Curious George Cake

When the weather finally warms up kids of all ages want to get outside
and play in the water. In central Alabama a May birthday party is a
perfect excuse to do just that.

When Melissa emailed me to request a Curious George birthday cake for
her daughter and son's birthday party at the local splash pad she had
only one requirement. I had to include the colors, red, blue and
yellow. With so few instructions took me a while to come up with a
design idea.

I knew I didn't want the cake to be a standard two tier. I really
wanted a "wow" factor. When the design concept finally came to me I
was more than a little worried I wouldn't be able to pull it off. Not
wanting to make promises I couldn't keep I asked Melissa if she was
willing to let the cake design be a surprise. She graciously agreed.

Houndstooth Hat Cake

Strawberry Shortcake Cake

This past weekend I had the honor of making Miss Lauren's 3rd birthday cake. Lauren is a big Strawberry Shortcake fan and wanted a cake that showed off her love for this classic character. A recent trend in today's cakes is to have a small center cake and surround it with coordinating cupcakes. I kicked this concept into high gear and made a huge strawberry cake and planted a cupcake strawberry patch all around.

The center strawberry was made using the standard Barbie dress pan. I slightly shaved one side of the cake so it would lay on its side. The bottom of the pan does not come to a point so I made up the difference with red fondant. I iced the entire strawberry and and covered with red fondant. I used the rounded edge of a smallish paint brush to make the "seeds." I also formed the small strawberries out of fondant and allowed them to set up over night.

The leaves were free handed out of leaf green (Wilton gel color) fondant and placed on the large berry. I used water to make them stick. If placed just right the leaves are handy for covering any flaws in the fondant. In my experience I have found an inexpensive set of sponge rollers (never used on hair of course) is an invaluable tool for giving fondant a realistic depth and shape. The "three" was cut from fondant that had been mixed with a small amount of Wilton Gum Tex and was allowed to dry. The actual Strawberry Shortcake character was purchased from a major chain store. I made one out of gum paste and I like it, but because the cake was for a child and she is accustomed to a specific look I decided to go with the plastic character and Lauren gets a small toy to remind her of her 3rd birthday cake.

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Spring Flowers Cake

Elegant and understated. I believe that is a fitting discription for this particular cake. The truth is I don't often get requests for cakes of this style. But I love making them. This particular cake is decadent chocolate with classic buttercream frosting. Gumpaste flowers and verdant buttercream stems adorn both tiers.

The flowers should be made well in advance.

Party Hat Cake

No birthday party is complete with out a party hat. Four year old Emma's tea party birthday is no exception, however a fancy party requires a fancy party hat and a fancy cake. Emma's mom requested I combine the two. I think it turned out splendidly.




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A cake for our Princess Cinderella

I've written about my sister, Rebecca in previous posts. She is the light of our family. This past December our "joy child" (as our mom referred to her when she was little) turned sixteen. As you may recall Becca has Down Syndrome, so while she may be sixteen years old she doesn't necessarily enjoy the same things as a typical girl her age.

Specifically, she loves a good princess and Cinderella is one of her favorites. When it came time to design her cake I didn't want it to be a literal Cinderella design. I wanted it to be more age appropriate with "Cinderella-esque" undertones. To that end I borrowed the colors of the character's ball gown as well as the draping from that dress. The "bubbles" are reminiscent of the soap bubbles from the movie. And of course, no princess is complete with out her crown. I added the "R" initial to make it unique for Rebecca.

To help with the visual, here is our princess, Becca:






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SpongeBob!

I confess. On rare occasions I'm wrong. I remember watching the first ever episode of "Spongebob Squarepants" with my husband and our oldest daughter, Katie. When the credits started rolling I jumped to my feet and announced "there is no way anyone is ever going to watch such a ridiculous cartoon, I give it a month before it's off the air." Now, here I am, more than a decade later creating Spongbob out of cake.

Despite my personal feelings for the charater I actually had a great time working on this cake. I love a creative challenge. The next time I get to make one I will make him taller. I was unsure about the inner support and wanted to be sure the cake wouldn't be too top heavy. Turns out I could have doubled his height with no negative consequences.



His body is vanilla cake iced in both vanilla and chocolate buttercream.

If any reader would like tips on how to recreate this, or any of my cakes, leave me a comment and I'll be happy to help. I'm entirely self taught and would love to help someone else with their cake endeavors.

This was not my first Spongbob. Here's a peek at my first attempt:


I made this one for my son's second birthday.

Oh, Deer! Cake

For those fortunate enough to have been born and raised in the Southern States of America this cake requires no explanation.

Now, for those of you cocking your head to the side and suppressing a shudder, allow me to explain: Southern boys hunt. They will hunt turkeys, wild boars, racoons, women and even the occasional rabbit if life proves too dull. However, no day of the year (not their own wedding, nor the birth of their first born*) is more anticipated than opening day of deer season. Therefore, it only stands to reason, that few days are less looked forward to than the last day of deer hunting.**

In the great state of Alabama that day of mourning was just a week ago. So it came as no surprise to me when the call came in asking me to create a deer/hunting cake for an avid hunter's 21st birthday.

Here's the cake breakdown:

Two nine inch layers of vanilla cake frosted with almond vanilla buttercream in a camo pattern.

The deer head is carved from vanilla cake and also coated in buttercream. The antlers are buttcream also. This cake is one of my rare fondant free creations.

*It must be noted that no true Southern woman would ever plan her wedding during hunting season. Nor would she intentionally concieve a child who would be born during this time of year, although accidents do happen.

**This day is, however greatly appriciated by the hunters' wives and/or girlfriends.

Tim Burton inspired a cake

My daughter, Katie, turned 13 last week. I knew when we sat down to disscuss possible cake designs she wouldn't want a girly, fru-fru cake. That's just not my Katie. We passed ideas back and forth and finally decided on a Tim Burton-ish style.

Katie then, much to my chargin, requested the cake be topsy-turvy. Prior to this cake I had never attempted one of these gravity defying confections, and I was more than a little worried I wouldn't be able to pull it off. In the end I decided as long as the cake was only two tiers I would attempt the fête.

Here is the breakdown of the cake:

Bottom Tier: Two 9 inch layers of decadent chocolate cake frosted in vanilla buttercream icing. Vines and leaves are chocolate icing dyed black.

Top Tier: Two 6 inch layers of vanilla cake coated in chocolate buttercream, also dyed black. The spiderweb was freehanded using the vanilla buttercream.

The mountain and moon were made well in advance out of gumpaste. It is important to give gumpaste items plenty of time to dry out.


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