and Lizzy... interesting........). This cake has ladybugs, bumblebees, butterflies and different types of flowers on it. I hope Lizzy's mom loved it. It was an Emerald City Cake (green tinted white cake with a light pistachio flavored filled with pistachio filling and buttercream). It was so much fun to make a really vibrant and fun-colored cake. Ah, who doesn't love a good bit of caking?

Spring Flowers and Bees

Quinn is turning one so Breck is throwing a party with a bright flower theme modeled after Martha Stewart's pom-pom flowers. I was trying to get these flowers as bright as possible so hopefully you're blinded by the brightness :) It's a chocolate cake will chocolate cream filling and chocolate buttercream. Here's an up-close picture of one of the flowers.

Quinn had her own cake with a Baby Einstein theme. These two cakes were so much fun to make because of all of the colors and flowers. You have to love when people say, "Do whatever you think is best for the cake!" I always have to restrain myself because I've been told I can go a little too far and put a little too much detail on my cakes... yeah.... it's true. In any case, I'm hoping this isn't too much but is just right. We'll see what Breck and Quinn think tomorrow!