Forever a Family

April 29th is such a fantastic day for so many reasons.  Two of them happen to be that it was Aiden's birthday and it was also the day his family "officially" became complete.   Seriously!!  A wonderful day to celebrate!

Erin and Kari (Aiden's mom) have been friends for like...EVER and she wanted to plan something nice for the celebration.  She ordered cupcakes from me and forwarded a picture of cupcakes that were displayed in the shape of a tree.  This was a gift she got for Aiden and I thought the words on top were just lovely, and very, very true!  

Here's the tree cake with that phrase on the trunk.  The cupcakes were vanilla cupcakes, filled with strawberry cream cheese frosting and topped with creamy buttercream, half vanilla, half chocolate.

I just happened to have a little sugar blue bird waiting for his tree.  

Kari also wanted to share a little something with the many people that made April 29th a possibility.  So I whipped up these cake pops in Aiden's favorite color scheme (AKA -Spiderman) so Kari could share a little celebratory treat with these VIPs.

I am absolutely HONORED that I got to be a part of SUCH a special day! You are such a beautiful family!  I wish you a lifetime of love and blessings!

Coming Soon... A Baby Shower Cake

Nancy requested a baby shower cake a few months back.  She wanted something original, envisioned a two-tiered cake, and wanted something for a baby boy.  Here's the sketch she gave me.  

The color scheme came together once she discovered what the mom-to-be wanted and I think this little baby boy shower cake turned out really cute.  

The bottom tier is my chocolate cake with homemade chocolate mousse filling.  The top tier is vanilla cake with raspberry preserve filling.  Everything is frosted with a creamy buttercream frosting and I used either gum paste or fondant (or a combination of both) to make the decorations. 

I hope that the mom-to-be had a beautiful baby shower!  I wish her well!  

Easter Cake Pops

I taught a Wilton Pops! class earlier this month.  It was the first time that I taught said class and I did deter from the program a little bit.  First, my class was an additional hour in length and second, I actually taught how to make CAKE pops.  Overall, I think my students appreciated the extra information.

Because Easter was right around the corner, we themed our decorated Cake Pops accordingly.  My students made little chicks, bunnies and decorated Easter eggs.  It's amazing what you can do with chocolate chips, M & M's and candy corn!!   I think they turned out so cute!!!

I took this one step further, however.  My daughter had to bring in treats for her class Easter party at school.  I made some additional cake pops and turned the pops around so the sticks came out the top.  This way, when I added the Easter grass and candy to the bottom of the bags, the bunnies looked like they were sitting amongst the goodies.  I also rolled my cake pops in sugar.  It adds a little crunch and durability to the Pops.  Kids love 'em!

I hope your Easter was absolutely splendid and filled with super fun treats!!!

Cobra Cake

My friend Jodi requested a cake for her husband's birthday.  He has this FABULOUS car and wanted to incorporate it's design into the theme of his birthday cake.  She wanted a blue cake with white stripes and the Cobra to be on top.  Let's just pause for a second and take a look at this beautiful car.  

So here's the cake.  It's a chocolate cake with creamy buttercream frosting and filling.  The details are made out of gum paste and edible food marker.  

I hope Jodi's husband had a GREAT birthday celebration!  

Cadbury Egg Cupcakes

So....  I saw these on Pinterest and I couldn't resist.  Danny "needed" to bring in "treats" for his "birthday" and I thought this was a great opportunity to try something that I wanted to try without the need to have a bunch of cake leftover.  Sorry people Danny works with.  It's the truth.  

So here they are.  I used a Wacky Cake recipe because the one I have only makes 12 cupcakes or one 8" cake.  I added a Cadbury Egg to each of the cupcakes which resulted in some overflowing (so I ended up with a few extras for pictures and taste-testing.  Yesssssss!)

They baked up nicely.  

And then I frosted them.

And here's what they looked like on the inside.  

So what did I think?  I thought they were DELICIOUS!!  The baking changed the consistency of the Cadbury Egg, and I kind of liked it.  It was more dense. The frosting I used wasn't too sweet, so that helped too.  I would totally make these again!!!

How was your Easter?  Did you make anything fancy??

Danny's Double-Duty Cake

On Saturday, we celebrated Easter with our families.  Everyone was available and we took the opportunity to enjoy some good food and visit with each other.  Danny's birthday was on Sunday, so I also took this opportunity to (secretly) celebrate his birthday as well...but he'd find out about THAT later.  

The guests assembled and we sat down for a wonderful Easter brunch, complete with super colorful deviled eggs.  

When we finished our meal, the kids had the opportunity to look for eggs and baskets and play with their fun new toys.  Then, it was time for cake.  Danny had no idea that we were actually celebrating his birthday too.  And I had a little bit of challenge coordinating an Easter cake AND a Captain America cake, which was his request this year.  (Last year, I made TWO cakes for him.  A Sherlock Holmes and an R2D2 cake...wasn't going to do that again this year. Heaven forbid I start a tradition!!!)

So, I found two cakes online that I thought were too cute not to try and/or BLEND!!!  So here's what I came up with.  This cute little lamb is on the outside of the cake.

I told Danny that this was his birthday cake and asked him to pose with it.  If you look closely enough, you can kind of tell that he's really not THAT excited about this cake.  I mean, he requested a Captain America cake.  This was a lamb.  But he was a GOOD sport.

This was the time that we unveiled the decorating that our daughter Josie and Danny's mom, Marcia, had done.  Okay...the birthday celebration was beginning to unfold.

Then I cut into the cake and everything was right with the world.  It all made sense.  Easter celebration on the outside and Danny's birthday on the inside.  Phew!!!  How did I do that?  I followed these steps. I used a red velvet cake recipe and just colored (or didn't color) the batter.  It took some concentration to assemble the cake, but overall it was very easy to do.  I'm sure this will be a popular option for the 4th of July celebrations as well.   

 Happy Birthday, Danny!!  Thanks for being such a great sport!  We love you so!

Kaylin's Garden Party

My friend Elly requested a cake for her daughter's 4th birthday.  I made Kaylin her Dora birthday cake last year to celebrate the big THREE, but this year, Kaylin was going to be having a Garden party.  How delightfully splendid!!  Indeed!

Elly requested a chocolate cake with a frosting that is not "too sweet."  Boy do I have the recipe for that!!  It's a cooked buttercream recipe and it is amazing.  It's now my favorite.  Absolutely.  Holy moly.  It's good.  

So this cake was covered with this deliciously smooth, sweet, but not-too-sweet buttercream, and topped with royal icing lilies, roses, primroses, apple blossoms, daffodils and violets.  

 And it's a family tradition that Elly makes and decorates beautiful cut-out cookies for her kids in the shape of their age.  Here are Kaylin's matching number four cookies.  (Aren't they beautiful?!)

I'm so thankful I got to be a part of your special day, Kaylin!  I wish you the happiest 4th birthday!!!

Bridal Dress Cupcakes

My friend Mari requested cupcakes for her wonderful friend, Joy's, bridal shower this last weekend.  She sent over a picture of cupcakes arranged in a way that they looked like a wedding dress.  I thought it was totally gorgeous and had so much fun putting these together.  

The cupcakes are red velvet cupcakes, filled with cream cheese frosting and topped with buttercream.  I used double-sided tape on the bottom of the cupcake wrappers to keep them in place (they had to travel a bit).  The rhinestone ribbon was found in the wedding area of Ben Franklin Crafts - TOTAL SCORE!!!  

I hope that Joy and all of her special ladies had a great time at the bridal shower!  Congrats!!!

Will's Puppy Pawty

My dear friend Kate requested a cake for her son, Will's, 4th birthday.  I canNOT believe that he's four already.  I was there when he turned two.  I was there when he turned three.  I just can't believe how quickly this time has gone and how he's growing into such a wonderful little boy.  

This year, Kate was throwing a puppy party for him.  Or should I say, "pawty?"  Too cute!  The kids at this party had the opportunity to "adopt" a puppy, name it, bathe it, bring it to the vet and give it a collar and name tag.  The kids also received a cute "kennel" that they got to decorate as well.  SUPER cute (and my two girls are still playing with "Mar-Mar" and "Cup" and love them so!)!!

For this cake, Kate requested that some part of it be gluten-free, as she would have some guests who would appreciate that option.  Last year, I made Will's dinosaur that topped his cake out of Rice Krispies and she request that if I did that again to use gluten-free cereal.  Well, I thought doing a gluten-free cake might just be a better option.  

The bottom tier of this cake is a chocolate cake with buttercream filling and frosting.  The top, grassy tier is a chocolate gluten-free cake with buttercream filling and frosting.  The little blue dog on the top is made out of vanilla cake and lemon frosting, covered in fondant.  The rest of the details on the cake are made out of gum paste/fondant.

I also made some additional gluten-free cupcakes and topped them with fondant doggy bones.

Will's parents outdid themselves again for this party.  Great food, so many fun activities for the kids and an added bonus?  The WEATHER!!!  It was a GORGEOUS day in April!  The fresh air was an added bonus!!

Happiest of birthdays to you, Will!!  Thanks again for letting me be a part of it.  ;)

Daddy/Daughter Dance

Josie and her Daddy went to the Daddy/Daughter Dance at her school this last weekend.  It was a special event and one that will certainly become a fun tradition for the two of them.  The theme this year was "Walking the Red Carpet."  Josie was so excited to wear her fancy dress that screamed Hollywood!  Danny dressed to coordinate with his "date."

Here they are together before the dance.  Josie had just received her wrist corsage and was feeling like a little princess.

I made cupcakes for the event and Josie was my helper.  We made chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, frosted them with a simple buttercream frosting and sprinkled them with gold sugar.  Simple, elegant and surely Hollywood!

The two had a great time at the dance.  Here's Josie walking the red carpet!  She's ready for Hollywood, people!!!