Minnie Mouse Birthday Cake

What a fun cake this was!  A pink Minnie Mouse themed birthday party calls for lots of mouse ears and bows!  This is a 12" diameter 2-layer chocolate cake.  Iced with vanilla buttercream and decorated with buttercream and fondant.  I made the bow and ears with a 50/50 gumpaste/fondant blend.  I "accidentally" learned a new technique in the process- putting the blend in the oven at 200 degrees with the door propped open creates a billowing/pillow like effect - perfect for the puffy bow...not so much for the slick, black ears.   My friend Mindy and her family loved this cake, and it tasted great, so I am so happy I was able to make Miss Olivia's birthday a little more special.

I have to say that seeing all the cake plates scraped clean was the best compliment I got today! 

Wilton Course 3 Final Project - Pink Rose Cake

I finished Wilton Course 3 last night, which focused on using gumpaste and fondant.  It was a great class and I learned many helpful things that will be so useful.  For the final project, I created something that's my style....a fancy little pink cake covered in fondant with a mound of gumpaste roses on top.  For the bottom border, there is a gumpaste ruffle around the base and an "eyelet" lace border wrapped around the bottom of the cake. 
I enjoyed learning to make the roses, mums, daisies and calla lilies in this course.  Enrobing a cake in fondant, on the other hand, is going to take a lot of practice before I am comfortable with it....but I did learn a lot of tricks in this class which I think will make a HUGE difference.
I am really happy with the way this little cake turned out and look forward to getting more practice with fondant.

Wilton Course 1 Final project

I started Wilton cake decorating classes in January and have learned a lot of great new techniques for making cakes.  I wanted to share a picture of my final project, a 2-layer 8" round decorated with a ring of purple "ribbon roses":

and me, showing off my new credentials.....

Teddy Bear 1st Birthday Cake

My sweet little baby girl turned one last month, and for her birthday I decided to make my first tiered cake.  The bottom tier is 9" chocolate cake with a delicious chocolate buttercream that I found here .  After icing the chocolate layer, I took the remainder of the chocolate frosting and added dark cocoa to it, just to make it a couple shades darker for piping the borders.
The top layer is a 6" round while cake with vanilla buttercream, covered in purple fondant (also a first for me).  On top, is Wilton's mini 3D bear pan decorated with buttercream stars.

I also made teddy bear sugar cookies to match the cake and send home with each guest as a party favor:

The mini teddy bear cake topper also did double duty as the smash cake!

 

Christmas Cakes for Gifting

Last December, I decided to make cute little cakes for Lily's wonderful preschool teachers as Christmas gifts.  I thought it would be a unique and useful gift they could take home and enjoy with family.  These are 9" cakes, one layer each, iced with vanilla buttercream.  I chose cookie cutters to lightly imprint the top of the cake, then used that outline to pipe in the frosting and complete the design.  I hope her teachers enjoyed them!

Monster Baby Shower Cake

My good friend Joan was expecting her first grandchild this summer and asked me to make a cake for her daughter Shannon's baby shower.  I was thrilled to make this fun cake and use the "monster" theme.   This is a 12" layer cake.  The cake was iced with vanilla buttercream and then sprayed green.  The mommy monster is a small cake baked in a pyrex dish, and then decorated using a star tip, pulling out.  The baby monster is a large cake ball. The big monster's eye is while almond bark melted into a disc, then a mini oreo wafer was attached using orange buttercream.  The baby boy monster's eyes are mini oreo halves.
July 2012

Pink Present Cake with big bow

I'm taking the Wilton Course 3 and learning to work with fondant and gum paste.  The first class I made this adorable bow, so I whipped up a pretty pink cake for it to sit on: