Friday, July 25, 2008

Black and White


A last minute birthday cake for 50 guests. Party theme was black and white. White Princess Sour Creme cake, buttercream icing, and fondant atop it all. That plaque on the front has two "D's" back-to-back -- which was what was on the party invitation.

Wish I'd done some back-lighting on this. Where is photog daughter when I need her!?

Monday, July 21, 2008

A tiny cheerleader turns four!

Designed after the birthday girl's party invitation. Lots of White Princess Sour Creme cake and loads of delicious buttercream icing. Fondant megaphones line the sides of the cake and the little cheerleader herself is crafted from gumpaste.

Youngest daughter was here as I finished the cake, and she had to really fight the urge to dive right in and cut herself a nice large piece of it for herself!

Friday, July 18, 2008

Ariel cake for Amelia

Another fun mermaid cake. With fondant "pearls" and white chocolate-molded sea creatures. Not to mention the green buttercream seaweed and blue buttercream wave-border. The party-goers receive cookie favors in the shape of seashells, sandy footprints and fish.

Fire Hydrant

I have long wanted to do a fire hydrant cake -- so now y'all know I can do one! What a bunch of fun this one was. Three 6" cakes, plus one dome-shaped cake on top. Iced in buttercream, covered in red fondant. The little sticking-out-thingies are rice krispie treats covered in red fondant and held onto the cake with toothpicks.

If you have a fireman in your family, I'm your cake lady!

Book Club Cake

A replica of the novel this book club read last month. Obviously a southern-based novel (note the cotton), so we did a fabulous pineapple-coconut cake with buttercream icing and fondant accents. How deliciously southern can you get? Also did a couple dozen "Southern Tea Cakes" to go along with.

Besides wanting to read this novel now, I kinda wanna join this book club! If only I had time ...

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Baby Shower

The design for this cake was taken from the nursery bedding and a stuffed pink elephant that sits in the corner of the crib, awaiting the new baby girl's arrival.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Family Reunion

This year's family reunion (for 75!) has a Hawaiian Luau theme. The coconut-tree leaves declare the names of the 10 siblings. The flowers are silk (my skills don't extend quite that far yet). Sand is brown sugar, water is piping gel tinted blue, sunset is buttercream painted on in varying shades of red, orange and yellow. The sun is fondant. Everything else is tons of White Princess Sour Creme cake and buttercream icing. Yum!

Ice Cream Sundae Birthday Party

I want one for myself now! The ice cream scoops are actually fondant covered "cake balls" sitting inside a cake bowl, sitting atop the birthday cake. The adorable birthday girl likes all things pink, so the cake is pink inside and trimmed in pink outside. With a few polka dots for decoration. I am SO craving an ice cream sundae right now ...

Saturday, July 05, 2008

Topsy Turvy


For a fabulous lady turning 80. She's still full of vim, vigor and vitality, so I thought this modern style cake, incorporating the party invitation style and her favorite colors, would be perfect. White Princess Sour Creme cake, iced in buttercream, covered and decorated with fondant, a gumpaste "80" on top, and fabric polka dot ribbon borders. Fun stuff!

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Birthday Brunch

This cake for a gal who truly loves her shoes. Especially Tory Burch flats. Never heels. Always flats. Using the adorable shoe-shaped (what else?) party invitation as inspiration, this is what I came up with. White Princess Sour Creme cake, iced with buttercream, covered in fondant, and decorated with royal icing. The little flat on top is made of gumpaste, and I totally ripped off the Tory Burch logo from the internet. Where would I be without the internet?

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Happy Birthday, Humma!

Our middle child turns 23 tomorrow. She now lives in Chicago, a mere 1,000 miles away. No more elaborate birthday cakes for her. Now she gets a tiny little six-inch that will hopefully survive the trip via the USPS. This is a pink champagne cake, with pink buttercream icing. Covered and decorated with fondant. I also sent her a dozen decorated cookies -- all high heels, purses, princess crowns and glitzy sunglasses. Shhhhhhhhh. It's supposed to be a surprise.

Rubber Duckies


A first-birthday cake based on the party invitations. That's a "smash" cake in the foreground ... a personal-sized cake for the birthday boy to smash into and enjoy, all by himself. Happy birthday, Bobby!

Fairy Tale Castle cake

Not the best picture I've ever taken. But this is a two-story vine-covered stone castle cake with sugar cube dentils and paper towel roll/ice cream cone turrets which were covered in royal icing. Chocolate cake, buttercream icing, fondant "stones" set into the gray cement walls. The vines had pretty little pink flowers scattered everywhere. Wish I'd gotten a better picture of it all. It was pretty awesome.

Monday, June 02, 2008

Kate's Birthday


Our youngest turns 20 today. We have no more teenagers! But by golly we have the gray hair and wrinkles to prove that we've been through those years three times now.

Kate has had a bubble gum fetish since she came forth from the womb, I swear. She has begged for a bubble gum machine of her own for every birthday since at least age 5. Of course, being the mean parents we are, we never bought her one. (All that sugar??!! Horrors!!!) Even her friends today will attest to the fact that every time they are out in public, she hits them up for a quarter to get a gumball out of the nearest machine.

Weird.

Therefore, I thought a bubble gum machine CAKE for her 20th birthday would be perfect.

That's 4 layers of cake carved into the "machine" shape and iced with hot-pink buttercream. Silver-painted fondant accents, genuine gum balls affixed with buttercream to the bottom of the cake and filling the glass fish-bowl-vase which is affixed to the top of the cake with fondant.

It is an understatement to say that the cake was a huge hit at her birthday party last night.

A piece of cake, a scoop of ice cream AND a gumball. What's not to love?

Hope. Change. Vote.


No, it's not really a political cake. Just a simple last minute "inspiration" cake for a group of people who are doing their best to drag their homeowners' association into the 21st century.

Unbirthday

A pink champagne cake (pretty-in-pink and delish!) with buttercream icing and fondant roses, for a woman of a certain age who isn't really crazy about the concept of "celebrating" birthdays any more.

Cinderella


I LOVE making these doll cakes. Cinderella's dress is a cake baked in a pyrex mixing bowl, and she sits atop a 9" cake "stage" in order to provide enough servings for the party. I love to imagine little girls' eyes lighting up when they first see their princess birthday cake.

Had I gotten one of these when I was five years old, I'm sure I would have fainted.

It's mermaid season again


I never tire of making these mermaid cakes for little girls. Her tail is a fondant/gumpaste mixture. The seashells are all white chocolate. This way, each party-goer gets a piece of chocolate along with a piece of birthday cake. What's not to like?

Monday, May 26, 2008

Bye bye, Em!



This is my cake for our Chicago-bound daughter's going away party. The house is crafted to look similar to the house she'll be living in, in Chicago. The Chicago map is an edible icing image applied to the top of the cake. If you can see the paw-shaped "indentation" right at the word "Chicago", that's from our cat. She wanted to make her mark and say her good-byes, too.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Fair Warning

For all of my fabulous fans ...

I'll have one more cake picture this week, then seven more from May 30 to June 4.

On June 5, we hit the road to help mid-kid move to Chicago and get settled in, and won't return until June 12th.

So you're going to have another cake-picture drought until mid-late June.

Try to deal.