Springing forward

Ah, March, the time of year where one week is chilly and the next feels like summer... and what better way to navigate this flurry of meteorological indecisiveness than with some cake!  This past weekend yielded 2 little projects.  One was a classic chocolate/chocolate cake with a painted fondant "31," and the other a mass of cupcakes for a double baby shower.

The chocolate cake speaks for itself, but the baby shower cupcakes deserve a line or six about the decoration.  I've seen lots of cakes with mini-bunting decorations all over Pinterest. Most are made from paper or fabric resembling shabby chic or indy or whatever.

For this order, I picked up some flowered and blue paper, some blue and some pink ribbon and a pack of sticky letters from Michaels.  I used some circle cutters I had on hand (a plain circle and a slightly larger scalloped edge) and sewed them onto some ribbon I tied to a few lollipop sticks.  I have to say, I rather like how these turned out!  Sometimes it's hard with cupcakes to sort of convey that party message, and this just may be the way to go!  Next, I'll have to try a much smaller version on a cake - maybe using skewers and twine... :) We'll see!

Birthdays and Baptism

Well, I've fallen a bit behind in my cake postings, so I though I'd lump my last few cakes into one update!  My little one turned two back in January.  I can't believe two years have gone by!  She was really into Caillou and Pooh at the time.  So it was a bit of a toss up what to make for her. I settled on Pooh, and I think it came out kinda sweet.  She loved it. It's just simple vanilla cake and buttercream icing filled with strawberries and cream.  Maybe we'll do Cookie Monster next year!

Our priest turned sixty in January, and his wife requested a vanilla/chocolate cake with berries.  Mmmm, one of my favorites!  The insides are layers of vanilla and chocolate cake filled with strawberries and cream, and the outside is iced with buttercream and decorated with fresh berries.  Yum!

My third cake these last few weeks was made for my little god daughter's baptism. It's chocolate cake filled with strawberries and cream filling (my, quite a popular filling these days!), and iced with vanilla buttercream.  This cake was fun to make in that it was my first time venturing into the world of fondant roses.  I've made little fondant flowers before- like daisies and such, but I was always a little nervous doing the rose.  I ended up buying a little ateco 5-petal rose cutter- quite a handy contraption.  I followed a few you tube tutorials (from expert village), and they came out pretty okay!  Since I had the ingredients on hand, I went ahead and used marshmallow fondant which yielded petals a little thicker than real life.  Next time, I think I will splurge and get some real gumpaste so I can roll them nice and thin.  But I think I'm off to a good start!