Cohen's 11th Birthday

I'm not sure that this cake even deserves a spot on this roster, but I did make it so it's only fair.

I did not go to my brother's house for the holidays expecting to make my nephew a cake for his birthday.  So, the day before his birthday when we were planning the next day of celebration, we determined we needed a cake.  And, while Cohen was not super particular, he mentioned wanting a WWII cake to go with the video game he is currently playing. That seemed easy enough so I offered to see what I could do.  No tools, no pans, not my kitchen, and no fancy prep.  But, it's okay to do last minute creative things sometimes.

So, I headed to the store and purchased the last 3 WWII vehicles the toy department had, a bunch of cake and frosting, as well as various candies and cookies that could help make things look like land.  The only new creative endeavor was to use jello as a means to turn my vanilla frosting tan and brown.  It didn't work great, but it did enough for what I had time for.  The rest was strategic placement of crushed graham crackers, cookies, marshmallows, and chocolate covered raisins.

Allie and Andy even won some army men at the arcade we went to for Cohen's birthday and they were added to the cake.  Thus, we ended up with this:

Micah's 10th Birthday

It was hard to come up with something new for Micah's cake as his interests stay pretty consistent.  But, when asked, he ultimately determined he wanted a Hunger Games cake and it brought on the job of making a nice, celebratory cake out of a dark and haunting theme.  Unfortunately, he also wanted his birthday at the cottage which meant my yearly challenge with making a cake in high humidity without my normal space or tools. Aaggh!  But, there's nothing better than a sunny day at the lake on your birthday, so the humid cake decorating challenge was on.

I found a great idea online to make the mockingjay symbol from the book, and it turned out more amazing than I could have ever imagined.  I traced the symbol in pieces from a printout onto black fondant, which I then added dimension to with some 3D style pieces on the bird's body.  Then, a quick dusting of gold powder gave it a great old metallic look and it couldn't have turned out better!

Unfortunately, after that it was compromise after compromise.  My triple layer cake became a double, the slanting top became flat, and the fire moved from hardened sugar on top of the cake to fondant on the sides.  It still looked okay in the end, it just didn't have the wow factor that the amazing cake topper deserved.  Oh well, Micah was pleased and that's all that matters...right?!

Paige's 12th Birthday

Scrolling for ideas on the internet, I came across a fun new cake idea which I knew would work great for Paige (my lover of all things candy).  I combined it with a concept I have known about for years but never tried, and it turned out perfectly.  In fact, it was so easy and turned out so well I decided if I were to open a shop this would definitely be on my menu for ordering.

The cake itself was a basic two-layer 9x13 with a layer of funfetti frosting in between.  I covered it with green fondant, and then carefully cut out the number 12 from the fondant and top layer of the cake.  This created a 12-shaped hole that I was able to fill with sour flavored skittles (Paige's current favorite).  I proceeded to add a border of skittles and some fondant circles to match my skittle colors.  Super cute!

Finally, I took the skittles wrapper, propped it on a skewer and glued sour skittles to it so that it looked like they were falling out of the bag.  I originally tried chocolate melts to hold them on, but that didn't work well due to the sugar coating on the skittles, so I moved to frosting, which did the trick for the small pouring effect I was going for.  Chocolate melts might be better for higher pouring effects, but I'll have to try that next time with a candy that has a more solid covering.

Like I said, super easy and turned out super cute.  I would definitely do this one again with other candies like M&M's or possibly Nerds.

Allie's 14th Birthday

My family is enjoying the eating of the birthday cakes a little less each year, so for Allie's birthday this year I decided to go with something a bit more exciting to eat.  Or at least I thought so.

While it wasn't any new adventures in baking, I did my best to make it look at professional as possible to create somewhat of a challenge for me.  I was very pleased with how it turned out, and it was actually eaten and enjoyed.  Allie was surprised to not have a cake, but didn't complain one bit.

Cody's 16th Birthday

The kids are getting harder and harder to please with their cakes.  Partly because they are growing out of their excitement about shaped cakes, and partly because they really just want to eat cake and frosting.  So, for Cody's cake this year I went more for taste than for looks (which paired will with our crazy busy schedule on his actual birthdate).

This cake was an extra large chocolate sheet cake which I cut to look like his basketball jersey.  It is red frosting with some fondant decor, and that's about it.  I did get permission to put the number 16 on instead of his actual jersey number (21), but he only agreed because no one on the team is actually number 16.  I added his name just for kicks and bought golden candles because it was his golden birthday.

Once again, a nice easy cake, but not anything for the record books.