80 with Spunk

For Joanne's Mama's birthday, she was celebrating 80 with a bang. Joanne wanted to go with something feminine, but not too geriatric pastel.

This entire cake was done free hand (obviously) with buttercream. It is probably my favorite design so far.

Under the Sea

Connor loves aquatic life, but his party was pirate-themed. His mom requested a little of both for his 4th birthday cake. This is quite the busy cake, decorated with fondant creatures, sprinkles for coral, and buttercream - lots of buttercream.

The top is covered in buttercream topped with brown sugar.

Then we have the front of the cake. A school of fish, an octopus, seaweed, and coral.

Turn to the left - note the goldfish with the tiny scuba driver, the shark fin, turtles... and more fish!

Another turn - the Happy Birthday message, oyster/pearl, baby crab, and dolphins.

Another turn to the left - a starfish, hammerhead shark, and stingray.

PHEW. Busy cake!

Cycling Cake

George is super into cycling, so for his birthday his wife requested a cycling cake. We've got bikes, we've got trees and flowers, caution signs, cyclers, and even a Share the Road sign.

The cake was a chocolate with buttercream frosting and absolutely zero fondant!

Happy Birthday George!

Princess Jasmine

Natasha requested a "chocolate cake with Princess Jasmine," so here you have the magic carpet Jasmine cake. My favorite is the rosette clouds, and the unaffected Jasmine surfing the carpet.

Fish Bowl

For John and Darryl's birthday, I baked them up a cake that was suppose to look like a fish bowl. It did not turn out to be beautiful. In fact, I hated that thing. But, I did enjoy the fish, seaweed, and tank rocks. (see below) The top will not be seen. It was that ugly. Luckily, it tasted yummy!

Stripes and Balloons

Happy Birthday to my Momma! We threw her a "surprise" 55th birthday party this year. The cake matched the invitations. My only complaint is that I threw the "55" on the top of the cake without lining it up with the "Diane."

Pink Castle

Alexandra is celebrating her 7th birthday in true princess style. So I went with my favorite things: Castle and candy.

There are about a bagillion things I see wrong with it, but I'm trying to let the small things go. The most important thing is that it gives me a toothache just looking at it. That's the mark of something yummy.

Oh, and it's not as lopsided in person. I had issues with lighting and the flash, so this is a weird angle.

Retirement Chihuahua Cake

This cake was for a retirement party at work. The retiree absolutely loves her chihuahua, Chiquita Maria Lolita Vasquez-Vitro, so the party planners ordered a 3D version of the pup. Unfortunately, little dogs don't feed too many people, so I had to chub him up a little.

Looks a tad like my own pup, eh? Add some floppy ears and an eye roll and it's her.

I wish I could have come up with a fur to use. It was a extremely short haired pup, so fur was not a solid option.

Joanne's Owl Cake

One of my favorite people in the world celebrated a birthday this week, and of course I brought a cake. Would you expect anything less?

This is a vanilla cake with buttercream frosting. There was no rhyme or reason for the owls, I just thought they were cute. I love the heart bellies and the winking pink owl. This may be one of my favorite cakes. The perfectionist in me sees a lot of flaws that I wish I could have fixed/smoothed out, but the rest of me just sees cute fondant owls.

Marc's Birthday: Superbowl Sunday

Marc's birthday fell on Superbowl Sunday this year. To commemorate his 29th year, plus the Superbowl, I played off of the 2010 Superbowl logo. The roman numerals behind Marc's name say 29, and that weird fork in the middle is suppose to be a field goal thing. Oh well, I tried.

Katie's Birthday: The White Cat

For Katie's birthday, her boyfriend requested a "red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting in the shape of a white cat." Done and done. The problem? When we cut in to it, it looked like a massacre. Very "bleedin' armadillo groom's cake" a la Steel Magnolias.

The crowd enjoyed it, but it bothers me that the cat looks more like a sheep.

I started off without the fur element but the cat looked homeless and like one of those naked cats without any fur. So I added the fur, but then it looked too much like a sheep. Solution? Collar with ID. Unfortunately, the face, feet, and writing was already done on the naked version, so those parts were just shaved looking.

The ears, tail, nose, and collar were made of fondant, the cake was red velvet, and everything else is cream cheese frosting. Lots of cream cheese frosting.

Holli's Birthday Cake

For Holli's birthday I went with a green/pink shabby chic look. Swirls, dots, and ribbons.

YUM.

Snowman Cake

I love him. Love, love, love him. I was devastated when we cut into him at work. He reminds me of Charlie, my favorite Christmas decoration. I'm not sure how his face ended up "melting" my heart, but I just love this little dude.

Turtle Cake

Katie ordered a turtle cake for her boyfriend Jeff's birthday. This was my first carrot cake, my first use of cream cheese frosting since my Merridee's days, and my first use of marshmallow fondant! Katie says it tasted good, so that's fantastic news!

The dark green, black eyes, and party hat are all made out of marshmallow fondant. I discovered that the marshmallow version tastes much better than the regular fondant. It's a little harder to work with because it is sticky, but the taste is light years better.

I had a really tough time with the cream cheese frosting. It was really hard to smooth out like buttercream. That's where the marshmallow fondant came in handy!

Happy Birthday Jeff!

Cars Cake

This is Christopher's CARS cake. His mom told me he liked cars and red.

In my quest to use as little fondant as possible (it tastes disgusting), buttercream turned out to be quite the challenge. Fondant looks so clean, and buttercream is so sticky!

Actually, it was the cake structure that was the real challenge. Without the frosting on it, it looked horrific. I just kept chopping up cake bits and sticking them to the sides with frosting to create the road. What a mess. Luckily, frosting covers up the structural nightmare underneath.

I do like how Lightening McQueen turned out. Fondant characters are too cute.

The top of the cake, looking down.

And my favorite part is there at the bottom - Tow Mater.

Isn't he cute? I almost wanted to keep him. But I figured taking something from a 4 year old is bad form.

The blue and yellow cars are toy cars. The old school kind where you pull them back and then the zoom forward.

Tow mater!! I think I just love the buck teeth.

Happy Birthday Christopher!

Skate Cake

A roller skate birthday cake for a 13 year old. They requested roller skates and flames. I lost a lot of sleep over the cake this week!

While it may look like the one skate is leaning right off the cake, I assure you, it is not. 1) I don't take level pictures, and 2) I cut the top of the cake on a slant and didn't notice. So it's not the stake that is slanting off the cake, it's actually just not a level top by like a 1/2 centimeter. And that's going to torture me.

Gyno Cake

Jane's roommate Kate is a gynecology nurse. Jane requested a gynecology cake for Kate's birthday. Yes, that is a speculum and the symbol for women.

Spiderman In the City

This cake is for Sean's 3rd birthday party! I don't know if my vision was captured as well as I would have liked, but I'm pleased with the buildings. AND the adorable cars. (Buildings and cars made with fondant.)

Turns out that it is freakishly tough to find a small spiderman figure these days. I had big plans for Spiderman to be standing on the ground shooting a web up to the building, but Spiderman was taller than the buildings so that wasn't going to work. But mom came up with the rooftop angle, and we went with it.

Friendly neighborhood Spiderman...

Father's Day - Poker Cake

Mom asked me to pull a cake together for Father's Day, so I went with the Poker theme since my dad plays several times a week at the Franklin bowling alley. The 1's and 5's are poker chips... apparently that was not clear by the cake-eaters.