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.

End of the Year Thank You's

Both Trey and Brody have moved up to a new classroom at school - so I made these as thank you's to their teachers, floaters, and office staff. I saw a woman decorate cupcakes like these on YouTube so I thought I'd give it a bit of a twist. I made some mocha chocolate cupcakes (super moist!) with cream cheese buttercream frosting. The "flowers" were put in individual pots for the office staff and floaters and for the teachers, I put three in a copper colored bucket. The green tissue is supposed to be like the leaves - photos didn't turn out great, but you get the idea. :)