We all live in a YELLOW SUBMARINE...

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

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...

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

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

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...

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!!!

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!!!