Beach Themed Wedding Shower Cake

A friend of mine was throwing a wedding shower for her sister and asked me to make the cake.  I was more than thrilled as I couldn't wait to test out another tiered cake.  And this time - a beach themed cake!!  I immediately started to think of sand, sea, dolphins and seashells.  I mentioned this and putting flip flops on the top of the cake with a wedding ring and ker-BLAM!  My idea was put to work.

 This is the final outcome.  The seashells, star fish and ring on top of the cake were all made out of white chocolate using molds.

 The flip flops were made out of cake and covered in fondant.  I used a flip flop shaped cookie cutter for the shape.  I used fondant for the straps of the flip flops. Instead of cutting out cardboard for the flip flop cakes to sit on I just used sugar cookies to lay the cake on and then put on the cake.  I made decorated flip flop sugar cookies too which I'll post another day.

 I used brown sugar for the sand.  I added dolphins in the shape of a heart on 3 of 4 sides of the base cake.

This is a back view of the cake.  This was made out of yellow cake with strawberry and vanilla pudding fillings.

Elephant Birthday Cake

This is a busy week for me!  And I LOVE it!!!  One of my girlfriends asked me a couple of months ago to make her sister's wedding shower cake.  Then added on cookies and then asked if I might be able to squeeze in making a Birthday cake for her niece.  And all for the same weekend!!!!  So I made my plan of attack to manage all 3 requests.  Now mind you - I'm a full-time working wife & mom!  How does one do all this - well, lots of planning - and definitely some lack of sleep is involved!!  Ha Ha!  But I wouldn't do it if I didn't truly enjoy and love doing this!  So the cake pictured below is based off of the Elephant Cake Pan by Wilton.  But since the odds of me making another elephant cake are slim I decided to just stick to my usual 9 x 13 cake and just decorate the Elephant right on.

I definitely mimicked the ideas and images that Wilton showed for the cake pan and then just hand piped on what I wanted to do.  I'm more than happy with how it turned out!

I decided not to cover up the Elephant with the birthday greeting so I just piped it on the side of the cake instead.  I used the start tip and piped on I don't know how many stars.  I hope the birthday girl enjoys her cake!!!

Now off to decorate some flip flop cookies and a Beach themed wedding shower cake!!!

3D Camera Cake

This cake is by FAR my most intense most detailed 3D cake I have ever made.  And the biggest blow - I thought it didn't taste that good.  This was the 2nd Martha Stewart cake I have made and both cakes have been on the dry side.  Thank goodness for ice cream because that helped but ice cream should NOT be a must when serving cake.  But anyway, here is my handy work.

 The whole cake is covered in Fondant (Satin Ice).  I find that SI tastes so much better.

 I wrote Happy 60th Birthday Tom on the camera strap.

 Look at all those buttons!!!!  Yup!  I added every single one to make it as real as possible.  The cake lays on top of another cake meant to look like a photo album.  I painted on 1952-2012 on the side of the photo album.

I made this for my father-in-law.  Not only was the cake a surprise but the party was too!!!

Angry Birds Cake

Angry Birds hit my house full on a couple weeks ago when my sister asked me to make an Angry Birds themed cake.  She never gives me any kind of direction on whether she wants a 3D cake or a flat image cake and my hubby being an avid AB player said it had to be 3D.  So my mind went full force on trying to come up with something.

 I used those Chocolate wafer cookies for the beams that the pigs sometimes are on and under.  I also used a few of those with some melted chocolate to make the slingshot.

 All the characters were made with cake balls.  I'm not a fan of Fondant characters because you can't eat them.

 Here's a close up of the pigs.  I used M&M's for the noses and just added more detail with melted chocolate thorough a piping bag.

And I added the Birthday greeting on the side of the cake.  I hear RJ just loved it!  The cake was a vanilla cake with strawberry filling.  The cake balls were apple cake and an apple cinnamon frosting.

Wild Animal Baby Explorers Cake

I had never heard of Wild Animal Baby Explorers.  It is a cartoon on the WTTW channel.  And it didn't seem to me when I searched for cake ideas that many other people had heard of it either.  So I looked at the website: http://www.nwf.org/Wild-Animal-Baby-Explorers-TV.aspx  And tried to come up with the best idea I could.  So I simple did the Frozen Buttercream transfer technique again and used the coloring page found on the website and VOILA!  Here is the outcome!

I made a chocolate cake with an Oreo Cream Cheese Whipped filling with Chocolate buttercream frosting.  And the decorating is all done with regular buttercream.  Not too shabby!!!

Bridal Shower Cake

Gosh it's been a long time since I posted.  I've been busy and I have more to post.  I'm surprised I remembered my blog password!  :-)  But this is a cake for tomorrow at work for one of my good friends who is getting married in October.  I had free reign on what to do for her cake and I have been dying to test out my luck at trying to make something uber fancy with layers, fondant and the criss cross pattern.

 The colors for the wedding are Purple.  The 2nd layer looks a little blue in the photos but it's purple with some shimmer powder on it.  Around it I wrote Kristin We wish you many years of love and happiness together.

 The bridal gown I made with 2 6" layers of cake and just carved it into a rounded shape.  Who needs another pan?!?!  I sure don't.  I know there are a couple of specialty pans but I can do the same with a knife!

 Here is the detail of the 1st layered cake of the criss cross pattern with the little pearls.  SO CUTE!  I love how it turned out.

 Here is a close up of the detail on the gown.  I used fondant for the bodice and draping of the gown.  I added details near the bottom with royal icing.

I added ribbon between the purple and white layers to cover the gap from the posts holding the cake together.

The base cake is chocolate with Oreo Cream Cheese filling and a chocolate filling.  The 2nd layer in purple is carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.  And the bridal gown is white cake with buttercream frosting.  My friend loves carrot cake and I know many people at my work are chocoholics.  I hope to get photos of the cake cut into so you can see the layers!

Boy Scout/Camp Smores Cake

This cake is a little bit of everything that the title says it is.  I've made my newphew's birthday cake many many times now.  Typically there is always a theme but this year - I think because he is getting older - he really didn't care and my sister didn't have a theme.  So I asked what he was really into right now and she said he just finished cub scouts and was now starting boy scouts.  So I decided to do a boy scout cake.  My sister originally said to just do the boy scout emblem on the cake - yum can I say "BOR-ING!"  Ha ha.  But I looked and looked for ideas on the wonderful world wide web and low and behold found some fascinating camp cakes.  And would you know it - I incorporated the emblem by way of a flag (see 2nd photo).

 So here is the "camp site".  The trees are made using a mini ice cream cones and I piped on buttercream frosting.  The tree on the left in the corner I placed on with a pretzel rod so it would stand up a little taller for a little more height to the cake.

 Here is the emblem.

 The fire was made with a cut up pretzel rod.  I dipped the cut off ends in chocolate so it would look nice.  I just used red and yellow buttercream for the fire.  The "rocks" are just gray blobs of buttercream.

 The tent is made with 2 graham crackers and chocolate to hold it together.

 Just another view.

And I finally have a shot of the cake cut in to.  Now you can see all the layers I did.  This was actually a double recipe of the graham cracker cake and I just sliced the cakes it made in 1/2.  Filled those with marshamallow filling and then filled the 2 cakes together with a chocolate fudge filling.  This was my Smores inspired cake.  It was delicious!!!!  I will be making this again - and in fact - I will probably be making the graham cracker cake into Smores Cake Pops!!!!

Mickey & Minnie Mouse Birthday Cake

I did another Frozen Buttercream Transfer for this cake.  It sure does help especially when working with black frosting.  One goof with black frosting and good luck covering it up or fixing it.  I got my images off the internet - I chose soccer Mickey & Minnie because my nieces and nephew are currently playing soccer so I thought it was rather fitting.

This actually took me less time to do than the Thomas transfer - I think because it was my second go at the technique it really helped to be prepared.

A close up of Minnie.  You can see the frosting extends around the hand on the right and her eyelashes so I wouldn't lose those details in the transfer.

And a close upr of Mickey. 

I sprayed the outside edge with Yellow Color Mist.  I just love having color in a can!!!

And a close up of my borders.  I added some yellow dots on the top border to give it more color. 

The cake was a white cake with 2 layers of a whipped cream vanilla filling frosted with a white buttercream.

Thomas the Train Cake

This is my first Frozen Buttercream Transfer technique cake.  And I have to admit I am so proud of how it turned out.

 Here is my reverse image with parchment paper over it.  I taped it to a cutting board and then I have my color image next to it so I know what it looks like.  You can see I started to do my outlining in black.

 Here is the image completely colored in.  I did this Wednesday night.  Thursday night I made my chocolate buttercream frosting and then applied that to the back of my image and put it back in the freezer while I finished putting the cake together.

 Here is a close up of the detail on the cake.

 More close up.

 Side view.  I considered adding balloons to the sides of the cake but it looked so much nicer without.

The final product.  It's a Chocolate cake with 2 layers of Oreo Cream Cheese Whipped Filling.  This is for my girlfriend's 1 year old son's birthday.  I hope they have a fabulous time and I hope they enjoy the cake!!!

My Little Pony Cake

Well I was just getting ready to post about the Thomas the Train cake I made tonight when I just saw I never posted the My Little Pony cake.  So here are detailed pics of the cake.  It's made out of fondant.  I must say I am really proud of myself with how it turned out since I've never used Fondant to this extent before.

 For the bow I cut the strips of fondant and then used my fondant roller to make the loops to hold the bow in place until it dried.  Then I attached it.

 I rolled fondant between my fingers to make the hair, letters, number 5 and balloon strings.  The balloons I just used a round cookie cutter.

 The head, ears and legs are all made with tightly packed Rice Krispie Treats.  I used a wood dowel to put the head in its place and to keep it from falling.

The body is all cake.  It was a chocolate cake with marshmallow filling, another freshly made strawberry filling and a layer of vanilla buttercream.  I covered the whole cake in buttercream before putting the fondant on.

Easter Bunny Cupcakes

I'm getting ready to make my niece's 5th birthday cake.  It's going to be Chocolate Cake with Marshmallow filling and also a layer of a fresh strawberry filling.  But since the cake recipe I use for Chocolate cake makes so much and I don't need a large cake I decided to use the rest of the batter to make cupcakes for work.  Which also allowed me to test out the marshmallow filling.

 Here is how they turned out.

 This is what the inside looks like when you cut into the cupcake.

I rolled the cupcake into green coconut (just flaked coconut with some green food coloring).  I used a ziploc bag to shake the coconut around to get it covered in green.  Then I added my Yellow Peeps Easter bunny and a few Starburst Jelly Beans.  I thought Jelly Belly Jelly Beans were the best but these Starburst Jelly Beans are by far the best I have ever had.