Peace

Next up was the birthday cake for my lovely niece miss Liv.  She wanted a light blue peace sign, pink & purple hearts, and her name 'in cursive' :) ..for the Cake itself, she chose Vanilla with Peanut Butter filling and Chocolate buttercream icing.  She said 'I love it' when she saw it, which made my day because she can be a tough critic ;)

Her name is made of melted candy (Wilton candy melts).. it looks white in the pics but actually has flecks of color in it (confetti-ish) which looked so cute with the colors on the cake.  Since Liv wanted her name 'in cursive' I did the same method as on my cupcake tower a month ago with the "M" monograms.. I love how it turned out!

 

'One Direction' Cupcakes

I had a super busy week last week.. two cake orders for one weekend! (which is craziness for me)  First up, 'One Direction' cupcakes as a surprise for my hubby's granddaughter (the same one I did the zebra cake for the previous week).  She was having her 'friend' birthday party/sleepover this last weekend.  Her mom told her she was getting a Dora cake from Walmart ;)  ..I told her mom to video the reaction to her 1D cupcakes because I wasn't going to be there, but also because they were a surprise and she's obsessed with 1D!  OMG the video was hilarious!  When her mom revealed the surprise cupcakes, the birthday girl and all her friends were screaming like crazy!!! (made me think back to those clips you see on tv of women's reaction to the Beatles, lol!)  ..I told them I wished all of my cakes got that sort of reaction! :)

Here are the completed cupcakes, which are vanilla tie-dyed cake with chocolate custard filling, 

and chocolate buttercream icing.

 

The birthday girl's fave ;)

 

Zebra, Music, and Dance.. Oh My!

Last week's cake was for my hubby's granddaughter, who was turning 12.  Her mom wanted to incorporate zebra print (the birthday girl loves it) along with music, dance, stars, pink, purple, and of course sparkle!  So I went to work.. I made some dancer silhouettes, which were traced out of fondant and placed on some hot pink stars.

Then I hand-painted a microphone and music notes onto some stars.  I used fondant markers to draw them on first, then painted over that with edible paint (black icing color mixed with vanilla extract).. and of course added some sparkle.

I added her name, age, and some sparkly starbursts to the top of the cake.  The cake itself was covered in zebra stripes.  It's a Chocolate cake with Cookies & Cream filling (the birthday girl LOVES oreos!), iced in vanilla buttercream. 

 

  

50th Anniversary Cake

So two weeks ago (yes I'm a little behind in my blog entries ;) ..I made a 50th Anniversary Cake.  I was super excited for this cake for two reasons.. First - I was given the couple's original wedding cake topper from 50 years ago to place on their Anniversary cake (how cool is that!!) and Second - I was going to ice the cake in 'rustic' style buttercream (which is basically a messy, non-smoothed look) which I've been dying to do!

I actually suggested the 'rustic' style frosting to the client, who is my sister's long time friend.  The cake was for her parents, and as I was mulling over the design for their cake, one of the words that came to mind when thinking of this particular couple was 'rustic'.  So I thought "this is my chance!" and asked the client if she liked the idea.  She was fine with it, in fact, she also let me have free reign with the flavors of one of the cake tiers (yay!)

I was pleased with how the 'rustic' icing turned out, especially for my first attempt.  It's not difficult but does take some work to get it to look right.  I'll say this.. I'd rather frost a cake rustic than smooth any day.  Basically you just mess up your icing with either the back of a spatula or spoon (I used a spatula).  But while I loved the rustic icing technique, my absolute favorite part about this cake was the topper, hands down!  I loved how it gave the cake a vintage feel, while still looking elegant and rustic all at the same time.  

And here it is... The bottom tier (client's pick) is French Vanilla cake filled with fresh Raspberry Mousse, which was yum.. loved the mousse.  The top tier (my pick) is Spice cake filled with Applesauce.. just one of my fave combos for this time of year.. and the client said it was "amazing."  The cake is iced in all-butter buttercream (no shortening).  I hung around after delivery to see the guests of honor as they arrived at the restaurant.  The cake and topper were a surprise and I wanted to see their reaction, mainly to the topper.  Mind you, the client said her parents would never recognize it after all these years.  I told her "of course they will, it's their wedding cake topper!".. well.. much to my surprise she was right ;)    

 ..and my cake table sign

  

Zelda

Last week I worked on the Birthday cake for my nephew, Tomy, who is obsessed with the video game Zelda! {which of course became the theme of his cake}.  It was just a simple sheet cake with a Zelda edible image.  I'm not a big fan of EI's, simply because there is very little else for me to do on the cake (no fun ;)  ..My sister attempted to find a little Zelda figure to place on the cake but was unsuccessful, so she opted for the EI.  Oh well, Tomy loved it and that's all that matters :)

Here's a pic of the completed cake, which is fudge marble with vanilla custard filling and whipped cream icing. 

 

..and the Birthday Boy!