Basketball Jersey Cake

This Birthday guy is a big Miami Heat fan, so I decorated the jersey using the Heat's colors! Chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream crumb coat covered in white fondant. All the details you see are fondant as well. Put the Birthday guy's name on the back of the jersey and his age - "10"! :)

Zebra Print Sweet 16

I've definitely been looking forward to this one - zebra print, hot pink and lime green? Oh, yeah! Bottom tier was white vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream filling, top tier was chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream filling, both topped with white fondant and black fondant zebra stripes. Bottom tier was edged with lime green fondant balls, top tier was edged with hot pink fondant ribbon and a large bow at the back of the cake. The finishing touch was the hot pink and lime green plaque bearing the all-important "16"! :o)

Cherry Blossom Birthday Cake

This cake was requested as a smaller, one tier version of the Cherry Blossom Bridal Shower Cake I'd done in the past for a Birthday cake! Chocolate cake, chocolate ganache filling, vanilla buttercream crumb coat topped with white fondant and edged by a brown grosgrain ribbon. Decorated with a brown fondant tree and pink gum paste cherry blossoms!

Pink and White First Birthday

I do have a girly girl side at heart, so I really enjoyed making these pink and white cupcakes and tiny smash cake for a special little girl's first Birthday! One dozen cupcakes were lemon cake with white vanilla buttercream icing topped with pink fondant flowers and a white fondant "1", the other dozen were chocolate and vanilla marble cupcakes with pink vanilla buttercream icing topped with white fondant flowers and a pink fondant "1". I made a vanilla "smash" cake for the Birthday girl and topped it with pink and white vanilla buttercream! :)

Chocolate Espresso Cupcakes

Coffee buzz wrapped up in a cupcake - that's how I'd describe these - oh, and indescribably yummy too! Chocolate espresso cupcakes topped with mocha buttercream and garnished with a chocolate covered espresso bean! :o)

Fireman's Helmet Birthday Cake

This was quite the challenge, albeit a fun one (as always!) Someone wanted to re-create her Fiance's helmet out of cake to celebrate his Birthday so that's what we did! She sent me pictures of his helmet for me to go by (taken in secret of course!) The cake was red velvet with vanilla buttercream filling and crumb coat covered in black fondant to match his helmet and all the details are fondant as well. I used a little yellow luster dust to try to match the reflective patches on his helmet and even added the Tarheel sticker on the back of his helmet as well! Hope this cake made his Birthday an especially memorable one! :o)

Fender Stratocaster Cake

What a fun challenge this was - my first guitar cake! This cake was requested for a band member's Birthday - a replica of the guitar he owns and plays. The cake was my lemon pound cake topped with a vanilla buttercream crumb coat and varying shades of fondant. For the details, I used fondant pieces painted with silver luster dust mixed with a little lemon flavoring. All in all, pretty happy with my first attempt at making a Fender! Would love to have a crack at a full size replica with all the bells and whistles though! :o)

March Madness Cupcakes

Here in central North Carolina March can mean one thing and one thing only...March Madness is upon us full force! Okay, so these cupcakes weren't actually for college basketball but for basketball on a somewhat smaller scale (my 9 year old son's basketball team pizza party) but they'd fit the time of year nicely, no? :) Yellow cupcakes with swirls of decadent chocolate buttercream topped off by fondant basketballs!

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!

Hunter Birthday Cake

This cake was for an avid hunter's 7th Birthday. He now has quite a few deer under his belt, so his proud Mom made the perfect choice when selecting his Birthday cake! :) Chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream icing - the only must have for the Birthday boy - the deer (and the chocolate!)

Valentine Cupcakes

Yes, I suppose it is a little early for Valentine's Day cupcakes...but, well...they're so cute, does it really matter?! And we're just getting into the spirit of things, you know, so...there! On to the cupcakes! Devils' food cupcakes topped by a swirl of vanilla buttercream icing and a red fondant heart! So pretty and simple! :)

Yellow Mustang Birthday Cake

Sorry for the delay on posting this, but I've had the fun task of dealing with a computer virus...so just now getting around to posting info for a cake that was actually a project for last weekend! This Birthday guy is a huge yellow mustang enthusiast (to put it mildly!), he's a member of the local group, shows his own yellow mustang in area car shows (which is his BABY) so was there any other choice in decorating his 21st Birthday cake? Of course not! The cake was a vanilla buttermilk cake with chocolate buttercream filling, covered in yellow fondant. I used black fondant for the trim around the bottom and to cut out the mustang for the top of the cake. I painted the three strips of fondant under the mustang with silver luster dust to make the mustang stand out a little more. I'm told the Birthday boy was pretty happy and not too thrilled about having to cut his cake to eat it which I took as a compliment! :)

Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Wow...just saying the name of these cupcakes makes me smile! :) While stuck at home with the kids yesterday I decided to pull out one of my new recipes I'd found and try it out - I mean, what better to do on a snow day than to put on a few pounds to help keep warm, right? Forget cookie dough - I'd like to have eaten this cupcake dough for a snack!! Yum!! Brown sugar cupcake with chocolate morsels, "cookie dough" filling, topped by brown sugar buttercream and mini semi-sweet chocolate morsels. They look cute and taste even BETTER! :)

Buzz Lightyear Birthday

I've been looking forward to working on this Birthday cake and cupcakes for a while - who doesn't love Toy Story?! Buzz Lightyear cake with matching green alien cupcakes! Bottom tier of cake was vanilla buttermilk cake with vanilla buttercream icing, top tier was chocolate truffle cake with chocolate buttercream icing, all covered in white fondant. All the cutouts, trim and decorations you see are fondant except for the wings toward the back of the cake - those were made using gum paste. Buzz is not a gum paste or fondant figure - picked him up from the local Target! :) Cupcakes were vanilla buttermilk topped by vanilla buttercream icing. I used candy eyes and melted green candy wafers to make their antennae so everything on the cupcakes was edible!

Big Time Rush Birthday

Okay, first off - I have to make a confession. I had never heard of Big Time Rush before receiving the request to make this cake. There. I said it. Please don't yell at me. My kids are just not at that stage yet (thank goodness!) We're still into a combination of Bakugan, Littlest Pet Shop, Legos and Barbie so yeah, not there just yet. So I have now been schooled in the ways of Kendall, James, Carlos and uh...what was the other one's name? :) Anyway, the cake was my chocolate truffle cake (yum!) with vanilla buttercream filling and icing. All the lettering, cutouts and detailing you see were fondant - all the lettering cut with the aid of my cricut. This was a fun cake to do and since I'm sure the Birthday girl knows much more about Big Time Rush than I do - I know she'll appreciate it! :)

The Holly and the Ivy

I relate a lot of things to music and even though there is no ivy on this cake, this song was going through my head while I was working on it, hence the post title! :) There has been sickness in my house for the past several days - YUCK! I've been itching to try some ideas for Christmas cakes, but didn't want to share germ-infested baked goods, so decided to decorate a styrofoam dummy cake (no calories whatsoever!) This was an 8" round layer cake covered with dark green fondant which I edged at the bottom with yellow fondant scrolls painted with gold luster dust. I then added yellow fondant drapes to the sides and painted those with gold luster dust as well. I cut out some red Christmas tree decorations and accented them with a little gold and some green holly leaves and red holly berries. All in all, I was pretty happy with how this turned out even though it looks almost nothing like my initial design! :)

Peppermint Mocha Cupcakes

This was the first of a few Christmas-themed cupcakes I want to try out! Chocolate truffle cupcakes with peppermint buttercream icing topped by a peppermint candy! If you've ever tried the candy cane hershey kisses (which I am totally addicted to), the icing tastes JUST like them - oh, so yummy!! Don't even ask how much butter goes into both the cupcakes and the icing - trust me you really don't want to know - ignorance is bliss! :)

Thanksgiving Cupcakes

These were the same pumpkin spice cupcakes I've done before, just decorated a little differently! Pumpkin spice cupcakes topped with a swirl of cinnamon cream cheese icing and gum paste leaves in fall colors. Loved how all the colors looked together! :)

Twilight Birthday!

I am a book nerd - I admit it and am quite proud of it, in fact. I have the good fortune to have quite a few good friends who are just as nerdy as I am, and we have gone to midnight book releases and movies together - basking in the geekiness of it all :) Two of my friends are celebrating their Birthday this week and being HUGE fans of the Twilight series I couldn't think of a better cake than this to celebrate! The cake is my lemon pound cake with vanilla buttercream filling, topped with black fondant. All the pieces on top and the scrolls on the bottom are fondant as well - all hand formed. I used a mixture of silver luster dust and lemon flavoring to paint the scrolls and the script on the side of the cake - you'll notice a specially requested phrase "Edward prefers brunettes" - that was one of the Birthday girls' ideas lol! Had so much fun with this cake!

Minnie Mouse Birthday cake with matching cupcakes

I absolutely LOVE when I get to design cakes/cupcakes around themes!! That was the case with this Birthday cake and cupcakes - Mom wanted them to match the Birthday girls' outfit for the party! Yellow cake with vanilla buttercream filling, covered in fondant. Bow and ears were both gum paste, I hand painted the zebra stripes on the bow and the trim around the base of the cake. Cupcakes were yellow cake topped by a vanilla buttercream swirl, fondant bow and gum paste ears. Had a BLAST doing this cake - just loved the way the zebra stipes looked with the hot pink fondant! :)