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!

La-La-Luci!

This cake was "sew" much fun to make. It involved me buying two new toys - another fondant mold, like the one I used for the whale cake, and a set of letter cutters. I love using new toys!

My friend Rachel asked me to make this cake for her daughter, Luci. Luci loves LaLaLoopsy dolls, and given her name, Rachel planned a LaLaLuci party. Her only request was that I use lots of bright colors and buttons, a ball border and some toys on top. She actually found a picture of a cake and after showing it to me said that she really liked the gumball border on the bottom. When I told her those weren't gumballs, but rather, fondant balls, I got to thinking, why not use gumballs? I mean, they are so much easier than rolling out little balls of fondant. The only thing I wasn't sure of was making them stick. And then Rachel said, "why not just pipe a line of icing around the base and stick them in there?" Duh! So she picked up some pink and purple gumballs at the candy store while she was getting candy for party favors, got the toy to go on top, and I picked them up from her house. Then I bought a silicone mold that makes really cute borders that look like lace along with buttons and little button flowers. But by far my favorite part was the letters. I've been meaning to buy these for months now and when I saw that the letters on her invitations were exactly the same as the letter cutter set, I ordered them! My friend Ann has been using these cutters for a long time now and I love how cute they look. And since they are gum paste, I can slide them around on the cake to position them just right before "gluing" them down (I just use water).

The cake itself is strawberry, with plain pink buttercream filling and frosting and of course lots of colorful fondant accents.

Happy Birthday Luci! I hope your day was sew much fun!

Dinosaur Train!

I can't believe my little girl is 5 years old. Where has the time gone? She is such a sweet little girl, full of surprises and this cake was no exception. When I asked her what kind of cake she wanted a month ago, I expected her to respond with something like princesses, or butterflies, or fairies, but nope, she said loud and clear in her perfect little voice, "Dinosaurs!"
I suppose I should have expected as much - when we went to the zoo earlier this year, I bought her a green stuffed animal pteranodon, and it is now one of her favorites. And she loves to watch the show Dinosaur Train. And her favorite color is green, which many dinosaurs are.
Cecilia helped me design the cake - her input involved the colors of the flowers, and the grass border on the bottom. She must know that the grass tip is my favorite. I bought two little figurines to put on top, made one of my pretzel palm trees, and I was all set!
The cake itself is one of her favorites - chocolate with raspberry filling. She initially wanted strawberry, but when I caught a bad cold just a few days before her birthday, she was happy to compromise since I had raspberry filling on hand and making strawberry would mean a boring trip to the grocery store.

 

I also made cake pops for her to take to school before her birthday, on the last day of school before winter break since her birthday was on December 29th. I made them with strawberry cake, green chocolate coating and green sugar that I made myself with plain coarse sugar dyed green with food coloring. 

Happy Birthday Cecilia!

 

Merry Christmas!

This year, our family was invited to my Uncle Paul and Aunt Rita's house for dinner on Christmas Day. Right away I offered to make a cake for the occasion, and my aunt was happy to accept. I figured a present cake would be perfect for this holiday, so here it is! Red velvet cake, cream cheese filling, and buttercream frosting with fondant decorations and a fondant/gum paste bow.

Merry Christmas!

Compound Hulk Cake

A year ago, a friend of mine told me that her friend Leanne was looking for a cake decorator, since the lady she had gotten her cakes from before had just moved. I sent a message to her and found out that she had just celebrated her son Luke's birthday, but would definitely want me to make a cake for his next birthday. When the time came, I was super-excited to get started on it. Leanne told me that Luke loved comic books, but mostly the lesser known characters that you don't hear about much. Like Black Spiderman and Red Hulk. I found a picture of a really awesome Hulk cake that would work with their party needs. She then told me that the theme they were going with was Compound Hulk. If you don't know what that is, it's basically half the regular green Incredible Hulk, and half the bad Red Hulk, split right down the middle. A bit challenging to frost the cake half and half, but I love a challenge!

The cake itself is yellow cake with buttercream filling and frosting, and fondant accents, including some yummy chocolate black fondant for his crazy hair.

The delivery of this cake was the best part - the party was at a roller rink! Having grown up going to many rollerskating parties, it was awesome to go inside the one near where I live. I drive by it all the time, but have never been inside. Now I'm definitely going to have to go back.

Happy Birthday Luke - Hope you had an awesome day!

Monkeys!

After making mostly birthday cakes for the past few months, I was happy when my nephew Tom's wife Tasheena asked me if I could make a cake for her baby shower. I had made the groom's cake for their wedding, so suffice to say they are long-standing fans of my cake creations. I talked to her mom, and after a while we agreed on a super-cute design for the cake, and for some cupcakes that would look awesome with it.

I had initially wanted to make everything with banana cake, but since the mom-to-be has a food aversion to bananas, I decided to make the cake chocolate and the cupcakes banana. The cake was decorated with buttercream with fondant accents and a cute ball border that went along very well with the picture of a juggling monkey that was on the front of the baby shower invitations. Then I made a palm tree out of a fondant-covered pretzel, just like the ones I made for the topsy-turvy cake back in October. And in front of the tree, a cute little fondant monkey. Honestly, I love making these little creatures - it's so much fun. As I mentioned in my topsy-turvy cake post, it's like playing with playdoh. And who doesn't like playing with play-doh?

For the cupcakes, I had some help. My son's first reconciliation was the night before the shower, and then the morning of the shower I had an extra choir practice at church. I knew that if I tried to decorate all of them by myself, I wouldn't have enough time, so I called over my sister-in-law (and grandmother-to-be) Monica who brought over one of her sons, Raymond (who happens to be a big fan of anything having to do with cake decorating), and Tasheena's sisters Mari and Angaline, to help me decorate them. We had a lot of fun and got it done in a fraction of the time it would have taken for me to do it all myself.

Everything turned out so cute - and I hope everyone at the shower enjoyed them!

B is for....

Brian . . . and Banana . . . and Birthday Boy!

Yep, today is my husband's birthday! And of course what kind of cake decorator wife would I be if I didn't make a treat for him to bring to work on his big day? I asked him last weekend if he wanted cupcakes or cake pops. He said, since I had made cupcakes for halloween, he wanted cake pops this time. He decided on banana cake, which I mixed with cream cheese frosting and then dipped in milk chocolate before decorating with sprinkles and a letter B for his name. And of course, since it's banana cake, yellow was the obvious choice for an accent color! I gave him a sample cake pop last night and he loved it - and I hope everyone where he works enjoys them just as much!

Happy Birthday Sweetie!