A Horse Cake and a Matching Smash Cake

Soon-to-be-three-year-old-Leila loves horses.  Not a My Pretty Pony horse, or a cartoon horse, she loves horses.  Real horses.  And she loves the colors pink and purple.   I was asked to make her a birthday cake and a cake for her little sister who was turning one right around the same time.  

I think these two cakes turned out to be very elegant cakes for these little ladies.  I love the lavendar shade and how it looks with the pink flowers.  

Ellie's cake is a 4 1/2-inch yellow cake with buttercream frosting.  Leila's cake is a 6-inch chocolate cake with Oreos, fudge and buttercream filling.  

I think the two look so pretty together and I most certainly hope that Leila and Ellie had a great birthday celebration!

Update:  When Leila saw her cake, she said, "Mama it's so magical!"  Best.Feedback.Ever.

World Traveler Desmond

My nephew, Desmond, will be turning one in a few days and his parents hosted a fabulous birthday party for him this weekend.  The theme of Des' party was "World Traveler".  Has he traveled the world?  No.  But his parents lived in Scotland for several years and they traveled all over Europe in their time there.  Desmond will become very familiar with their travels, so how could he not become a world traveler himself?!  I wonder where he'll venture to first?  Hmmm....

Anyway, for his cake, his mom (my sister-in-law, Lisa) decided on a chocolate cake with chocolate ganache filling.  I swirled in some homemade caramel for good measure (this combination is one of my favorites!) and stacked another chocolate cake on top. 

The mini-cake on top was Des' smash cake.  It's a yellow cake with buttercream filling.   I drew an arrow and wrote "N" on the top of the cake.  This was to be his compass. 

I drew a map of the world on top of the cake.  The color scheme, light chocolate, was chosen so that it looked antique-like.  I added a little more cocoa to the mix and made the borders.

Lisa really wanted a suitcase on his cake, so I made a small little suitcase out of rice krispie treats and covered it in buttercream and blue fondant.  I added some additional fondant "stickers" and "leather" straps and marked it with a "D" for Desmond. 

I also made some yellow cupcakes with vanilla buttercream filling and some "light" chocolate frosting on top.  These cupcakes were topped with "D's" and "1's" to signify Des' first name inital and his age.  But if you go one step further (and I'm stretching it here...), we could call that his airplane seat number.  You with me?   First class for Des!

Here's the cake at its location.  There was a little sign next to the cake that said, "Cake Mama - USA." 

I think I got the colors right - look at how closely they match the goodie bag suitcase!  I love it when things work out like that!

And here's my adorable nephew getting his face full of cake!  You go Des!

I'm so happy that I got to be a part of your special day, Desmond!  Happy Birthday to you and best wishes for the coming year!  I can't wait to be a part of your many adventures!