Cohen's 5th Birthday

This year at our family Christmas gathering, we decided to celebrate my nephew Cohen's birthday too since we would not all be together on that day.  He decided on a dinosaur theme.  With a limited amount of time to make the cake, and not wanting to spend numerous hours in the kitchen away from my family, I opted for some plastic dinosaurs on top of a landscape.

I purchased a collection of dinosaurs and let Cohen choose out his favorite.  I also purchased some candy rocks, jelly beans for eggs and Oreos for the other decorations.  The cake was molded to look like a hill and the dinosaurs were set around in various scenes.  Cohen was very happy with it and everyone had fun choosing the part of the scenery they wanted to eat.

Micah's 4th Birthday

Micah went with the superhero theme again this year, but chose Baymax from the movie Big Hero 6.  Once again, he made my job easy.  This character has little detail to him, so it was mostly figuring out how to get the right shape.  The body was carved in an egg shape and covered in white fondant.  The arms, legs and head were so small, I ended up just using rolls of solid fondant for each of them.  This made the pieces heavy, but by resting them correctly, they only moved a minimal amount.  I added a little grey to the arms and legs to give it a little something more, but that was about it.  Truly one of my easiest cakes, and yet also one of the most like the object I was replicating.

Paige (and Judah's) 6th Birthday

Paige had a combined birthday party with her cousin Judah, which meant I needed a cake for both a boy and a girl.  I decided to do two separate cakes and make them smaller so that each kid could have their own unique theme.  That and Poppy and BB8 will never make sense on the same cake.

Paige's cake was a Poppy the Troll cake and I attempted to make a flat cake that had a few features allowing for a little dimension.  The cake was formed and then a little fondant was added on top of the cake to help the rolled fondant take a little shape around the ears.  I layered the fondant to look like strips of hair, cut out details eyes and features for the face, and finally tried my hand at some shading and sprinkles to make rosy cheeks and freckles.  The shade of pink were difficult to get, and they didn't end up quite right, but they were different enough from each other that it worked.

Judah's cake was a BB8 cake and with a rather simple cake shape, it allowed me more time to put detail into the fondant to get the right look.  The cake decorations were cut out and then impressions were made in the fondant with piping tips and knives to help it look like metal sheets.  The antenae were fondant wrapped around wooden skewers and the entire thing came off very smoothly.

By making smaller cakes, I was able to complete both of them with the details I wanted in one night.  I was also able to make cupcakes to match which included candy Legos and sprinkles.  The cakes were a hit and I think both Paige and Judah appreciated having their own birthday cake.

Allie's 8th Birthday

Allie had a Beanie Boo birthday party this year, and this required a Beanie Boo themed cake.  Since they are stuffed animals, it was a great chance to try my hand at a shaped cake.  I have been nervous to attempt these as they seem complicated, but I am always trying to challenge myself and this was the perfect cake to try it with.

I was able to shave out a general shape in the cake and stabilized it with dowels placed through the body.  The head was a separate piece of cake and was not attached until the end.  The whole thing was covered with fondant and I attempted to make it as smooth as possible with details around the toes and face.  The ears and tail were solid fondant, while the eyes required some shiny sprinkles to make them appear as though they were glittery.  It took a couple tries to get the features to look quite right, but ultimately they came out looking surprisingly close to the real thing.

Allie was thrilled with the outcome, and while I was nervous it would be precarious, it was actually very stable and held up very well until cake and ice cream time.  I was very nervous about how this venture into shape cakes would turn out, but I am pleased with the experience and will not shy away from doing it again.

Cody's 10th Birthday

Cody was having a Nerf gun birthday party this year, so we went with an orange and blue theme for his cake.  As well as adding a little Nerf decoration into the details.

I had the general idea for this cake when I began, but more details got added as I went along to help fill in the features that seemed bare.  I attempted more delicate fondant work by making various shapes, letters and symbols that required detailed cutting and drying before they could stand up on the cake.  Getting the black outlines around the numbers and keeping the lines of the target clean took quite a bit of work.

Using printouts I was able to get the font for the Nerf symbol in order to make Cody's name fit on the front.  The bullets were then made out of fondant and toothpicks were used to attach them to the cake to look as though they had been shot.  I was able to use corn syrup to attach most of the decorations and found that it is a fantastic glue that is clear and unnoticeable.

Between mixing fondant colors and the details of the letters and numbers, this cake definitely has become my most time consuming cake to date.  However, I feel that I am becoming much more confident and competent in working with my homemade fondant recipe.