Eagles Cupcakes

My friend's son recently turned 16. He's a big Philadelphia Eagles fan and she wanted cupcakes for his party so this is what I came up with:

And before I get snotty emails or comments, I am well aware that the Eagles are not affiliated with Dallas. But that happens to be the Birthday Boy's name.  :P

Cupcakes are chocolate with my signature buttercream. Decorations are marshmallow fondant, except for the black and white accents - those are buttercream. I got lucky on this one since I have a shirt-shaped cutter and an oval for the footballs. Ended up hand-cutting the Eagle heads but I really liked how they turned out so they were worth the effort.

Solar System

I made this cake for my neighbor's daughter, who is also one of our best babysitters. The Birthday Girl is interested in all things outer space (here's a previous cake). Lately, her interests have expanded to include the entire solar system, so of course I made it into cake

The base is a chocolate cake, frosted with buttercream. The sun is streaked buttercream. The planets are actually candy covered in marshmallow fondant. (And? These were really fun to make! I might have to convince more people that their cakes need there…"Ya know what would make this Hello Kitty cake perfect? Planets. Just around her face.")

Here's a little closer look. The asteroid belt is made from Raisinettes and the stars are shimmery white sprinkles. I could not believe that my local grocery store didn't carry dragees*! What is this world coming to?? 

* Don't be too confused. Three years ago, I called them "edible BBs" or "those silver ball thingies."

Toy Story Cupcakes

"To Infinity, and Beyond!"

These cupcakes were for my friend's baby shower (because they were decorating the nursery with a Toy Story theme, focusing on Buzz Lightyear) but they would be great for a first birthday or even an older Toy Story fan. Hey, 40 is not too old to have an alien cupcake!

The cupcakes were vanilla almond with my signature buttercream piped on top. Toppers are all marshmallow fondant (except for black details, which are buttercream).

I had a lot of fun making these! And the aliens are my favorite. I contemplated not bringing them to the shower and just encasing them in varnish so they would last forever.

Rose Cake

I am a huge fan of I Am Baker. Adore her. Worship the spatula she mixes with. Naming my next child after her (which would be huge except that we're done having kids). I am in awe over how she can take a ordinary tip and then produce these amazingly creative cakes. When I first saw her Rose Cake Tutorial, I knew I had to make it but waited for the right recipient. Then one of Boo's friends had a birthday and requested a chocolate cake that was fancy and pretty but mostly chocolate.

While not as perfect as I Am Baker's, it's not too bad and looked rather pretty. I mixed chocolate frosting with pale pink buttercream in the same decorating bag. It took a few tries to get the mix right so the flowers came out like I imagined.

The rose process was easier than it looks - and it looks pretty easy. And if you don't like how a rose turned out? Just go over it again! Next time, I'll make the pink a little darker…the color looked almost ivory when mixed with the chocolate.

Carpet Cleaner

My friend's husband runs a carpet cleaning business so in honor of his birthday, I re-created a cake brought his work home with him. Because I'm sure he would just love that, right?

A standard 9x13 chocolate cake with buttercream frosting in two different tones: regular chocolate for the "dirty" carpet and light chocolate for the "clean" carpet. The steam cleaner head is also made from cake, frosted with tinted buttercream. The wife supplied the props from the items frequently found on her own carpet: plastic creatures, fruit snacks, building blocks, Mr. Potato Head parts, and crushed crackers.

Tennis Court

Aunt Denise celebrated her birthday and I got to make the cake! She likes tennis. A lot. So I usually go with some sort of tennis theme.

The cake is her favorite chocolate cake baked into a 9x13 pan, frosted with her favorite chocolate recipe. And then I go crazy decorating the top. With more buttercream as the lines and grass. I used melted almond bark and semi-sweet chocolate to make the tennis net. I might have gotten a little too caught up in getting the lines on the court proportional...it took me nearly an hour to finish those! But Aunt Denise loved it and that's what's important.

Hot Lips

The Birthday Girl would be spending her Sweet Sixteenth birthday at camp so her mom surprised her with a party, complete with a giant cake.

The main cake is chocolate and vanilla marbled pound cake, with a buttercream filling. It's then frosted in buttercream with Hershey's kisses and drop flowers as the border. The lips are another matter...

I'm still getting the hang of carving cake into the desired shape. This is more of the pound cake baked in an oval, frozen, and then carved to look like lips. I used red marshmallow fondant to cover, then brushed over that with red luster dust. Not perfect, but my toddler could tell what it was supposed to be and that's good enough for me.