Libby Lou's One!

Libby was celebrating her 1st birthday with a cute woodland animal themed birthday party.  I had a good time decorating this one!  Lots of fun colors.  Lots of fun animals.  Interesting trees.   What more could you ask for?

Beaver.

Fawn.

Porcupine.

Fox.  

The cake was a yellow cake with raspberry preserve and buttercream filling.  All decor is made from fondant.  I hope that Libby had a wonderful 1st birthday celebration!

Vivian's Turning ONE!

My good friend Vinnie requested a cake for his daughter's first birthday bash.  I had the honor of making his son, Henry's first cake too.  Gotta love these once-in-a-lifetime occasions!  They mean the world to me!  

Vinnie sent a copy of Vivian's invitation and requested that I theme the cake off of it.  What fun!  I LOVE to do this!  Here's the adorable invite!

And here's the cake!  The cake is my chocolate-flecked cake and the top tier has chocolate buttercream filling, the bottom tier has vanilla buttercream filling.  The outside is frosted with my super creamy vanilla bean buttercream. 

I hope that Vivian had a wonderful birthday bash!!  Thanks for including me in the wonderful celebration!

They Call Him Moose

Can I just say that I love doing cakes for Kristie?  I get a fun message like this from her,

"Christian is nicknamed "moose", so I thought it would be fun to use that as our theme. I then thought maybe using Rocky and Bullwinkle would be fun. So that's as much definition that I'm providing. Beyond that I want you to go crazy! As for flavors, I'm not sure if this is possible, but some sort of play on Moose tracks ice cream flavor would be fun."

And here were the plates that they were having at Christian's party.  She thought going with blue and green on the cake would be a good fit.  

So first, coming up with a Moose Tracks flavor cake was a fun one for me.  I love Moose Tracks ice cream and had to incorporate vanilla, fudge and peanut butter cups into a cake.  Challenge accepted.  I opted for a vanilla cake as the base, so the layers were as follows:  Cake, buttercream with chopped peanut butter cups, cake, chocolate fudge, cake, buttercream with chopped peanut butter cups, cake.  I frosted the outside with more buttercream.  I'm salivating as I type this.

Now, going with "Moose" or "Bullwinkle" was a fun prospect as well.  I made the Bullwinkle topper out of gum paste and fondant and added the stars and ball border with more fondant.  I know that Christian's big sister, Clare, would surely be a fan of those!

I think this one turned out cute!  The colors could not have been more festive.   I hope that Christian had a great birthday celebration!  I can't wait to hear about the flavor of the cake.  I hope everything worked well together!  

Happy Birthday, Christian!

Evan's Alphabet Block Cake & Cupcakes

Last July, Chelsie asked me to do a Baptism cake for her son Evan.  A few weeks ago, I was absolutely thrilled to get the call to do his first birthday cake as well!  And, I might add, it's AMAZING to think that he's already a year old!  My word!  Time flies!

Chelsie wanted to do an alphabet block cake for Evan's 1st birthday.  Lots of letters, numbers and colors.  Every month for his first year, Chelsie had taken a picture of Evan with alphabet blocks that spelled out how old he was.  Cute, eh?!!!  So, the theme will carry on for his first birthday celebration!

Here's Evan's cake.  I did four layers of chocolate cake and filled it with buttercream, Oreos and fudge.  Again, one of my all time favorite combinations.  And the chocolate cake --- it doesn't get better than this one!

The cake is covered with buttercream and topped with gum paste/fondant strips, the number 1 and letter "E's" on the sides.  

  

Chelsie also ordered some gluten-free yellow cupcakes.  I topped those with fondant, gum paste squares that looked like more alphabet blocks.  

Best of all, Chelsie forwarded some pictures for me!  Here she is with the birthday boy!

And here's Evan enjoying his cupcake!  CUTIE!!!!!!!!!

And the inside of the cake.  Mmmmm!  Mmmmm!!!!

It most certainly looks like Evan had a great birthday bash!  Many blessings to you, Evan, on these wonderful years to come!

Carsen's 1st Birthday

Carsen shares the same birthday as my daughter.  In fact, Maren and Carsen were in the same hospital together at the same time.  I know her mom from high school and it's cute to think the two will have known each other for their whole lives; sharing the same birth date.  

So, when Carsen's mom, Brooke, asked me to do her birthday treats, I was absolutely honored to help out. Brooke had a vision!  She came prepared with pictures and inspirational shots of what she wanted for this magnificent milestone.  Pink, black and gray.  A schnazzy color scheme indeed.  SUPER fancy for a 1-year old.  ;)

The top tier of this cake is a yellow cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting.  The bottom tier is chocolate cake with Oreos, fudge and buttercream fillings.  

These cupcakes are yellow cupcakes, filled with chocolate cream cheese frosting and topped with buttercream.  

Cake pops are red velvet and cream cheese.  Mmmmm!

 

I hope Carsen had a fabulous birthday celebration!  She was in our thoughts as we celebrated over here.  Happy Birthday, Carsen!

Eloise's Pretty Petal Cake

A few weeks before my Maren was born, this little Eloise arrived.  My oldest daughter is in Kindergarten with Eloise's big brother, Alex.  The two of them have a LOT in common and it will be great fun to see Maren and Eloise grow up together.  So, when Jessica, their mom, asked me to do Eloise's 1st birthday cake, I was absolutely honored.  She said that she wanted something frilly and pink.  I came across an orange ombre-type petal cake on Pinterest and thought it looked super cool.  I used pink instead of orange and here's what it turned into.

Wilton tip 81 is what I used.  Never used that tip before and now it's one of my favorites!!

Here's a little smash cupcake for Eloise.  I used the same effect with tip 81 to top the cupcake.  Not too much frosting, but just enough!

Happy Birthday, Eloise!

Eloise and the OMBRE Cake

It happened.  It finally happened.  My good friend Kate requested this beautiful pink-shaded rosette cake for her daughter Eloise's 1st birthday.  I later discovered that this cake was referred to as a type of "Ombre" cake, named after a style of hair.  Anyway, I was SO excited to do this cake!

For the amount of people that she was hosting for the party, I recommended a 10-inch cake and 24 cupcakes.  She wanted a yellow cake and chocolate cupcakes and that was perfect for the coloring I had to do!

So I started out with yellow cake batter.  I used Martha Stewart's recipe and it was absolutely delicious, tender and moist.  I started with the darker colors first and finished with the lightest.  I split each batch of batter (I had to make two) into two pans.  They didn't bake as long and they made smaller layers, but there's no waste; no dome to cut off.  

After I finished with the four shades of pink cake (only two are shown), I stacked and crumb-coated the cake using the most delicious buttercream frosting I've ever had.  No shortening.  Pure butter.  And no confectioners sugar either!  It called for granulated sugar.  It was amazing...oh so creamy.  Not gritty AT ALL!  LOVE this stuff!!!

I stacked them starting with the darkest color on the bottom, working up to the plain yellow cake on top. 

Then I decorated the outside of the cake using Wilton tip 1M.  I made rosettes in each of the shades of pink to correspond to the shades inside the cake.  .

Then I also made some chocolate cupcakes and used the different shades of pink buttercream to decorate them as well.  Also with tip 1M.

Here's the cake and cupcakes at their destination....

 And here's the beautiful little birthday girl!

And here's what the cake looked like on the inside!

Happy 1st Birthday, Eloise!  I KNOW you enjoyed that cupcake!!!

Thanks for inviting me to your party!  I loved being a part of your special day!!

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!