Emily's Baby Shower

Well, Emily is now overdue!  Miss Abigail Grace is taking her time coming into this world - but hey - a lady always makes an entrance!  :)

My dear friend, Pat, was kind enough to include me in the celebration and asked me to make some mini-cakes for the shower.  We decided on "Cute as a Button" theme - and these cakes were just that!  I made some fondant buttons which ended up matching the decorations and party supplies perfectly!

Hurry up Abigail - we want to meet you so bad!!!

(photos to come soon!)

Thanksgiving Pies

Decided this year to do a deep dish apple pie and a pumpkin pie from scratch for Thanksgiving...turned out really well.  I was at my brother's in LA - so i had to deal with not having the comfort of my own kitchen...(photos to come)

Frosty the Snowman...

Mary is making this an annual order for her staff - love it!  She leaves all the creativity to me - (see last year's snoopy/grinch cuppies).  This year, I decided to do good old Frosty - he was super fun to create - and from what I hear, the cupcakes were a hit!  (Photos to come soon)

Dillon's Birthday!

I love love love that Dillon watches Tom and Jerry!  He requested Tom and Jerry cupcakes - so here's the final product...(pix to come soon)...

We're so sad we weren't able to attend the party - but glad to hear the cupcakes were a hit!

Zombie Marvel Superhero Cake

My friend and hairdresser Franc asked me to do a cake for his friend Philip's Halloween birthday party.  All he said was it was a Halloween party and it was a Super Hero themed party.  I knew that Marvel and DC both did a zombie series...but I wanted to personalize the cake a bit.  Philips was going as Flash Gordon and his partner, Ray, was going as Captain America.   I chose to add in Wolverine and Spider-Man because they are personal favorites of mine.  I would have preferred to do a fondant cake - so that I could make the "ground" look more like a graveyard, but they don't like the taste...so, I went with a non-dairy whipped topping.  Not as exciting or gory, but still a cool cake...and here's the result!

I made the fondant figures first, let them dry and harden...then hand painted them.  Here are before and after shots:

Zombie Captain America

(the star was added later to his shield)

 Zombie Flash Gordon

Zombie Wolverine

 

Zombie Spiderman

I wish you could see his spine - it's being pulled out and has bright green pus oozing out!!!

Poor Spidey lost his leg...

Part 1 - Ellie's 5th Birthday

Anna asked me to do a Captain Hook's Jolly Roger ship with some main characters included for Ellie's birthday party...happy for a challenge, I dove right in! We had a few technical difficulites - like the cake falling apart the night before...psssht, that's nothing! :) I chose a dark chocolate devil's food cake with Ellie choosing chocolate bavarian cream filling.

View from the back

View from the front

Top back view

I ran into the same problem that I did with Sophia's figurines - fondarific does not take color well! I wanted to hand paint these so that the detail would really pop - but that fell to the wayside as I scrambled to make them look presentable! The sails didn't make it onto the ship either - the Fondarific ended up being very heavy - so they wouldn't attach as I had hoped.


All that truly matters is that Ellie and Anna were pleased - so I feel satisfied although I want to do another one just to get it all right! :)

Anna made me cut the cake so that the destruction would be on me - it was actually kind of liberating to demolish one of my cakes - I was sad though to see it all come down in a span of a few moments after taking almost a week to build! The cake was such a success, people were coming back for thirds! What a great feeling!

Sophia's 100th Day Celebration

I decided to do a replica of sweet Sophia's favorite toy of the moment for her 100th Day Party...it's the Baby Einstein star from the animal playmat...oh the memories of constant baby music over and over and over...and as the batteries start to die, the slow and contorted sounds that star would make...

The cakes were double layer chocolate cakes, one with a whipped chocolate ganache filling and the other with a swiss-meringue buttercream filling.

 

 
The star was actually rice krispie treats covered in fondant. I ended up trying a new product called Fondarific - which it was, but it doesn't take colors well. The only downside to the fondant was trying to airbrush, paint brush, and dry rub any sort of color onto it - it just didn't take. Otherwise, Fondarific is truly terrific! It tastes great and doesn't dry out when you're trying to make figurines.

The original hope was to have the orange circles be more like the lights on the toy - but circumstances made that impossible...I was going to use butterscotch candies, melt them down, then reshape to a larger circumference. The previous night, Trav had cut his pinkie pretty bad and had to get stitches...granted, I could've managed my time better - but i like the other story better! :)

Another blog spotting...

I was browsing one of my favorite blogs - Geekologie - and came across one of my creations!  Woo hoo!

My chocolate star wars cupcake toppers were among many other star wars cupcakes in this gallery - but hey, a post is a post!  There weren't any acknowledgements as to who made them, but I know it's mine...isn't that all that matters?  It's the sixth one down - chocolate clone troopers and boba fetts :)

http://www.geekologie.com/2009/09/massive_gallery_of_star_wars_c.php

Janice's Bridal Shower

Megan's best friend Janice is getting married next month - and as one of the MOH's, Megan was in charge of bringing a butterfly themed cake. Janice chose orange and hot pink as her color scheme - so I used edible orange and pink wafer paper butterflies purchased from Fancy Flours (one of my not-so-secret baking supply obsessions) for a realistic take on her theme. They shipped and arrived incredibly quick - after cutting them out, I coated them with clear piping gel and dried them in egg cartons so they were more life-like. Just to add some sparkle, I brushed pearl dust onto the wings before attaching them to the cake. :)

The hot pink roses are real (thanks Safeway!) - I didn't have time to make them out of gumpaste. I used a circle of acetate on the top tier so the flowers wouldn't affect the taste of the icing and arranged the roses by sticking the stems into a ball of fondant to keep them in place.

The cake is a devil's food cake with a chocolate fudge filling and swiss-meringue buttercream icing...mmm... thank goodness for uneven tops...the boys and I enjoyed the scraps! :)

Here are a few views - I tried my best to make this cake viewable from every angle.

Spongebob and Friends at the Beach

I was given creative license to do a Spongebob and Friends cake - as long as there was a beach involved. :) Well, how could I pass that up?

The cakes were Devil's Food cake with a strawberry gourmet filling and whipped cream frosting - double layered 3/4 sheet and a 5" smash cake to match.

For the frosting, I ended up using Pastry Pride since I didn't know how long the cake would be unrefrigerated - it was really yummy! Go non-dairy product! The Pastry Pride colored beautifully with gel paste - I had planned to airbrush the scene, but since it's going to be my first time airbrushing, I thought it'd be best to wait on it and practice.

The sand is made from mixing raw sugar, light brown sugar and some gold sparkle dust - for depth and texture.

Smash Cake Front View

Smash Cake Side View

Sweet Trey always taking a photo with my latest creations!

View from the top

I made the characters out of fondant and gumpaste - I was to get into modelling chocolate, but for now, this is my go-to modelling medium. I used rice krispie treats for the wave for stability not only for the wave, but to help Spongebob and Gary surf upright! I also used very thin blocks of rice krispie treats to stabilize the characters - I'm not used to working with such light frosting - I was worried the figures would sink.

The initial plan was to have Mr. Krabs in the water floating with his head above water and one claw - calling to the Lifeguard Lobster Guy who's attention is otherwise occupied by a bikini-clad Sandy Cheeks Squirrel. I had also hoped to have Plankton building a sand castle on the side. In the end, I ran out of time but as I looked at the cake, I thought it would be way too busy had they been added. Speaking of Sandy, I had wanted to try blowing sugar for her breathing helmet - but in the images I used for reference, some of them she wasn't wearing it when she was in her bathing suit - so I left it off.

All in all, it was a super fun cake to make - and I enjoyed creating the characters and making them come to life.

Back Angle of Squidward burying Patrick in the sand

Front Angle of Squidward burying Patrick in the sand

Side Angle of Squidward burying Patrick in the sand

Sandy Cheeks and Lifeguard relaxing under the sun

Spongebob and Gary surfing

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Marvel and DC...together...that's right.

It's Domi's birthday! He's requested Batman and Spiderman. * sigh * Give him a break - he's only turning 3. He'll learn! hee hee! Marvel and DC Comics - there's been crossovers before, right?

Bart and I decided on Hulk, Spidey, Iron Man, Batman...and I threw in Superman! Can't have Batman representing all on his own! :) Each character has two poses...









And his smash cake was a huge Batman! :) Looks like it was well enjoyed...




For the adults, I made some delicious Red Velvet with Cream Cheese frosting...to die for!



The perfect birthday photo!



Trey usually insists on taking a photo with the party cakes before we deliver...no exception this day! :)