Micah's 1st Birthday

Another large birthday party challenged me to make a large cake with eye-catching appeal.  Micah's birthday was Dr. Seuss so I decided to try my hand at a tall red and white stripped candle.  I made multiple cakes to cut out the smaller circles and stack them up.  I did not use a support inside but figured I would be okay since I wasn't going higher than 5 layers.  I used fondant for covering the outside, and in an attempt to not weigh down the cake, cut the fondant into strips that I frosted to the cake.  The measuring took some time, but ultimately I ended up with even enough stripes.  I created a fondant flame that I attached to a stick which allowed me to stick it straight into the top of the cake.  It was very heavy so it ultimately didn't show any of the stick between the cake and the flame.  Because of the weight of the fondant, the flame and the heat of the summer, the cake ended up with a slightly lopsided look to it.  I was bummed, but most of the people at the party thought it was purposely done so that it looked more like the Cat in the Hat's hat.  I'm fine letting them believe that.

I also created blue haired cupcakes (blue frosting pricked with a fork) to represent Thing 1 and Thing 2 for the kids to enjoy.  Overall, it was a risky cake attempt and while it turned out okay, it made me nervous to try tall shapes in the future.

Paige's 3rd Birthday

Paige is a huge fan of Frozen, so I figured I needed to find a way to make a cake that looked like snow and ice.  I decided to do multiple layers with the hopes of working on shading with my frosting.  The shading turned out to be very easy to do and once the colors had darkened as they dried, it looked elegant.  The problem came with making the cake look like it was covered in snow.  I ended up using white frosting and coconut flakes to try and have that effect.  It didn't turn out as elegant as I was hoping, so I think I'll have to look into other ways in the future, but the simplicity got the point across.  And, all Paige really cared about were the Elsa and Anna on the top anyway.

 

 

Allie's 5th Birthday

Allie was having her first birthday party with friends and decided to also go with a Lego theme.  Wanting to do something different than my previous Lego cake, I decided to create chocolate molded Lego's to decorate her cake with.  I also wanted to try and combine two different shaped cakes to add to the drama.  I ended up making smaller cakes than I would have liked seeing as I didn't need all that much cake, and it ended up looking much more full with all the large Lego pieces stuck to it.  I think it would have looked much sharper with the large cake body, but Allie was simply please to see so much pink and purple.  Not to mention, the kids gobbled it up just fine!

Cody's 7th Birthday

This year Cody was having a birthday party with friends and chose a Lego theme.  This excited me as it is a pretty basic shape and allowed me to attempt to work with Fondant extensively for the first time.  I decided to make Lego shapes in different colors.  I baked multiple 9x13 cakes in order to be able to have the right sizes, while also dying each of the cakes to match the color fondant that would be on the outside.  It took a little practice, but I was able to roll out the fondant and get each of the pieces covered with somewhat sharp edges and square shaped tops.  I used a cookie cutter to create the fondant circles to be the top pieces on the Lego's.  With the extra fondant I cut out Cody's name and age, while the Lego man was a leftover chocolate I had molded for his cupcake birthday treats for school.  The overall effect was impressive, not to mention cutting into the cake and finding that the cake was also colored.  I'm hoping to get more chances to work with fondant as it was easy (yet tricky) and I love the professional look it offers.