1st Birthday

Well, this past Thursday was my little girl's first birthday.  Being the 3rd child, and the *only* girl, I opted for a pink cake.  And since her middle name is Rose, roses were the theme of the day.
For her smash cake I used a 4" mini cheesecake pan.  Her cake is a simple whipped cream filing sandwiched between two layers of golden yellow cake.  The remaining batter was used for the "leftover" 8" cake to be enjoyed by the rest of the family.
Note to self: When coloring icing, especially pinks, the colors tend to deepen as the icing sits.  And it would probably help not to tint the icing in a dark kitchen while watching late night TV... as the color you end up with may be much more pink than expected! :)

Baby Blues

Oh, how I love making baby cakes, and this past weekend's cake was no exception. This chocolate/chocolate cake was adorned with buttercream roses and fondant baby shoes. The shoes may look complex, but they're actually quite easy. Just google "fondant baby shoe pattern" and all kinds of options pop up!

Cops and Robbers

This was a really fun cake to make. My son, Gregory, turned 5 today, and what better way to capture little-boyhood than with cops and robbers!  He has been asking me for a police man cake for months- fine tuning his ideas with each passing week.  So I did some internet searches and settled on this design. What I love most about this cake is the colors.  I love blues and greens and reds all thrown together.  Love it!  My little turkey loved it, too.


Cake details:
8" golden cake with fudge filling
iced with vanilla buttercream and decorated with fondant "accessories"

Happy Halloween!

Sugar Cookies with Colorflow icing

City space shuttle cake

The birthday cake is complete!  My son is a great kid.  I love him to death, AND I love his imagination.  When it comes to cakes he and his younger brother start requesting them months ahead of time complete with little nuances that twist and evolve all the way up to baking day.  My son even drew me a picture of what he wanted (he's a very detail oriented little guy).  So this little ditty is what I came up with for him.  
Until a few years ago, we lived in New York, and he still talks about it all the time-- mostly the buildings and snow.  So I made him a city cake topped with his newest fascination: space shuttles.  Needless to say, he is thrilled with the final product, and so am I!
  

Details: 8/10" round chocolate cakes with fudge filling and vanilla buttercream icing. All the decoration pieces were made from fondant days in advance so they would harden enough to stand up.  I made a small batch of royal icing and added the window details with a #2 tip.  The little taxis and police car were decorated with food color marker. (I had added clouds, but they looked funny so I took them off! :)

Cement Truck Birthday

This cake is just the first of many baking projects in the queue for this week.  I have truffles, cupcakes and my son's 7th birthday coming up. Whew! This creation is a golden yellow cake with strawberries and whipped cream filling.  The outside is iced with vanilla buttercream, and the truck and cones are made from fondant.  This was a really fun cake to make. Once in a while I get a cake where everything just seems to go "right."  And I think this was one of them!  Besides, having two boys of my own, I tend to love all things truck and transportation related! :)

Elmo Birthday

Three cheers for Elmo!  I made my first ever Elmo cake this week, and it was kinda fun! I googled around for a nice image of Elmo, printed and traced him onto fondant. Then I cut out his eyes, nose and mouth, assembled him and drew in some detail with a Wilton food marker.  He sure was a happy looking fellow.  It was almost like he was cheering me on as I made the rest of the cake!  I also love the name plate.  I was going for the Sesame Street sign look, and I think it nailed it on the first try.  That sure was a relief.  The rest of the cake just sort of came together..
Did I ever mention that I LOVE making fondant bows??  They always look so cheerful!!  
I don't really have any particular wisdom to share about this cake- except that it took a solid two days for Elmo to harden enough to be handled. I also made the name plate, "1" and the bow loops the day before.  Never wait until the same day to make bow loops.  They need at least 24 hours to set, and it usually takes about 16 loops to get a nice full bow. Cut a few skinny strips and wrap them around a pencil and you have little "curled" ribbons, too!