Monday, October 22, 2012

Here kitty, kitty!

I love cats, and so I was really excited when I was asked to make a cat cake for a darling little girl's birthday.  And not only was there a mama cat, we needed 48 kitten cupcakes to go with her! That's one busy kitty!!

So I went ahead and baked two 8" rounds, a 4" round, and two cupcakes to make the mama cat.  I sliced the cupcakes in half and used them as the kitty's cheeks and cut two triangles out of the 4" round for her ears.  I filled and frosted the main cake then placed the cupcake cheeks on top.  Then, using lollipop sticks I secured the ears. I used star tip 16 and iced the cheeks with white stars.  Then using the grass tip, I frosted the rest of her face and ears.  Boy was that fun! I need to find more excuses to use that grass tip... Her inner ears, nose, tongue and eyes were made from melted chocolate.  Whiskers were royal icing.

The cupcakes were a hoot.. I used a #21 decorating tip to swirl the cheek and a #22 to make the fur.  Though I'm sure any star tips would work. The first couple of cupcakes were a little rough, but I soon figured out what I wanted.  Again the eyes were chocolate and the whiskers were royal icing (I had made all the whiskers the night before so they would be stiff in the morning).

Anyway, I'm really happy with the outcome!  Now I want to make cat cakes for everyone!! :)

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Star Wars cake

Well, here we are, another birthday in our family.  My oldest son turned 8 yesterday, and we celebrated his birthday today with all of his friends at the YMCA.  Great Party!  The boys played many variations of dodgeball and were a bunch of happy, sweaty little guys come the end.

For this cake my son wanted something Star Wars.  He gave me a Star Wars cupcake topper set for my birthday last year (hint hint... he is so thoughtful), so I suggested we make R2 but also use the cupcake set and make cupcakes to feed all his buddies.  He was happy with that plan, and so was I.

So first I made the stand a few days ago.  I used cardboard cake rounds (2 per level) that I covered with thick paper.  I found some sparkly ribbon at Michael's and used it to line each tier.  Then I covered a couple of candle pillars with the same card stock and hot glued them to each level.  It was a little tricky, but it worked.  When I put the cake on top it did wobble a bit too much for my taste (candles probably weren't exactly flat)-- so i need to work on this design a bit more, but it sure came out pretty! And that's all that matters right? :)

For R2D2, I made two 8-inch layer cakes.  They rose nice and dome-y, so I leveled only the bottom layer.  I left the top rounded and used a little extra frosting to make it as much as a semi-circle as I could.  I could have chilled, then carved it more circular, but I didn't want to risk all the crumbs getting all up in my business, so I figured it was fine.  I used marshmallow fondant to make the details and used cute little finger lights that ravers use for parties for the two front lights.  For those- I cut little holes in the cake, and when the time was right, I flicked the little switch on the lights and pushed them into the cake.  They worked great!

So I iced my cupcakes, put on the toppers, and placed them on the stand all nice.  The kids were so excited, and I think it was a success! :)