Pastels and SpiderMan Cupcakes!

I think I'm really getting into doing cupcakes recently, which is something I always thought took more time than they were worth.


This first cake was...difficult.  I know it doesn't look like it, but for some reason everything went wrong!  I ended up finishing the cake at midnight and when I woke up in the morning at 5am, I hated everything about how it looked so I tore off all the frosting and made it all again!  Both the cakes and cupcakes were airbrushed to be pearly.

The Spiderman Cupcakes were a surprise.  We went to visit relatives down in Virginia Beach and through a series of miscommunications, I didn't make cupcakes to bring.  Then commenced a fun filled rush to the store with a packed car of family, including two teenage girls and two five year old boys :)  It really was fun!  The girls (who are my nieces) helped me pick out the design for these cupcakes and helped to decorate them.  I had more fun with these little cupcakes than I thought possible.  The picture was taken by my Niece's Instagram and I think there's some kind of filter on it but you get the general picture.

I heart my nieces!

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!)

Jerry Garcia

There are just so many Dead fans in my life it seems.  My wonderful, awesome hubster turned 37 on the 9th and I wanted to make him a cool cake, so I picked this one!  I built up the features using cake spackle (cake mushed up with some buttercream), dyed the frosting, and smoothed it on with my fingers.  I was a pure mess by the end of it.  The hair I just applied with different size round tips.  I wrote lyrics real quickly around the sides to "Saturday  Night".  It seemed to fit!

Happy Birthday Honey!  I love you!

Storybook Cake

M-Pie turned 3 just recently and I made her this fairytale storybook cake.  The cake is my yellow recipe with buttercream frosting.  I was expecting a very small intimate family gathering, so imagine my surprise when we pull up to my Mother-In-Law's house and there are easily 8 cars parked outside her house!  At a mere 1-layer, 9x13 inches, the cake was too small for everyone to have some, but the kids all got a piece and some of the adults got one too.  It was a really fun event and everyone raved about my "skillz" and how good the cake was.  It made me feel so great!

As I mentioned, I baked the cake in a regular rectangular 9x13 pan, then trimmed the short sides so there was a gentle angle.  The scraps I mixed with frosting and shaped the humped areas where the "pages" would naturally fall bowed.  I then frosted the top of the cake with pink and the edges with purple and did the Viva paper towel trick.  The princess was made out of a small wonder mold cake.  The body of the princess is fondant molded onto a dowel, then shoved through the top of the little half-egg shaped cake, then dressed in a gown of red fondant.  I hand rolled the hair thin and attached with regular water.  The crown and mouse are made of fondant as well.  The little princess gems were bought at the dollar store (admitted sheepishly).  It was very fun to make, even though the first princess I made was too big for the cake and I had to do it over again!
Happy Birthday M-Pie!