Adrienne and the Princess and the Popstar

So, there's Barbie.  And there's a Popstar.  And then there's the Princess & Popstar, which is the party that 4-year old Adrienne was having.  My good friend Tara requested a guitar-shaped cake for her daughter's special occasion.  Yep. I was up for the challenge.  

A few issues surfaced while making this cake.  It had to serve about 25 people, which isn't a whole heck of a lot of cake.  Maybe a ten-inch cake would suffice and there'd be leftovers for sure.  But if I made an 8-inch cake, I think that would be a little small and you wouldn't get the full effect of a GUITAR!  So, I decided on two 10-inch square cakes and lined them up next to each other.  The big part of the guitar is carved from one whole 10-inch cake.  The handle is actually two pieces of cake (10-inch cake sliced in half).  And this is a chocolate cake with chocolate fudge and Oreo filling.  

The second issue I had was where to put the cake when it was done?  No cake board I could find was big enough!  So, off to Ben Franklin Crafts I went to do my searching.  They had large pieces of foam board ready to go, and that's what I purchased.  I thought it worked out perfectly!  

The little knobby dials are made out of melted chocolate and silver sprinkles.  A yummy treat on top of the cake.

And here's the Princess.  Or is she the Popstar?  Whomever she is, she's the ADORABLE birthday girl!

Make a wish!

Thanks for the great party, Adrienne!  I'm so happy I got to be a part of your special day!

Happy Birthday, Dear Robin!

I've always done something different for my friend Robin's birthday.  A few years ago, I did the mosaic cake.  Last year it was a hummingbird cake.  This year, I thought I'd change it up for her and give her an assortment of cupcakes for her birthday.  I practiced a few new cupcake topping techniques in the process.  I love how they turned out!

Happy Birthday, dear friend!  I hope you have a wonderful day!  Free of worry.  Free of stress.  Plenty of love and plenty of bliss!

Love,

Ann 

It's A-Me! Mario!

Sharon requested a Super Mario cake for a birthday celebration.  She needed it to feed only 4 people, so we decided on a simple 6-inch cake.  She requested a funfetti cake and I'd never made one from scratch before.  I love my yellow cake batter and just added some sprinkles to make batter look like this:  

Decorating a Mario cake was SO fun for me!  I LOVED playing ALL Mario games from my childhood through college and even as an adult.  Mario has a very special place in my heart.  So here's what I did...

I've had these brick templates for so long and I FINALLY got to use them!  Check out the bricks!

Coins were made from the letter "O" cut-outs I had.  I just didn't take out the center.

 Warp zone!!!

 And here's Mario again!  What a fun cake!

Thanks, Sharon, for the super fun project!  I hope you all enjoy the cake!

Ben's Umizoomi Cake

I LOVE that my oldest daughter is the age she is.  I'm totally "in-the-know" about most of the children's television programming that's available today.  If you would have asked me who Team Umizoomi was five years ago, I would have said, "Gesundheit" and laughed at you!

Well, luckily for Shelly, I was aware of Team Umizoomi when she requested a Geo cake.  She gave me a sample picture of the cake she wanted and I found that very helpful.   

Here's Team Umizoomi.  Geo's on the right.  

 

And here's the cake!  It is a marble cake with creamy buttercream frosting/filling.   Gum paste/fondant details  decorate the cake.

I hope that Ben has an absolutely fabulous 3rd birthday party!  Shelly - thanks so much for thinking of me!

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!!

Happy Birthday Sparky!

I always look forward to family birthdays.  I usually get some more freedom to "do what I want" and my family are usually victims of new recipes or ideas.  Why?  Because then I get to taste them.  It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it.  

So, when my brother's birthday was approaching, I talked to my sister-in-law to see if she had any ideas for my brother's cake.  She asked me to do something with squirrels (more on that later).  Other than that, she really didn't have much of a preference and we both knew that my brother wasn't all that picky.  I know that one of my brother's favorite flavors is lemon, so I started looking for some fun lemon recipe ideas.

In the process of researching, I discovered a little website called "Pinterest".  You may have heard of it.  I am know addicted and am looking into a 12-step program to detox.  It.Is.Awesome.  And the cake ideas are endless!  I just love it!  Anyway, I came across some pictures of a lemon meringue CAKE which I thought looked fun.  My brother's favorite pie is a lemon meringue pie so I thought this would be perfect.  

I started with a lemon cake and I made some lemon curd and filled and stacked the cake like so:

These are three 6-inch cakes sliced in half for 6 layers.

Then I made up some White Cloud frosting, a Martha Stewart recipe.  I've made 7-minute frosting before and that's what I thought I was making again until I had all of the ingredients put together and discovered that I had to beat this stuff for about 25 minutes!!!  Well, I'm happy to say, it turned out beautifully!

Frosting the cake was a cinch!

It didn't have to be super neat if I was going to give it that lemon meringue pie look.  I achieved it by using the back of a spoon and making little peaks.

Then, I got out my blow torch (yep -- I have one for when I make creme brulee) and I torched the little peaks.

I think it looks like meringue right out from the broiler, don't you?  

So, back to the squirrels.  My sister-in-law sometimes calls my brother "Sparky", and references Chevy Chase in the movie National Lampoons Christmas Vacation.  A squirrel in that movie had a pretty destructive role.  So, she requested that squirrels be somewhere on the cake.  I was happy to oblige.  

And here's a delicious shot of the inside of the cake.  Mmmmmmm!!!!

Happy Birthday, Brother!  I'm so happy we got to celebrate another year of you!  Here's to many more!

Love,
Sis

Are You Ready For Some Football?

Kathy requested a football themed cake for her son's birthday party this weekend.  She wasn't looking for anything big but she told me that leftovers would be okay!  Chocolate cake was requested with chocolate frosting and I had a football pan so we were good to go!

The chocolate cake is my favorite.  Alright.  I said.  Chocolate is my favorite.  I LOVE it when people order it.  It's fun to make and it's oh so delicious!!!  The chocolate frosting was a new recipe.  It was a cream cheese chocolate recipe and I added my own flare to it.  I think it tasted like fudge.  Think about it.  Fudge.  Delicious, chocolate fudge with chocolate cake and vanilla buttercream on the inside.  This cake was delicious!  

I hope that the party was a success and I hope that their favored team won the Super Bowl this weekend!!