Moana's Maui Cake

Had a client who adores Maui from the Disney movie, Moana. I hadn't seen the movie yet, so as part of my "research," I got to watch trailers and clips. Now I adore the demigod! The tattoos are critical so I had to get them right. But how to do it on a cake? I had to simplify the designs, but kept the critical parts. Like the lasso around the sun.

Cake is Vanilla Butter with a cream cheese filling. The rest is buttercream.

I get to be a part of an amazing organization known as Icing Smiles. These people do some beautiful work for some truly beautiful people. 

Shopkins Cheeky Chocolate Cake in Pink

Like most second graders, my youngest is obsessed with Shopkins. So when her birthday came around, she wanted a Shopkins cake. That's when I found the tutorial by The Icing Artist for Cheeky Chocolate, one of my daughter's favorites. Perfect! But of course, she wanted Cheeky Chocolate's wrapper to be pink. No problem.

Of course, the cake is chocolate. Everything else is buttercream.

(Seriously, go check out The Icing Artist! She is amazing! I'm gonna be her when I grow up.)

Slimed Ghostbusters

Got a request for a Ghostbusters cake for a little boy's birthday. I love Ghostbusters! The birthday boy's mom had a couple pictures of cakes she found online. So I combined a couple ideas and came up with this:

I made the topper using a print out of the logo that I cut into it's different layers: ghost, background, red sign. Then I traced them on to different colors marshmallow fondant (MMF) and cut them. This is the finished look before I added the black details:

The slime I made from green buttercream that I thinned with corn syrup. That was fun!

Naked Birthday

So I hesitate to say that this is called a bare naked cake because of the sort of searches that will lead people here...
Naked cakes are all the rage. Sometimes, there's frosting lightly smeared on the outside of the cake, scraped on, really. Cake is still visible underneath.  This particular style is called "bare naked" because there's no frosting outside; just between the layers.

Cake is cookies and cream. I'm not that happy with my old recipe so I've been trying new ones, tweaking others. This one was probably the best so far, just comes out a little darker than the previous options. Frosting is whipped chocolate buttercream, also a new feature. I am totally in love with this frosting!

Naked Chocolate and White Buttercream

Naked cakes are all the rage right now. So when a mom-to-be requested one for an upcoming baby shower, I knew exactly what she wanted without blushing.

The layers are dark chocolate with a simple vanilla buttercream filling. The topper was made by the party planner (I don't normally make these, FYI). The mom-to-be wanted the version where there is no frosting on the outside, only the filling.

Star Wars Tornado

The problem with getting cake orders through email is that sometimes the full desire doesn't quite come out in the writing. This was one of those. The mother said her son was obsessed with tornados and loved Star Wars. So I designed a Star Wars cake, using his favorite character (storm troopers). It took some back and forth with the mom before I realized he wanted a tornado cake that featured Star Wars. Oooookay. Back to the drawing board!

First attempt at airbrushing on buttercream! Figures are made using fondant or edible playdough, using sprinkles and even raw spaghetti for other details. My good buddy, Kathy, did C-3PO's arm, using yellow playdough and then painting it with gold luster dust. Everything is edible, but the light sabers were made on lollipop sticks.

Here's the cake before I added the props:

Rainbow Unicorn

Hooray! I got to make a UNICORN!

The Birthday Girl wanted a Rainbow Unicorn, so I did my best.
The horn is made from gum paste wrapped around a lollipop stick and brushed with metallic luster dust. All other decorations are buttercream.

And before you look too closely, the tail actually fell off about five minutes away from my house, so I had to reattach all that frosting before the Birthday Girl saw it! Just when I think I've got this cake thing figured out...