Micah's 7th Birthday

Micah has also been into soccer this Spring/Summer, which means I was required to make another soccer cake this year.  He decided that he also wanted me to use frosting so that he could eat his cake without removing the fondant.  I compromised with a little bit of each, but agreed to his number one request to have a trophy on the cake.

This cake was made at the cottage, which always means heat and humidity are going to be a stinker to work with.  This time was no exception.  While the cake baking was fine, the frosting was extremely soft and it was hard to keep it cold enough to stop the frosting or fondant from melting off the cake.

The main covering was the frosting, with a few fondant decorations to define the layers.  The top was my ball shaped cake, with another attempt at using my new cookie cutters to make it look like a soccer ball.  This attempt went a little smoother, but was still difficult to keep straight and squared up.

Ultimately, a lot of refrigeration kept this cake in good enough shape for the birthday "party" we had.  He was happy to have both a soccer ball and a trophy, and everyone enjoyed eating the frosting over the fondant.

 

Paige's 9th Birthday

Paige requested a soccer themed cake this year, and I opted to give the topsy turvy structure and attempt.  My plan was to have a color scheme she would like, and then work in a soccer ball using my new hexagon and octagon cookie cutters.

The fondant did not turn out to be the colors I had planed.  They were a bit pastel, which gave the cake more of an 80's look than I was going for.  While I didn't like it so much, Paige was happy with it because it matched her current hair colors.

Instead of putting a ball shape on the top, I decided to decorate the middle layer as the soccer ball coloring.  The shapes were hard to get aligned, and in the end it looked like a deflated soccer ball in the middle of the cake.

I'm not sure that this topsy turvy attempt was a success.  It seems to look a little lopsided, and with a deflated soccer ball in the middle, the whole cake looks a little funky.  Paige still loved it, but I'm not sure exactly what I think.

I will definitely give the topsy turvy idea another attempt at some point.  I believe a little more internal support, and a different color scheme will win me over in the end.  As for Paige, she was very happy with it and enjoyed every last bite of the pink cake inside.

 

Allie's 11th Birthday

For her birthday, Allie asked for an animal cake that was frosting instead of fondant.  While my kids like the look of fondant, I haven't found a recipe yet that they like to eat, and she really wanted to eat her cake and enjoy it.

And so, mostly due to that, as well as the fact that life is busy right now, I went a little more basic on this cake than normal...while still making sure it was worthy of my 11 year old.

The cake itself is just a large, flat sheet of cake.  The top of the cake is frosting, with brown sugar used for the sand.  While the ducks are plastic toys, the dog is made of fondant (had to sneak a little in there!), and the doghouse is a small gingerbread house decorated with frosting and hershey's chocolate bars.  The fence pieces are also made of gingerbread, which proved to be super easy to make fences and houses out of.  A few sprinkles and chocolate rocks and Ta Da!

While it turned out very cute (I wouldn't put it in the category of a masterpiece), and Allie was actually extremely happy with it.  Wins all around, I guess.

 

Cody's 13th Birthday

Cody turned 13 and I was a little nervous that my cakes would be to "childish" and he would ask me not to make him one this year.  Fortunately, that did not happen and I came up with a creative idea based on his favorite video game at the moment.

I started out making a Nintendo Switch out of chocolate cake and fondant.  Seeing as it's a basic rectangle, the only problem I had was that I wanted to do two layers and that made it too big and tall, so after frosting it all, I had to take off the top layer.  I'm glad I did though.

The idea of the cake was that the Rocketball 'bomb' would be smashing through the screen breaking it.  This gave me a chance to try out a new skill of hardening sugar and breaking it.  I bought a new candy thermometer and got to work boiling my sugar to the right temperature.  It took much longer than I thought and I almost gave up, but I'm glad I didn't because it got to the right temperature and turned out beautifully.  It really was as easy as people said.  I even let the kids play around with breaking the extra and they had a blast.

So, while there was some confusion as to whether the 'bomb' was exploding or whether it was smashing the screen, the cake was a hit.  Even for a teenager!