Poinsettia Cake

I wanted to make a nice dessert for my Christmas Day dinner with my family. My Grandma was in town and she takes an interest in the cakes that I make and I wanted to make an extra special one for her.

The most Christmas-y flower I could think of was a poinsettia. So, I taught myself how to make the flower out of royal icing and am really pleased with how they turned out. I don't think this could have been any more Christmas-y!

I used the cake, which was a carrot cake with cream cheese filling and frosting, as my centerpiece for the meal. Color flow decorated cut-out cookies were the name cards. It was a baker's delight!

The cake was a very nice end to our Christmas meal. I'm happy that I was able to squeeze this one into my busy Christmas celebration. :)

I hope you've all had a fantastic Christmas and wish you all a Happy New Year!

Christmas is for Kids

A few months ago, one of my cake gift certificates was put up in a silent auction at Shorewest Realtors that benefitted Christmas is for Kids. The winner, Patty, placed an order almost immediately for a Christmas cake to celebrate with her family.

Patty requested a chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream filling and she requested that it "look like a present." Here's what I delivered today!

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

The Little Mermaid

Danielle, Payton's mom, asked me to make a cake for Payton's 3rd birthday party. Evidently, this little soon-to-be 3-year old was a huge fan of Ariel, the Little Mermaid. I was excited to take this cake on as, like I stated in an earlier post, Ariel is my favorite Disney princess!

Danielle requested a chocolate cake with raspberry buttercream filling. I decided to cover the cake with more buttercream and use the fondant for fun underwater accents.

The Ariel you see on the top of the cake is a doll I picked up from the toy store. Instead of spending the time molding her out of gum paste, I thought it best to include the toy. It's something Payton can play with for many months to come (and she came with a change of clothes!! What fun!).

I hope that Payton had a wonderful 3rd birthday party! I'm sure Ariel is happy in her new home.

Gingerbread Creations

This time of year is usually a little slow in the "cake department". Many people are filling up on all of the Christmas goodies and cakes are taking a back seat. That's A-OK with me, as I use this time to do other things in the baked goods department.

One of my favorite things to do is make gingerbread houses. I made my very first one last year and fell in love with the process. It was wonderful to share the experience with my daughter and nephew and wanted to do that again this year. But to start out the season, Michael's had me do a Gingerbread House demo in November. The gingerbread house became part of the gingerbread display by the Wilton aisle. Looks good enough to eat!

A few weeks later, my daughter Josie and I made hers. I did all of the piping and she did all of the decorating. She's REALLY proud of her creation!

On St. Nick's Day, I was able to spend the morning with my nephew. He's a pretty big fan of trains and I found this train kit and thought it would make a fun project for us to do. Again, I did the piping, but Connor did ALL of the decorating! (His mom went out and bought some candy coal to put in the tender!)

And then this weekend, I taught a Gingerbread House Workshop at Ben Franklin Crafts. We had a wonderful turn-out with some delightful adults and kids alike. Actually, all of the kids were boys with TONS of creativity. Check out their masterpieces!

This one had a VERY cool Christmas tree on the back!

These boys had a Christmas tree, a penguin in a pond AND an igloo!

Fun trees made out of Tootie Rolls, a snowman made out of StarBursts, and a patio with a GRILL made these houses unique!!!

Wonderful Christmas lights and cheery wreath decorating this home!

Carol added small candies around the windows which made them look stained-glass. She also added "candles" in some of the windows for added whimsy.

I was able to get one done, too, and dropped it off for my mom. :)

Now that the gingerbread houses are done, I'd better get moving on the rest of the holiday baking. Happy Holidays!!!

Ker CHOW!

It's funny how moms talk. Every day I pick up Josie from school and the wonderful moms (and dads) stand around and catch up until our kids are released from the classroom. Last week, the topic of conversation was Cake Mama and I got my official first order for one of Josie's classmates, Max. His mom, Sally, wasn't very picky at all. She told me that Max loved cars, ALL cars, and if I could do something with that, she'd be happy. I noticed that Max had a Cars (the Pixar movie) backpack on and asked if he was a fan. Sally nodded vigorously and I said I'd do a Lightening McQueen cake for Max. "Oh! He'd LOVE that!" she said.

I'm not a person that likes to buy a lot of specialty cake pans, but my Elmo and Buzz Lightyear have certainly gotten their use. So, I invested in this one too. It's not the easiest cake, but I sure like the way it turned out. Chocolate cake with buttercream filling and frosting.

I hope that Max has a WONDERFUL birthday (and Happy Thanksgiving!).

A Disco Night to Remember

My wonderful friend, Erin, was planning a 70's themed birthday party for her mom, Sheila, and requested a Cake Mama Cake for the event. This cake has been on my to-do list for well-over half a year and ideas have been flowing ever since. Erin sent over a picture of a cake for "inspiration" and I used many of the elements in the design, but the true inspiration for the cake were the plates and napkins. I loved the colors and absolutely loved the dancers.

Erin informed me that she picked up a 4" battery-powered disco ball for the top, so I didn't have to worry about that. But here's the cake:

With the exception of the cake board and dowels inside the cake, everything is edible, either made out of fondant or gum paste or a combination of both. The dancers were cut out by hand and [with the help of my wonderful husband] I was able to download a very 70's themed font for Sheila's name. The gum paste was cut out and then covered in silvery sugar for a disco-y effect.

The top tier was a chocolate cake with buttercream filling and the bottom tier was carrot cake with cream cheese filling (Sheila's favorite!).

The two records on the top of the cake say, "Best of the 60's" (Sheila was turning 60) and "Happy Birthday!".

Here's how the cake looked at its final destination:

The disco ball really makes it dazzle!

I hope that Sheila had a WONDERFUL party! I wish her the happiest birthday!!

Three's Company!

My good friend, Jessica, contacted me awhile ago to do the cakes for a BIG birthday party she was planning. It was a combined birthday party for three kids. She really wanted to something special for each one of them and was wondering if I would be willing to make separate cakes for them. Of COURSE! After our brainstorm, she decided that 6-inch cakes and cupcakes should do the trick and more than accomodate the guests at the party. Jessica gave me complete control over design and flavors of the cake and cupcakes. I hope I chose well. :)

The first cake is for a little boy whom I was told absolutely LOVES cars. He loves the movie Cars, but just loves cars in general. His favorite color is yellow.

For his cake, I decided a chocolate cake would be awesome. I filled it with buttercream frosting and some crushed Oreos and also topped the cake with an Oreo road for his Matchbox car, yellow of course! I decorated the cupcakes with street signs and hope that he enjoyed his theme!

The next cake is for a boy who loves Super Heroes! Jessica specifically told me that Captain America and Green Lantern were among his favorites. This one I was really excited to do because my husband's "super power" came in to play. Being such a big fan, he helped me design this one.

The cake is decorated like Captain America's shield and the cupcakes were decorated with the Green Lantern, X-Men, Batman and the Flash's symbols. The cake itself is a red velvet cake with buttercream filling. I thought the red and the white would look cool to cut into for this one.

The last cake is for a girl who loves the color purple and wanted a cake with flowers on it. She totally has my number! I made a marble cake for her and decorated the cake with a basketweave done in buttercream. The purple and blue flowers are made from royal icing.

The bulk of the cupcakes were a cookies and cream recipe. Vanilla batter with TONS of Oreos mixed in. I thought it would be a real kid pleaser!

I hope that the birthday celebration was a fantastic one! It sounded like it was going to be one heck of a party!