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.