Hello Kitty/Abby!

My long-time friend, Kim (seriously, we've been friends since we were SIX!!!) asked me to do a cake for her daughter, Abby's 12th birthday.  Abby is really into Hello Kitty these days and wanted a Hello Kitty cake.  I had SO.MUCH.FUN with this one!

The cake itself is a chocolate cake with buttercream filling and frosting.  The decoration is made up of fondant and gum paste.  

The very best part of this cake was the delivery.  Kim lives about 90 minutes away from me, but we decided to meet half-way and have lunch.  Such fun to meet up with good friends like that!!

Here's Abby's cake with the party decorations.  Would you believe that I hadn't seen them?  It was by luck that the colors worked out as perfectly as they did!  Maybe that, or Kim and I are telepathic.  Wouldn't surprise me!

And here's the birthday girl, Abby with her cake!

 SO happy to be a part of your birthday, Abby!  I hope you had a great day and a great party!

Looney Tunes Pussyfoot Cake

Kim requested a cake for her sister's birthday.  She said that every year, she gets her sister something with Pussyfoot, the Looney Tunes character, on it.  This year, she wanted that something to be a cake.  I was happy to oblige!

 I made Pussyfoot out of a gum paste/fondant mix and added some cute little flowers.  The cake is a chocolate cake with buttercream filling and frosting.

I hope that she had a fantastic birthday celebration with her sister!  This was such a fun cake to do!

Gingerbread Houses 2012

I taught my Gingerbread decorating class again this year and had just as much fun as I had last year.  I saw some familiar faces and some new ones to the class.  We spent the first 30 minutes of the class assembling the pre-bakes gingerbread houses (we used Wilton kits) and learning a few piping techniques such as stars, dots, icicles, zig-zags and wavy lines.  The kits only come with tip 5 and the tree (which you'll see pictured below) came with a star tip.  You really don't need more than that to decorate your gingerbread items.   

 These two were cousins.  Looks like they were having a pretty good time!

 Decorating gingerbread men and women too!!

He was SO proud of his gingerbread man!

 Here is pride too!

My mom and daughter attended the class as well.  It was so fun to have them there.  This is the first time Josie was able to see her mommy teach a class.  It was exciting for the both of us!  And my mom did a GREAT job helping Josie with her house.

 These five had a great time!  Look at the village they created!

 Complete with a beautifully decorated Christmas tree!

 Here's my house that I made.  Mine went to my mom...per tradition.  ;)

 Here is Josie with her completed work of art.

 Evelyn's turned out beautifully as well!

And today, I got to spend some time with my nephew who got to decorate a gingerbread house with his Auntie.

Here he is with his completed work.  And now...to play video games!

SUPER fun!  I love traditions and I hope to carry these on for years to come!  Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Christmas Cookie Class

It's always fun to come up with new ideas for classes at Ben Franklin.  One that I thought would go over well would be a Christmas cookie decorating class.  I had 5 ladies join me for some instruction on taking their usual Christmas cut-outs to the next level.  After an hour of instruction, they had the rest of the class period to decorate away.  And here's what they came up with.

I thought they turned out wonderfully!  They will most certainly be the stars of their cookie trays!  Thanks, ladies for making such a fun class! Merry Christmas!

Sheila's Leopard Print Bow Cake

Erin asked me to do a cake for her mom's birthday.  Sheila always likes carrot cake, and I have to admit that mine is absolutely delicious!  Cream cheese frosting is delightfully creamy on top and you have a little slice of heaven at your fingertips.  

Anyway, you may recall that I previously did a cake for her where I covered the cake in a leopard print fondant.  I wanted to carry on that theme and instead did a leopard print bow.  Never seen one of these before.  

To make the bow, I created the fondant/gum paste base color; kind of like a tan/beige.  I cut all of my pieces and formed them and let them dry overnight.  Then I hand-painted the leopard print on each one of the bow loops and on the ribbon on the cake.  I used an orange and black, diluted with vanilla extract.  

I love the way it turned out!  And Sheila, I hope you had a VERY happy birthday!!!

Primrose Cake Pops

Kari and her husband Chad celebrated the adoption of their daughter, Primrose, this week.  She is an absolutely beautiful little girl, who I'm told has an absolutely beautiful disposition.  They are most certainly blessed!  To help celebrate, our mutual friend Erin ordered cake pops.  I was told that they had to be pink, pink and more pink with bling if I had it!  Kari also likes fruity flavored cakes, so I chose strawberry cake as the cake pop flavor.  

On half of the cake pops, I decorated them with royal icing primroses.  Appropriate, eh?!

 On the other half of the cake pops, I decorated them with varying shades of pink "p's".

And I wrapped them and tied them up with a few shades of pink ribbon.

I hope that Kari, Chad, Primrose and the rest of their family had a wonderful celebration!  I wish them all the best (and I can't wait to officially meet baby Primrose!)!!!  Congratulations!!!!!

Thankful for Turkey Cake Pops

Last year around this time, MY cake decorating instructor, Karen, came over and provided a demonstration to me and some of my cake classmates on how to make cake pops.  One of the cake pops we made was one that looked a lot like my turkey below.

So, I was asked by Ben Franklin to do a demo on cake pops in the store on Saturday and I thought that this being Thanksgiving week, what a great cake pop to make!  And perhaps you can try these with your families this week!

 
So, after the cake pops are dipped in chocolate, you add two preztel legs,

 two candy eyes,

 4-5 candy corn feathers,

and an orange and red rainbow chip sprinkle. 

I LOVE how ridiculously silly they look.  I just laugh at them!

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!!!

Callie's Owl-stravaganza!!!

One of my very best friends in the whole wide world, Stacy, was planning a 1st birthday party for her beautiful daughter, Callie.  She asked me to do Callie's cake and gave me PLENTY of notice (which I always appreciate), and Stacy included me in her brainstorming ideas for the party (which was also super fun).  It was neat to listen to all of Stacy's fantastic ideas and her amazing vision turn into such a beautiful party.  

She decided to go with an owl theme for Callie's party.  The colors she found herself drawn to were bright pink and orange.  She researched high and low to find the "right" items for the party, which included making her own items (the masks and the owl pillows seen below) and ordering banners and signs from an artist on etsty.com.  Here's the picture she gave me for inspiration for the cake. 

Stacy wanted an two-tiered cake and we discussed ideas and exchanged thoughts back and forth.  She ultimately gave me creative freedom and I took it.  In the final hour, I decided to make the two-tiered cake a topsy-turvy cake, just for fun!  The owls and the color-schemed screamed "whimsical" to me and the topsy-turvy was then justified. 

But first came the owl topper.  Sculpted out of rice krispies and covered in gum paste and fondant. 

I wanted the owl to look as though it was sitting in a nest on top of a tree.  The nest was designed to be Callie's smash cake (but we decided on a cupcake at the party...more on that later).

The top tier of the cake was a yellow cake with buttercream and strawberry preserve filling.  The bottom tier of the cake was a chocolate cake with chocolate fudge, buttercream and Oreo filling.  (Best.Flavor.Combination.Ever!  Totally MY favorite!)

Stacy also requested soy, dairy and gluten-free cupcakes for the party due to some dietary restrictions.  She provided the cupcake mix and I baked them and decorated them with 7-minute frosting; a very marshmallow-y, light and sweet topping!

 And here's what the cake and cupcakes looked like at their destination. 

We're getting ready to sing Happy Birthday to Callie.  Here's her smash cake. 

And here's the adorable Callie!  A cute little princess, indeed!

After Callie's adventure, I carved up the cake.  A rare moment when I actually get to see the cake cut and served.  Here's what it looked like on the inside.  YUM!

Dear Callie - I hope you had a wonderful birthday celebration!  I'm so thankful I got to be a part of your special day!  I look forward to celebrating many more with you!