Turning 50

A cake made for my cousin -- an amazing woman turning 50, who loves the color green and all things horse-related. I didn't think my skills were up to crafting an actual horse -- so I did a copper-plated horseshoe, and a gold 50, and some bright and pretty flowers scattered 'round, instead. Her first name starts with a 'J,' thus the Rocking J Ranch sign on the front. The sign on the back of the cake says, "Est. 1957." And there's a copper fondant twisted-rope bottom border.

It's another "shipper," so keep your fingers crossed that it gets where it's going on time and in one piece!

Two more cakes due this weekend. Stay tuned.

Fairies and Mushrooms and Magic, Oh My!

The party theme for a darling girl turning six. Chocolate cake, iced in buttercream, covered in fondant, with all fondant fairies, mushrooms, ladybugs and flowers. Royal icing leaves and moss.

Details, details ...

Victorian Again

A last minute cake for a lady who loves all things Victorian, pink, burgundy and dark blue.

18 Year Old Male

Somebody tell me a cake harder to figure out what to do with, than one for a young man turning 18! Actually, his mom had all the ideas -- she wanted a cake to show what he wants most in life right now -- money (the gold coins), a license, a car, a credit card, a winning lottery ticket, more money, and a couple of other "unmentionables" that were put on the back of the cake. (Just use your imagination -- I'm not telling what's back there!)

The cake is half chocolate, half white. Iced in my new buttercream recipe that I've been experimenting with lately -- it's supposed to hold up in the heat much better than only-butter buttercream. It uses a bit of flour to stabilize the icing and keep it from melting, rather than Crisco. So far, everyone loves it. Of course, it's not really "heat tested" yet ... we're supposed to get freezing rain and not go above 32 degrees here for the first 3 days of next week. Oh well.

I started the creative process by Googling images for credit cards, TX license plates, cars and lotto tickets. Found a really awesome car picture that I put on the front of the cake, and that set the tone for the remaining color scheme -- browns, golds and silver. Printed the images out on photo paper, cut them out then slapped them down on freshly-made (and still sticky) fondant. Cut the fondant around the edges and applied them to the cake with a little water for glue. I especially love the license plate -- printed out a generic TX plate, then printed out the guy's initials and his age to fit properly on the plate, and stuck those letters and numbers over the ones that were already there.

The lotto tickets are stuck to the sides of the cake. The "18" and the balls-border are all fondant, either rolled in or painted with gold and silver luster dust. Same with the gold coins.

Oh and -- the whole cake is covered in chocolate fondant.

Pineapple Empanada

Errr.... Pie. Errrrrrr...... Cake!

A fun cake made for a friend whose birthday is tomorrow, and who has lately been craving, requesting, nay even DEMANDING, Pineapple Empanadas be delivered to her.

Pineapple cake baked in a pie pan. Iced with buttercream. Topped with a fondant crust, with fondant pineapple chunks peeking out through the slits in the crust, all painted with ivory food coloring thinned with a bit of vodka, and sprinkled with sparkling sugar.

Not entirely sure how it would be to bite into a cake that looks like a pie. Hopefully it won't cause her any cognitive dissonance.

Finally!

2nd Day Air Guaranteed turned into 5th Day Delivery Get-My-Money-Back-from-DHL. But at least the cake DID get there, and it IS still perfectly edible. Plus, all reports say that it is in perfect condition, despite being turned on its side on their front porch all day long.

This is a little closer shot of the table top. I can't decide if the potato chips or the pizza slices are my favorite part.

Let's Play Euchre!

My, what a story this cake has behind it! Please everyone still keep your fingers crossed that it actually gets delivered today.

Ordered by my sister-in-law, to be delivered to her daughter-in-law, on the occasion of her 30th birthday and a Euchre party that she and her hubby were hosting last night. Adorable cake, right? Packaged up and shipped (1200 miles) in plenty of time. But somehow, DHL dropped the ball. The cake is languishing as we speak just a few short miles from my niece's front door -- and DHL's computers say something like "address sort" as a reason why it wasn't delivered (guaranteed!) yesterday.

Still don't know what "address sort" as an error message means ... and when the local DHL station was contacted today they said something about needing to make sure there were no transients hanging around the front door if no one was home ... this is a suburb of a not-even-that-big city. Sure sounds fishy to me. I'm just hoping the DHL driver didn't take it home last night and eat it himself!

It's a 2-layer, 8" square white almond sour cream cake, in the form of a card table with a tablecloth draped over, and a bowl of chips, some slices of pizza, and golden glasses of rum-and-coke on the table (all made from fondant) -- along with the winning Euchre hand for all 4 players.

I SO hope this gets there in one piece, today!

For a Lovely Lady

This cake was made for an amazing lady who is turning 90 ... she still lives on her own, fixes a meal for herself every night, and busies herself in the garden each day. I only hope this cake is worthy as a celebration of her life.

Chocolate cake with almond buttercream icing. Covered with ivory fondant and decorated with fondant flowers. Accented with fondant "pearls", buttercream shell border.