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.

Travis' 34th Birthday

I decided to make Travis Boba Fett and Clone Trooper cupcakes. These are chocolate creations atop chocolate espresso cuppies. I went with a light whipped frosting to balance out the intense chocolate flavors.

I brought these to his work along with some gourmet rootbeer and had a party in an empty cubie! :)

Bake Sale

We had a bake sale at work - and of course what do I volunteer to bring?! Cupcakes with flair! :)
The sale started at 10am in the morning...so I tried to think of something that would make people happy and efficient. What better than chocolate ladybugs and smiley faces atop espresso spiked cupcakes?

Superheroes!

Trey and Brody had a joint birthday party - I can't believe my Lovies are 2 and 4!
The party was at Oak Meadow Park in Los Gatos - family and close buddies came to help celebrate. Auntie Ann and Uncle Jiro were kind enough to supply the entertainment - The Amazing Michael! I think the entire park came to watch as he juggled his heart out!

The boys requested Spiderman and Batman cakes - so I coordinated the cuppies to have the logos - all in chocolate. YUM! Thanks to Uncle Ray for taking photos - I was so frazzled that day that I forgot to take any of the finished products!







The cakes were switched (my mistake) so Spiderman cake was supposed to be Brody's. Trey blew out the right candles, but to those who didn't know, it looked like he blew out Brody's! Brody was so confused...not understanding why Trey was insisting he blow out the cake in front of Trey! Brody really took the phrase "smash cake" to heart! Here's the cake about 5 seconds after blowing the candles out!

Godzilla!!!

My friend Joanna asked me to do something special for her son's 4th birthday...something I'd never thought to do! Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla smash cakes and cupcakes...SUPER FUN! I used melting chocolate and make mini ones and gigantic ones...they had to be transported over an hour in the blazing heat...I was SO worried they would melt! In hindsight, I probably should have done them in royal icing...but the chocolate was a hit and none of them melted - so no harm done!