Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Cake

This cake was SO much fun to make - just have to say that first off! All the little details on it - the ones on the front and around the sides you can't see when just casually observing :) Mickey Mouse clubhouse Birthday cake for a special little guy turning 2! Both tiers were yellow cake with vanilla buttercream filling. Top tier covered in red fondant, bottom tier covered in blue fondant. Just about all the details you see are also fondant with the exception of Mickey's ears - mixed in a little gum paste for stability since they were peeking over the top edge of the cake! For the hand-painted detailing, I used a mixture of black gel food coloring and lemon flavoring. Really hope this one made the Birthday boy's day extra special! :)

Bass Fisherman Birthday Cake

This cake was a really fun challenge due to a new technique I tried - "painting" with thinned icing! Yellow cake topped with vanilla buttercream icing for an avid fisherman! I wanted to use the painting technique to give it more of a realistic look on the cake and I think it really came out quite nicely - had fun making the cattails too!

Chocolate Heaven (In a Cupcake)

So I've been craving a chocolate cupcake (I mean, REALLY craving one!!) and Starbucks doesn't sell any (I checked) so what's a girl to do? Take matters into her own hands, that's what! I needed a chocolate fix in a bad way, and this cupcake fit the bill! Chocolate cupcake complete with semi-sweet chocolate morsels and a swirl of rich chocolate buttercream icing on top...oh, yeah! Ah....much better! :o)

Caprice de Jacques Inspired Birthday Cake

I was asked to make a cake for a good friend's Birthday and one thing to note about said friend is that she happens to be girly-girl - Very girly-girl! Now, over the Holidays I picked up a few new cake books and one of them happened to be Colette Peters' book, "Cakes to Dream On" and one design I've certainly been dreaming about was her "Caprice de jacques" cake - if you've seen the book, it's just absolutely gorgeous!! Dripping with handmade details from top to bottom and the most beautiful bows I've ever seen (I am SO envious of Colette's bows and hope one day to achieve bows of that magnitude on my cakes lol!) Anyway, I thought the colors and design on a smaller scale would be perfect for this girly-girl's Birthday, so I put my plan into action! The cake was my red velvet with cream cheese filling topped with a vanilla buttercream crumb coat and white fondant which I then scored into wavy lines on the sides. I used lemon flavoring and alternating pink and yellow luster dust to hand paint the fondant. Then I added my pink, yellow, white and purple fondant ribbon roses which had also been painted with shimmer dust. I added a string of fondant pearls and a pink gum paste bow on the top (because you can't have a girly-girl cake without a string of pearls and a pink bow of course!) Happy Birthday to a very special Daughter, Sister, Mommy, Wife and Woman of God! :)

Toy Story "3" Cake

This cake was for my very special little nephew who turned 3 over the weekend! He is SO into Toy Story right now so he HAD to have a Toy Story cake, there really was no other choice! :) His favorite character is Woody, so we fashioned the cake after him. The top tier was chocolate truffle cake with chocolate ganache filling topped with white fondant, black cow print and trimmed with brown fondant rope. The bottom tier was vanilla buttermilk cake with vanilla buttercream filling topped with blue "jean" fondant and a yellow gum paste belt buckle bearing the Birthday boy's initial - "J"! The star and the number "3" topper were formed out of a fondant/gum paste mixture. I think he was pretty excited about the cake and he certainly seemed to enjoy eating it! Happy Birthday to our little Valentine! :)

Pretty Flower Cupcakes

These were just done using a few leftover cupcakes from a baking project and some fondant flowers I'd made with intentions of using for something else, but it didn't work out so...voila! Instant flowery cupcakes! :) Nothing fancy, just yellow cupcakes topped with a swirl of vanilla buttercream then set off nicely by some pale pink fondant flowers - simple, but pretty!

Valentine Cupcakes (Part Two!)

These were done for a sleepover party - Mom requested a Valentine's theme of red, white and pink. She also requested that most be my chocolate chip cupcakes! So this is what I came up with - one dozen chocolate chip cupcakes decorated with red vanilla buttercream and white gum paste x's and o's dusted with rainbow shimmer dust, one dozen chocolate chip cupcakes decorated with white vanilla buttercream and red fondant hearts dusted with rainbow shimmer dust and one dozen yellow cupcakes decorated with pink vanilla buttercream and small red fondant hearts!

Toy Story Cake

Toy Story cakes have been the thing this year, what can I say? The funny thing is, even though this is officially the third Toy Story themed cake I've done this year (and I have another next weekend!) they've all been different which keeps it fun and challenging! This was a two-tiered cake (the top tier was hidden away inside the "box" on top!) the bottom tier was vanilla buttermilk cake with vanilla buttercream filling covered with sky blue fondant and the top tier was chocolate truffle cake with chocolate buttercream filling covered with brown fondant to match the brown "box" that slipped over the top tier of the cake. Most of the characters sat on top of the cake to look like they were in the box except for the army guys doing recon! :) Was told the Birthday boy didn't want to cut the cake which I loved to hear and took as a compliment!