Sunflowers and Ladybugs!

This cute little sunflower and ladybug cake was FUN to make!  It was my first time making sunflowers out of buttercream, but it proved to be simple enough.  The ladybugs were so interesting to place, and the little crawl marks made me giggle.  Cakes like this are why I love to make cakes.  The cake itself is yellow cake with vanilla buttercream frosting and filling.

Toy Story Cake

This cake is vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream frosting and filling, fondant accents, and plastic figurines.  The Toy Story logo is fondant that I made a week in advance to let it dry and harden.
It was a fun and straight-forward cake and I really enjoyed making it.  I got to go to the birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese's and I got to see the birthday boy's face light up like a Christmas tree when he saw the cake.
I must start remembering to carry my cards around with me.  I always forget and there were many people asking for my information.

Tie Dye Cuppies and Mondavi

I've been on a cake hiatus of sorts, getting ready for a few big ones coming up and resting a little bit. 

Wednesday was Stinkie's last day of gymnastics class and he wanted to make cupcakes for all his little friends, so I let him pick four colors (pink, red, blue, and yellow) to make tie dye cupcakes with.  He helped me make the batter and spoon it into the muffin tins, then it was bedtime for him.  I took them out (they were so pretty!) and decorated them with a really simple swirl of buttercream using the same colors that were inside the cupcakes.  Then I went to the dollar store and bought a package of the little white wedding favor boxes, a package of spring inspired cellophane gift bags, and some foam stickers.  My original plan was to let Stinkie decorate the bags but it was late and I didn't want to hassle with it in the morning sooooo...I did it!  And dang it, it was FUN!  The cupcakes were just a little big for the favor boxes, but that made for a nice tight fit.  I just stuck the cakes in the freezer for 10 minutes to harden up so I could put them in without squishing the frosting.  Then I put the boxes into the bags and tied them up with the twisties.  I think they came out really great!

 
The Mondavi cake was a rush job.  I forgot about my brother-in-law's birthday until yesterday morning!  So I hurried to make two 9x13 chocolate cakes and frosting without even knowing what I was going to make out of them.  After talking with my hubster, I decided on a nice 1987 Cab Sauv Mondavi Reserve.  It's something like $200 a bottle.  The shape didn't come out like I wanted, but it would have been so small had it really been to scale so I went with oddly shaped.  I didn't even have time to cover the cake board...but I figured, it's for family, so that's okay! 

I thought I would have a really hard time with the label but it was actually really fun and I'm pretty proud of it, other than the little goof under the Mondavi title.

Betty Boop-boop de doop!

Two fun cakes for one fun event!  This Betty Boop cake was requested by the client based on her photo.  It is yellow cake with vanilla buttercream filling and marshmallow fondant (MMF) frosting.  I thought the composition of this cake would be more difficult than it was.  It turned out to be pretty fun!  I have always loved Betty Boop!

The hardest part for me was getting the flesh colored fondant.  It was a total pain.  The red fondant should have been the hardest, but I made up a special batch just of the red and added all the coloring to the melted marshmallows before adding all the sugar.  That made things very easy there.  I used powdered red as well because it has no taste whatsoever and the Americolor Super Red because it has very little flavor.  I will never again use the Wilton no-taste red...it certainly DOES have a bitter taste!

I love her little eyelashes.

The second cake is yellow cake with vanilla BC frosting and filling.  I usually use the chocolate BC as the base for any black frosting, but this time I tried something I read on a caking website.  I used the Wilton Juniper gel color first (man is that an ugly color) and then used a bit of the Americolor black (just a tiny bit) and a package and a half of the Chefmaster black food powder.  It darkened overnight and turned darker still when it was warmed by my hands.  The hearts are simply fondant cutouts.

The picture I took used flash and it came out looking gray, so I took another quick snapshot of it next to my Adidas bag in natural lighting and it looks much more true to life.  YAY! Oh, and yes, that is one of my custom made, super sturdy crazy awesome cake boxes.  I rock.
These cakes were not as stressful as I had anticipated and I am very glad I got a chance to make them!

1967 Dodge Coronet R/T - AKA MY FIRST CAR!

I've been wanting to make a car for a while now but I haven't had the occasion.  Luckily, I got this order and I was SO excited to start!
The cake is 2-10" yellow cake layers with vanilla buttercream frosting and filling.  The car is RKT covered and decorated with fondant.

I put the Rice Krispies in my little Magic Bullet and ground up about 2/3 of them before adding them to the melted marshmallows.  I did this so that the finished RKT would be a smoother surface for my fondant.  I printed off a good side view of the R/T, scaled it by hand, and cut out two, then laid them against the RKT and carved the side view shape, minus the tire wells at first.  Then I carved the tire wells, and put small ribbons of fondant where the shape of the body needed swells and dips.  The windows are chocolate fondant dyed black with powdered food coloring.  I love the black powdered food coloring.  It is more spendy but has no taste.  The black gel smells awful and tastes very bitter.  The same goes with the red.  Anyway, I rolled it thin and cut it to fit the top half of the car, then used my powder puff (a nylon stocking, never been worn of course, that I fill with powdered sugar and tie off so I can easily dust my fondant evenly) to dust it.  This made it so the gray fondant I laid on top wouldn't stick to it and I could carve out the windows easily.  I made the accent pieces out of fondant, except the license plate which is gumpaste.  There is a board under the middle of the car (fully wrapped in foil) that is holding it above the cake so the tires won't sink into the frosting.

I found myself so proud of my lettering on this one.  My son came in the kitchen while I was finishing it off and wanted to help me, so I had him read off the letters and make sure I spelled everything right by comparing it to the "Happy 60th Birthday" I had written on regular paper to make sure of the size of the message so it would be centered.  This was a really touching and special experience for my kiddo and I.  He got all the letters right, then told me that I did a good job writing my letters.  Awwww!
This cake was very fun to make and at times a little challenging.  I am so happy to have done my first car!

A Halloween Anniversary!

This cake was pretty straight forward, and I very much enjoyed it.  I used the leftover navy blue BC from the last cake and made black by adding yellow, red, and brown coloring gels and more black powder.  The cake itself is two 10" decadent chocolate cake layers with vanilla BC filling and frosting.  See the baking powder can?  That's for size analysis (Thank you Christyl!  I keep forgetting!)  The numbers on top are gumpaste painted with gold edible shimmer dust.

This cake also had a specialty sturdy box.  I hate commercial cake boxes.  Something always goes wrong with them.  I'm so glad I've started making my own.

Hair Stylist Cake

The cake is 2-10" yellow rounds with vanilla buttercream frosting and filling.  The blow dryer and straightener are RKT covered in marshmallow fondant.  The red clip is made of fondant, but the silver clip is gumpaste.  The scissors are gumpaste as well, and everything silver was painted silver with silver shimmer dust and lemon juice mixed together.

The cake itself was very simple, as it required no mixing of colors for the base.  Just plain white BC frosting plugs.  I think I need to post a link to the SeriousCakes video about that, as it's the bestest, most wonderful thing I've ever seen.
Aw heck I'll just post her video.  Te frosting plug part starts at 1:35.  I love her videos!  I don't pull the plastic wrap all the way through the tip.  I cut it off up close to the frosting before I plop it in the bag, but it still makes for super fast cleanup and changing of colors.
Anyway, I smoothed the cake and set the objects on top, ran a ribbon around it, wrote "Happy Birthday Cedric" (On a side note, I love LOVE the name Cedric), placed the "cords", and called it a cake!