Skylander Portal of Power

All my son can talk about lately is the new game, Skylander Giants. Loves it, adores it, obsesses over it. So when we started to plan his party, the cake idea seemed only natural: I would make him a Portal of Power. This is a big part of Skylanders. Players place a figure on the Portal and that becomes their character in the game. And it just looks cool.

I used 8-inch rounds of chocolate chocolate chip cake, frosted with dark chocolate buttercream. The top white portion is made from marshmallow fondant (although I really should have paid more attention to the game play because it's really only white when the game is off; otherwise, it constantly changes color).

The rock walls are chocolate clay. I was really happy with how easy it was to make the rocks from chocolate clay. I've only ever made roses with this stuff before, so I made sure to make the recipe a little stiffer so it wouldn't slump. It worked beautifully and tasted like fudge. Also, it was still easy to detail so it had the right textures and symbols.

Presents!

Had a little birthday girl that didn't much care what her party was like, as long as there were presents! Made designing the cake easy enough.

The white package and the tall yellow one are both buttercream with marshmallow fondant accents. The red gift is the only one that was entirely MMF. Kinda wish I'd wrapped all of them in the stuff. Inside is carrot cake.

GameBoy Color

What kind of birthday party would a teenage boy like? He has a GameBoy that is his pride and joy. So his mother planned the party around it. Easy enough to make into a cake!

I used mostly buttercream because the birthday boy prefers it. The screen is the only portion that is marshmallow fondant. The design on the screen comes from the birthday boy's favorite game, Kingdom Hearts. Inside the cake is triple chocolate.

(And Baby keeps trying to push the buttons…)

Popcorn Bucket

Made this for a baby shower where the theme was "Ready to Pop." Really cute shower for an equally adorable soon-to-be mom. Glad I got to be a part of it!

Three layers of dark chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream. Covered in marshmallow fondant. Some details are in buttercream.

The popcorn pieces on top are made from mini marshmallows. To make them, hold a mini marshmallow, then snip it from one end to about the center. Rotate and snip again. Now press your thumb against the snipped end. Viola! Popcorn faster than in the microwave! Feel free to email me with any other questions.

See also the Carnival Tent with the Popcorn Cupcakes.

*This cake was also ordered for a bridal shower, where the theme is "He popped the question and she said yes!"

Ombre Ruffles

Made this one for my best friend's daughter. She's outgrown the monkey stage and has moved on to obsessing about Paris.

She saw a cake online that was covered in ruffles and faded the color, so I tried my best to duplicate it. The ruffles were easy. It was the darn Eiffel Tower that gave me fits. I used a pattern for a paper tower but neglected to take into consideration how candy melts don't have the same flexibility as paper, so her tower ended up being three-sided. She didn't seem to mind, though.

Vanilla butter cake with my signature buttercream frosting.

Fresh Fruit Cake

My brother-in-law doesn't mind baked treats, he really appreciates a plate of fruits and cheese. I found this idea on Pinterest and saved it for his birthday.

The main "cake" is a watermelon (nearly impossible to find during the winter). There are blueberries, sliced strawberries, and raspberries as the borders. The dots and letters are cut from cantaloupe using my fondant cutters. He loved it.

(I made a chocolate cake to serve along with it for us less healthy folk.)

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.