A Frozen Cake (that's not really frozen)

I can't believe my daughter Cecilia is 6 years old. Seems like just yesterday I was celebrating her 1st birthday. When I started planning the design for her cake at the beginning of December, she initially wanted a Sophia the First cake. I even drew the basic shape of a round cake and she drew what she wanted the decorations to look like, complete with a Sophia doll on top. I even bought purple candy melts for the cake pops she'd be bringing to school. And then we saw the movie Frozen. She loved it. So after more thought, she decided she wanted a Frozen cake instead. She helped draw the picture for that one as well (but she spilled hot chocolate on it so I couldn't take a picture to post here). It was kind of funny - when I told people that we were having a Frozen cake, they immediately thought ice cream. But it's not. It's a regular, baked cake. In fact, the flavor of the cake and filling is a stark contrast to the wintery design on the outside. Lemon cake with strawberry buttercream filling. Which is fitting considering that in the movie Frozen, Elsa the snow queen puts the kingdom in a deep freeze in the middle of summer.

Here's the cake - the Anna doll (the one with red hair) she got for her birthday from my sister, and the Elsa doll I bought her. I wanted to get an Olaf figure as well (he's the snowman in the movie - and in my opinion the best character, hands down), but every store was out of them. I added a little sprinkling of silver luster dust to the top of the cake to give it that more magical look.

For her birthday treat at school (which she handed out before winter break), I made cake pops with white cake, a bit of vanilla frosting tinted blue, covered them with white chocolate and decorated with special snowflake sprinkles.

Happy Birthday Cecilia!

Merry Christmas!

What a busy December is has been! And I'm not talking about cake either. I actually didn't have any cake orders until after Christmas, which was just fine considering how busy things were in my house in the weeks leading up to it. Between snowstorms, sickness and working extra days at my new job, I hardly had time for making cookies this year! But when my friend and long time customer Ratna sent me a message requesting a Christmas cake for a holiday party she was having on the 28th, I was happy to make one for her.

The cake itself is red velvet (one of the cakes that I prefer to make from a mix, because the last time I made it from scratch my white spatulas and fingertips were pink for days from all of the red food coloring), and per my suggestion, the filling and frosting are peppermint buttercream. I made a cake with this combination a few years ago and Ratna liked the idea. For the decoration, I piped some poinsettias on top and then made some holly leaves with fondant. Very festive, don't you think?

Merry Christmas!

C is for Cookie, and Z is for Zarek!

It's so much fun getting cake orders for birthdays. This time last year I was making my first topsy-turvy cake for a little guy named Zarek, and this year I was asked to make a cake for his 2nd birthday. I can't believe he is 2 already. Where has the time gone?

This cake was considerably smaller and less complicated than the cake I made a year ago, but just as fun. It stars one of Zarek's favorite characters - Cookie Monster! I have to admit, I'm a fan of that silly blue cookie lover myself.

When Ratna, Zarek's mother, asked me to make the cake, I immediately thought of making a cake recipe that my friend Ann uses - chocolate flecked cake. It looks like a chocolate chip cookie when you cut into it and I thought that would be perfect for a cake featuring cookie monster. Then I looked up the recipe and calculated the cost - as wonderful as the cake sounds, it is a lot more expensive than most of the cakes I have made. Probably because it's a Martha Stewart recipe. Dang that Martha Stewart and her expensive tastes! Well, since Ratna had just ordered Bollywood cupcakes from me and wasn't ready to spend the amount of money that the chocolate flecked cake would cost, we went with a chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream filling. And then, an added twist - in the past year Zarek has developed an egg allergy, so Ratna was requesting a small egg-free smash cake just for the birthday boy. Having just made a vegan cake two weeks ago, I was all ready to take on this extra request.

Here are the cakes - I had so much fun decorating them, because they use my favorite tip.The smash cake was especially fun. If I'd had enough icing, I would have done the same with the big cake, but my 5 year old daughter insisted that the cake would look much better with smooth sides. So I added some "fur" at the base and stuck some cookie crumbs in the front. Very cute!

Happy Birthday Zarek!

Hooray for Bollywood!

I think I have to say that this cake order is one of the most interesting ones I've had in a long time. A couple of weeks ago, I got a message from a long time client, Ratna asking if I could make either cupcakes or a cake for a party she was throwing for her sister. Her sister was moving to Wisconsin from California (I hope she's ready for Wisconsin winters!) and the theme of the party is Bollywood Bash.

The picture Ratna sent me was of some very intricately decorated cupcakes with flowers and paisley designs painted on the frosting. I immediately began to feel overwhelmed - I've never even done that kind of painting before. But did I give up? Nope! Instead I did a search and found a reasonable alternative that was much more in the realm of my skill set. After some back and forth, we agreed on cake flavor and frosting color. Then it was just up to me to get the needed materials. It took me a while to find the gold beads, but I found them at Cook's, a baking supply store right here in Milwaukee. The paisley design was made with a leaf cutter, and I attached the beads with gum glue, which is a mixture of water and gum paste. I had initially thought of making royal icing, but decided to give gum glue a try and it worked!

Here are the final cupcakes. And there is much more to the color scheme than meets the eye - these cupcakes are color-coded! To add variety to the chocolate cake, Ratna asked me to add filling to the cupcakes. And then I devised a color scheme to help the party guests know which cupcakes had which filling. Orange - peanut butter buttercream. Pink - peppermint buttercream. Purple - coffee buttercream.

A big welcome to Ratna's sister - I hope you love Wisconsin and had fun at your Bollywood welcoming party!

Carnations for Stephanie's mom

The beginning of this story goes back... way back. Earlier this year, I joined a book club. The books we have read have been very interesting, many of which are ones I never would have chosen myself but ended up loving. One of our most recent meetings was for the book "The Jefferson Key", and a big part of that book is pirates. Being the cake decorator I am, I made cupcakes - I used a box mix to which I added rum extract and then, I made this amazing spiced rum frosting. No recipe. I just made my usual buttercream and added rum extract, orange zest, baking spice and a touch of allspice. I baked the cupcakes in special pirate liners and put little flags on them.

Stephanie, one of the members of the book club, just fell in love with my spiced rum frosting. In fact, as we were leaving the meeting, she asked me if I could make a birthday cake for her mom at the end of September. She wasn't sure of the decorations yet, but all she knew was that she had to have more of that wonderful spiced rum frosting.

A few weeks later, we touched base again and she told me that she really liked the cake I made with the pink carnations and ribbon curls on it and wanted something similar, but without fondant - just lots of frosting.

I was beyond excited. The last time I made gum paste carnations was two years ago when I made them for my final cake decorating class. They were so much fun to make, but in the past two years, I haven't had any requests for that specific kind of flower. Until now. With this being a 6 inch cake, I made only three flowers, and dusted them with purple luster dust since purple is Stephanie's mom's favorite color. I even brushed the ribbon curls with it too, to give them a bit more sparkle.

And since Stephanie loves the frosting so much, I decided to cut each of my two layers in half to give her four layers of yellow cake and three layers of the yummy spiced rum frosting that she loves so much.

Happy Birthday Stephanie's mom! I hope you loved the frosting as much as your daughter does!

It's Mickey! (and he's vegan!)

Actually, Mickey Mouse probably isn't vegan. After all, he is a mouse. Mice eat cheese. But that's beside the point. My point is... that this was my very first vegan cake!

It all started a few weeks ago when I was visiting with some friends from out of town and got a message on my phone from my facebook page from a lady named Nicci. I was very excited - I hadn't had a cake order in two months and was itching to get back to decorating cakes again. And then came the actual message. The person who wanted to order a cake from me had several requests - the cake had to be egg-free, dairy-free, nut-free, soy-free and corn-free. Yikes! I almost sent this potential client to a gluten-free bakery (and I later discovered that among all of the birthday boy's allergies, gluten was not one of them), but I decided to give it a try. I asked my friend Ann if she knew of any good recipes that would work and she sent me one for Wacky Cake. I discovered that not only has this recipe been around for decades, but it is completely vegan. No eggs. No dairy. I did a test run and my kids and husband loved it. I even gave a piece to my mom when she came over one day and she didn't believe that it was vegan. I was set with the cake then, but still unsure of the frosting. After all - powdered sugar has cornstarch in it. Kind of hard to make frosting without it. I sent a message to Nicci telling her about my dilemna. She then informed me that her son's corn allergy was very mild so he should be okay to eat the frosting. Yay!

So, I made the two cake layers, got ready to make the frosting and something made me look at the  ingredients on the container of shortening. I almost fainted. Right there, ingredient number one - soybean oil. I went to the store to see if they had a soy-free shortening alternative (aside from lard - and really, who wants frosting made with lard? yuck!) and there was none. It was the day that Nicci's husband was supposed to pick up the cake and I just about had a nervous breakdown. I sent a message with many apologies, asking if perhaps her son's soy allergy was mild like the corn one. I then started looking for soy-free shortening online and found one - but just as I was about to call Whole Foods to see if they sold it, I got a message back from Nicci - the shortening would be fine, they could just scrape it off their son's piece of cake. Double yay!!

I got to work decorating the cake, and in the end was very pleased. The design is modeled after the party decorations with everything in fondant except for mickey's face, which is a fondant-gum paste mix. The cake itself is vegan chocolate, with vanilla buttercream filling and frosting.

I felt bad that the birthday boy couldn't have any of that yummy frosting, but I figure, with all of his food allergies, at least he gets cake!

Happy Birthday Bryson and I hope you had a wonderful day. (and next year, I'll make a cake with frosting you can eat - I promise! :) )

R is for Rebro!

I have a BIG family. Well, actually, it's my husband's family, but they are my family too. To give you an idea of just how big, I could rattle off a bunch of numbers, but I'll start with a picture taken by Becky Kasun, the daughter of my husband's cousin Lori. Because, as we all know, a picture speaks a thousand words!

Yep - these are all Rebros. Minus the 25 that weren't there. And half of that group is my husband's immediate family. He is one of 10 children, and altogether we have... 40 nieces and nephews. My mother-in-law (who was not present since she is still recovering from having back surgery two weeks ago) has 13 great-grandchildren, and counting!

My brother-in-law Ed and his cousin Dave started planning this a year ago. Lori added another bit of fun by having each family wear a different color shirt. There was some contention among my husband's brothers and sisters about being chosen to wear yellow, so some of them wore white instead, but it was amazing to see it all. A big part of making this a success was that everyone brought a dish to pass. I, of course, made cupcakes. I thought of making a sheet cake, but when 5 other people signed up for desserts as well, I figured cupcakes would be better. I made 3 dozen and in the end, with all of the other desserts there, 3 cupcakes were left for my husband and kids to have the next day.

They are funfetti cupcakes - made with a box mix that I added some ingredients to, to stretch it out to make 36 instead of 24. And then I added more sprinkles too, to make them even more colorful. I topped each one with a vanilla buttercream swirl and a fondant letter R in the various colors that everyone was wearing. Here are some of them -

Just want to add one more thing - when I was carrying the cupcakes in to the picnic site, I started to get this weird deja-vu feeling. Turns out, this picnic site was the exact location of the Rebro Family Reunion in 2002. The family reunion that my husband, who was at that time my boyfriend of only one month, had taken me to on our fourth date. To meet his entire extended family. I didn't realize how big the family was at that time. I could have easily been overwhelmed and ran for the hills, but they were all so kind and welcoming. I got so many hugs that day from people who barely knew me, I just knew myself that this was a family I wanted to be part of. And the rest is history.

Planes!

Eight years ago, I was blessed with the greatest gift ever - my son. He is an amazing little boy - so smart, silly, sweet, did I mention silly. Honestly, this kid makes me laugh every day. Sometimes, with the crazy things he has done, I'm amazed he's lived this long. But that's a boy for you!

For his birthday cake, he's had this planned out in his head for the past year and a half. On Christmas of 2011, we got him the Cars 2 DVD, and when he watched it, there was a preview for the new Disney Movie set to come out in theaters in the summer of 2013. From above the world of Cars.... it's Disney Planes!

The moment he saw it, a spark ignited into a wildfire of excitement. Lucas LOVES planes. He wants to be a pilot when he grows up - along with a truck driver like daddy, a policeman and a firefighter. But mostly a pilot. We live near an airport and have been taking him to a parking lot by the runway to watch the planes take off and land since he's been a baby. On his 2nd birthday, we took him to the EAA museum in Oshkosh. Every year for the past 3 years we have taken him to see the Air Show in downtown Milwaukee. And... *shhh... keep this a secret* my husband and I are thinking of taking him to the EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh in two years when he turns 10.

But I digress. With the movie set to be released in theaters three weeks after his birthday this year, I knew that this would be the perfect time to make him the Disney Planes cake he's been wanting. I had this big huge picture in my head, but it ended up being scaled back somewhat as the guest list shrank. No problem - in fact I think he loved it.

The cake itself is yellow cake with chocolate buttercream filling, and all of the decorations, with the exception of the airplane, are made with frosting. His favorite part, besides the plane, was the skywriting on the side of the cake. The airplane is a toy I purchased - and after eating his slice of cake, he grabbed the toy and ran away with it to have many adventures.

Happy Birthday Lucas!

40 years of love

I made this cake two weeks ago, but it has taken a while for me to think of just the right words for the story I am about to write.

One year ago, my husband and I hosted the annual choir picnic for the church choir I am part of. After everyone left, a few people stayed behind for a bonfire, and we had a wonderful time. Two of those people were Pat and Jeff Kramer. A wonderful couple - high school sweethearts that had been married for 39 years, and still acted like newlyweds. Several years ago, Jeff was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, and even as his condition worsened, their love only grew stronger. Such an inspiration. Well, on that lovely summer evening last year as we were sitting around the fire while my kids and two of their friends played and chased fireflies, Jeff told me that he wanted me to make a cake for their 40th anniversary the following year. He had been following my cake adventures for quite some time and has always had such nice things to say about my creations. Of course I said yes - he and his wife have been friends of ours since I first joined the choir and to tell the truth I was honored that they were choosing me to be a part of their special day.

Fast forward eight months later, and tragedy struck. On March 28, 2013, Jeff Kramer had a sudden heart attack and passed away. I was deeply saddened by this, as were my husband and children, who always delighted in going to their house for past choir picnics and Christmas parties, and watching him play with his train set in the basement (Jeff loved trains!). Of course, I just figured that Pat would no longer be having an anniversary party, but I still offered to make her a small gluten-free cake if she wanted it. Well, she surprised me and said that after thinking and talking to her children, she decided to still have the party, as a celebration of Jeff's life and the love that they shared for well over the 40 years that they were married. I was so deeply touched by this gesture, and was happy to make the cakes for them.

Since Pat has celiac disease, she did request a gluten-free yellow cake with  lemon buttercream filling for herself, and then a sheet cake for the rest of her guests - a layer each of chocolate and yellow cake with almond buttercream filling. It was my first time making a gluten-free cake, and I was surprised with how well is turned out. I even tasted a bit of the leftover cake from when I cut the dome off the top, and it was a bit more dense than the usual cake, but still yummy so I knew she'd love it. The decorations were simple - purple roses and border, just like their wedding cake 40 years ago. For the small cake I used some purple royal icing roses that I had stored away, but for the main cake, I used buttercream. Well, of course the morning I decorated the cakes, the weather was warm and humid, so the roses didn't turn out the way I wanted them to, but I think they still looked okay. And Pat loved it, wiping away any doubts I had in my mind of having made her a sub-standard cake.

Then there was the message. I had a hard time figuring this out myself, as did Pat. She finally sent me a message three days before their anniversary with the final details about the cake, along with the message she wanted on top. I think it is so fitting.

Thanks Pat for letting me be part of yours and Jeff's lives together - your love is an inspiration to everyone whose lives you've touched over the past 40 years.

Princess T-Rex!

I've done some pretty interesting cakes in the past two years (yep! two years!) but I have to say that this one is one of the funnest cakes I've ever made. It all started when I saw a new friend of mine, Meghann, post on facebook about planning her daughter Mollie's upcoming first birthday. Being the savvy businesswoman I am, I sent her a message asking if she needed a cake. Why yes she did! Upon asking what her theme was, she replied, "Princess Trex". At first I thought it was some new kids toy... and then I realized, this was T-rex. The mean, carnivorous, vicious dinosaur. I did a google search of images and didn't come up with much, but then I saw a link in a regular search for Princess T-Rex puzzle and clicked on it. I showed it to Meghann and she loved it! Here it is:
 
I was going to get a different template for the dinosaur, but the more I thought about it, the original design was just more fun. And it worked so well with the final cake, it's like it was meant to be.
Here it is: two layer cake with chocolate on the bottom, yellow on the top and creamy chocolate buttercream in the middle. Buttercream on the outside with fondant and gum paste decorations.

But something was missing. And the more I looked at that dinosaur, the more I realized what it was. The way she was standing on one foot, she almost looked like she was . . . dancing! I found a piece of lavender tulle in my sewing basket from a tutu I made for my niece last year, got my trusty needle and thread, and made a tutu for the dinosaur. And here is the final result.

Pretty cute, huh? And of course you can't have a first birthday without a special little smash cake for the birthday girl! Same flavors of cake and filling, in a smaller package. I even put diamonds on the side to tie in to the "regal" feel of the main cake.

As a side note, I want to throw out a shout-out to Meghann's sister Beth, and her business Lylas Designs. She had posted a picture of an adorable sunflower pin shortly before Meghann placed the order, and I ordered one for myself to put on my purse. When I dropped off the cake and asked how much her sister wanted for the pin, she said it was taken care of. An extra little bonus for making such a wonderful cake! And here it is on my purse.

Happy Birthday Mollie, aka. Princess T-Rex! Hope you're birthday was amazing!

Lucas's First Communion

I can hardly believe how quickly the years have gone by. It seems like just yesterday I was celebrating my son's baptism, and here he is, 7 years old and receiving his First Communion. I was so proud of him - he's been working so hard to be good in church, even when the mass was longer than he thought it would be. He was even chosen to read one of the petitions at mass, and read it perfectly . After everything he has done, I knew I had to make an extra special cake for his extra special day .

One of the things he did for his First Communion was to make a banner. I made one for my First communion as well, so it was fun helping Lucas make his. Cecilia actually played a role in the design. After I helped him draw a picture of what he wanted the banner to look like, Cecilia asked if she could color the picture while we cut out the pieces of felt. I told her, "sure, go for it!". When she got to the cross, she asked if she could make it colorful, after which Lucas said, "I want my cross to be colorful too!". I asked him how he wanted to do that, and after thinking a little bit, we decided to make a stained glass cross by gluing scraps of different colors to the black cross we had cut out. It was beautiful. Here Lucas is on his First Communion Day with his banner.

When it came time to make the cake - I decided to base it on that stained glass cross. The cake itself is chocolate and yellow with raspberry filling (just like the one I made a few weeks ago!), and the stained glass effect was acheived using black icing for the borders and tinted piping gel for the glass. The circle in the middle is fondant with the message written in black icing.

But I didn't stop there - nope, not this proud momma. I had some leftover frosting, so I put it to use making a special breakfast for my little man. Whole wheat pancakes with white frosting crosses, strawberries and grape juice!

Happy First Communion Lucas! We are all so proud of you!

Elmo loves birthdays - and sharing!

The First Communion cake I made came with an added bonus - one dozen cupcakes and a smash cake for Kim's son who would be sharing the spotlight with his big sister. So nice when you can combine celebrations like that. I'd do it with my own children, but their birthdays are in opposite seasons - summer for my son and winter for my daughter. The only combining that happens around here is for my daughter's birthday, which is four days after Christmas.

Anyhow, after looking through all of my cake pictures and having a hard time deciding on what she wanted for her son, she chose something that I had never done before but have always wanted to - Elmo!  Since the First Communion cake was plenty to feed the 20 adults that would be at the celebration, she decided that a dozen cupcakes would be perfect for the 10 children that would be there. Strawberry cake in adorable  red, yellow and blue cupcake liners, frosted with a vanilla buttercream swirl and topped with an Elmo candy. The smash cake is the same, with fondant circles (which are oddly reminiscent of the design on a bag of Wonder Bread - don't you think?) and a fondant number 1 to mark this milestone for little Evan.

Happy Birthday Evan!

Emma's First Communion

Ah - spring is in the air. The flowers are blooming, grass is getting greener, trees are budding, and it's time for that wonderful sacament - First Communion! My son Lucas is receiving his First Communion in May - I still can't believe it's almost here!

A few weeks ago, someone called to order a cake from me for her daughter, Emma's First Communion. I was beyond excited for this. Don't get me wrong - I'm excited about making my son's cake too, but boys don't really like flowers, and I just love making cakes with flowers on them. Right away we decided on the size and shape of the cake - it would be a cross cake, for which I had purchased a special cross-shaped pan. I don't normally buy shaped pans, but I figured I'd get plenty of use out of this one. It's a two-layer cake with chocolate on the bottom and yellow cake on the top, with raspberry jam filling. For the bottom layer, I used the cross pan, but cut off the beveled part to make it more stackable (and gave the scraps to the kids with some ice cream that night). I did need a little bit of help with stacking, and got it from my friend Ann who suggested putting the top layer in the freezer to make it easier to handle. Otherwise it would have fallen apart. Thanks Ann!

The decorations on top were my favorite - the bow is made out of gum paste and the roses and rosebuds are royal icing. I had actually made the roses last year, but thanks to the fact that royal icing dries hard and lasts forever, they were as beautiful as the day I made them. Only problem was that they were a bit large and kind of clunky looking. I love making roses, but for some reason that last row of petals always looks a bit off. I had an extra rose, so I decided, what the heck, let's cut off the outer row of petals and see what it looks like. It was gorgeous! So I did the same with three more, positioned them around the bow with the rosebuds, and voila! A beautiful cake topper for a beautiful little girl!

Here are some pictures of the entire cake

Blessings to Emma and thanks to her mom, Kim, for letting me make the cake for this special event!

An apple a day and a doctor's birthday!

After a busy week of cake decorating the first week of April, I was just starting to kick back and relax before working on my next order, when I got an e-mail from a past client - Ratna. I've made two cakes for her, and her friend Priti wanted to order two cakes for a birthday party this weekend. I told her that I didn't have any big plans yet, and as long as the cakes were simple, I should be able to do them.

The first cake, I kid you not, is one of the easiest cakes I've ever made. It's for Ratna's husband, a lover of all things apple. And I'm not talking about the fruit. She showed me a picture and I said, "oh, I would love to make that!". I even got to use my silver sparkle dust! The cake itself is a favorite combo of Ratna and her family - chocolate cake with oreo buttercream filling. Plain buttercream on the outside with a fondant apple logo, brushed with sparkle dust.

The second cake is for Ratna's father-in-law, who works as a cardiologist for one of the hospitals that I work at, and is celebrating his 70th birthday. Ratna was bouncing ideas off me, and the first picture she showed me was a rectangular cake covered with fondant and decorated to look like a doctor's coat, complete with collar and tie. I told her that  not only was that a bit too complicated considering the time I had available, but it alone would feed the 24 people that she and her friend were expecting and it would be hard to scale down. Then she showed me a picture of a heart-shaped cake. This one looked much more simple and I told her I could definitely do it. So I purchased a set of heart-shaped cake pans and made this cake - it's red velvet with cream cheese filling and red buttercream frosting. Dr. Tajik loves red, so I purchased a red heart-shaped platter to put it on. The decorations on top are all fondant, and the ECG lines on the sides are icing. Being a medical person, I had so much fun decorating this cake. The ECG might not be perfect, but maybe Dr. Tajik will have fun analyzing it. :)

 

Happy Birthday to Jamil and Dr. Tajik! I hope that both of you have a wonderful day.

Showers of Happiness!

I was looking at pictures a while back and came across the pictures of the wedding cake I made last year. As much work as it was, it was quite an adventure and it meant so much to be a part of such a special day. Well - after I was done, I vowed that I would never again make a cake of that magnitude. Just too stressful. But I love being a part of weddings. Making beautiful things for others just makes me so happy. So I was absolutely giddy when my nephew Ken's fiance asked me to make carrot cake for her bridal shower. Love that girl!

I decided on cupcakes since it's so much easier - no cutting involved, everything is in a perfect portion. My mom had a recipe for carrot cake that she gave to me - it used a LOT of carrots, which was perfect, since I had plenty to work with from an extra large crop in my garden last fall (and it's a good thing that carrots last a long time in the fridge!). I did a test run first, on St. Patrick's Day, and dropped off a little box with four cupcakes, since her birthday had been the week before. She loved them. She was actually a bit disappointed that I hadn't brought over more, since she only got to have one. When she went to work there was one left and when she got back home, there was an empty box in the fridge with just a small smear of icing and a few cake crumbs inside. Well - I just had to make up for that. I made three dozen cupcakes, and there were plenty left over for the bride-to-be.

Here they are, all ready to go. Same carrot cake and cream cheese frosting, this time decorated with royal icing apple blossoms in bright pink and orange, to match her wedding colors. So pretty.

Thanks for asking me to make the cupcakes Dana, and I wish you and Ken a lifetime of happiness.

B-b-b-b-b-Bailey!

This cake was so much fun and I was so happy to make it. It's for my friend Heather's daughter Bailey. Heather and I haven't known each other too long, but she's been such a good friend, and always comments on how lovely and delicious my cakes look - so when she asked me to make a cake for her daughter Bailey's 3rd birthday, I was happy to do it. I honestly don't know where the time has gone on this one either - it seems like just yesterday Bailey was a year old and I was watching her toddle to the door when I came to pick up a bicycle that Heather was lending me for a bike race when the tires on my bike both went flat the night before!

Anyhow, Heather absolutely loves chocolate, so she wanted chocolate cake, chocolate buttercream frosting and filling, and of course, Bailey's favorite character, Dora the Explorer! As I was preparing to make it, I saw towards the back of my fridge a small container of cream cheese frosting left over from Easter. Since I didn't quite have enough chocolate frosting left over from the cake I made earlier in the week to frost and fill this cake, I asked Heather if it would be okay to mix some of the chocolate frosting with the cream cheese frosting, just to fill the cake with. The outside would still be regular chocolate buttercream. And thus - chocolate cream cheese filling was born! My friend Jennie, who was visiting at the time I was making the cake, taste tested it, since she happens to be a bit of an expert on all things cheesecake from our time in college. Her verdict?  It. . . is. . . divine! Think, chocolate chip cheesecake. Yummy!

So here it is - the Dora face is made with fondant and outlined with black icing. The letters are yellow fondant, dried a bit to make it easier to cut, and the flowers on the sides are fondant as well.

 Happy Birthday Bailey!

Happy Birthday to Owen!

Just a few months ago, I made a cake for my friend and co-worker Winston for a baby welcoming party for his son Owen. He's brought pictures to work, and his son is just adorable. Well, I can hardly believe it, but the little guy is a year old. How time flies!

A few weeks ago when I was at work, Winston came up to me and asked me if I could make a cake for his son's birthday. He wanted something similar to the last cake I made, but this time with different colors - yellow, orange and red. Turned out Owen's birthday outfit was going to be yellow, so I focused on yellow for the main color. And instead of doing plain stripes, I did zigzag lines on the sides of the cake and stars on top. And of course, no first birthday is complete without a smash cake for the birthday baby!

The cake itself is yellow cake with chocolate buttercream frosting and filling, both for the main and smash cakes. All decorations are made with fondant and the letters are a fondant-gum paste mix.

Happy Birthday Owen! I hope you had a wonderful day!

Happy Easter!

I can't believe I have been decorating cakes now for two years. Easter is one of my favorite times of year for cake decorating. I have been making Easter cakes for family get-togethers, and this is my third one. I love Easter so much because it's my time to brush up on my technique with making royal icing flowers. Last year I did an assortment; lilies, violets, apple blossoms, daffodils. This year I decided to keep it simple. Easter lilies, this time made with a bigger lily tip so the size is much truer, and some pink apple blossoms. And while I was at it, I made lots more apple blossoms for some cupcakes for the following weekend (but that's another story). The cake itself is a yummy carrot cake - it's a spice cake recipe, but not overly spiced and so wonderfully moist. The cake I used for this was actually frozen on St. Patrick's Day. I filled and frosted it with cream cheese frosting, added a basketweave design (can't have Easter without a basket!) added my flowers and a message, and - voila!

I hope everyone had a Blessed Easter!

Star Wars, and Legos!

I love repeat customers. They are proof that I must be doing something right! This time, my friend Ratna, for whom I made the topsy-turvy lion cake, wanted a cake for her nephew's birthday. He was coming to Wisconsin from California with his family, and Ratna wanted to surprise him. I'm so glad I was part of the surprise!

The first thing Ratna told me is that her nephew loved Star Wars. Well, that opened up a whole world of possibilites. Classic Star Wars, Angry Birds Star Wars, Lego Star Wars.... and then there were all the characters! She told me that he loved Lego Star Wars, and after poring over some ideas, we found one that would work well. I would put some figurines on top of the cake, and decorate around them with fondant accents. I was going to get some star wars lego figurines, but they were a bit out of Ratna's price range, and she didn't know which ones he already had, so we went with a couple playskool star wars figurines. They are a bit young for the birthday boy, who is 9 years old, but perhaps he can pass them down to a little brother. The best part - the figures are posable, so when I couldn't shut the lid to the cake box, I just bent Darth Vader and the Storm Trooper over at their waists and down went the lid. It looked really funny, these two figures crouched over under neath the cake box lid. I would have taken a picture too, if the batteries on my camera hadn't died.

The cake itself is chocolate with oreo buttercream filling. I made the same combo for Ratna's son and she loved it so much she had to have it again. Then I added a fondant star wars logo with the birthday boy's name on top, with some fondant lightsabers and stars, fondant legos around the base of the cake, and a message on the cake board using  a lego font I found online. So it might not be Lego Star Wars, but it is legos and star wars. Very original, very fun! I hope the birthday boy liked it!

Happy Birthday Aazil!

Bawk! It's Angry... Evan!

Well, I hope he's not angry. It's his first birthday after all.

So what am I talking about, you ask? None other than the game that has become a widespread phenomenon, Angry Birds! If you haven't heard of it, check it out, but be forewarned, it is addicting!

Anyhow, this cake was sooo much fun to make. Even my kids had a hand in the design, since they are such experts on the game itself. Of course, if it had been up to them, the scene on the cake would have been completely functional, but seeing as it was for a one year old, I had to keep it simple. The cake itself (and the smash cake) are both yellow cake with vanilla buttercream filling and frosting, decorated with fondant clouds (and stars on the smash cake). The birds and piggies, and frying pan are all marshmallow fondant, and the slingshot and logs are chocolate fondant reinforced with toothpicks. The only snag I hit was the border on the bottom of the cake. I pulled out my favorite tip for making that grass border I love so much, and in the process of cleaning and prepping my work station, it vanished. I still have no idea where it is. It was late at night, all the stores were closed, and I wouldn't have time to get a new tip the next morning before I needed to deliver the cake - but did I give up? Nope! I improvised - using my small star tip, I made long, drawn out strands around the base of the cake. Not exactly like the effect from my grass tip, but I think it looks pretty good!

So here's the cake and smash cake, ready to go.

Happy Birthday Evan! Hope you had an awesome day!