Poinsettia Wedding Cake

Here is a picture of the cake at the reception. When I was making the cake I commented that it would look nice with white lights and tulle around it. I had to smile when we delivered the cake because the table for the cake was set up just like I had mentioned.

This cake came out pretty. I was not too sure how a blue wedding cake would look but I really like it. It's simple yet elegant.

Smurf Cake

It's not perfect but here it is! Came out pretty cute I think.

Snowman Cake

For this cake I was asked to make a simple winter theme with snowmen on a 9x13 cake. Here's what I came up with. The poinsettia on the cake is made of gum paste. This was my first try at a gum paste poinsettia. I wanted to practice since I have a poinsettia wedding cake due just after Christmas.

Owl Baby Shower Cake

For this cake I got to use my 1st impressions baby mold- which I have been anxiously waiting to use. I think it came out really cute. I made the owl out of rice krispie treats so that it would be sturdier since the cake had to be transported quite a distance.

Striper Fish Cake

Fishing is not something that I am very familiar with so when I was asked to make a cake to look like a Striper fish I was a bit stumped. After looking at lots of pictures of Striper fish this is what I came up with. I really like the wood look on the cake. I covered the top of the cake with light brown fondant and then using a knife made lines to look like wood. I then took some food coloring mixed with almond extract and spread it on the fondant.

Jungle Birthday Cake

Every jungle cake that I have made so far has had handmade fondant animals on them but for this cake I used plastic toys. It was just so much quicker and I have been so busy. I think the little animals are cute. The trees are gum paste with pretzel trunks. The little #1 cake at the top is for the birthday boy. I just decorated it simply with butter cream.

Brown and Blue Baby Shower Cake

I really like the colors of this cake! I tried chocolate fondant for the first time. I tried two different recipes and they both came out too dry so I threw them away and made up my own recipe and it worked really well for me. It tastes like a tootsie roll. I also tried to make shoes for the first time and I was really happy with these little sneakers.

Baby Shoes

I made these cute litte baby shoes out of gum paste last night for a baby shower cake that is being picked up this weekend. They are so cute I thought they deserved a post all their own!

String Monster Cupcakes

Jacob saw these string monsters in a cupcake book and really wanted me to make them for his school class. He was very excited about them. I think he said "Mom, those cupcakes are awesome" about three times. They are strange looking little monsters. The eyes are lollipops and peach gummy O's. The school really emphasises not having too much sugar with birthday treats, I wonder what they'll think when they see these!

Teddy bear in a box

This baby shower cake came out pretty cute-not perfect- but cute. The Bear's head is rice Krispie treats covered in fondant. The box lid is made from gum paste and then "glued" together with royal icing. I thought the box lid would be very fragile and I was nervous to transport the cake but I was wrong. The lid is surprisingly durable. I didn't have a single problem with it falling apart like I thought I would. I am the queen of crooked, so anything that needs to be really super straight, like a box, is always going to be a challenge for me. So, despite my crooked tendencies I think the cake came out pretty cute! The little rubber duckie and the ball were an after thought but I think they were just what the cake needed.

Lego Cake

I made this Lego cake for my son Jacob. He is off at school and he has no idea that I am making him a cake. It will be fun to see his surprised face! With 5 kids we have accumulated thousands of Lego's over the years and I am always stepping on them. I've even found them is the washing machine! Because my kids are so Lego crazy I thought that a Lego cake would be perfect. Jacobs favorite color is orange so of course I had to make an orange Lego although I don't think we have any real orange Lego's.

50th Birthday Basket Cake

This cake is supposed to look like a longaberger basket shaped like the number 50. The hardest part of the cake was piping the basket weave around the 5. I had to cut the 5 into 3 parts in order to pipe in all of the little places. You can really tell on the top of the 5 that it has seams in it where it was cut. I hope that the seams don't ruin the whole cake. I tried to blend them in a bit.

Quilted Butterfly Cake

I made this cake for my neighbors birthday. The butterflies are gumpaste made with a silicone mold. It came out pretty great! The quilting detail came out very light in the picture. I don't think a picture did justice to this cake.

Quilted Anniversary Cake

I've always thought quilted cakes were very pretty but I never tried to make one until now. I think it came out really great. It was much easier than I expected too. I bought a cutter that you just press into the side of the cake and it makes 3 diamonds, then you just keep rotating the cake and pressing in the cutter. I put silver dragees at the corner of each diamond. The topper and the roses are gumpaste. This has to be one of my favorite cakes!

Twisted Fairytale cake

A friend requested a cake with 3 towers with the theme of Harry Potter, Shrek, Repunzel, and Sesame Street. This is probably one of the most mixed up themes I've ever had to do. I guess it came out okay. If you click on the picture it should enlarge and you can see the little people better. I think Repunzel turned out pretty cute. My Harry Potter looks a bit like the Lone Ranger-oh, well. I had to deliver the cake in the pouring rain to an outside party. The party was under a pavillion but the cake was still pretty damp by the time we cut into it. Despite the dampness the birthday girl still thought the cake was amazing.

Sandcastle wedding cake

For this sandcastle I made sheet cakes for the base and then 12", 8"and 6" cakes for the castle part. Because the wedding was outside I covered the cake with fondant and then used piping gel to attach my "sand", I was afraid butter cream would melt and just make a big drippy mess. For the "sand" I used ground up vanilla wafers and edible gold glitter. The glitter really added to the realistic sand effect. I made chocolate shells and used chocolate rocks to sprinkle around the castle. The turrets are from the romantic castle cake set by wilton. I think it came out pretty great. The best part was that it was an easy cake to decorate. Any flaws in the fondant were just covered up with the "sand".

Graduation cake 4

I was asked to make a cake for a graduation with the theme of "grown up little girl", Steelers fan and moving to Pittsburgh. It took quite a lot of thinking and discussion with family to come up with an idea. They specifically wanted a book so I made it in pink to reflect the grown up little girl theme. You can't really tell in the picture but the book has flowers piped onto the cover. The Steelers pennant is hand painted. I think it came out OK. The suitcase is to represent moving. It must look pretty realistic because Katie tried to pick it up by the handle. I must admit that I freaked out for a minute when she ripped the handle off the cake and broke it in half. I managed to fix it and I think it looks alright. Hope they like the cake!

Graduation Cupcakes

I made these graduation hat cupcakes to go with a graduation cake. They are made from little peanut buttercups and square chocolates.

Graduation Cake 3

I keep getting requests for this same style of graduation cake. I tried to make the math book look like an old leather binding. There are a few cracks in the fondant which makes it look an old leather book. Of course this cake is white almond with raspberry filling- a favorite with everyone!

Andrew's cupcake creation

This week Andrew's teacher had a birthday party for all the students with birthdays in the summer. Everyone with a summer birthday was asked to bring in a birthday treat to share. Andrew stayed up late and created this race car out of cupcakes. I supervised and he did most of the work himself. For being only 9 I think he did a pretty great job!

Last day of school cakes

Last night the kids wanted to take something to their teachers as a thank you gift. I just happened to have two 6 inch white almond cakes on hand so we quickly decorated them for the teachers. I sent the cakes to school on the bus. Hopefully we don't have two white almond cakes on the bus floor!

Polar bear cupcakes

Oh the things we do for our kids! I made so many polar bears for Emma's school class it was crazy. They did turn out cute. I followed the directions from my Hello Cupcake book. Pretty easy but so time consuming.

Black and white birthday cake

For this cake I tried brush embroidery. I read about it in a cake book and watched a demo online. It really was pretty easy. I think that it came out nicely. In the end this cake reminded me of a piece of fabric that I had been given so I thought it was only fitting to use the fabric as a back ground for the picture. I think brush embroidery would look good in colored icing but the customer wanted black and white for a more "over the hill" type of look.

monkey cupcakes

These little monkeys are made by piping chocolate onto parchment paper into the face shape. Then chocolate melting wafers are used for the ears. They were pretty quick to make which is good considering I had to make 30 for Emma to take to school.

They came out pretty cute.

graduation cake 2

I make this graduation cake for a single mom who graduated from college the same day as her daughter.

Tulip Cake

Anyone who knows me knows that I like tulips. I was asked to make a round cake decorated for spring. To me spring is tulips so here is my cake. I made the tulips from gumpaste and frosted the cake with swiss meringue butter cream. This was my first try with swiss meringue butter cream. I have read that Duff uses swiss meringue on his cakes and that made me want to try it. It is nice to work with but it tastes so buttery I'm not sure I'll use it again. The plus side of swiss meringue is that it doesn't take powdered sugar so if I am ever out of powdered sugar I could still make frosting. This picture is a little blurry but it is the best angle of the cake. I put big stars on the top and bottom of the cake. Tim said it looked like cottage cheese- maybe it does but I like it!

Mermaid Cake

Aubrey loved her mermaid cake. I made this cake the same weekend that I made the Toy Story cake so I was pressed for time. If I had more time I would have added more shell and added star fish and maybe an octopus. If she wants a mermaid cake again next year I'll be sure not to do another cake the same weekend. The mermaids are made with gum paste because it dries faster than fondant. I painted the tails with shimmer dust to make them pink.

Toy Story Cake

I am really happy with the way this turned out. I tried to do a cowboy theme at the bottom and space theme toward the top. My only problem with the cake is that Zurg kept wanting to fall over. I popped him onto a blob of fondant and he seems to be staying put- at least for now.

Princess 1st birthday cake

I made the princesses skirt using half of the ball pan and a round cake. I put the ball cake on the round cake and trimmed the round cake to fit and then covered it with fondant. Her torso and head are mm fondant. I frosted the 1 with butter cream. It is really hard to frost a chocolate cake without having crumbs show. I tried to place the flowers on the cake everywhere I saw a big chocolate cake crumb. Thank goodness for the flowers to cover my imperfections.

Baseball Cake

I have mixed feelings about this cake. I love the hat. It is very realistic-which I like. I used a stitching tool, normally used for sewing, to make the stitching lines on the hat. The back of the hat is super great too. I covered the cake board with fondant to make it look like a baseball diamond. I was going to put a ribbon around the cake board but then I decided to let the wood show. I like the rustic look of the wood. I really don't like the ball too much. I tried to get it round. I even bought Wilton's ball pan but still it is not perfectly round. The pan instructions called for putting stars all over the ball. Had I done that I may have been able to cover my imperfections more easily.

Jungle Cake 2

I like this jungle cake much better than the first jungle cake that I made. It could use a few more animals. I wanted to put a giraffe on the cake but my Katie took a big bite out of it so of course I couldn't put it on the cake!

75th Birthday Cake

The butterflies on this cake were a new technique that I tried. I bought the butterfly cutters last summer and I have been waiting for the right cake to try them on. I really like how they came out.

Baby Block Cake

It was really hard to get a good picture of this cake because it is so long. I think that my camera has a panoramic option but I don't know how to use it. Cute cake but very labor intensive.
All of the little animals are made w/ mm fondant. You can't really see in the picture but each block has an animal on the side. I have some little cookie cutters of Noah's ark that I used.