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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Hannah's Puppy Cake

When I asked our niece, Hannah, what kind of cake she wanted for her fifth birthday she was quick to tell me she wanted a puppy cake. Everyone who knows her knows that Hannah is so cute that you really have no choice but to give her exactly what she asks for. So I did.

Puppy cake breakdown:

The body was made using a standard Barbie dress pan.

The head and paws were formed from cereal treats

And everything got a coat of vanilla buttercream prior to being covered in fondant. The details are also out of fonfant.

Hannah took great joy in eating the tounge. I took great joy in knowing that she loved her cake.





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Darth Vader

Darth Vader, need I say more?
Unlike many of my cake creations I was confident of my ability to bring one of sci-fi's greatest villians to life in the form of cake. And I was thrilled with how he turned out.

I confess to having a geeky side to my personality, and I actually like the "Star Wars" movies a lot. But my appreciation of the films is miniscule when compared to my husbands love of them. I knew going in that Ben would be a tough critic of this particular design. So I knew the cake was a success when he threatened not to let it leave the house.

Darth Vader breakdown:

Cake: 2 eight inch round layers with the dome layer on top.

Icing: Dirty iced with vanilla buttercream. Covered in fondant, airbrushed black.

Embellishments: the helmet flair and the "mouth" are made with rice crispy treats.


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