Creative CakeWorks

Golden Anniversary cake

2011-11-20T21:10:00.001-05:00

My friend approached me several months ago about making a cake, and I was already booked on the weekend she needed it, so it didn't work out for me to help her out that time. She recently called me again about making a cake for her in-laws' 50th wedding anniversary. I couldn't very well tell her "no" twice, so we got together to talk about cake designs.

The couple of honor is German, and Germans LOVE their desserts, so this cake will be the centerpiece among many desserts at the reception. My friend decided she didn't want anything too fancy or flowery, and she quickly fell in love with this quilted fondant pattern. Only the one in the magazine was white and had colorful flowers on it, so we looked for other options to decorate the top of the cake and came up with a bow. She was fine with the cake being white, but wanted to incorporate gold in the design somehow.

The cake inside was white chocolate with raspberry preserve filling. I have never had good luck with fruit fillings, and this time was no exception. I put a few rows of icing around the outside border of the bottom layer before spreading the raspberry preserves. Then I stacked the layers of the bottom cake (9" round) and put a crumb coat of icing on it. When I tried to put the second coat of buttercream on the cake, it seemed unstable, and the filling was trying to escape and leak out. The icing between the layers kept bulging out and making the cake look slumpy. I was so worried that I was going to have to re-do the bottom tier, especially after adding more weight by putting a layer of fondant AND a second tier on top of it.

But, as you can see, the fondant ended up holding the cake together after all. I used a roller to make the criss-cross pattern in the sides of the fondant. Then, I stacked the tiers, sprayed them with edible gold paint, and piped the white border around the bottom of each tier. Hayden helped me attach all of the sugar pearls. I assembled the gumpaste strips into the bow on top and attached the gold "50" to the gumpaste heart and outlined it with pearls too. After it was dry, I flipped it over and attached a flat stick to the back with candy melts.

I was really pleased with the way this cake design came together. My friend was thrilled with it too! Can't wait to hear how much the Germans enjoyed it!

Masquerade Cake

2011-10-09T23:31:00.004-04:00

My friend's daughter was turning 13 and having a fancy masquerade party with all of her girlfriends this weekend. They all got dolled up in dresses and masks with feathers and sequins. The birthday girl picked out this gorgeous mask as the theme of her cake. I will admit that I was a little intimidated by the color scheme of black and gold, especially since they didn't originally request fondant. When I said that I wasn't sure that I could accomplish the design they wanted in the colors they wanted with buttercream, my friend wanted to be sure she wouldn't be missing out on my icing. Once I assured her that there would be plenty of buttercream icing under the fondant (and agreed to bring her a bowl of icing), she said that I could use fondant.

Of course (just keepin' it real...), it wasn't all smooth sailing, especially since this was the weekend that I took on TWO cake projects, and procrastinated on both of them all week because I wasn't feeling well and had no energy. I finished the bridal shower cake late Friday night, and began making the fondant for this one on Saturday morning. For some still-unknown reason, the powdered sugar would NOT incorporate into the melted marshmallows, and my KitchenAid stand mixer was proving to be inadequately small for the job. So, I ended up running to Michael's and using a 50% off coupon to buy fondant as a last resort. Ugh.

The cake was white chocolate with buttercream filling, and I covered the cake in white fondant, sprayed it with edible gold paint, and added black fondant stripes and border. There is a dome-shaped cake underneath the mask, which is covered in black fondant. I added the feathers for a little extra flair. I wanted to be a little fancier, but was running short on time, so I had to call this the finished product this time. The good news is that the cake was a big hit and the birthday girl loved it! That makes me happy.

Wedding Dress Cake

2011-10-09T22:35:00.001-04:00

It can be really fun when clients have a photo of the exact cake that they want, and want me to re-create it! The photo that my friend Joanna sent me had a pink background, and a plain-er dress, but the bride-to-be's color scheme is black & pink, so I had to find a way to incorporate the black into this very feminine design. I added sugar crystals to the bodice for some sparkle, and some edible pearls to the skirt for some elegance. The cake itself was white chocolate with pink buttercream filling between the layers (to match the flowers, of course)!

Girly cake

2011-09-18T13:07:00.000-04:00

This birthday girl LOVES anything pink, so I tried my best to imitate the colors on her party invitation. I hear it was a BIG hit!

Photo cake

2011-09-02T13:55:00.000-04:00

For my son's 16th birthday, he wanted a cake that represented his swimming. I found a photo that my dad had taken at one of his swim meets last year, a profile of Nate in his swim cap and goggles. We took it to Publix (grocery store) on a USB drive, and they printed it on edible paper with edible ink for $8. All I had to do was ice the cake and put the sheet on top and pipe a border around the edge.

I made some edible goggles by pressing some black fondant into a pair of his goggles and painting the front with silver luster dust (mixed with clear vanilla). Voila!

Quinceañera cake

2011-08-27T14:15:00.000-04:00

My friend's neighbor had a daughter who was about to turn 15. The neighbor is from Puerto Rico, and in her culture, that is the age where they celebrate with a quinceañera. It's kind of like a mini-wedding because there is a church service where they have a ceremony rededicating the girl to the Lord, as well as acknowledging her becoming a young woman. The ceremony is followed by a big reception celebration.

Joy chose to have a Hollywood theme to her reception, and wanted her cake to reflect that theme with a red carpet and lots of glitz and glamour. They had purchased the figure in Puerto Rico and wanted to incorporate that somehow as well. Joy brought me several photos of cakes that she liked, and I tried to combine most of the ideas as well as make it her own.

When I delivered the cake to the country club where her reception was being held, the staff raved about it. I later got a note from my friend who photographed the event and also from Joy herself letting me know how much they loved the cake. That made me feel really good. :)

Wedding cake

2011-08-20T21:00:00.000-04:00

This is the wedding cake I did for my friend's daughter's wedding in August.

I enlarged the photo so you could see some of the detail.

Everyone was really happy with the outcome of the design, including me!

This is definitely the largest cake I've ever made, but I was very confident in the structure and support that I used this time. The only nerve-wracking part was transporting it OVER AN HOUR from home to the reception hall!

Don't you just love the beautiful wooden cake stand that the bride's father made?

I think it was the perfect way to showcase this beautiful cake.

I just felt bad for my husband & son who had to carry the cake in from the car, because it was so very heavy! The stand itself wasn't solid, but still probably almost weighed 10 pounds before any cake was added to it. Then, four two-layer tiers of cake, with however-many batches of buttercream icing that I had to make to fill, cover and decorate this enormous cake.

Cake Batter Pancakes

2011-06-29T23:43:00.000-04:00

So... my youngest daughter had a birthday recently, and her request for a special breakfast was for me to make Cake Batter Pancakes. We had seen the recipe (and compelling photos!) on a fun blog called "How Sweet It Is." Those sprinkles were just too much to resist, especially for such a special occasion!

At first, I made the recipe exactly as it was written, but after the first set cooked, they were thin and rubbery, so I added more cake mix and some more milk until I thought it looked right. (Sorry I can't give you exact measurements.) It probably just depends on the type of cake mix you use. Plus, I wanted to make more than the recipe on the blog predicted it would yield. I do have a teenage boy to feed, after all. Oh, and I may or may not have added a bunch more sprinkles to the batter at the last minute. But that's neither here nor there...

Everybody was really pleased with the final results! (...especially the birthday girl!) Definite cake batter flavor, but the actual pancakes were not overly sweet. LOVED the glaze, but it would probably also be good with whipped cream topping. For some extra-special birthday fun, we stuck in a few candles and sang the birthday song to the birthday girl!

Here is the MOST IMPORTANT thing about making Cake Batter Pancakes, no matter what day you make them: Whatever you do, DO NOT EVER, under ANY circumstances, omit the sprinkles!!!

Wild Cake

2011-06-17T23:08:00.003-04:00

So, my girls decided to have a joint slumber party to celebrate their birthdays this month. They sent out an E-vite that was purple with leopard print letters. When we were deciding what kind of activities to do for their party, we discusses lots of "make-your-own" stuff: pizzas, tie-dye pillowcases, cupcakes, sundaes, donuts, etc. Well, it all started to sound very time-consuming and labor-intensive (for ME) and just-plain-messy, so I tried to steer them away from a few of the "make-your-own" things. We still did individual pizzas, and tie-dyeing. But just regular cake & ice cream at night, and make-ahead cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Thank goodness!

Anyway, in order to further simplify the cake, I asked them if they would like me to use one of the new products from Duff Goldman's line of cake supplies called a "Cake Tattoo." Basically, it's an edible strip of material with a printed design on it. You wrap it around a buttercream-iced cake and VOILA! You can also use it to top cupcakes or cookies if you cut the strip into circles.

I found that the hardest part of using the Cake Tattoo was getting it to go on straight. I was pressed for time, so mine didn't turn out very straight at all, although you can't really tell that in the photo. But, on the plus side, the tattoo did not affect the texture or the taste of the cake or icing at all, in my opinion.

It might take some more practice, but I would definitely try using Cake Tattoos again! It definitely got LOTS of "Ooooohs" and "Aaaahs" from all the girls at the party (and the moms who saw it too)!

Royal Wedding Cake

2011-04-29T13:18:00.000-04:00

I didn't watch the Royal Wedding live last night, but I've been having fun searching out clips online this morning. The bride & groom were stunning, and seem to be a loving couple. I definitely wish them many years of happiness.

I've also been anxiously awaiting photos of the Royal Wedding cake. I finally found my first glimpse, and can't wait to see more close-ups and hear more details.

ROYAL WEDDING CAKE PHOTO

Grannymom's Rose Cake

2011-03-11T00:23:00.008-05:00

So, at Sam's birthday party (see the giant donut cake in the previous post), many people "Ooohed and Aaahed" about the cake. So fun! So creative! So amazing! So yummy! So SAM! My friend Sara approached me and asked if I could make a cake for her mother's 84th birthday the following weekend. She's one of those easygoing people who gave me complete artistic freedom. No theme, no set color scheme. We talked and decided on the flavors - chocolate cake with buttercream icing. She was afraid her mother had never had fondant and wouldn't like it much.

So. If you don't know me very well, you might not be aware that decision making is NOT my strong suit. But, if I see the right idea, I will immediately know it's perfect. It's like when we were shopping for seating for our home theater room. I searched high and low for just the right sectional - size, shape, color, fabric, cost. But something was always "off." Until December 23rd, when I was walking through Costco. I saw it like a light from heaven was shining down. The perfect chocolate brown wedge sectional at just the right price. I called my husband over for a look, and the decision was made then and there, in less than 10 seconds. No regrets whatsoever. So happy, but I digress....

I searched all my usual places for Grannymom's cake ideas. I looked on Cake Central, I flipped through several Wilton yearbooks. Even thought of doing a cupcake pull-apart in the shape of the number "84." (Cheesy, I know, but I was running out of time!) Then, out of the blue, a friend in Arizona sent me a link to a blog called "i am baker." The post that she linked had the most stunning cake of solid roses. Y'all... it was LOVE at first sight! I knew this was the cake that I had to make for Grannymom.

And I hear that she loved it, which is all that matters to me.

By the way... I think this cake design would be just LOVELY for a Mother's Day brunch, a Bridal Shower, or even a Wedding! Couldn't you just imagine tiers of this design all in white, or even different shades or colors? It would be stunning! Know anyone who's getting married soon?

Sam's GIGANTIC CAKE OF AWESOMENESS!!!

2011-03-11T00:06:00.001-05:00

My wonderful friend Holly sent me an invitation to her son's birthday party, and I immediately replied and said I hoped she'd let me make his cake. Sam is such a great kid, and I knew this would be a fun project. His initial ideas for his cake involved something called Beyblades. He tried to explain them to me. They're toys (like spinning tops) that battle each other in plastic arenas that resemble a kitty litter box (or so I'm told). Waaaayyy beyond my limited comprehension!

So, one day, Holly calls me up and announces that she has the PERFECT idea for Sam's cake. A giant donut!! Sam LOVES donuts... you don't even know how much. Anyway, I was very excited about the idea... my creative juices immediately started flowing. We decided to keep it a BIG surprise. And I'm so glad we did, because the expression on his face was just priceless! He said, "It's a GIGANTIC CAKE OF AWESOMENESS!!!"

Jill's Dragonfly cake

2011-03-10T23:58:00.001-05:00

Our good friend Jimmy called me up and requested that I make a cake for his wife's birthday. The only two ideas he gave me were that she's a huge Georgia Tech fan, and she LOVES dragonflies.

I searched Cake Central's website and saw a cake with these beautiful dragonflies with shimmery wings made of GELATIN, of all things! Long story short, I tried to make the gelatin wings, but they didn't really come together very well. Maybe some other time.

So, I kept looking for other ideas. Found another design on CC that featured dragonflies made of royal icing. Easy enough, right?

WRONG!!

I made approximately 30 dragonflies for this cake the night before (so they would dry). They were soooooooooooooooo delicately fragile, too fragile for words. If I would pick one up, it would break. If I would move one, it would break. If I would touch one, it would break! If I would breathe on one, it would break! If I would so much as LOOK at one, it would break!

OK, so maybe I'm being "slightly dramatic," but I kid you NOT, I was down to 3 or 4 dragonflies from the night before. I made some more, bringing my total number of dragonflies to around 50, and hoping against all hope that they would be dry enough before the party that they wouldn't break. Well, I ended up with a whopping 7 dragonflies attached to the finished cake. One of which I broke when I picked up the cake on my way out the door! Luckily I was able to fix it on the spot, and we had a wonderful celebration.

I would also like to mention that this was my first successful attempt at using my Cricut Cake machine for the lettering on this cake. I learned a few things from trial and error, and got really lucky this time. I think it looks pretty nice, don't you?

Minnie Mouse cake

2011-02-11T14:57:00.000-05:00

A mom whose kids are on the same summer league swim team as my kids sent me a facebook message earlier this week saying that she needed a birthday cake for her youngest daughter's third birthday party this weekend. So, I asked her to send me the photo of a cake she said she had found online and loved. I was delighted to see this fun Minnie Mouse theme, and re-create it for them.

This was my very first attempt at MAKING my own fondant, and I have to say, I was really pleased with the results. I used the recipe from Peggy Weaver's Baking Corner. I followed the directions exactly for the first batch that I made, and it made good fondant, but a HUGE mess!! For the second batch, I mixed it in my KitchenAid stand mixer with the dough hook. Much better!

My BIG birthday present

2010-11-29T12:44:00.000-05:00

So, Saturday was my birthday (39, if you must know), and I was NOT prepared for the HUGE surprise my husband sprung on me! How I had done cake decorating for years without knowing this particular machine existed before seeing Costco's Black Friday ad, I have no idea. Because it's AMAZING.

It's called a Cricut Cake. And he got me the Martha Stewart version! If you've been under a rock like me, it's a machine that cuts creative designs out of fondant, gumpaste, cookie dough, frosting sheets, etc. Basically anything thin and flat and edible. Tortillas even. In case you want some butterfly shaped tortilla chips.

Cricut Cake

I'm in heaven... I cannot wait to try it out! I think it's safe to say this gadget may take my cakes to a whole new level of FUN, so STAY TUNED!

More than all that, though, it touched my heart to know that my husband believes my cake decorating is worthy of such an investment.

Green Eggs & Ham

2010-11-21T21:22:00.000-05:00

My friend's son requested a Dr. Seuss party for his birthday this year, and he liked a picture of a "Green Eggs & Ham" cake. I'm hoping he goes crazy for the real thing... Here are some shots from the party.

Even the inside is green!

"I do, I like them, Sam I Am!"

Life at 40's a Beach!

2010-10-25T14:46:00.001-04:00

A friend-of-a-friend was turning 40 this weekend, and I got recruited by her husband to make a cake for her surprise party. He told me that he tasted the cake I made for my friend's daughter (the Tinkerbell's Teapot cake) - OVER A YEAR AGO - and remembered it when he was thinking about throwing this party. What a compliment!

Anyhoo... his wife loves the beach and loves to read books by the author Jan Karon (ex: The Mitford Series). So, I tried to incorporate a little of both with the scene on this cake. Sparkling gel for the ocean water, sand made of Nilla wafer crumbs and brown sugar sifted together, beach accessories made of fondant, beach umbrella made of white chocolate covered in fondant, and a few gumpaste seashells.

Yep. That's about it. I hear the cake was a big hit, everyone loved it (especially the birthday girl), and there were no leftovers. Always a good sign.

Birthday on the RUN!

2010-08-25T09:12:00.001-04:00

So I got a phone call from our good friend across the cul-de-sac who wanted to throw his wife a surprise party for her birthday. He gave me complete freedom as far as the cake was concerned, so it's a good thing that I know the birthday girl really well. I did have her kids come over and confirm that my idea was fitting, so after the go-ahead from them, I got down to business.

She loves to go running; she does the 3-day walk for breast cancer every year; she has a treadmill in her house that she actually uses (*gasp!*). So, now I just had to figure out HOW to present a cake with running shoes. When I baked the cake, I intended to make the base look like a treadmill. But, it didn't quite work out because I didn't really want the cake black, and I didn't want to cover it in fondant (because she doesn't really like it that much, and neither do I), plus I simply didn't have the time to make it work.

My brilliant husband, who patiently watches episodes of "Cake Boss" and "Ace of Cakes" and all of the Food Network Cake Challenges with me, has obviously caught on to a few cake decorating tips and tricks (by osmosis, I suppose...), because he suggested making the shoes out of rice-krispie treats - just like the pros do. One advantage to doing this is that the decorations are lightweight and don't sink down into the icing or the cake.

No time to practice, just jump in with both feet! I baked the cake, made the icing, bought the fondant, and made a recipe of Rice-Krispie treats. Only then did I realize that they were HOT, and I needed to let them cool before trying to shape the shoes. Not just because I'd burn my hands, but they were so sticky, and they would melt the fondant as soon as it came into contact with it.

Got the general shape of the shoes, including the hole where you'd put your foot.

They look a little bit like clogs in their natural state, don't you think? :^)

Just the shoes. I like how they turned out.

The color scheme came together very well, I thought.

Ta-da!

Here you can kind see the stripes better...

And the birthday girl loved her cake.

The end.

Kirstyn's PEACEcakes!

2010-06-24T15:21:00.000-04:00

My middle daughter, Kirstyn, is turning 10 today! She LOVES anything with a peace sign on it... clothes, jewelry, paper, stickers, artwork, toys... you get the idea.

So, her cake design this year was kind of a no-brainer. Behold... PEACEcakes!

She wanted me to wait and make her "real" birthday cake this weekend, when my Dad comes to visit, but she also wanted to take some birthday treats to her gymnastics class tonight, so... voila!

Happy Hayden Day!

2010-06-20T21:16:00.001-04:00

This was Hayden's first reaction when she saw the birthday cake I made her today. I know she looks a little scared, but she really was excited! You see, she had drawn me FIVE different cake designs for her birthday, and finally settled on this one. It was a tough choice, because she had a theatre cake, an artist's palette cake, a fashion designer cake, a dressing room door cake, and the rainbow cake.

The cake itself is chocolate fudge cake with Nutella filling. If you know Hayden, you know she is a Nutella FANATIC! So, she was in heaven!

Hayden liked this cake so much, she said she wants to use it as a design to redecorate her room! Uh-oh!

We all live in a YELLOW SUBMARINE...

2010-04-10T14:18:00.063-04:00

My neighbor has seen my cakes on my Facebook profile, and recently decided to ask me to make her daughter's birthday cake. I was so honored that she would think of me when she wanted such a special and creative cake. When she told me her soon-to-be-4-year-old little girl wanted a cake resembling The Beatles' Yellow Submarine, I was really surprised!

I must admit, I had to do some extensive research for this one. I haven't ever seen the movie or the album cover. I checked out www.imdb.com first, and thought, "Goodness! How am I going to make THAT into cake?!" Then I went straight to www.cakecentral.com to see if anyone else had some cake submarine ideas I could incorporate. Then, of course, I consulted my husband for the "engineering" portion of the design process. Because he's truly brilliant. (For some reason, it took me forever to wrap my brain around the shape.) And, last-minute, but not least, I had my teenage son fire up the Beatles' Rock Band and show me the "Yellow Submarine" song.

Here are a few photos of the details...

Scrolling on the bow, British flag & propeller on the stern, fondant periscopes on the top.

As far as the structure, this cake was a bit more complicated than most. The main part of the body was two layers. I baked a large rectangle cake and a contoured race car shaped cake. Then, I baked a 10-inch round cake and a 6-inch round cake. I put the race car on top of the rectangle, and carved them to be the same size. I also used part of the leftover rectangle pieces to make the triangle-shaped tail. I cut the larger round cake in half to make the sides, and put the smaller cake on top. I should've taken a photo of it before I decorated it. It almost looked like a whale.

Oh, and one last request from the birthday girl. It has to say, "Happy birthday, RINGO!"

Lightning Thief cake

2010-02-28T14:01:00.022-05:00

My friend's son is really into the "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" stories, and his 10th birthday was around the time that the movie came out. Our families were celebrating his birthday together, so I decided to attempt a Percy Jackson cake for him. (Can I deduct my movie ticket as "research"?)

So, Sam just wanted white cake, and I went with a round shape, because I'm lazy like that. I attempted to make the sides look like big waves (using a star tip 21), and use Wilton blue Sparkle Gel for the water on top of the cake. The Percy Jackson figure is made out of fondant, with red icing for piping Sam's name on the back, and his age on the front. If you haven't seen the movie, that's a lightning bolt he's holding up.

He looked pretty cool when we lit the ring of fire - um, I mean candles - around him.

on the WINGS of Love...

2010-02-14T10:38:00.028-05:00

Here's a REALLY PINK heart-shaped cake I made for our homeschool group's Valentine's Day party this week. Obviously, it's a heart-shaped, two-layer chocolate cake. I was feeling fancy, so I used cherry pie filling in between the layers for a "black forest" effect.

I really didn't mean for the icing to turn out that bright, but oh well. I used Wilton's storebought red icing to do the piping and the flower centers. Then I added sugar pearls to each flower around the top border for a special touch.

It tasted wonderful, but the top layer was pretty heavy, and the pie filling was under a LOT of pressure! It kept wanting to bleed through the icing around the sides of the cake. I had to patch several leaks, and I finally gave up! Also, the top layer kept trying to slide off of the bottom layer while I was cutting and serving it. Very messy!

Oh, and the corny inscription wording is because our homeschool group is called W.I.N.G.S. (which stands for: "Wise Instructors Need Group Support!") Even though it was technically a "cake-tastrophe," it got rave reviews and several requests for "seconds" (who shall remain nameless)!

Tinkerbell's Teapot

2009-08-13T00:01:00.004-04:00

Sorry... Didn't mean to leave ya hanging with an unfinished Tinkerbell cake.

The truth is that I took all those photos at home while I was making the cake, and then I forgot my camera when we left for the party! So, my friend sent me the photos she took once we got to her house and set up the cake. First... me adding the final touch - the Tinkerbell candle.

This is how the cake looked when everyone came into the house for the party. The girls loved it, and nobody could believe that it was completely edible.

The birthday girl with her cake. She said to her mom, "I can't believe she made this just for me!" Such a sweet girl, that Bayley.

After the party was over and all the cake was gone, the family decided to crack open the teapot and enjoy the white chocolate inside!

There you have it... the "life cycle" of a cake... from beginning to end!

Double-Decker Batman

2009-08-08T19:59:00.001-04:00

I made a pirate cake for my friend's son last year, and this year he's requested Batman. I happened to have a Batman cake pan, so I figured that'd be easy enough. Then she said there would probably be 40 people at the party, so I decided to make two Batman cakes and stack them like a layer cake. I've done it with my SpongeBob pan before. Turned out to be just EXACTLY enough. No leftovers!

Oddly, I've had the Batman pan for about 8 years now, and I've never made a Batman cake. I got the pan when my son was turning 6 and wanted a Bibleman cake. So, thank goodness I'd kept the instructions on how to make Batman.

I got TWO BIG HUGS from the adorable birthday boy, so I guess that means it was a success!

A work in progress...

2009-08-07T13:27:00.013-04:00

I've posted lots of photos of cakes I've made over the years on this blog. I've even written about how I've made each of them or who they were for. But I just realized that I've probably never written a post with photos about each step in the decorating process. So, here goes my first attempt....

Well, I guess I didn't start snapping photos early enough in the process, but first, I made a ball out of Wilton Candy Melts (white chocolate), using my sport ball cake pan. Basically, you pour the melted candy into the pan and chill it until it has hardened to about 1/4" shell. Then you scrape out the rest of the melted candy, add some more to it and make the second half. Don't forget to spray the pan with cooking spray first. Makes getting it out SO much easier. Anyway, once they're both set, you can stick them together into the ball shape using more melted candy as "glue."

Then, roll out some white fondant and cover it. I left a little bit on the bottom for a "base" even though that wasn't in the instructions. I just thought it'd be more stable that way. Something I would've done differently is to cover the chocolate ball in more candy or buttercream to help the fondant adhere better. But it didn't mention anything about that in the instructions, so I didn't know any better.

OK... to start decorating the "teapot," first I added the door and window, which were cut out of light brown and dark brown fondant. I used a knife to make the door look like it's made out of wood planks. Then, I rolled dark fondant and made a door frame and a brace across the bottom portion of the door.

Next, I used some more white fondant cut in a 1/2" strip to go around the doorframe. Then, it was time to make the little awning look like a teapot lid. It's really just about 1/3 of a circle cut straight across, and then I notched out little "v" shapes from the rounded side. I attached it to the doorframe and curved it. Then, I made a little knob out of fondant too.

Next, I added a little cone shaped lump of fondant on top for the roof leaves to attach to. I also used gold Wilton Pearl Shimmer Dust (mixed with Wilton's Clear Vanilla flavoring) to paint the base and knob and the swirly design around the door. It's starting to look so cute!

I iced the cake in a light green color, and then piped some curly stems all around the sides of the cake.

The bottom border of the cake went on next. First, a layer of leaves, then pink drop flowers, then Wilton Sugar Pearl centers.

Back to the teapot, I made the handle and spout (of fondant) and attached them with melted candy. The tree trunk is also made of fondant - light and dark brown marbled together. The flower dangling from the branch is also fondant. I had cut out the large leaves for the roof out of green fondant the night before and let them dry leaning up against a plate. I was supposed to have a pattern, but never bought the book, so I just cut them out freehand and scored them to look like they had veins. Then I painted them with more of that gold shimmer dust. When I attached the leaves to the cone with melted candy, it was difficult to get them arranged. Two out of the three leaves had the stem break off too. I put them on and stepped back to snap a photo. But this just didn't look right. Too much Tiger Lily for Tink's house, if you know what I mean.

Much better... and those little pink flowers cover a multitude of sins, I tell you.

Add the Tinkerbell candle, and the picture is almost complete. Now the cake is ready to transport to Bayley's birthday party! (Actually, for me, transporting cakes is the most nerve-wracking part!) Soon, I'll post another shot or two of me assembling the cake and the excited birthday girl.

aaarrrgh!!!

2008-08-19T01:06:00.009-04:00

If ever I've had an honest-to-goodness CAKE-TASTROPHE, this one takes the cake!! Anyone else looking at how the cake turned out probably wouldn't be able to tell, BUT I KNOW. I'm sure it's going to seem like I'm beating myself up, but I had a very specific vision for this cake, and I was sorely disappointed with how it turned out. Yes, I made it work out OK in the end, but it was not at all what I originally had in mind. I was debating whether to even post pictures of it, but I decided that in the interest of honesty, I need to post the good, the bad, and the ugly.

My friend Terri's youngest little boy, Cameron, just turned 4. He came up to me at church and asked me to "pwease" make him a chocolate Pirates of the Caribbean cake. How could I refuse?! Anyway, I called Terri the week of the party to ask what pirate-y image he would like best - treasure chest, jolly roger, pirate ship, Jack Sparrow, treasure map, or something else - the possibilities are endless, you know. She thought he'd like Jack Sparrow or a ship.

Somehow, I got the inspiration to do a transfer of the face of Jack Sparrow. I had it all planned out, and it wasn't a difficult task. Or shouldn't have been.

First, when I baked the cake, I deliberately added a second mix of batter so that I would have one tall cake instead of baking two layers. I was trying to be efficient (read: lazy). When I took the cake out of the oven, it looked absolutely perfect. I let it cool for a few minutes before turning it out of the pan, and when I came to release it, the entire center had caved in. It truly looked like a volcano. So, I sliced off the top half and baked another regular cake layer. That set me back a few hours.

Then, I started decorating. I iced the cake with a crumb layer, and then also iced the sides of the cake in white. Then I colored the icing for the top of the cake a parchment-y tan color. I had found an awesome pumpkin-carving stencil of Jack Sparrow's face online.

So, I tried it in black piping gel as a transfer. No luck. Had to scrape it off and re-ice the cake.
Then I tried it with black icing. Still nothing. Not enough of the icing would "stick" to the cake icing. Scrape it again and repair the icing.
Tried poking the stencil with a toothpick to play connect-the-dots. But when I removed the stencil, I couldn't tell which dots went together. Roll the icing smooth again.
Tried again with black piping gel, but only outlined the shapes. Still not working, and it's 2 a.m.
Decided the design was too detailed for caking. Printed out another stencil of a pirate ship.
Went to bed and prayed that it would work in the morning, and I'd have enough time to get it all done.

In the end, little Cameron recognized what it was and loved his cake, though, so I guess that counts for something.
And, of course, after I finished it, my brilliant son suggested that I should've traced the Jack Sparrow face onto some rice paper I have, instead of trying to transfer it, because the rice paper just "melts" into the buttercream icing after you set it on top of the cake. You know, come to think of it, THAT probably would've worked... AAArrrgh!!!

Kit Kittredge: An American Girl

2008-07-20T13:44:00.008-04:00

Here are some pictures of my most recent original creation. My girls both had birthdays last month, and so we invited about 10 of their friends to watch the new movie Kit Kittredge: An American Girl at the theater. So, I was going off of a picture in the American Girl catalog for this special cake.

So, there's a 10-inch square 2-layer cake for the base, and then the house was made with the Wilton Stand-up House pan. I ran out and bought it the day I was baking because I decided to do the 3-D thing, instead of a two-dimensional image.

The base cake is covered in buttercream, with green "grass" on top and a graham-cracker crumb pathway. (Ace of Cakes I'm not, or else I probably would've attempted the tree!)

Anyway, the clubhouse is covered in fondant "planks." (Good thing it's supposed to look rustic!) I actually made them all a little longer than they needed to be, and then snipped along the roofline with scissors after they were attached.

As for the rest of the house, the "stained glass window" was white fondant with pink, green & orange icing colors swirled in. I used one solid piece of fondant to cover the back of the house. And the roof pieces are just scored to look like shingles, (although Hayden said they looked like chocolate bars).

Obviously, the main character, Kit, and Grace (the bassett hound) are made of fondant as well. I used Wilton's Pink Pearl Dust mixed with clear vanilla to paint Kit's sweater, and her skirt was brushed with Wilton icing colors - pink, green & orange.

My girls are among the very few people I know who request lemon cake. Lemon is one of my favorites too, (especially in the summertime), but I rarely make it because people don't request it very often. So this time I mixed two lemon cake mixes with a French vanilla one, and the flavor was perfect, if you ask me. Not too sweet, not too strong.

The only hitch was convincing the girls that chocolatey-caramel ice cream and mint-chocolate chip were NOT good pairings for lemon cake! I finally got them to agree on Rainbow Sherbet!

The cake barely survived the drive to the movie theater, (see the house leaning backward?! and the smushed icing border on the front?) but I think I can put a tally mark in the "success" column for this one. The birthday girls liked it, and that's all that really matters in the end, isn't it?

futbol at forty

2008-07-06T12:02:00.005-04:00

Our good friend Tobe turns 40 in a couple of weeks, so his awesome wife Stacy threw him a party last night, and I made the cake. She gave me a couple of guidelines: Tobe is 1/2 German, and loves soccer, so she wanted to incorporate both of those elements. Then said she trusted me and gave me complete creative license. I told her that would be fine, and hung up the phone feeling so good that I was going to be able to do this for them, especially since Tobe has NEVER had a homemade birthday cake before.

Then I googled an image for the German flag, and I was a little shocked. The German flag is 3 stripes: black, red, and gold. If you know anything about making icing, you KNOW that black and red are the most difficult colors to produce, especially without adding so much coloring that it tastes bad. I considered using fondant, but I didn't want to cover the cake in fondant.

So...I guess this is where I'll have to admit to cheating just a little bit. Instead of spending hours trying to get those icing colors to come out red & black (instead of pink & grey), I used storebought Wilton icing. It comes in tubes or cans and is pre-colored. I discovered that the canned icing is thinner, but it tastes better. The tubed icing has kind of a weird aftertaste sometimes, but you can use regular decorator tips on them. I ended up using tubed black icing, and canned red icing, since it was just being spread smooth anyway.

I really had no idea what I would do as far as the cake design until it came down to the day I had to bake the cakes. I prayed for a last-minute inspiration, and I got it. A German flag with a soccer ball "bursting" through. I was happy that it was simple enough that I didn't have to be working on it "down to the wire" too. Especially since we had to drive an hour and a half to deliver it!

Despite those minor challenges, the cake was a huge hit. Tobe & Stacy loved it, and I had several people tell me how impressed they were. One lady asked me if I was a professional pastry chef; someone asked Stacy at which bakery she got the cake; and a few people thought that I should go into cake decorating as a business. For now, I'm happy just doing an occasional cake for friends and family. But, who knows? It's been 12 years since I took that cake decorating class at Michael's. It was definitely a good investment ($10), but maybe I should take Level 2 someday. Ha ha!

the best present of all...

2008-06-30T20:20:00.008-04:00

...is a present wrapped in pure sugar!

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...

2-for-1 special

2008-06-21T20:46:00.004-04:00

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.....

gearing up

2008-06-13T23:42:00.004-04:00

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.

Krista's baby shower

2008-06-12T00:54:00.004-04:00

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.

Con-GRAD-ulations!

2008-06-11T23:12:00.002-04:00

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!

Barbie Swan Lake

2008-03-18T18:18:00.004-04:00

This is an older photo I just found in my basement last week. It's a dome-shaped cake with a Barbie stuck into it and decorated like Barbie Swan Lake. This is also one of the dairy-free cakes I did for my friend's daughter's birthday one year.

She turned out pretty cute, I think, but I could've done better with the royal icing on the doll's body. Not too bad for my first attempt at it, though. I learned a lot from doing that cake, so I do much better work now...Promise!

Baby's 1st Birthday

2008-03-14T21:51:00.010-04:00

My neighbor's cousin's other cousin - (how's that for livin' in the South?) - called me a few weeks ago to see if I would be available to make a cake for her daughter's 1st birthday. When she sent me the image of the napkin from the paper products she was planning to use for the party, I immediately knew I'd done one previously for a friend in Arizona using the very same images. It's really cute, with pastel colors, flower, ladybug, butterfly, etc.

Anyway, she said it needed to be enough to feed 50 people, plus she wanted a "smash cake" for the birthday girl to dig into. So, this 2-layer French Vanilla cake is 12"x18" covered in buttercream, with decorations made of fondant. The "smash cake" is just a 6" round decorated as a flower, with a fondant bee on top.

It took me all day from start to finish - making the icing, crumb coating the cakes, making more icing, coloring icing, making fondant pieces, painting some of the fondant, affixing all the fondant decorations, and piping the details and borders. (Whew! It wears me out just typing all of that!)

She just came to pick up the cake with her sleeping baby in the backseat. I hope they enjoy their party tomorrow! And I hope you enjoy the photos!

(I just feel bad that my own kids never had such fancy cakes for their first birthdays!)

Cake Decorating with Kids - Part 1

2008-01-23T17:31:00.000-05:00

My girls are involved in a group called Keepers at Home. It's like a Christian version of girl scouts where they can earn badges or charms for learning different life skills, or learning about different animals, sports, or academic subject areas. Today, I taught the younger half of the group about cake decorating! We split the group in half (younger girls & older girls) for this activity so it would be a little less chaotic. And I hosted it at my house. So, today we had about 7 girls and their moms here.

I taught them smooth icing, piping dots and lines and letters with the small round tip, as well as making shapes with the large round tips. I also taught them stars, flowers, zigzags, etc. with the star tip. They each practiced on a sheet of wax paper. Then they each got to decorate their own cupcake (and eat it if they wanted to). I was really impressed by how even these younger girls really paid attention and caught on to what I was telling them.

I had lots of fun, and I think the girls did too. It's always interesting to see the artisic kids being creative, and the serious kids concentrating; then there are the ones like my daughter, Hayden, who just PILE on the icing so they can EAT IT!!! (I must admit -she comes by it honestly!)

HSM2 Cake-tastrophe (almost)

2008-01-23T13:12:00.000-05:00

Here's a picture of my latest creation. (Actually, if you'd asked me last night, I would've said it was my LAST creation!) Obviously, it's a HSM2 cake for my friend's daughter (& my daughters' friend), Lexi. When she requested a High School Musical 2 cake, I had to turn to my favorite cake decorating website for ideas on this one. So, that's where I got the idea for laminating the printed image. (Believe it or not, there ARE some brave souls who have drawn all those characters with icing. I'm way too lazy for that, though.)

So, the icing is white buttercream, sprayed blue on top. The border is supposed to look like waves (but I was kind of in a hurry). I just painted a few blue stripes inside the bag before loading it with the white frosting. The lettering is fondant painted with gold & silver sparkle dust. And the image of the characters (Chad, Sharpay, Troy, Gabriella, Ryan & Taylor - scary that I knew 5 of the 6!) was printed from a website, cut out and laminated.

Hopefully it holds together. I have a feeling it may fall apart when we cut it tonight, though. The top layer broke into about six pieces as I was transferring it from the cooling rack to the cake board. (Then I shattered into about a million pieces!) But I finally pulled myself together, put the pieces in order and glued them in place with buttercream. One of the biggest challenges in cake decorating (besides not licking my fingers) is fixing my mistakes, or making things appear to work out. Thankfully, most of my mistakes are only seen by me! Keeping my fingers crossed.....

****UPDATED to add : The party was fun, Lexi LOVED her cake, and best of all...it didn't even fall apart. Anyway, what if it had? People have to break it up to eat it anyway, right?! I got lots of compliments on the flavor/moistness of the cake too. It was a Duncan Hines French Vanilla mix with some extra stuff added in (including White Chocolate pudding mix and buttermilk instead of water). Yum-O!****

Christmas Cookie Tree

2007-12-23T13:10:00.001-05:00

This is a Christmas Cookie Tree I made several years ago. Now they sell kits to make these (with the cookies already made), but I actually rolled out all the sugar cookie dough and cut out the star shapes with a set of graduated-size star cookie cutters I bought specifically for this project. I made quick-pour fondant icing to cover the cookies. The snow tips are royal icing with mini-M&M ornaments. Turned out pretty cute, but it was a lot of work, and I haven't made another one since!

2007-12-11T15:03:00.000-05:00

I made this cake for a surprise birthday party for my neighbor (Stewart). I copied one I found on CakeCentral because I had never seen The Family Guy show. I guess this baby character is named Stewie, so I wrote, "Stewie's 38! What the Deuce!"

The blue background is all done in buttercream; Stewie's head and body are covered in fondant. It was like making a puzzle, but it was pretty fun. I used Wilton black icing for the outlines, but next time I would use something easier to work with, like black piping gel.

It was hard to get a good photo angle on this cake because of Stewie's 3-D head. Anyway, this is the first cake I've made in a little while, so I felt a little rusty at times, but everyone at the party seemed to enjoy it. I just hate when they make me cut the cake, though!

Star Wars cake

2007-11-01T13:19:00.000-04:00

This was my son's 5th birthday cake. It was actually pretty simple. Just a matter of matching the buttercream color to the table decorations. The important parts (Anakin & Darth Maul) were plastic. Gotta love doing a relatively easy cake once in a while!

character cake pans

2007-10-22T13:13:00.001-04:00

...vintage Strawberry Shortcake for my niece's birthday.

... the Batman pan re-purposed as "Bibleman" for my son's 6th birthday.

... Barney, of course. "I love you, you love me..."

2-month anniversary cake?

2007-10-14T11:19:00.000-04:00

Last night I ran into the couple who hired me to do their wedding cake in August. I had made them a 3-tier square cake with white scrolling on the sides. It turned out really well, but their cake topper was too large to fit on top of a small anniversary cake layer, so I asked the bride if she wanted me to just make it separately for her to freeze, or if she'd rather have me make a fresh one next summer. She thought about it and decided to just have me make the anniversary cake next August, when they will be celebrating their first anniversary. Then it would be freshly made, not frozen, and it wouldn't take up room in their freezer all year.

Anyway, last night at this costume party, they kindly made a point to tell me how great the cake was, and how much they loved it. I thanked them, and then the bride told me how much her groom was (already!) looking forward to the anniversary cake. She said, "He can't stop thinking about it. He's already been asking me, 'Doesn't she owe us that anniversary cake?'"

Umm... it hasn't even been two months yet! It's a good thing I didn't give them one to freeze, or it would probably be gone already!

2007-09-14T22:58:00.000-04:00

This was the first cake I've done for someone that I've never met. A friend-of-a-friend was throwing her husband a surprise 50th birthday party tonight, so she called me a few weeks ago, at our mutual friend's recommendation. (I must admit I was a little nervous. I guess when I make a cake for a friend, I feel like I know what they would like. And even though I've talked to this lady on the phone, in the end I didn't feel like I knew exactly what she was expecting.) She ended up sending me one of the party decorations so I could make the cake coordinate with the theme and colors.

This was a challenging cake to make because it was very large and covered in fondant. I had to do it three times before I got it the right size and shape. But I think overall it turned out pretty good. (I just hope the starbursts don't look too flower-like.) Hope they enjoyed it!

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron

2007-09-08T21:07:00.000-04:00

The look on Lily's face was just priceless when I opened the box to show her the cake I made for her birthday. She's only 4, but she is obsessed with Spirit the horse. She's been talking about it for weeks, and even cried today at someone else's birthday party because she was just dying to see her Spirit cake. Happy birthday, Lily! Enjoy your cake!

same song, second verse

2007-08-31T19:14:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine who attended Nathon's birthday party last weekend asked me to do a guitar cake for her brother's birthday the next weekend. So, I did another electric guitar, but made it sparkly blue this time.

I guess if you're passionate about being a musician, it doesn't matter what age you are - you're not too cool for a guitar cake!

electric guitar cake

2007-08-26T14:31:00.000-04:00

I got lots of inspiration from Cake Central for this electric guitar cake for my son. I ended up just buying the guitar-shaped pan at Michael's. He was pretty excited about it. He picked out the red sparkle gel himself. Wilton makes it now - in red, yellow, blue, etc. It sure was easier than doing all those stars on SpongeBob!

SpongeBob SquarePants

2007-08-25T09:44:00.000-04:00

My neighbor's daughter is having a birthday party this afternoon, so I made her a SpongeBob SquarePants cake. Allie told me months ago what cake she wanted, so I hope she likes it!

There is a LOT of detail work involved in these character cakes! Outlining and tracing and stars, oh my! Anyway, I do believe my favorite part of this cake is the bottom border. I came up with the idea of making waves at the last minute, and I think it turned out really cute. Don't you?

www.creativecakeworks.com

2007-08-23T23:18:00.000-04:00

Update your bookmarks! I just got the domain name for this site changed over to:

www.creativecakeworks.com

Like it? Sorry about all of the name changes lately... this is where I'm staying for at least a year. Promise.

Allison's cake

2007-08-23T13:18:00.001-04:00

Once upon a time, I had a friend named Allison. She would e-mail me months in advance of her own birthday, just to make sure I kept the date clear for making her birthday cake. She was very specific about her birthday cake demands. Her husband would always nervously call me with these crazy ideas of hers. This particular year, on her 30th birthday, she requested a cake with as much candy, sprinkles, and marshmallows as I could get on one cake. So, I made this 2-layer chocolate cake, filled the middle layer with buttercream icing, mini-marshmallows, and pink sugar sprinkles. Then I decorated the top with more icing, spelling out "Happy Birthday." I spelled out her name and age in candy letters, lined the bottom border with more marshmallows and peanut M&Ms, and topped it with more sprinkles of different shapes and colors -- pink and purple sugar, pastel flowers and pink & white hearts. She absolutely loved it!

And the next year, her cake was chocolate with chocolate frosting, and a giant chocolate-chip cookie between the layers. Yum!

transfer designs

2007-08-21T13:08:00.000-04:00

Sometimes, people make requests for character cakes that I don't have the specific shaped pan for, or sometimes people want a design to match a very specific theme or napkin, or whatever. I'm so thankful to have learned a technique in my cake decorating class called the "transfer." You can basically take any image and literally transfer it onto an iced regular round or sheet cake. Here are a few examples of transfer cake designs I've done in the past:

Interestingly, I find that coloring book pages work quite well for this technique because of their generally simple designs and bold lines. I've also downloaded images from the internet, or used the customer's party decorations as a template. You just have to be able to trace the design onto a sheet of wax paper (or regular paper). I usually use pencil and then go over it with clear piping gel. Then, I flip the paper over onto the cake and gently rub it to be certain that the piping gel sticks to the buttercream icing (or fondant, as the case may be). Next, I carefully remove the paper. Now, I'm able to re-trace the outline of the image with colored piping gel or icing and begin filling in the design with stars, just like I would have done if had used the shaped character pan.

professional photos

2007-08-20T20:08:00.000-04:00

(photos by Jesse Garrett)

I think I mentioned in my previous post about this wedding cake that the caterer had put artificial flowers all over it by the time I came back to take pictures with my camera. (Her reaction when I returned to the reception hall was a surprised, "Oh... you're back!")

The way I see it, it was their cake and they're entitled to do whatever they want with it. The bride just never told me that they planned to put flowers on it. It looked fine, though. I was bummed, not because they did it, but because I didn't get to take my pictures before they did it.
But then I remembered that the wedding photographer, Jesse Garrett, was standing right there ready to snap some photos the very minute that I finished piping icing on that cake. I had planned to contact the bride when she returned from her honeymoon next week and ask for his contact information, but I happened to run into him myself on Monday night. And he was gracious enough to e-mail me the pictures he took.

So look! I have professional portraits of my first wedding cake (in its pre-floral state)! Lucky me!

my first wedding cake

2007-08-18T16:16:00.001-04:00

It's finished! After a full week of baking, mixing, piping, and STRESSING OUT! my first wedding cake is finally finished. I've made 3 cakes in a week before, but this was like doing 3 cakes in a day! And THEN we had to transport it, assemble it (NOT an easy task!), and finish the borders and topper. WHEW!

I forgot my camera when we delivered the cake to the church, but I went back about 1/2 hour before the wedding to take some pictures, and they had put lace and greenery around the base, and pink silk flowers cascading down the cake. So, I can't take credit for those. Anyway, here are a few photos:

Barbie cakes

2007-08-02T22:17:00.000-04:00

... I made this cake for a fellow youth leader's daughter. I still have this pan, though, and I love the plastic Barbie face and bodice that you have to decorate into the cake. I love it because I don't have to worry about making the face look just like Barbie, and wonder if the little girl will recognize who it's supposed to be.

... for another fellow youth leader's daughter. How funny! This was early on in my cake decorating career, before I got really lazy. So yes, I did make all of those roses myself!

milestone birthdays

2007-08-02T19:56:00.000-04:00

... for my cousin's Sweet 16. The top tier was half of the 3-D ball cake pan. I was only slightly lazy at this point - still made the rose myself, but only made one!

... for my Dad's 50th birthday. We had a 50's theme party, so I made this jukebox cake out of an "over the hill" tombstone pan!

... for my grandmother's 75th celebration. I just loved the color combination on this one.

baby shower cakes

2007-08-01T22:13:00.000-04:00

... for my sister's first baby shower in 1998. It's supposed to look like a mobile, with the letters of her baby's name "C-L-A-Y" dangling from the top tier. Adorable. The top tier was a "dummy" made of styrofoam, because I didn't need that much cake, and I was afraid actual cake wouldn't hold up those sticks.

... for my aunt's co-worker (years ago). I love making the keepsake booties from marshmallows and royal icing. My Aunt Cyndi used to make them for many of her baby shower cakes too. They dry and harden, and they can be kept forever.

...for my other sister's first baby shower in 2000. It was supposed to look like a quilt, but the colors came out much brighter than I had anticipated. I made the little figures on top from candy melts because I hadn't discovered fondant yet.

clowning around

2007-07-31T22:26:00.000-04:00

Both of these cakes were made for work-study students who worked in my office when I worked for Grand Canyon University.

The first one is interesting because I had seen some kind of pattern where you bake a round cake and a square cake to make a clown shape. Obviously, I cut up the square cake for the hat and collar. Then I just had to ice it, put borders on, and decorate with M&Ms (carefully making sure the Ms were not visible, of course).

The second one used the little plastic clown heads, but the clown bodies are made entirely out of icing. They taught us this technique in my Wilton Cake Decorating I class in 1996. That's also where I learned about the klassy technique known as bag striping. You take a paintbrush and stripe the bag with icing color(s), and then fill the bag with white (or another color) icing. When you squeeze it out through the tip, it gives a stripey-swirly effect. And yes, that's the technical term. There will be a quiz later, so write it down.

Awww... y'all know I'm just clowning around!

3-D cakes

2007-07-30T22:21:00.000-04:00

These cakes are all examples of cakes I've done with 3-D elements on them. The first is a square cake with a Spiderman head for my sweet nephew's 3rd birthday. I made the head part with an egg-shaped pan, and set it diagonally on top of a square cake. Next is a soccer cake I made for a fellow youth leader. It's a round cake with half of a ball cake on top. He raved about that cake for years. Next, there's a doll cake - always cute. And lastly, there's a golf ball cake, but I can't remember who I made that particular one for. I remember struggling to find some household item with which to make the dimples on the golf ball, but I don't remember what I actually ended up using. Gotta love the green-colored coconut I used for the grass!

pseudo-wedding cake

2007-07-30T11:39:00.000-04:00

Here's a cake I made for a couple at our church when they renewed their wedding vows. I'm showing it here mostly because it's the only cake I've made using the Garden Cake Stand that my mom bought for my sister's wedding. She saved it, and I used it for this cake. My dad just brought the stand to me all the way from Arizona when he visited a couple weeks ago. Thanks, Dad!

Also, you might notice that I decorated the top tier of the stand with a coordinating candle and floral arrangement instead of making another cake or a dummy cake to go on top. I thought it was pretty creative.

coming soon...

2007-07-29T13:51:00.000-04:00

...my first wedding cake! I'm very excited (and a little nervous, if I'm being honest) to be doing my first wedding cake next month.

The wedding is August 18th -- just 3 weeks away! Be sure to check back for pictures.

(Oh yeah, and I have two birthday cakes to do the following week!)

cakes of all shapes & sizes!

2007-07-27T18:20:00.001-04:00

Today, I scanned in most of the cake photos from my album and uploaded them HERE. There are all types of cakes to see -- bridal & baby showers, kids' birthdays, adults' birthdays, graduation, characters, sports, etc.

You can enjoy looking through the slideshow until I have a chance to get them organized into different posts for each group. Every cake has a story, you know!

everything's coming up daisies!

2007-07-21T00:09:00.001-04:00

Here are a few shots of my newest creation... a bridal shower cake for my neighbor's cousin, Heather. She's having daisies in her wedding bouquet, and her bridesmaids' dresses are a peachy-coral color, so we made the daisies on the cake peach, mauve and green. I like the layered effect - it gives the cake an elegant, but whimsical look.

One other new thing I tried this time - a pastry cream filling. It's like a vanilla custard, and it's really delicious. Sorry you can't see it in the pictures. Hope they like it. Maybe I'll get to do the wedding cake next month!

joining in

2007-07-20T17:03:00.000-04:00

Today, while I was decorating a bridal shower cake, Hayden and her friend Allie wanted to join in the fun. I had an extra layer and some leftover fondant from a previous cake, so I let them decorate their own together. Here are the results:

They called it a "Play-do" cake because fondant feels like Play-Doh. They also wrote and drew pictures on the cake with FoodWriters (edible markers). Then we all ate a piece. Cute and yummy!

bridal shower cakes

2007-07-19T11:30:00.000-04:00

These are the three bridal shower cakes I've done in the past. For my sister, my mom's co-worker, and a close family friend.

dairy-free cakes

2007-07-15T11:45:00.000-04:00

Something most people might not know is that I am able to make cakes and icing without using dairy products. My friend in Arizona has a daughter who is really allergic to milk, so she can't just go to the local bakery and buy cakes. They liked my cakes better anyway, and they didn't only have a few designs to choose from. I would do whatever design they wanted. So, twice a year, for her daughters' birthdays, she would give me the party invitation or napkin, and I would copy it.

Here are a few examples:

My two favorites are the butterfly one with the ladybug toddler cake and the Veggie Tales cake. Those ones and the Blue's Clues cake were all done freehand. There's a funny story about the Spirit cake, though. I didn't have a horse pan, so I decided to do a transfer. I made the square cake and spray-painted the blue for the sky. To get the image of Spirit the horse, I had to go to the official movie website and play a bunch of silly games in order to be able to "win" coloring pages to print out! I think there were 4 different designs, and I won three of them before I got one I could actually use on a cake! The things I'll do for my friends...

Princess Castle Cake

2007-07-14T07:36:00.000-04:00

Here's the latest cake I've done. I saw this castle kit on the Wilton website recently, and I've been so excited to get my hands on it and try it out. It was definitely worth the $19.95 at Michael's. I didn't even use all of the pieces on this cake. It has 12 towers with removable turrets, 6 windows, a door, and a main roof peak. I have a feeling I might wish there were more windows someday. We'll see...

Anyway, it was fairly easy to decorate the plastic pieces - just used icing and edible glitter/colored sugar sprinkles.

Oh yeah, and this is what I look like at 2AM when I finish a cake fit for a princess. It didn't really have to keep me up that late, but I am a night owl by nature. I just should have baked the cakes and gotten the castle supplies the day before. Then I could have gotten to the decorating earlier in the day and gone to bed before midnight. The cake actually only took about 3 hours to decorate once I got going on it.

I just hope nothing happens to it when I deliver it! (It's on the same street, several houses down from mine.) Just pray that I don't have a "cake-tastrophe"!! Sorry for the weird lighting issues on the pictures - I don't know what's up with my camera.

Stay Tuned...

2007-07-12T11:37:00.000-04:00

I have cakes to make for this Saturday AND next Saturday.... a princess birthday and a bridal shower!

practice cakes

2007-06-26T10:25:00.000-04:00

These are a couple pictures I found of the cakes I made for my Wilton class back in 1996. They taught us how to do transfers and different flower techniques, including roses and rosebuds/sweet peas. Looking back, I guess I didn't do too badly on the flowers at the time, but I'm SO out of practice ... that was 11 years ago! I have avoided doing these more difficult flowers whenever possible. I really need to start trying them again. I'm supposed to do a bridal shower cake next month for my neighbor's cousin. Lord knows I have plenty of leftover icing from this weekend to practice with! I suppose I should put it to good use.

The transfers can be fun, and they're surprisingly easy to do. If you have an image (like from a coloring book or something), you can trace it with piping gel (I usually use clear, just in case I mess up), flip it into position on your iced cake and fill it with stars (tip 21) to make it look like whatever character you transferred. You can then re-trace the piping gel in black (or any other color) gel or icing for a more defined image.

How I got started...

2007-06-25T21:57:00.000-04:00

As far back as I can remember, my Aunt Cyndi (my Dad's sister) used to make the most deliciously beautiful cakes. She made birthday cakes, graduation cakes, holiday cakes ... cakes for just about any occasion. She even made my wedding cake in 1993. But Aunt Cyndi had cancer, and she passed away in March, 1996. Shortly after that, our family had a dilemma: Now that Cyndi was gone, who would make cakes for our family gatherings to celebrate birthdays and other life events? Sounds silly, I know, but it was a real problem for our family because we had been so spoiled in that area. We couldn't bring ourselves to just go to the grocery store buy a cake with zero personality.

So, later that year, I took a cake decorating class at Michael's with my Mom and my Aunt Trish. I think it cost about $10, and it was 4 sessions. We all learned the basics, but in the end Mom & Aunt Trish decided that I was going to be the new designated family cake-maker.

Now I have a whole album full of pictures of cakes I've made for my friends and family. Even some for money. And as frustrated and stressed out as I get every time I make a cake, it's still a creative outlet for me. My edible multi-sensory art. A unique creation to be enjoyed. And, I know that just like every person, every cake has a story. So I thought a cake decorating blog would be a perfectly fun way to share those stories with others.

Anyway, I started the cake blog today, but there will be other posts that appear earlier and later than this date. If I can remember, I may make the post dates coincide with when the cakes were made, so they'll appear in chronological order. Or maybe I'll categorize them according to who they were made for. Not sure yet. So, stay tuned ... and feel free to browse around. I hope that you enjoy watching my adventures in cake decorating!

here's what 10 pounds of powdered sugar looks like

2007-06-24T11:38:00.000-04:00

I was slammed with cakes this weekend! Both of my daughters had birthdays this week, as well as my neighbor's son, Chase (my son's best friend). If I don't see another cake for a while, I'll be fine.

The first one I did was for my daughter, Hayden Beth , who turned 5 on Monday. She wanted a Strawberry Shortcake cake, chocolate on the inside. My in-laws were in town and we had the neighbors over to celebrate with us. Hayden was hanging around the kitchen all day long trying to get a taste of the icing! I took this picture thinking I was finished, but it was just wishful thinking. I'm so goofy that way. I'll have to post an updated picture later (when I find it) with the hair and freckles added. For now, this one will have to suffice:

The second cake I made was for Chase's 14th birthday party on Saturday. He chose a golf-themed cake from my Wilton Idea Book (2006). I modified it a little because I figured teenagers wouldn't like a fully-covered fondant cake. So, for the blue sky, I used the recipe for Wilton's Quick-Pour Fondant (p.111).

(I had major writer's block about the message.) Nothing better than chocolate cake and buttercream icing!

Last but not least, the third cake was for my other daughter, Kirstyn, who turned 7 on Sunday. She had chosen an Ariel (Little Mermaid) cake. I like the way it looks, and it was very yummy. (Kirstyn chose Lemon flavored cake - one of my favorites, especially in the summertime.) But I must say that character cakes are not my favorite thing to make. The stars get a bit tedious for me. I actually made the red icing this time, since I needed a bunch of it. I used liquid red food coloring (lots of it!) and a little orange paste coloring. When I quit mixing it, I had to add a little more powdered sugar so it wasn't too thin. And it wasn't quite as bright as I wanted it to be, but it did brighten after it dried, as I hoped it would. Here's the finished product:

Kirstyn said, "I want a piece with her flower."
Hayden said, "I want part of her bra!"

Now this weekend just seems like a crazy, sugary dream with a bunch of happy kiddos. My kitchen is cleaned up (miraculously)! Except for a couple of decorating bags and tips. So I'm not complaining.

**********
UPDATED TO ADD: I finally found a picture of Hayden with her finished Strawberry Shortcake cake. Really, the hair and freckles make all the difference. We couldn't have a bald SS now could we? I know y'all were dying to see it. Here you go...

double the fun!

2007-04-28T17:32:00.000-04:00

My dear friend Monika is having twins, so I was thrilled to make a cake for her baby shower. The idea came from Wilton's 2006 Idea Book. This is the first time I've completely covered a cake in fondant, so I was a little nervous. I think it turned out to be adorable, though. The babies' names are on their diapers. Monika keeps saying that she didn't even think it was a cake when she first saw it; she just thought it was a really cute table decoration. I loved listening to the "oohs" and "aahs". Trying not to let it go to my head. ;) It's just that when you know how simple it really is to make some of these fondant decorations, it's funny to listen to people talk about how they could never make them.

I also made a pair of booties for each baby as a keepsake. My dear Aunt Cyndi used to make these for anyone who was having a baby. It's just 3 large marshmallows stacked in an L-shaped formation and covered in royal icing stars and decorated like a pair of booties - with lace and bows. They will dry and can be saved forever. I made a pink set and a baby blue set, since she's having a girl and a boy. I didn't get a close-up picture of them, but here's a cake shot with the booties:

You get the idea.

Kirstyn's castle

2007-03-12T15:02:00.000-04:00

This is a cake that I helped Kirstyn make for her Medieval Times homeschool class. When her teacher gave them the project to make a model castle out of anything they wanted, she immediately knew she wanted to make hers out of cake. Other kids used Legos, cardboard, etc., but not my crafty Kirstyn.

I was so proud of her. She spray painted a moat and grass on the cake board. Then we figured out a way to make it with my stadium pan, flipped the cake upside-down; then we quartered and layered a square cake for the keep in the middle. There are cupcakes atop each of the four corners. It's covered in fondant that was supposed to be gray, but somehow my black icing color came out a greenish color. We also made brown and tan colored fondant stones for decoration around the castle.

The turret is a sugar cone covered in chocolate sprinkles, and the battlements are mini fudge-covered grahams. The drawbridge is a graham cracker (obviously). The only technical difficulty we had with the cake was that the keep in the center was resting on a styrofoam bowl, and it was too heavy. So, it kept tipping over. Anyway, it made it through class and we ate it that night at home for dessert. It would have been nice to share it with her friends in class, but Kirstyn wanted to save it for Nathon to see when he got home from camp.

Happy Birthday, sports fans!

2006-12-15T21:03:00.000-05:00

This is a cake I did for my neighbor, Stewart's birthday. He's a HUGE Georgia Bulldogs fan. I found this cool stadium cake pan at Linens & Things. The fans in the stands are non-pareils. The red & black icing were storebought, only because I can't seem to make those colors without ruining them somehow (taste, texture, etc.). The football field is green fondant from the Wilton Primary Colors packaged fondant.

His reaction was priceless. It was a total surprise, and he was completely speechless. He said he didn't want to cut it and eat it, but he quickly got over that feeling!

Ella's Ladybug Cake

2005-08-29T17:02:00.000-04:00

My sister in Arizona saw my new cake blog and sent me this photo of a cake I did for my niece, Ella's 2nd birthday, the summer before we moved to Georgia. My sister had found a picture in a magazine of this adorable ladybug cake, and I just copied it. (Again with the RED icing!)

The dots on the ladybug are Junior Mints, and the lines were some kind of chocolate Twizzler or some other awful candy. The curly yellow antennae are actually candles. Here's the sweetness blowing out her candles: