Monday, June 30, 2008

the best present of all...


My neighbor, Chase chose this cute cake out of the Wilton Celebrate With Fondant book for his 15th birthday, because he LOVES fondant. I'm telling you, he would eat that stuff right out of the box!

So, without further ado...

Saturday, June 21, 2008

2-for-1 special



My good friend Monika had (redheaded!) twins one year ago tomorrow. I did her Baby Shower cake last spring, and today I made their 1st birthday cakes! Brennan and Elana love to watch Baby Einsteins videos, so that was the theme we decided to incorporate into their cakes. Baby Einsteins became popular after my kids were babies, so I had to get some ideas and images online to know what the characters look like.

I made the main cake out of the 3-D sports ball cake pan..... FIVE of them! Then the "smash" cakes for the babies were a 6-inch round cake with a little 3-D ball cupcake split in half for the 3-D turtle shell effect. I think they turned out really cute.

The only sign of a "cake-tastrophe" was that the top half of the caterpillar's head kept sliding forward. So, I straightened it out and put a couple of dowels in it, but it still slid when we transported it in the car. Also, the left antenna (made of fondant) broke off because it wasn't quite dry enough to support the weight on the top ball piece. Thankfully, nothing that couldn't be fixed when we got to the party.


Just one thing I have to say - that was a LOT of stars, y'all. But, I was thrilled that the twins recognized the caterpillar, and they seemed to like their smash cakes! Don't take my word for it, though - take a look for yourself.....

Friday, June 13, 2008

gearing up

Well, around here June is CAKE month! I have two daughters with June birthdays, as well as my son's best friend, and my friend's twins! Unfortunately, the special occasions are not even spread out over the entire month. They all take place between the 18th and 24th. Craziness!

So, in anticipation for making one Hello Kitty cake and one Baby Einsteins cake, and another cake with an unknown theme all in the next week or so, today I stocked up on:

buttermilk
eggs
powdered sugar
cake mixes
Here's hoping it all goes smoothly! Wish me luck, and hopefully I'll post pictures of my latest creations soon.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Krista's baby shower

About 4 years ago, my good friend Krista was pregnant with her third child (but her first boy)! So, I offered to do the cake for her baby shower. It was fun to make all of the little molded fondant decorations and the baby booties, of course. I think the cloud border gives it such a "dreamy" effect.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Con-GRAD-ulations!

Well, graduation season is here again, but since I don't have any current graduation cake projects in the works, I thought I'd share a couple from the past, since I hadn't posted them on this site before.

The first one was for my friend Kim when she completed her Master's degree, and the second one was for my friend Angie when she graduated with her bachelor's degree in elementary education from ASU West (notice the school colors).

The one for Kim was pretty early on in my cake-making adventures. (I think I'd only been doing it for two or three years at the most.) So, I used a lot of artificial decorations and just tried to make it look festive. I like the ruffle border on that cake, though.


Angie's cake was in 2005, so I'd been doing cakes for about eight or nine years at that point. And I was just beginning to play around with making fondant decorations. So, I had lots of fun making the mortarboard and diploma. I think the tassel was my favorite part.

Interestingly, they both have the same corny "Con-GRAD-ulations" message on them, and it's even in the same font. I'm ever so creative, aren't I? Fortunately, Kim & Angie never met each other to compare notes on the cakes I made for them!