First cakes of 2012

Happy new year!  Ok, I realize February is almost over, and I'm a little delayed in getting this up.  So far this year I've made 2 cakes, and have several orders coming in- Thanks everyone!  Alright down to business- up first is a birthday cake for a friend.  The main thing he requested was chocolate cake.  I was wracking my brain trying to figure out what design of cake to make.  He is a Jersey Shore fan, always fist-pumping when we are out, so I got the idea to make a fist pump cake!  

It didn't quite turn out how I hope, but was devoured quickly.  The cake is a from scratch chocolate cake with buttercream frosting.  The stripes are fondant.  The fist/ arm is made of cereal treats and covered with fondant.  

The second cake for the year is a first birthday cake for a friend from high school.  She had seen my album on Facebook, and liked a cake I did last year for Jack's first birthday (posted on that one here: http://britsallabouthecake.blogspot.com/2011_04_01_archive.html).  It is very similar to the one I made for Jack, but had a few different touches for little William!  

Chocolate pops!  These are made from an adorable mold by Wilton.  They have 3 flavors- peanut butter, milk chocolate, and white chocolate for the colors.  Great party favors!

The main event!  The monkey is chocolate cake with buttercream frosting, and fondant for the belly, feet and face.  The arm holding the banana and the banana are cereal treats.  The base is made of confetti cake with buttercream frosting, and a green fondant blanket. 

Mini Monkey Smash Cake is made with chocolate cake, buttercream frosting, and fondant belly and face.  

Here they all are together!

Stay tuned!  More to come in April :)

December cakes!

Wow!  December was a very busy month.  October and November, not so much, at least as far as cakes are concerned.  In December I made 4 cakes, 2 in one weekend!  The first cake of the month was a Caillou themed cake.  My boss's neighbor and a good friend of ours requested a Caillou cake for her son's 3rd birthday.  I'm not going to lie, I had to google it to find out what it was.  Since I don't have children yet, I'm a little out of the loop on some of the popular kid things.  Here's some pictures of the first cake!

The cake was marble with buttercream frosting and some fondant accents. 

Here's a close up of the figures.  They are made of modeling chocolate and fondant.  It was my first time using modeling chocolate, but it worked out well for these figures!

The following weekend, one of my sister's best friends, Megan, who happens to be a former co-worker of mine, was turning 30.  My sister, Megan's husband and a few of her friends were going to throw a surprise party for her.  Unfortunately, the party didn't work out as planned.  One friend got stuck in Chicago on her way home from Florida due to the weather.  Another friend had a family emergency.  I couldn't go because I had a wedding to go to (more on that in a minute).  Though the party was small, they had a good time, and Megan was very excited for her cake.  Because I had a wedding that weekend, and I was doing the groom's cake, we kept Megan's cake simple.  My original plan was to do a white cake with caramel swirl, but that didn't work out how I planned so we went with a confetti cake instead.  

The party was at Pizza King, so we went with w train theme.  The train is actually a really fun wooden toy I found.  I realize the toy may seem a bit juvenile for a 30 year old woman, but she had a baby boy in September, and I got the idea to use a toy of some sort on the cake that the baby could enjoy when he gets a little older.  It has removable wooden blocks that can be stacked on the "cars" in different ways.  The other decorations and piping are buttercream.  

The same weekend I made the train cake, I was doing a groom's cake for my friend Lindsay.  Lindsay and I have been friends since we were 11.  At her bridal shower, we got on the topic of cakes, and she asked me then if I could do a groom's cake for her wedding.  Her fiance (now husband) is from Michigan and is a Detroit Tigers fan, so that was the logical plan for his cake!  

Here's a close up of the cake.  It is a white cake, with both buttercream and fondant decorations. I used the small ball pan for the baseball, and the larger sports ball pan for the hat (just half).  

Here is the cake table setup.  I wish I could take credit for the wedding cake, but I can't!

The final cake of the month was also for my boss's neighbor and friend.  Her husband's 41st birthday was January 1, and she wanted a cake for him.  He enjoys golf.  I was trying to decide what to do, and found a few simple designs that looked great.  

The golf cake was marble with buttercream frosting.  I used the large ball pan for the golf ball, which was covered with fondant.  The original plan was to have the whole ball on top of the cake, but I had a few problems with stability.  I cut a space in the rounds, and placed the ball in partly.  

Top view of the cake!  

Whew!  That was a busy month!  Hope to have a few more of those in the future :)

....and Fondant Fun

About a week before the gluten free cake was made, my mom had asked me if I might be able to help her with a cake.  My mom taught me a lot of the things I know about cake decorating, so I was excited that she trusted me to help her with something she'd never worked with before.....fondant.   She was making a lady bug cake for her assistant's daughter's 4th birthday.  The bugs would need to be smooth and shiny in order for everything to look perfect.  Mom and her assistant picked out the design they wanted.  We made the fondant, I started cutting out the shapes, and she iced the cake and got it ready.  Here is the final product!

One layer white, one chocolate, with buttercream frosting and fondant decorations.  How cute is this?!

Gluten Free......

Way back in April, an old friend from high school contacted me after seeing a few of my Facebook cake pictures, and asked if I could make a gluten free cake for her anniversary.  It would be her 1st anniversary this year, and they weren't going to be able to eat the original cake topper because she had recently found out that she was allergic to gluten.  Up until last month, I had never made anything gluten free before.  I did some research and looked for recipes before saying yes to this one.  She and I worked together on finding recipes for the cake.  I baked a couple different concoctions and asked my boss to try them, since he is the most selective eater I know, and he loves cake.  She sent me a picture of a cake design she liked, and I went to work!  Here is the outcome of the anniversary cake....

This anniversary cake is a gluten free white cake, with buttercream icing and fondant decor. 

I received one of the highest compliments a person could get on this cake- that it tasted great, especially for being gluten free, and that she would be recommending me in the future :)

  

Baby Shower

Babies, babies, babies!  I know of several lovely ladies who are currently expecting, one of whom I've known since I was 8 or 9.  Megan is my sister's best friend, and a former co-worker of mine.  She helped me get my first job in the legal field.  She has been on vacation with our family, hung out at our house growing up, and is kind of like a 2nd sister to me, and a 3rd daughter to my parents.  My mom had the privilege of making her wedding cake.  My sister was the organizing help of the baby shower, and asked me to do the cake.  It was a Huffman production!  Initially Stef (my sister), was undecided about whether to jsut do a diaper cake, or to make a real cake too.  We decided on both.  Each had a bit of surprise in them.  Pictures and descriptions below!

Here's both "cakes" and my gift.

This diaper cakes is made with just over 100 diapers.  In the middle of the cake, for the "core," is a surprise from after the baby is born.  A bottle of wine is hidden in the midst of all those diapers, an idea I took from http://alphamom.com/family-fun/activities/how-to-make-a-unique-diaper-cake-ha/.  Using the wine in the middle not only makes a nice surprise for mom and dad to be, but it also helps add stability to the "cake".  Brilliant!

For this cake each tier is one layer white and one layer chocolate cake.  To keep with the blue and brown decorative theme, the white cake was colored blue! (Funny side note, Megan got married on St. Patrick's day, and as a surprise for her husband, the cake was tinted green.  I didn't even think about that until my sister said something about it!).  The top tier is iced in chocolate buttercream, the bottom in white buttercream.  The decorations are marshmallow fondant, and the shoes on top are real shoes!

June, the month of AWESOME

It's June, the month of awesome.  Why awesome you ask?  Numerous birthdays, parties, and a wedding later in the month.  And let me tell you this first full week of June has been a doozie!  I had 3 cakes to do this week.  The first was for a friend or my boss's who wanted a cake for a co-worker/friend's birthday.  The second was for my boss who was having a political fundraiser on his birthday.  The third and final cake was for a neighbor friend of my boss's (are you noticing a trend here?).  It made for a very busy week, working during the day and making cakes 3 nights this week, in addition to working at the fundraiser and still attempting to have a bit of a social life.  Fortunately, for the sake of my need for sleep and relaxation on occasion, I think the rest of the month will be quieter.  Unfortunately, that also means that business isnt quote booming just yet!  Here's some pictures!  

This cake was white cake with buttercream frosting.  It was my first time trying brush embroidery and I think it turned out pretty well.  The lady I made it for liked it and let me know that the birthday girl loved it so much she didn't want to share!  

My boss had a fundraiser on his birthday for his political campaign.  He loves chocolate, and there were going to be several people at the fundraiser, so it had to be good!  Gotta market somehow!  His cake was chocolate, with chocolate ganache filling, and a layer of white chocolate ganache with fresh strawberries, covered in chocolate buttercream.  I thought it was pretty tasty if I might say so!

Last but not least, Haydon's birthday cake!  His parents decided on a baseball themed party, and his mom, Becky and I, messaged back and forth several times to make sure we had all the details covered.  I had found a few other baseball cakes that other people have done, and we ended up combining 2 of the ideas.  Haydon's cake is yellow cake with buttercream frosting.  The decorations are buttercream, with crushed graham crackers for the "dirt," and the large baseball is covered with marshmallow fondant.  He also got his very own baseball smash cake!

May Cakes!

Whew May has been a busy month!  I had sinus surgery the first week, and spent about a week and half after that recovering.  Luckily everything went well.  Also, having just moved, there was a lot of organizing to do.  In addition to all that, May had my friend Jordan's bridal shower, a surprise 60th anniversary party for my grandparents, and Memorial Day!  Below are the cakes I made for each!

Jordan's Bridal Shower Cake

Jordan loves daisies and the color green.  For her cake, we did the bottom layer chocolate cake with chocolate ganache filling, the top layer was yellow cake.  All was iced in green buttercream!

Grandma and Grandpa's Anniversary cake

I had some help on this one from my mom.  She came up with the design and was nice enough to bake the cakes, and create the basket handle.  This cake is one layer white cake, one layer chocolate, with buttercream frosting.  My Grandma loves lilacs, so we had to put a few of those on the cake for her!  We didn't know this when we made it, but Grandma said later that this was the first "wedding cake" they ever had for the 2 of them.  So glad we could throw them a surprise party!

For Memorial Day weekend, I had my parents over for a cookout.  I wanted to make a simple, but fun and summery dessert.  This cake is white cake, with blackberry and raspberry filling, and a white chocolate frosting.  I kind of made it up as I went, but was very happy with the outcome!