Anthony's Thomas cake

Since Anthony is almost turning 3, I should probably post the cake from his 2nd birthday. He really loved Thomas the Train at the time, and we decided on a Thomas themed birthday party. I had seem a tunnel cake before, so I decided to make one for my little guy.

I made two 12-inch cakes and instead of layering them regularly, I cut the top layer in half and placed it on top of the other half, to make another 3D cake. I used black icing to replicate a tunnel and train tracks and borrowed one of Anthony's toys to finalize the cake. I also had some royal icing flowers that I could use to decorate the grass, and used the grass tip to make the border along the bottom.

And, of course, it was chocolate cake, his favorite!

Moving into 3D

I was asked by a friend to make a Scooby Doo cake for her son's birthday. I had made a cake for him the year before (see The First Cakes) but last year he wanted something special. So she had asked me if I was able to do a 3D cake, and I thought "Why not?"

The first thing I did was make up some royal icing flowers so they would dry in time to put them on the cake. The actual cake was baked in 2 loaf pans, to minimize the cutting and shaping of the cake.

I did an initial layer of frosting and traced the design of the van into it with a toothpick, and then star tipped the design over the initial layer of frosting.

Chocolate Entenmann's chocolate donuts served as the wheels and
an oreo made a very nice spare tire!

Life's a Beach

When my friend's sister was getting married, they had decided on a destination wedding and they decided to have a wedding party bbq when they returned. I was asked to make the cake and to make a beach theme to go with the wedding theme. I was also told that the bride wanted red velvet cake.
Now, I had never worked with red velvet before, and I think it will be a while before I work with it again! Let's just say that I now know why they use thick cream cheese frosting on these cakes.

I decided to make the cake 3 layers, and went to the craft store to find beach themed items. The bride supplied the beach chairs for the top and I was able to find fencing to go along with it. I also bought some real shells and washed them up before sticking them on the cake. I also added a pearl border on each layer to tie them together.

For the sand, I crushed up some graham crackers and tried to make it look casual, like sand. However, red velvet is apparently not supposed to be paired with buttercream frosting, as the red color bleeds through. So, I added a little more sand than I had planned, but I still think it came out pretty good.

Mom and Dad turn....?

My parents were born in the same year, and last year they turned...well I'm supposed to say 29,
but I'll let you figure it out by the picture.

I had planned a surprise birthday party for them, with the help of my husband and brother, and the restaurant we booked was nice enough to let me bring my own cake to serve.

I knew I wanted to do something with chocolate covered strawberries, as mom loves those, and I had to make the cake chocolate, as dad loves that.


So I made a 12" double layer chocolate cake, and put a 10" yellow cake on top of that for size contrast and flavor contrast . I then took melted chocolate and made a drizzle design, topped off with chocolate covered strawberries. I did a simple shell border to tie the layers together, and topped it off with candles to match the cake.

A Cake for Princess Maggie

My friend Shannon's little girl is one of the best princesses that I know. For her third birthday, she wanted a castle that was fit for a princess.

Pink and purple were her favorite colors at the moment, I believe she still loves pink, so I decided to cover the ice cream cone turrets with pink and purple sugar. I went to the candy store and tried to find some things that would be good to decorate the castle. I ended up using Airheads sour ropes to cut out the door and the windows and gumdrops on the top for added decoration.

I also went to the party store and got some official Disney princess decorations to accentuate the cake.

I added some sprinkles to the top and Princess Maggie's cake was complete!

Basketweave

I had always wanted to try basketweave, but it was something that I didn't learn in class, so I would have to learn on my own. So I figured what better time than Easter, when I was hosting for a dozen people! Luckily, basketweave only looks complicated. It does take a lot of time to do, but once you get into a rhythm, it goes pretty quickly. I was very happy with the way this came out, especially for my first attempt.


I had also made this cake in a checkerboard design, but it didn't come out as good as I thought it would. I finished the cake off with a simple shell border, some Easter grass and Cadbury mini eggs as decoration.



I also put some simple spring flowers on the top and dusted the cake with glitter sugar, to add a nice touch to the final decoration.

Babycakes

I've done a couple of first birthday cakes since I did Anthony's cake, and I also did a couple of baby shower cakes. I love doing these because I can match whatever theme the party is in.

The first baby shower cake that I was asked to do was for a Winnie the Pooh themed shower. I was given a napkin to work with, and a couple of sayings that the party throwers wanted written on the side. I was told that they also wanted it to be in neutral colors, as the parents-to-be had not found out what they were having. Around the side is written, "Baby days are bright with wonder." How sweet!



The second shower cake that I was asked to do was for a former co-worker of mine. He and his wife didn't find out what they were having either. The party that we had didn't have a theme, so I decided to go simple and make an old fashioned baby carriage design on the cake. I also decided to make the base frosting in a pale yellow instead of making it the basic white.

The last baby shower cake that I was asked to do, and this was actually just a couple of months ago, was a ducky themed shower. The parents knew that they were having a boy, so I was able to do it in blue. I made a 10" round, with an 8" round on top, standard buttercream icing. I smoothed the cake, except for the top, as to simulate water. I did an exaggerated shell border, to simulate waves, and topped it off with a mama and baby ducky. Welcome Baby Logan was written on the sides.

Sesame Street Parade!

Flashing forward to Anthony's first birthday in October, 2009, we had decided to go with a Sesame Street theme. We rented a hall and decorated it in primary colors, and topped it off with an over-the-top cake for my sweetie!



I had seen a cake similar to this and decided to purchase the Sesame Street figures and have them parading up to the top of the cake. How fun! I had also decided to make him his own "smash cake" although he didn't quite get the concept of it.



I made four 8" round cakes, one 10" round cake and a 6" round cake. For Anthony's smash cake, I made an additional 6" round cake. I tried to get the brightest colors that I could, to match the rest of the decorations.

All in all, he had a wonderful first birthday, had so much fun with his friends, but best of all, he had his first piece of cake!

God Bless

After Anthony was born in October, 2008, we were planning on having his Christening soon thereafter. I knew that my mom had previously purchased the cross cake pan, as I had made my niece Ava's Christening cake the February before. I had made her cake as a half sheet cake with the cross on top. I hadn't perfected coloring frosting, though, and the pink was a little vibrant for a Christening, but it still came out cute. I especially love the sleeping baby figurine on the top.

When I was going to make Anthony's Christening cake, I didn't have a ton of time to make it, but wanted something cute for his special day. I had found pre-made flowers in royal icing, and decided that I was going to use those on his cake. I also put his cake on top of a half sheet cake, and changed the positioning of the writing, and this was the beginning of the cross cake.

I have made this cake countless times since Anthony's Christening, and it is currently one of my favorite ones to make. I recently made it with white roses and purple colored writing, although I can't seem to find the picture that I took of it. Here are the cakes that I made for Anthony, Emily and James :)

Death By Chocolate

Now that I had mastered making the original buttercream frosting, I decided to move onto trying to make chocolate. I had a cake order for a co-worker's wife's birthday cake and his only request was "make it as chocolate as possible."

He had no ideas on the design or the style, so I was on my own. I knew I wanted to do something with chocolate shavings and some sort of shell border, but as for the rest of the cake, I had no ideas.


I ended up doing a 9" round, double layer chocolate cake with raspberry jam filling. I frosted it with chocolate buttercream frosting and a shell border on the bottom.


I put chocolate swirl borders on the top and filled in the rest with chocolate shavings. This was the creation of the death by chocolate cake!

Disco Diva

The next cake that I designed turned out to be one of the coolest looking cakes that I have made. It was for a girl's 10th birthday. She had a disco themed party and gave me a napkin to design the cake by, so I used a star tip method to design all the colors and I used fondant for the first time to create the dancers. So fun! This cake was a half sheet cake, double layer, and that's a lot of stars!



I have done this cake 2 more times since this initial cake. The second time was for another little girl's birthday, but she wanted the dancers to be in purple. I used different colors, but the same method. This cake was 9 x 13, so a lot less start tipping on this one.



The latest disco cake that I made was for a guy's 40th birthday party. The theme of the party was Austin Powers, so I went with psychedelic colors and the male gender sign in the middle instead of the dancers. At the party, an Austin Powers action figure was stuck into the cake as an added bonus!

Orders begin

The next few cakes that I did were all very different, and needed different skills to complete.

The first one was a Red Sox cake for a 30th Birthday. I was fresh out of the class and couldn't quite think of how to design this cake. Looking back, I would have used a different technique, but the person that ordered it was happy with it, so it all worked out in the end.

After that, I attempted to design cupcakes. I was having a dinner party and wanted a simple dessert, so I made some flowers out of royal icing, and decided to decorate the cupcakes with them. These turned out to be one of my favorite designs to make! They are fun, tasty and simple!

I have made these flowers countless times, both with royal icing and regular buttercream, and both ways come out wonderful.







Next, I had a cake order for a Bruins cake. Being a big fan, this was was fun for me, and especially fun because it was for a girl, and I got to design it in girl colors! You'll learn that I have come to love girly designs and especially the color pink. I was kind of a tomboy in high school, not girly at all, and I rebelled against girly things, and especially girly colors. Now that I'm older, I just love pink and can't seem to get enough of it. I'm in trouble if I ever have a baby girl!

The final "cake" that I made in the Fall/Winter of 2007 was a cookie cake for a friend's Christmas party. This turned out to be a big hit at the party. I used a 12" cake pan and put my normal recipe chocolate chip cookie in it, and baked it in 10 minute intervals, so as not to burn it. I took it out of the pan, and decorated it as if it were a normal cake.

The First Cakes

When I began taking the classes, I had no idea how to make borders, how to make flowers, smooth a cake, or star tip a cake. Our class lasted a couple weeks and we had to make a final cake. I decided to go with pink and purple. I thought it came out pretty good for a beginner!


The next few cakes that I completed were for friends, and I began to sell cakes. I quickly found that I love doing character cakes, and found that I was able to do them fairly well, in my opinion!

Elmo...


Dora...












Nemo...












and Scooby!