"It's Not Just a Cake..." 8/13

Well I am finally caught up posting my cake photos from the past year.  Life has been busy and ever changing but I'm still making cakes!  I once heard Buddy Valastro (aka Cake Boss) say "It's not just a cake, it's a memory" and I couldn't agree more.  Almost all of the cakes I have created are attached to a memory of a special person or celebration, circumstances I had been going through at the time or challenges I either overcame or learned from in the process.  And that's not to mention the recipient of the cake!  Life is made of memories, some we want to hold onto forever and some we wish we could forget but I hope that my cakes will evoke warm and happy memories for you, your family and friends that will last a lifetime!

"DC Comics Birthday Cake & Cupcakes" - 8/13

This is my third year in a row for making birthday cakes for this little guy!  This year he was having a DC Comic themed birthday with Batman, Superman, etc.  The sheet cake was strawberry with cream cheese icing and the cupcakes were vanilla with vanilla buttercream.  All decorations were hand-cut out of fondant. 

"BAM!"



"My Teal Blue Wedding Cake!" - 6/13

This year for our 13th wedding anniversary, my husband and I renewed our wedding vows and I had the priviledge to make my own "second wedding" cake!  We had a special ceremony with decorations, a new dress for me, suit for him and included our two daughters--it felt as much like a wedding as the first!  

The cake was a two-tiered triple chocolate: four alternating layers of dark and white chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream filling.  It was covered in an off-white fondant with teal blue swirls and fresh chrysanthemums.  It was simple...but perfect! 

    

"Princess Lily's 5th Birthday Cake" - 6/13

Here is a cute princess-themed birthday cake for a little girl turning five.  Her mom said she wanted pink, purple and blue and sent me several photos of other cakes they found online and this is what I came up with!  I did make two tiara's--one out of royal icing and one out of fondant (in photo)--and then bought one from the dollar store *just in case*.  The cake itself was vanilla with vanilla buttercream and raspberry preserves filling.  They loved it!

  

"Owl Baby Shower Cake" - 6/13

I made this cake for one of my best friend's baby shower.  I printed out a picture of her nursery bedding and made my own stencil to make a fondant cutout of the image.  The cake was lemon with buttercream and blueberry jam filling, covered with buttercream.  I loved the flavor pairing she chose--yummy!  Welcome baby Milo!

 

"Black & White Damask Graduation Cake" - 5/13

This two-tier graduation cake was a tricky one!  I used a stencil and black royal icing to apply the damask design which worked fine--except for the stencil sticking to the fondant because of the condensation that had formed from being in the refridgerator.  The stencil came out very nicely but it left a kind of "spackled" texture to the fondant around it so I ended up giving the rest of the cake the same effect and it ended up giving the cake some added visual interest.  The graduation cap is RKT and the scroll is fondant.

"Red & White Anniversary Cake" - 4/13

Here is a romantic red and white anniversary cake for a sweet couple I know.  It was chocolate with chocolate buttercream, covered in fondant.  The writing along the bottom had their anniversary date and "Our love story is just beginning".



"First Birthday Tutu Cake & Cupcakes" - 3/13

For this little gal's first birthday, I had three cake orders!  First was a strawberry sheet cake with cream cheese icing, covered in buttercream and "girly froo-froo", then three dozen tutu cupcakes made with a fondant bodice, candy pearls and a ribbon tip for the buttercream in pink, purple and yellow and finally a purple tutu smash cake!  The cupcakes were my fave! :D

"Victorian/Sweet Pea Baby Shower Cakes" -3/13

This baby shower required two separate cakes, a yellow "Sweet Pea" sheet cake and a two-tiered "Victorian" themed fondant cake.  The sheet cake was strawberry with cream cheese icing, covered in buttercream with fondant decorations.  The two-tiered cake was vanilla with chocolate buttercream filling, covered in fondant with all fondant decorations.  The claw-foot tub is made of rice krispy treats.  Making all those tiny bubbles was quite tedious and the baby took a couple tries, (still working on my "baby-

making" skills) but I was pleased with the finished product. ;)

"Romantic Valentine's Day Wedding Cake" - 2/13

This was one of the easiest but most striking cakes I have done!  This three-tiered wedding cake was all red velvet w/ cream cheese icing, covered in vanilla buttercream.  The border is black lace I found at Hobby Lobby and the silk roses are from Michaels.  This was one sexy cake!  lol ;)



"Valentine's Bridal Shower Heart Cakes" - 2/13

Here is a pair of heart cakes for a Valentine's bridal shower made to look like the tiny conversation hearts you always see for Valentine's Day...hence the candy hearts surrounding the cakes ;)  One was double chocolate, the other was strawberry, both covered in fondant.



"Bambi and Friends Birthday Cake" - 1/13

Here is my oldest daughter's 7th birthday cake with a "Bambi" theme this year.  The trees are made of upside down sugar cones covered in green royal icing using a star tip, the log and flowers are fondant and the figures are plastic, from a playset I got at the Disney Store.  Gotta have shortcuts once in awhile!  ;)



"Baby's First Christmas" - 12/12

This cake was done for a baby shower at Christmas time.  Before I put the baby and holly on top, it looked like a giant peppermint candy!  If I remember correctly, it was a chocolate cake with raspberry and vanilla buttercream filling.  All decorations were fondant and I love how this "baby" turned out--by far my favorite that I have done because it was so realistic-looking!!



"Maeve's Puppy Cake" - 11/12

This was my daughter's 4th birthday cake.  She loves playing with her puppy toys so this one was all about puppies!  All decorations were handmade out of fondant.  She adored it as I adore her!!  :)

  

"Ghost & Goblin Birthday Cakes" - 10/12

These two cakes were done for a Halloween "First Birthday" party.  The ghost cake was the main cake, made up of three 6" round cakes and half a ball cake stacked on each other, then covered in white fondant.  The green goblin was my first "eggless" cake as the little boy had egg allergies and that was the smash cake.  I'm sure he got pretty messy with all that green frosting--I love it!!



"Peanuts/Charlie Brown Birthday Cake" - 9/12

Here is a Peanuts/Charlie Brown birthday cake.  Cake is covered in fondant with the characters printed on edible paper and then transferred to fondant to make them more solid and 3D-like.  The grass and baloon strings were hand painted.  Snoopy is made of fondant and his house is made of rice krispy treats and covered in fondant.  I love how this one turned out!

"The Amazing Spider-man Cake and Cupcakes" - 8/12

I made this cake (well, two cakes and a dozen cupcakes) for the same boy I made the "Tow Mater" cake for last year.  This year he wanted an Amazing Spider-man cake!  The main cake was a two-tier vanilla cake with chocolate fudge filling, covered in blue and red fondant.  The buildings were also made of fondant and painted with silver luster dust to add detail.  Both the spiders and webs were made from royal icing and the Spider-man figure at the bottom is an "ultra-poseable" action figure.  It took awhile to find the perfect pose, but I found it and it worked!  ;)

 

 

 

The second cake was a double-layer, 1/4 sheet cake, strawberry w/ cream cheese icing, covered in buttercream.  The Spider-man mask was cut out of fondant. 

 

 

And the finale...cupcakes!

 

"Basketball Star Cake" - 8/12

Here is a 50th birthday cake for a lady who was a big basketball star in high school.  The school colors were blue and white and I incorporated her name, high school, jersey number and mascot by writing them on the larger blue stars.  The cake flavor was raspberry with white chocolate icing, all covered in marshmallow fondant.  The bottom was an 8" square, the net portion was actually two inverted 6" ball cakes and the basket ball was the other half of a 6" ball cake. 

The basketball and base cakes were quite easy to make, gave me no problems at all, but the net portion was just one headache after another!  I had initially made black fondant to cover it in, but after rolling it out and trying to cover it from the top, it started cracking and ended up completely falling apart and in the trash.  Fortunately, I had enough white fondant left and figured I would just get some of Wilton's black food color mist to cover it.  So after I finally got it covered, this time wrapping the fondant around the sides instead of from the top, I sprayed the mist on, only to find out that it was more of a brownish color than black.  Not a big deal, but when I tried to pipe the net, I just could not wrap my head around the pattern of the strings and they kept breaking!  So I did the best I could in the time I had left and overall, I think it turned out pretty well.



"Red, White and Blue Wedding" - 7/12

Here is my first 4-tiered cake that I made for my Pastor's son and his new bride for their red, white and blue themed wedding.  They wanted a very simple, all buttercream cake with some fondant roses on the top.  The top two tiers were red velvet cake with cream cheese icing and the bottom two were chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream. 

For my first 4-tiered *buttercream* cake, I was just thrilled that it was still standing by the end of the ceremony!  After a long, sleepless night, awaken by dreams of stacking this cake, the next afternoon I was actually able to enjoy a piece! lol  At the reception, I also received many compliments of how good and moist it tasted!  One of my friends even said that the chocolate cake tasted like an Oreo:)







"Storybook Castle Cake" 6/12

    

This storybook castle cake was completely done in buttercream.  The more I do buttercream cakes, especially sculpted ones, the more I come to dread them, simply because they are so unforgiving!  Both the book portion and the castle portion were a deep dark chocolate cake, which is one of my moister recipes, filled with chocolate ganache.  With the cake being so moist it was already hard to sculpt, but I think the hardest part was getting the castle onto the book without messing up the buttercream and the brick texture I had tried to make on it.  Anyhow, the flaws were able to be covered up with more buttercream (grass and bead border) and turned out fine.  The purple looks a lot bluer in this picture, but the turrets were covered in purple cake sparkles and really "fancied" it up!