April Flowers

Addie's April Flowers

This window box cake was made for a sweet little girl named Addie.  She had a beautiful third birthday party on a rare sunny morning at our neighborhood park.  This cake was made for alot of people but, of course, there were still leftovers!  My biggest challenge on this one was too many helpers.  I couldn't do without them but there are times, like putting on the last touches that it would have been nice if I had sent them all to the park too!  My youngest loves watching me but eventually can't stand that I am giving all my devoted Mommy attention to someone else's cake! 

This was a yellow cake with strawberry mousse filling and a buttercream frosting under my very own homemade fondant.  I used flower molds to make the white chocolate lollipop flowers. 

My little birthday girl seemed happy with her cake but was already looking droopy at her party and fell asleep before the cake was cut.  I was so sorry to hear she spent her birthday weekend sick in bed.  Hope you are feeling better Addie!

Easter Hat

Lilies and Roses and Daisies...oh, my!

The Pacific Northwest had it's first sunny morning here after a gloomy, wet 45 days.  The light streaming through my clean windows inspired the soft, happy colors of my second Wilton class cake final.  My flowers did not make it to class but I didn't think it was a big deal until I came home to place them on the cake by myself.  It was lot harder than I thought it would be to get the look I wanted without the benefit of my instructor's experience.


Can you find the hand painted blue butterfly?

Maddie couldn't resist trying it on for size!

All of the spring flowers and the bow were made of a mixture of fondant and gumpaste.  I tinted the pale rose petals with pink luster dust and covered the centers of the pink daisies and lilies with yellow sugar.  I am grateful to Doug for taking the best pictures he could but I was happier with realistic quality of the fragile flowers more than his camera phone captures.  White almond sour cream cake with raspberry filling was hidden underneath the fondant straw hat.  Happy Easter!

"I miss my jeans!"

Emily's Country Music Birthday Cake



It is always hard to make the first cut!

 I had so much fun making this jeans cake for my niece Emily who is expecting her first baby in June.  I was told she enjoys listening to country music lately and that her favorite colors are pink, green and blue.  A picture of this cake immediately popped into my head.  I vividly remembered how I felt around my seventh month of pregnancy....I really missed my jeans.  Emily told me she actually loves her cute and comfortable maternity jeans but I think she liked the cake anyway. 

This cake was very rich and really needed the yummy ice cream Julia brought to go with it.  It was chocolate with raspberry filling and a chocolate buttercream frosting (enriched with chocolate ganache) under the homemade fondant.  My friend Robin came over to 'help' me with the fondant and ended up doing just fine on her own!  One of these days I will get it right all by myself.  I was able to use the pink gumpaste carnation that I learned to make in my new Wilton class.  We had a wonderful girls night eating, chatting, and celebrating.  Happy Birthday Emily!

Beautiful Bling

Beautiful Bling Birthday cake for my sister Amy!

Happy Birthday Sis!

Inspiration for this cake design came from the softly styled, beautiful paintings that my sister Amy and her husband collect in their home.  I also wanted to make a cake that would honor her generous heart and sense of style so I chose to make fully-blossomed white chocolate roses and a bit of bling.  Since Amy is hard to please when it comes to cake, I had a challenge on my hands.  I felt that my experimental cake recipe paired a sweet, subtle flavor with a moister, lighter texture than my other banana pound cake.  My first attempt at chocolate ganache was a test of patience but sooo yummy, especially with cheesecake mousse filling.

I couldn't have completed the cake jewelry without my Dad's handy touch with the wire, it was pretty stubborn.  Finally, with help from Amy's daughters as well as my own, we blinged out the cake with pink dragonfly pendants, pink swirled chocolate shavings, and shiny sugar crystals to represent a girl's best friend...diamonds.  Happy Birthday Beautiful Girl!  I love you, Amy! 

Mom chose the dragonfly pendants which were gifted to Amy and her two

 daughters to wear as necklaces...after we licked off the chocolate ganache of course! 



Finally!



Buttercream Rose Garden Wilton Class Final Cake
Happy Half-Birthday Janae!



Bragging rights go to Kimi for sewing my apron!



Finally, my daughter Janae can stop telling people she didn't get a birthday cake!  This is her replacement cake for the year she complains to her friends about.  I decided to dedicate my final cake for my Wilton Cake Decorating class to her as a half-birthday cake.  She helped me design it by choosing the funfetti cake flavor, buttercream colors, and suggesting the gold dust on the white roses.  The idea for a pistachio pudding mousse filling was all me and pretty as spring with the purple frosting.  My very first Wilton rose, and my personal best is in the center.  A classy class certificate and my new AMAZING apron make it official now: I have joined the ranks of happy home cake decorators everywhere!    

Academy Award



Best Hostess Oscar goes to Julia!

Doug scored!

And the Oscar goes to.... Julia!!!! for hosting the best Oscar's party every year!  After making my Golem cake, I was putting away leftover modeling chocolate and before I knew it, a little Oscar statue had formed in my hand.  I painted him gold and stuck him on top of a chocolate dome cake with red chocolate and gold stars.  The movie strip is also chocolate with luster dust highlights.  Doug won the Oscar for guessing the most awards correctly.  I was caught cheating therefore unable to claim the glory but I was still awarded my share of the chocolate cake!

Golem in the Cake

"Golem in the Gears" Birthday Cake

This cake was commissioned by Richie and Carol for their dad and husband Rick Larson.  We happen to have some of the best neighbors in the world and this family has been my biggest fanclub outside of my kids.  With each new cake attempt, the first thing the kids say is, "You have to show Richie!"  So it wasn't long before they asked me to make a cake for their Dad's birthday, which I was thrilled to do.  Those of you who know my own Dad will understand when I say that I feel great comfort living next door to a man of the same high caliber; they would get along great.  I thought, after all the fun I had making this modeling chocolate woodland scene, that I would have a hard time letting it go, but actually I was very happy to give it to them with my whole heart.  They truly deserve it after putting up with my neclected yard for so long!

The cake theme was taken from Rick's favorite Piers Anthony novel from the Xanth series.  They requested the same Crazy Good Banana Pound cake that I made for the Tangled Tower.  This one had 3 layers because I love any excuse for extra banana cream filling!  The multicolored marshmallow fondant for the book cover was my first attempt at homemade.  I found myself really glad to have so many leaves and figures to cover all my mistakes!  It tasted better than the storebought stuff so I will definitely try it again.  I actually scared myself a little when I finished those piercing eyes on my toad.  I could feel a little empathy for poor Golem Grundy.  I only had a chance to read an excerpt of  "Golem in the Gears" in between making leaves and my baby slug (under the mushrooms on the right), but I think I am going to have to ask to borrow it.

I really meant to keep these blog posts short and sweet, but I can't leave off without giving due credit to my amazing children for keeping up with my mess.  My daughter Janae's skill surprised me when she took over cutting out the letters, made my favorite little curly red leaves, and the icky awesome earthworm.  Also, thanks to Richie and Carol for encouraging me, challenging me, and making me take some of your money!  I really do need more cake $tuff!

Super Mario Cake

Andrew's Super Mario birthday cake
(question box is suspended by the magic of Kimi) 

This cake was not quite finished when Andrew came over for his birthday party so all the kids had a chance to add their own mushrooms, turtles, and goomba characters.  The first thing Andrew said was "Where's Bowser?"  So my talented friend Robin saved the party by completing the question block for me (made of cake covered in fondant) and a mushroom or two while Kimi and I scrambled to comply with the birthday boy's request.


Andrew kept coming over to the counter to look at HIS cake!
 There's no question...I think he liked it! 



Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi are toy figures, this goomba is modeling chocolate, and the rest were fondant.  My toddler 'helped' by helping himself to the painstakingly cut out blue border (you can see the remaining border in the picture above, bottom right) and a couple other characters to make himself a squished up fondant 'shamburger'.  The bottom tier is a Betty Crocker funfetti mix with sour cream added and a yummy white chocolate pudding filling.  The upper tier was made sugar free for Andrew's Grandparents.  I owe them many thanks for jumping in to help finish supper so I could focus on the cake chaos with the kids!  Happy Birthday Andrew!

  

How to Train Your Chocolate Dragon

How to Train Your Dragon cakes for Logan and Hunter's birthdays

I had a wonderful time at Grandma and Papa's house as I was able to thoroughly enjoy a relaxed morning assembling these cakes with Hunter and Logan's help.  They did a great job mixing fondant to make rocks and pebbles and I thought Trinity's insistence on the lake, and her use of piping gel to make waves was the perfect touch.

It is in fact, more difficult to train a chocolate dragon than I expected but I am glad I made the effort.  Toothless was very melty to work with but in the end, I thought he looked sweet.  The trouble I had, will not deter me from attempting modeling chocolate again.

Colleen said it had to be chocolate all the way so both cakes were made from Duncan Hines Devil's Food with raspberry chocolate milk to replace the water.  My first homemade chocolate frosting was used for the filling as well as underneath the cliffside fondant, and under the cookie crumbles on the volcano dragon egg nest. 

I lucked out (grossed out) to find the oreo cookies with bright red centers on sale.  I scraped them off to create the lava in the center of the dragon egg nest while the remaining bit of frosting added a nice 'glow' to the lava rocks.  Multicolored fruit leather flowed over the edges.

The shrieks of joy when we finished were enough to melt any Aunt's heart into a puddle of chocolate lava.

Happy Birthday Logan and Hunter!

 

Despicable Cake

Happy Late Birthday Danilyn!  Too bad you are too late to eat any...mmmmm...sorry!

For my second Wilton cake decorating class, we were allowed to choose our own pattern for the top so I chose the 'Despicable Me' minion in honor of my niece Danilyn who asked me to make her one for a late birthday cake. This cake was the most despicable assignment I have ever had in a class!  If you have seen my favorite blog, Cake Wrecks, you will see many examples of this particular dimensional technique gone wrong.  There really is no way to use the number 12 tip and not have it look disgusting.  

The inside was devil's food chocolate cake with Kozy Shack creamy chocolate pudding for the filling.  I was told to make my frosting using a decorating buttercream recipe especially for this class.  However, I couldn't bring myself to use trans fatty shortening so I used my healthier coconut oil instead.  It smelled and tasted lovely but the coconut oil is pickier about temperature so by the time we were decorating, the little room we were crammed in had warmed up so my frosting was a little gooey-er than it was supposed to be.

The cake doctor is in....

Dr. Pepper and Movie Theatre Popcorn cakes

Happy Birthday Juls!

Julia's extreme passion for Dr. Pepper and movie theatre popcorn should have made for an easy birthday cake design decision but I was really torn at the thought of giving her an ipad of her very own to eat.  In the end, the whole family voted that it had to 'be a Pepper!'.
  

After doing my research, I chose America's favorite Duncan Hines Devil's Food cake mix that I 'doctored' with an extra egg yolk, real butter, and Dr. Pepper instead of water.  The popcorn cake was also a doctored Duncan Hines Butter Golden cake mix.  In keeping with the theme, I couldn't stop at the cake; I added real Philadelphia cream cheese to the store bought frosting.  Still lickin' my fingers!

Both cakes were exceptionally moist and tender, melt in your mouth yum; but I should have used a more stable frosting underneath the Dr. Pepper fondant.  She got a little saggy when it warmed up.  The logo was a challenge, but the hardest part was waiting for the marshmallowy popcorn to cool so I could add the final touch to the movie theatre bucket.  Mmmmaarrshmallllows...





Dr. and Mrs. Pepper...no, she's not pregnant...just a little too much cake lately!

I know, I totally copied you Robin!  Thanks!

Itsy bitsy teeny weeny...

Last night my ward had a Relief Society Service Auction and I made this teeny cake to donate with the promise of an AMAZING custom cake sometime this year.  I did warn them that this was only my third cake ever!  I am making a birthday cake for a sister in September so that gives me plenty of time to practice...I hope.  Doug took this blurry picture before I was quite finished putting the little balls around the bottom.  Do you recognize the little purple flowers from my 'Tangled' cake?  Both the flowers and leaves were made using my new extruder tool.  It also came with a teeny little bird that I meant to use with each cake as my signature but I keep forgetting!  This fancy fondant 'cake' is actually hiding yummy Walmart brownies with cream cheese frosting.  Mmmmm.  I almost bid on it myself!

'Tangled' Tower

Tia's Tangled Cake

As soon as I knew Disney's Tangled would be in theatre's for Tiana's birthday, I decided her cake had to be a tower.  In this case, we were lucky to eat the 20 layers of cake before it toppled but it was a wonderfully fun group effort putting the fondant flowers, rocks, and shingles on.  Next time, I will remember the dowels for more support.  I wish I had been able to take more time with the details but we couldn't be late for such a great movie!  Many thanks to Auntie Julia for showing up at just the right time to help with my favorite finishing touch.  I had dehydrated, and then crumbled, moss colored royal icing which we applied with a wet paintbrush to the cobblestone fondant. 

20 layers!



This was my very first homemade (no mix!)  crazy good banana pound cake per Tiana's request, with sliced bananas in the top of the tower.  Sadly, (but, so funny) Tiana got her hair all 'tangled' in the batter beaters.  We whipped up a batch of my friend Robin's favorite italian buttercream frosting to put between the layers and underneath the fondant.  Individually I thought they were divine, but together....too rich for my taste.  That didn't stop me from eating too much.

Go Seahawks!!

Seahawks Jersey Cake for Jimmy's 1/11/11 Birthday



Jimmy with the Seahawk

Jimmy's love for the Seahawks inspired my first cake of 2011.  It is made with store bought white cake mix dyed blue and green like his fan hair at Saturday's earthshaking game and covered with blue dyed store bought fondant.  I used gel food coloring to paint the logo onto white fondant as well as the darker portion of the sleeves.  The idea for a Seahawks Jersey cake was copied from someone online who did a more professional job but I am pretty proud nonetheless.  The best thing about using fondant for the first time was the forgiving aspect of my design, it was just a t-shirt after all.  So mixing colors, and even laying the fondant were very relaxed.  In fact, I had to make a deliberate wrinkle or two to make it more realistic.  The most challenging part was painting the logo but also my favorite creation.  Thanks to my own dedicated fans, who chose the 12th man theme, we finished this before 11pm on 1/11/11.  Happy Birthday Jimmy!