Nature Girl Gayle's Birthday

This cake was ordered and designed by Katie for her mother, Gayle.  It was my first attempt at making a palette knife technique to create crevices and craters in the hills. The whole cake was made with buttercream and piped.

The flavor profile was strawberry cake with vanilla cheesecake filling with strawberry compote. It's a favorite of most of my customers.

I know I say this a lot but it's definitely one of my favorites whether it's because I also love the outdoors or due to the fact I got to do a new technique that I love.

Vinny Eats Dirt

Shauna ordered this darling cake for her adorable 2 year old mini-Shauna, Vinny. She is always giving me artistic freedom to make her creations. I get a few ideas from her and then I run with it. Vinny loves playing with his construction trucks in the dirt, so I thought it would be fun to give him dirt that is actually edible.

The cake is chocolate with malted milk chocolate filling and frosting. I made the crumbs from Oreo cookie crumbs and graham crackers pulverized together. The two was simply cut on my Cricut (electronic cutting machine) as a template to cover frosting before I dusted it with crumbs, to look like I bulldozed through it. The trucks are all toys, but his name is fondant. Pretty easy cake to make, but very fun. The look on Vinny's face and his brother Robbie was priceless.

The Piano Man Turned 60

I made this special cake for my brother-in-law for his 60th birthday. It is a chocolate layer cake with fudge ganache filling and a  vanilla Italian buttercream frosting. The cake was slathered in frosting then I added 53 piano keys and sugar-glued on some black keys to look like a keyboard. Happy Birthday to Daniel my Brother (IL)!
Here's to another 60!

Johnny Avenger is 4

This one gets lots of pictures since its a cake and cupcakes. The cake was ordered by my cousin-in-law for her darling son. He squealed when he saw it that was thanks enough. The mallet and fist were sculpted from RKT and covered in fondant.  I piped on stars to cover thequadrant and added a few webs. We stuck with the cartoon feel by adding a few word balloons with some retro sayings "KaPow!"  I use my Cricut machine to help create all the templates for the masks,then I cut them all out by hand. The name was molded in letter molds.

The cake was a vanilla Captain America marble cake.  I tinted the batter with red and blue to give it a marble effect. The filling was a vanilla pastry cream and vanilla buttercream. Johnny wanted vanilla cupcakes with chocolate fudge frosting, so I added a few red and blue sprinkles of confetti to his batter to keep with the americana theme.  Cakes are so much fun! Can't wait for the next one!!

Hi Hat Cupcakes

The topping is a 12 minute cooked frosting "Marshmallow" dipped in chocolate and sprinkles. Takes a little practice, but worth the effort, "YUMMY".

So cool looking, my first attempt was successful with the topping. Not so much for the chocolate cupcake, but that's  my fault for trying a new recipe instead of sticking to "tried and true"!

Holley Bear Birthday

HolleyBear is 2

What a fun cake to make! Holley wanted her own birthday cake (even though she only licks it).  Her mom, Katie requested vanilla confetti cake and low sugar frosting. I told her I had a baby bear cake pan and no problem. I indeed had a teddy bear pan, but it was a big one, so not to disappoint, I decided to figure out how to sculpt a bear cake. There you have it, my first sculpted figure with a little help from her> How to Cook That- Teddy Bear.

Holley Bear is covered in a light milk chocolate buttercream with the grass tip to look like fur. I made the cupcakes the same way, except I made cake balls from the leftover cake to make their heads. All the paws, ears, eyes and pads on the bottom of feet were handmade with fondant. The cupcake bears eyes were black dragees. Holley Bear's hat is RKT covered in fondant. I made sure that everything was edible on the cake to be sure it was safe. The cupcakes were vanilla cake with strawberry cheesecake filling. I love how there is a different personality on each cupcake bear. Fun!!

Mocha Dream Cake

I call this my Mocha Dream cake because the flavor choices were phenomenal, I think I'm making this for my next birthday. It was a classic chocolate cake with a decadent mocha mousse filling and I made a Dulce de Leche Swiss Meringue Buttercream that melted in your mouth. I didn't get the sample all the flavors together, but I'm confident it was delicious. The top tier was all the same except I made it a chocolate mocha marble and I used Kona Mocha coffee for the mocha flavor and it worked perfectly.


Okay enough about the flavors.  The handmade mocha creme colored sugar peony took me about 3 hours total and it takes about 3 days drying time (It has to dry between layers in order to make it look more 3-D). The petals were all edged in a hint of gold dust for a bit of sparkle and elegance. The ombre' mocha and cream design was suggested by the customer and it turned out delicate and goes great with the design. If you look closely at the top tier their is a gradation from the top to bottom with a cocoa color to a lighter color towards the bottom. The design was a lovely juxtaposition of rustic and chic.