Little Boy Blue...

A few weeks ago, I was able to do this cake for a friend's baby shower. The event planner told me that she had purchased some toille fabric which was a light blue for the tablecloth, and they were hoping to incorporate nursery rhymes into the event. I wanted something simple that would transport well (2 hours away) but that would still feed 35 people. I settled on this 12 inch round cake. This is a yellow cake with buttercream icing and filling.

Around the bottom, I wrote out the names of different nursery rhymes to give it a unique touch. I tried to find some that were boy-ish, and tried to space them out correctly (worked pretty well!). This was especially helpful because this cake was definitely tall (I made the layers pretty thick).

On top, I drew out some simple pictures of popular nursery rhymes such as Jack and Jill, Humpty Dumpty, and Hey Diddle Diddle. In the center I piped a monogrammed V for their last name! This cake was fun to do, although I did have to google some nursery rhymes (I couldn't think of enough to go around the bottom!).

Snakes and Snails, and Puppy-Dog Tails - It's A Boy!

Had a lot of fun doing these cupcakes for a baby shower today! These organic vanilla cupcakes were delicious (had to alter my normal recipe slightly to make them organic - which if you know me, changing recipes can be a small 'challenge'). The customer provided me with an invitation to show the colors and design they wanted me to match, and this is what I came up with.

I custom made all the decorations for the toppers out of card stock and scrap-booking supplies I had at my house. This was a cheaper option than making them all edible, and I was able to do more with them because they weren't made out of chocolate or gum-paste... I was really happy with how they turned out.

Tut, Tut, Looks like a Shower Cake

This cake was such an experience! Almost a disaster, twice, but it came through! This home-made marble cake with buttercream icing featured hand-piped chocolate figures you can see throughout the photos. I imagined this cake a month ago, and had it all worked out, but it didn't work out quite the way I planned. In the end, it came together, but was probably the second most stressful experience so far!

The tree topper was made from three 6 inch cakes that I shaped and then decorated to look like a tree. I put dowel rods in the tower shape, but disaster #1 happened when the entire thing fell and hit the counter. I had to scrape off the icing and re-decorate it. Then after I fixed it, I brought it out to take pictures, as you see here. Right after I took pictures, I was removing the tree topper to put in a box and the cake slid off and hit the table again. Hence disaster #2. The customer was standing right there when it happened and busted out laughing - which helped alleviate my stress!!!

Since I had to cut out part of the cake, I had to ice cupcakes to make up for some of the missing servings. These cupcakes were a last minute resort, but a cute addition to the cake.

Mini Cupcakes and Mini Davies

Our dear friends, the Davies, are having twins! My wife and Sabrena Deal of S. Carter Studios worked and planned a baby shower for Mrs. Davies, and my wife actually make this cake below. I have to give her 'props' because I think it looks pretty amazing! She said this is the kind of cake she could do!

My role was to make some mini organic spice cake cupcakes with organic cream cheese icing (something I could do). These bite-sized bits of happiness were just the thing for this well-planned baby shower!

Congratulations Davies!

Bridal Showers are for the Birds

I made this cake for a bridal shower today. The bride loves strawberry and funfetti cake, so the top layer is funfetti and the bottom is strawberry. I made buttercream icing, then tinted it to a daisy-ish yellow. The bride's colors are yellow and orange, and my dear friend planning the shower wanted orange Gerbera daisies on the yellow cake. She provided me with the birds you see on the top (purchased at Michael's), but was imagining them sitting on a branch of some type, so I made a little branch out of fo

ndant for the 'love birds' (or the 'birds of love' as my friend might like to refer to them) to sit on. I made the daisies out of gum paste, and then hand painted the orange coloring on them. I really like the way this turned out and I hope you do too! Congrats Angi and Solomon!

Baby Cakes...

Staff party at my work! One of our counselors is 8ish months pregnant, and we wanted to celebrate. What better way to celebrate than with cake?!? Half the cupcakes were chocolate again and half were white cake. The pacifiers were made out of white chocolate in the same fashion as the hearts on the engagement cupcakes. The icing on all of these cupcakes is buttercream icing, tinted various colors.

Engagement Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for our office staff meeting... We were celebrating all the people in our office who are engaged. Some of the cupcakes are chocolate and some are vanilla. The icing is chocolate cream cheese, and the white hearts are made of white chocolate. I melted the chocolate and then piped it into the heart shapes. Once they cooled, I piped little hearts on them, then placed them on the cupcakes. Overall, I was happy with how they turned out...

Welcoming Megan, Two by Two

This past weekend, my wife helped plan a baby-shower for my sister, who is due in December. I can't wait to be an uncle! My niece's name will be Megan Olivia, hence the title of this particular post!

At first, we were thinking I would do a Winnie the Pooh cake, but as time progressed, I began to develop an idea for a Noah's Ark cake instead. I got different ideas from a variety of cakes, and them compiled them into what you see here.

I used gum paste to make the water, the ark, the animals, and the rainbow on top. To do this, I had to separately tint each color, and then cut out the shapes to make the animals. This includes the dots for the giraffes, the mane for the lion, and the ears for the elephants. I made the ark in three pieces, and after they dried a little, I attached them. I read that you can paint on fondant with vanilla (just add some food coloring to clear vanilla), so I painted some of the boards on the ark to give it extra depth.

The water, I left a little bit marbled so it would look more natural. I brushed pearl dust on the rainbow, so that it wouldn't be so loud, and would fit better with the more neutral/pastel colors on the majority of the cake. I used candy sticks wrapped in ribbon to hang the animals around the cake.

The top tier is a white cake, and the bottom is chocolate. I used buttercream icing for the whole thing instead of tinting the icing pale yellow (which is what I was planning to do). Overall, I am thrilled with this cake, and had a lot of fun brainstorming how everything would work. Everyone seemed to love it, and I love that!

Black and White and Red All Over

I made my first Wedding Shower Cake yesterday. A member of my church was hosting the shower for her sister-in-law, and wanted to make sure the colors matched the colors of the bride's wedding, hence the red and black.

The bottom tier is chocolate and the top is vanilla. The decoration was fairly simple, and I made the bow as well. The monogramed topper was provided by the couple purchasing the cake, and I think it turned out well!