Christmas Cookie Tree

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!

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

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

...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?

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!

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

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!