Cascading Flowers Rush Cake

I received a call at 9:15am asking for a cake for a 21st birthday - needed before 4:30pm today!  I got to work, baking 8" rounds of Decadent Chocolate cake and putting butter out to soften to room temperature for the buttercream.  By 3:15pm, I had finished putting together this pretty little cake!

I like the cascade of flowers, but I really love the swirly numbers.  I used the same sort of technique from my last post with the striped number.  I am so very much in love with doing lettering this way!  I had been in such a rush all day with the different things I was doing (I also had previous engagements already scheduled that I had to work in) that I forgot to take a picture of the finished cake.  The customer was very kind and took a photo for me, or this one might have falled into the black hole of cakes I've made and will never see again.

Eric Carle's Very Hungry Caterpillar!

I set out to make a cake for a one year old girl for her birthday.  This book has quickly turned into a classic and it was pretty easy to figure out where to go with this cake.  On the last day before the caterpillar turns into a chrysalis, he eats 10 foods.  Those are the foods around the base of the cake.

The cake itself is only 6" round as it was for a small family gathering.  That made making those little fondant foods very meticulous!  It's pound cake with vanilla buttercream frosting and filling, covered with marshmallow fondant.  As a cool sidenote, I found an amazing fondant recipe on CakeCentral.com!  I am just SO in love with how it works (so smooth, so stretchy!) and how it tastes!  I am able to get it pretty stinkin thin so it's not like getting a mouthful of chewing gum, it just melts in the mouth.

Anyway, here are the shots of all the different foods:

 I used a cool little technique for the number "1" on the front that I got off this amazing lady online.  I can't find the link for the life of me!  She did stripey letters and checkered letters and even some swirly letters.  She is awesome!  EDITED:  I found her website!  It's here!

Two Birthday Cakes At Once

Two women in one family have their birthdays on the same day, so I had to make sure the cakes were both beautiful in their own right, but didn't outshine the other.  I was only given that one lady loves birds, purple, simple but pretty, and glitter.  Nothing on the other lady.  I think I did pretty well picking out cakes that were simple and equal in beauty!

The Blue Ruffles cake is Vegan Chocolate with Silky Caramel Sauce filling, coated in milk chocolate ganache, and covered and decorated in fondant.  The flower is gumpaste and is actually gold but the picture didn't pick up the colors very well.

The Purple Birds cake is Vegan Chocolate (gosh, it's just my favorite recipe!  So tasty!) with Fresh Strawberry Filling and milk chocolate ganache, covered in fondant and decorated with fondant.  I used my airbrush to color the fondant.  The silhouettes are cut out of fondant, and the balls on top are glittery fondant (again, the prettiness didn't come through on the pictures!)

Pink Ruffles Cake

I underestimated how much buttercream I would need for this 10" and 8" two tiered cake.  It was OVER FIVE POUNDS.  Let that sink in for a minute.  Because it is a LOT!
The cake itself is Vanilla cake with pink buttercream frosting and filling.

I found the best thing to do was to crumb coat the cake and let it sit in the fridge for about 30 minutes.  Then I used the biggest petal tip I had to create the ruffles.  It was tedious but overall an easy technique.  I think on the next one I'd like to add a large ruffled flower made of gumpaste, perhaps out of black, and perhaps add a black ribbon of some kind.

Pulp Fiction Cupcake Re-Creation

As my husband's birthday quickly approached and I found myself swamped with cakes, I went online in search of something to show him that he deserves cake love too!  I found these amazing Pulp Fiction cupcakes that featured Samuel L Jackson and John Travolta, and I had to re-create them!

I think I did pretty good copying the originals, for dealing with a fussy kid and not feeling too great today. The original creator of these was Jemma at Sugarsugar, I think.  So far as I can tell.  Here's the picture I used to go off of:

Aren't they incredible?  This Jemma person is awesome.  I love Pulp Fiction!

Also, how neat is it to be John Travolta or Samuel L Jackson right now?  Being immortalized in cupcake like this!?

Tiara and Bow Cake

This is "All Chocolate, Hold the Gluten" cake, smothered in ganache and filled with vanilla buttercream, then covered in marshmallow fondant.  The crown and bow are gumpaste.  The ball border is fondant, as well as the banner.  The board is covered in fondant as well.

I enjoyed doing the quilting on this cake.  I'd only done quilting on buttercream before and it is really different doing it on fondant.  SO much easier and cleaner, and you are able to really make it "puff" like it should.  I had to airbrush the non-pariels silver, since the silver dragees are deemed inedible and not locally available.  I found they are ILLEGAL to sell in California.  So weird.  I ate those things like they were going out of style back when I was a kid.

  So Happy Birthday Princess!

Princess Dress Cupcakes

When I set out to make these cupcakes, I didn't know if it would be as simple as it seemed or if I would be pulling my hair out by the end of things.  I ended up being really satisfied with how they came out and really enjoyed making them.  I've found myself really liking my new fondant recipe.  It's still marshmallow fondant, but the ingredients are tweaked.
One little tip I found out - real vanilla extract, while exceptionally expensive at Food Lion, is cheaper for twice as much at Costco.  I don't ever use vanilla flavoring or fake extracts, so it was great to see they carry a good quality vanilla for surprisingly cheap.
So, back to the cupcakes.  They are Chocolate Cake with vanilla buttercream and fondant.  I used a flower cutter to cut two shapes out of thin fondant, then rolled the edges to make them frilly for the skirt portion.  I used the same shape but larger cutter to make the top.  Then, it was just a matter of decorating, which was really fun!  I love Aurora's bust.  Of course, Tiana's dress was fun to make with the vine, leaves, and little yellow flower.  Cinderella's dress is simple and elegant, while Belle's dress (which is actually a shimmering gold) has a pretty tiny flower.
  I am so happy to be doing more cakes recently!  I can't wait until this weekend!

Monster High Cake

Fun little cake!  This is a Topsy Turvy Vegan Chocolate Cake with Double Chocolate Buttercream (so not completely vegan!) and marshmallow fondant.  The Monster High doll and skull are freehand painted gumpaste.

I made good use of my airbrush gun on this one, using the great colors I ordered off Amazon.com.