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...

Blue and Purple Birthday

I surprised a teen with a birthday cake! Since I wanted it to be a secret until the big reveal, I couldn't get too many details on what she'd like, but I had her favorite colors and that she likes things sparkly. Recently, I watched a tutorial on how to coat a cake in sprinkles and thought that would be fun to try.

I made the rosettes on the bottom tier using buttercream. The rolled the smaller tier in sugar sprinkles (If I find the tutorial again, I'll link it here). Letters were made with candy melts, more sprinkles, and attached to lollipop sticks.

Ganache Piano

My son had an amazing teacher this previous school year. I got to be the room mother for his class. This year, the teacher celebrated a big birthday, so of course we had to have a party! She said she loves chocolate, playing the piano, reading Jane Austen, gardening, and being a teacher.

She said it was the best cake she'd ever had on her birthday!

I carved the cake to resemble a grand piano, getting the glossy coating with some yummy ganache. The props were made from edible playdough (tastes like Starburst candies). The green black is actually a book, but you can't tell from this angle, with the cover made from the edible playdough and sugar sheet pages. The sign and the piano keys were made using sugar sheets and trimmed to the right shapes. I used a food coloring marker to decorate the sign.

Inside, the cake is a butter vanilla.

Monster High Skull

This client just wanted a Monster High cake. She didn't much care about any other detail, except that it be on the small side. I made this one by carving an 8-inch round cake to the right shape, covered it in marshmallow fondant, and then attaching more MMF details.

The Birthday Girl totally "squee'd" when I delivered it. Pretty much made my day.

Owl on a Book

This cake was a compilation of the Birthday Girl's favorite things: Harry Potter (golden snitch on book), Percy Jackson (trident symbol on Camp Half Blood bookmark), owls, and reading. The book is opened to Chapter 12 for her 12th birthday.

The cake was butter almond, covered in marshmallow fondant (MMF). Entirely edible.

The owl was also cake, covered in fondant. I used a 4-inch round pan, sliced off a piece from one side so it wouldn't roll away, then covered it with MMF. I found a similar owl on Pinterest and made a few adjustments.

Barnyard with Horses

Currently, I live next door to horses and I completely understand how some girls get obsessed with these magnificent animals. They also make great neighbors, never playing their music too loud in the middle of the night.

The barn is made using Wilton's Stand-Up House pan on a regular 9x13 cake, vanilla bean flavor. Fence is pretzels held together with melted chocolate. Hay is toasted coconut. I only used my signature buttercream frosting for the whole thing. And the horse figurines were provided by the birthday girl and  are not edible. Of course.

Daisy Cake

I've used my Wilton Dancing Daisy pans plenty of times, usually making a white flower. So when I had a request for a flower cake with specific colors, it was the first thing that popped into my head. But I didn't want to make it look like all the others…

Inside is dark chocolate cake with my signature buttercream. Yum!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Carnival Tent with Popcorn Cupcakes

My friend's daughter wanted a carnival theme cake. No problem.

The tent is made using rounds with a Wilton Wonder Mold on top. The birthday girl is not a big fan of fondant so I frosted the cake in buttercream and used marshmallow fondant only for the details: stripes and curtains.

Now, the cupcakes were my favorite part! Just bake ordinary cupcakes and frost them with white buttercream. Then open a bag of mini marshmallows. Using kitchen shears (or another pair of clean scissors), snip about halfway down the end, turn 90 degrees and snip again, making four nubs. Slightly squoosh the nubs down and then affix to the cupcake. It'll take you 25-30 marshmallows per cupcake so I recommend gang-pressing your eldest child to marshmallow snipping duty. I finished it off with a spray of yellow food coloring. The cupcakes were baked in ordinary wrappers. I used real popcorn bags, trimmed down and wrapped around the cupcakes. You could also use red and white striped liners with popcorn stickers or labels you make yourself.

The Hunger Games

I loved the book by Suzanne Collins so when my friend Debbie announced a cake contest on her blog with entries inspired by books, I knew this was for me.

I made the mockingjay pin from yellow fondant. The quote on the top reads "I am not pretty. I am not beautiful. I am as radiant as the sun." It's a quote from the main character, Katniss Everdeen. The sides are decorated with flames, a symbol of the "girl on fire" and there are the words from a song Katniss sings to a fallen competitor/friend. If you haven't read the book, then this cake might not make a lot of sense but I had a good time making it!

Inside is dark chocolate and vanilla marble. The frosting is also dark chocolate buttercream (because that's easiest to make black).

Results of the contest: This cake didn't win. Actually, it lost to one of my other cakes, the Monster Book of Monsters. :)

Ladybug with Flower Cupcakes

I made this cake for my neighbor friend who collects all things ladybug.

Chocolate cake frosted with my signature buttercream.

Here Kitty, Kitty

I made this cake for a friend's daughter. They originally sent me a picture from one of my favorite cake-inspiration sites, Coolest Birthday Cakes. The Birthday Girl wanted a cat cake. I had a few additional ideas up my sleeve.


Although the directions said the ears would be held on by frosting alone, I wasn't convinced and opted to use a little toothpick support. But everything else is edible. White accents and pink collar are marshmallow fondant (MMF). Black accents are regular fondant. The rest is good ol' buttercream.

Are you wondering what kind of cake was inside?


Another version of my Magic cake!

Chocolate Roses

It was the Co-ed's 21st birthday! And in the years past, I've made some rather silly cakes (including a pickle-inspired (but not flavored!) cake that didn't make it on my blog). I decided this year, I should go for pretty and sophisticated.


The roses I made using chocolate marshmallow fondant. Covered in marshmallow fondant, the cake inside is my strawberry cake.

Butterfly Fondant

One of my favorite babysitters had a birthday and I got to make her a cake! She loves butterflies and really liked my Pink Fondant cake. I combined the two ideas to make something just for her.


The top tier is four inches on a six inch tier; tiny by normal standards but the petite scale added to the effect. And a big THANK YOU to my parents who sent me those tiny butterfly cookie cutters for my birthday! They were perfect!

Vanilla fondant over dark chocolate cake.

Princess Dora Transfer

I wanted to learn a new method I saw on my buddy's blog that she called a Frozen Buttercream Transfer. It looked fun and just might speed up the decorating process.

Here's the finished result:


I liked the colors and the overall look is nice enough. Unfortunately, I'm far too slow when it comes to decorating so this process did not make a difference. (And I think it looks like a cake from Costco.) I can only see myself using this again if: a) the client begged me or b) my schedule was slammed and I could make this a couple days before the cake was due.

Double chocolate chip cake underneath all that yummy frosting.

Tiny Cake

My Boo is a tiny little girl. No worries. Dynamite comes in small packages, right? So when it came time to plan her birthday party, Martha Stewart's Tiny Party seemed a natural fit.


Since a tiny cake isn't going to feed everyone, the Birthday Girl got her own cake and the guests could select a cupcake.


Per the Birthday Girl's request, this is a 4-inch dark chocolate cake, frosted in buttercream with royal icing flowers.


Birthday guests got mini cupcakes with the same flowers. There were also Mini Oreos, Mini M&Ms, Baby Goldfish, and scoops of ice cream made with a melon baller.

Read about party games and other activities here.

Brassiere

The Co-ed's roommate is getting married so the Co-ed asked me to make a cake for the Bridal Shower. We had fun brainstorming about different cake ideas, ranging from elegant to ridiculous. This is the idea that won:


All decorations are buttercream. And here it is from another angle:


Slightly different version featuring a green shamrock and pink ribbons on the side for a breast cancer survivor: