Doctor Dash Turns One

My sister-in-law and brother-in-law and nephew, Dash, live in California.  There was a time when I thought that he would be the one nephew that I wouldn't be able to make a cake for.   So, when we made plans for their visit this Christmas, I was so excited that a birthday party for Dash was included in the plans.  He was born last year, right in the midst of all of the Christmas celebrations.  And this year we'd celebrate this wonderful milestone all together.  AND!  I got to make his first birthday cake.  Life is good.  

My brother-in-law and sister-in-law are fans of the show Dr. Who and expressed the idea to have a Dr. Who themed party for Dash.  I've already made a Tardis cake (back when I had to Google "Tardis" because I had no idea about who this Dr. Who was), but since then, I've seen 3/4 of an episode and am even more qualified to make a Dr. Who cake.  

So here's what I made for Dash.  The top tier is a chocolate cake with buttercream frosting.  The bottom tier is a chocolate-flecked cake with buttercream filling.  Both cakes are topped with fondant.  And the cake topper is a UK Lego-type toy that I thought was perfect for the cake.  

 Uncle Dave came AS the Tardis for Dash's party.  What a great sport!

Cousin Josie had fun playing inside the Tardis.  It's much bigger inside that you'd think.

Dash's piece of cake....

Oh my... I think he liked it!

My Maren needed some quiet time in the Tardis as well.

It was great fun to celebrate with everyone here in Wisconsin.  It was even more fun for me to make Dash's cake.  Mission accomplished.  

Happiest of Birthdays to you Dear Dashiell.  Auntie Ann loves you!

Teresa's Birthday Treat

My sister-in-law was celebrating her birthday and I thought I'd whip up a nice treat for her.  I seem to recall that chocolate cake was among her favorites, and her mother used to make a really wonderful peanut butter frosting; a recipe she shared with me.  

Because it would just be my sister-in-law and my brother celebrating her birthday that night, I made two six-inch cakes and filled them with chocolate frosting and peanut butter frosting and the covered the whole cake with more chocolate frosting.  I made some vanilla buttercream as well and added some ruffles and a cute flower on the top of the cake in one of Teresa's favorite colors.  

Here's the cake in the color-matched kitchen (I think I did pretty well!!!).  

And here's the inside of the cake.  Delish!

There was some extra batter leftover from her cake, so I made some cupcakes as well.  My nephew is not a fan of frosting, so he got some plain chocolate cupcakes to help his mom celebrate.  And here were some extra cupcakes that I decorated with all of the extra frostings and fillings.

YUMMMMY!!!  

I hope you had a great birthday, Teresa!

Isaac's R2D2 Cake

Isaac was having a Star Wars themed birthday party and wanted an R2D2 cake.  I'd done one of these before for my husband and knew I could do it again if I set my mind to it.  No Jedi mind tricks for me.  This WAS the droid I was looking for.

The cake itself is a chocolate cake with Oreo buttercream filling.  It's frosted with buttercream in the form of about 1 zillion stars.  These cakes tend to take so much time, but they really look great when they're done.

Because I had to cut so much away from the cake to make the R2D2 shape, I had a lot of cake scraps left which I then made into some "spacey" cake pops.  Black sugar with a few white sprinkles reminded me of outer space.  I hope that translated well!  

Happy Birthday to you, Isaac!  I'm so honored to have been a part of it!

Kalli's Peppa Pig Cake

This year, Kalli wanted a Peppa Pig party!  I have to admit that I didn't know much about Peppa Pig and in doing my research for the cake, watched a few episodes of the show on Nick Jr.  I found them to be a sweet, very age-appropriate show for a 3-year old.  Peppa is a sweet character and her cake needed to be the same.  

Angie, Kalli's mom, requested a chocolate cake with fudge and Oreo filling.  I made a delicious Oreo buttercream that tastes JUST like Cookies and Cream ice cream and filled the center of the cake with a scrumptious fudgey filling.  This was a chocolate-lovers dream!  

I decorated the top with a fondant/gum paste Peppa Pig in her fancy fairy costume and I added lots of flowers and bling to the top and sides of the cake.  

I hope that Kalli had a wonderful celebration!  The weather for her outdoor birthday party turned out to be a perfect day!  Sunny and not too hot or cold!  I had my fingers crossed for her!  Happy Birthday, Kalli!!

Abie's Olaf Cake

I absolutely ADORE receiving an email message from my friend Scott (another camp counselor friend) requesting a cake for Abie.  This is the 4th cake I've done for her and I've loved every one!  Abie chose a carrot cake for her cake and wanted Olaf from the movie Frozen to be front and center.  In fact, here's the picture she wanted on top of her cake.  

I'm going to be honest with you.  This was a challenging cake.  To make this picture out of gum paste was not an easy thing to do, but I translated it the best way I could.  To get the striping look of the ball and umbrella, I placed the gum paste in the different colors next to each other and then rolled them together as thin as I needed them to be.  So it looks like it's just one piece of gum paste.  

The cake itself was a carrot cake with cream cheese filling and frosting.  Carrot nose.  Carrot cake.  Why not?!!  The top is decorated with the gum paste and for the sand, I used brown sugar.  

I hope Abie had a wonderful birthday celebration!  

Erwin's Birthday Cake

My dear friend, Erin, began her month-long birthday celebration earlier this month.  Yes.  I said, "month."  She is a big birthday fan, particularly of her own.  Although, I don't think she's met a birthday she didn't enjoy celebrating.  She's a fantastic host and coordinator, so I'm lucky to call her a friend.  Everyone needs a friend like her.  

Erin absolutely adores all things owls, so it was a no-brainer for me to put one on her lemon, poppy seed cake.  I thought he turned out pretty cute!

Nope.  That's not a mistake.  I put "Erwin" on the cake because that was her camp name when we met at Camp Whitcomb/Mason in Hartland about 18 years ago.  You can read all about our camping experience here.  

Happiest of Birth-months to you, Erwin!  It's always a pleasure to celebrate you, my friend!

Bucky Badger for Gavyn

Angela requested a Bucky Badger cake for her son Gavyn's 6th birthday.  Evidently, Gavyn is quite the Badger fan.  I spent a "little" time on this Bucky and I think he turned out really well.  

Hey, did you know...

...Bucky's birthday is October 2, 1940?

...the nickname "Badgers" was borrowed from the state of Wisconsin, which was dubbed the "Badger State."  The name didn't come from the animals in the region, but rather an association with lead miners in the 1820's.  Without shelter in the winter, the miners had to "live like Badgers" in tunnels and burrowed into hillsides.  

...there are approximately seven students needed to meet all the various requests for Bucky Badger appearances.  From sporting events to community service requests to the occasional wedding, Bucky, is a popular and enduring fixture among Wisconsin fans.  

...American badgers are known to cooperatively hunt ground squirrels with coyotes?

...the Wisconsin Badgers Camp Randall Stadium was a training ground during the Civil War?

But why is he so angry?

Anyway, this cake pays homage to the wonderful mascot he is.  The cake itself is a chocolate cake with Oreo buttercream filling.

Happy Birthday to you, Gavyn!  I hope that you had a wonderful celebration!!  Go Badgers!!!

Sunny Days for Maren

We started the day out right!  And weather actually provided us a "Sunny Day;" the first in about a week!  Maren woke up to this Sesame Street scene right in our kitchen.  It was the backdrop to some fun pictures and it added such personality and color to the room!

Here's the dessert table.  Maren told me earlier in the week she wanted a strawberry cake.  After I baked it, she informed me that she wanted chocolate cake.  So I whipped up a few cookie monster cupcakes for her.  Did I mention that she's only TWO?

This was a "family party" so my girls got little giftbags and so did my two nephews.  I included bubbles, rubber duckies, goldfish crackers, crayons (Elmo loves his goldfish, his crayon too), and some color sheets, cookies and other little miscellaneous goodies.

I used a lot of Maren's toys to decorate the space.  Sesame Street is ALL OVER the place!

Here's her cake.   I made a gum paste/fondant bow and decorated the sides with Elmo, Cookie Monster, Ernie and Oscar the Grouch.  I made the characters out of gum paste.  

The cookies are my Marriage Proposal Cookies.  The frosting dries hard, but not too hard, and I dipped them in some color coordinated sugar.  These were delicious and gone so quickly.   The party was brought to you by the letter M and by the number 2.

I served a brunch buffet complete with themed fruit and veggie trays.  I found these guys or some like them on Pinterest.  Maren got a kick out of them and pretty much devoured Cookie Monster.

Danny made these scramble egg  and bacon pies with his mini-pie maker.   

We served croissants with my friend Erin's homemade strawberry jam - delish!

Bacon and sausage?  Check!

This was a cinnamon roll cake.  OMG.  It was amazing!!!

We also served some yogurt that our guests could top with fruit or granola.

After brunch we celebrated with the cake and Maren had her cupcake.  She requested chocolate cake with blue frosting, so I continued on with the theme and made them into little Cookie Monsters with mini Chips Ahoy cookies and all.

Here's Maren with a dangerously close view of fire.  She's absolutely mesmerized!!  She blew out her candle with perfect aim and devoured this Cookie Monster too.

Maren had a great time at her birthday party.  I got through it by using this as my mantra:  

Happy Birthday, my sweet little Maren!  You bring so much joy to our lives with your kindness, humor and wit.   We love you so!