A flower birthday cake for an eight yr. old

 Another year has passed and another birthday party is done for my oldest. That means I got to create another birthday cake. For this year's cake my daughter requested a flower again but this time she wanted a butterfly on top. I just used a cardboard template as a guide to cut from two circular 8" cakes as I didn't have a mold for the flower. For the butterfly I used instructions from my book Hello, Cupcake! by Karen Tack. I made numerous butterflies and they were super easy to make. I suggest using the Wilton candy melting wafers rather than just melted chocolate as I did for the brown. I couldn't get any blue wafers so I just colored some white ones with a touch of food coloring.

Another cake made to add to the collection.

I think if you made a whole bunch of these butterflies as toppers on cupcakes the display would be amazing. What do you think? Would flower cupcakes with butterflies not make a great display for a garden wedding?

Mushroom Fairy Cottage Cake for a seven year old

I can't believe another year has past and I've created another 3-D birthday cake for one of my children. As I've said before, I really enjoy the challenge of cake decorating and I always learn something new with each one.
For this year's cake I created a mushroom cottage complete with fairies. This is the second toadstool I've done for my daughter. The first one you can see here was a large icecream cake. My then 2 yr. old enjoyed it very much... well the decorative sugar on it at least.
This year's cake was inspired by Debbie Brown's "50 Easy Party Cakes" and I followed the general instructions for it. Because most of the guests don't seem to like too much fondant, I decided to ice the cake with buttercream and use the fondant as accents.

I created the toadstool shape with the help of a giant cupcake mold and half of a Wilton sportsball mold. As always, I froze the cake before carving and putting on the crumb coat. Some people don't believe in freezing cake but I feel the large amounts of butter and sugar keep it perfectly for the short amount of time it sees the freezer. Once the crumb coat had set in the fridge (15 min.) I frosted and assembled the cake. My girls helped create the fondant fairies, the door and the paths.

I'm pretty happy with how smoothly this cake went and it was right in line with my current mushroom obsession. Stay tuned for another cake as my niece will be turning three soon. What will it be?

A Honey Beehive cake for a six yr. old

The time has flown by so fast and I've made another sculpture cakes for one of my daughters. The pick this time was a design from Debbie Brown's book 50 Easy Party Cakes. I thought the design was going to be pretty easy to pull off and it was until I had to drape the enormous and continuous piece of marshmallow fondant onto the cake. I found it a bit tricky to smooth out the fondant without it wrinkling and overlapping. Worried about creating tears, I decided it was best to live with my many imperfections.

Once the cake was covered I saw all the errors in my carving calculations and cursed a couple of times under my breath. It will still taste like cake, right? As always, the kids had a lot of fun creating the final touches like the bees and the flowers. I was pretty happy with how much control I let go of with this cake as I know from previous birthday cakes, the kids will be "helping" no matter what.

So once again, I have a renewed sense of admiration for professional cake decorators. Art in the form of sugar. Here are a couple pictures and links to some cake artists that I have been following. Aren't they impressive? They are my cake inspirations!

Alana Hodgson ©

  

Coco Cake ©

It was a Handmade Halloween

It's been a week now since the ghosts and goblins went searching for candy but I had to share with you some of the photos I took that day.

Near where I live we attended a trick-or-treating event that all the local businesses put on. The kids get dressed up and visit all the participating shops for candy. Even though the forecast called for rain, the sun shone beautifully and made Steveston the place to be Halloween day.

What struck me this year compared to others was how many costumes were handmade. These costumes weren't the usual homemade outfits like "business man" or "hippy" that you usually see. There were so many costumes made with a lot of time, care and creativity that I'm proud to say that it looks like the "Handmade Movement" is alive and well in this part of the world. Below are some photos of the handmade Halloween I saw.

Hand-carved pumpkin

"Dorthy" at Splash Toys

Where the Wild Things Are and Tree with Owl

Piece of sushi with chopsticks

Zombie Cake by Chocolate Lover Cakes

A Debbie Brown cake for a three year old

My youngest daughter recently turned three and as the tradition has been of late, I created a sculpture cake for her birthday. I had long heard of Debbie Brown but hadn't seen any of her books here. As a treat to myself, I ordered the Debbie Brown 50 Easy Party Cakes on the recommendation of a friend. My daughter had changed her mind often about what kind of cake she would like but eventually she settled on the kitty cat tangled onto a ball of yarn. The only change I had to make was that the kitty had to be a princess and wear a crown and a skirt. That I could do.

Armed with detailed instructions and a whack load of marshmallow fondant, I created my daughter's cake over a couple of stages. The following photos are what I finally ended up with. The cake was finished on quite a hot day and the buttercream that I used to adhere the two sphere halves melted slightly and caused the cake to shift inside. By the time I served the cake the ball of yarn looked a little more slack than the photos. With a quick repair job with some additional fondant, the princess kitty was good to go.

If any of you are contemplating doing a sculpture cake I would highly recommend a Debbie Brown book for good designs and fantastic instructions. Just don't think about the obscene amount of fondant you will be using.

Next possible cake: a butterfly or a frog prince.

A Cinderella Coach Cake fit for a 5 yr. old

       

Well I finally got to do another specialty cake. I really enjoy creating birthday cakes and I especially like brainstorming for the next one. Before I committed to going back into the studio to make artwork, creating cakes and baking was my only form of creativity. Looking forward to making childrens' theme cakes the most, I had freedom to make what I wanted for my oldest's first birthday cake only. All the rest of the cakes I've had to have "help" from my two daughters. So needless to say,  it has sometimes been very frustrating trying to tame what I want to make and accomidate their skill level and have them help. I have to say that making marshmallow fondant with a two year old is very messy and not fun at all. How did she get it everywhere?

So this year my oldest daughter said she wanted a Cinderella Coach cake for her birthday party. To research as to how I could possibly construct this cake, I went onto Cake Central.com right away. This is a fantastic and addictive site fully of some really highly skilled artisans. I didn't find too much though except the cakes made with the character molds. Instead I did a search on Flickr and found a few cakes of the coach cake in 3-D. Armed with an idea as to what might be required, I borrowed another baking friends Wilton small sports ball mold and baked off a boxed chocolate cake mix. I usually always make my cakes from scratch but my first attempt at the coach cake with a Betty Crocker bake-n-fill proved to be a waste.

I broke the steps down to be done on several different days so I wouldn't get overwhelmed with trying to finish the cake and get the house ready for our first kids birthday party. My daughter was so excited to decorate the cake and kept asking for days beforehand if we can "decorate today". Things were going quite well with the kids and my daughter even helped create the dog driver, but it was too much for my youngest and she wasn't into decorating anymore. That meant everyone else was supposed to stop too. A quick call to Grandma and I was able to get some time alone to finish the cake. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out as it has been one of my more adventurous cakes. I'm already planning the youngest daughter's cake. If only I can get her to make up her mind as to what it will be.

Below are some photos I took during the process.

 Marzipan dog with an already broken leg.

Putting in the cookie seat.

  The finished cake.

Just for fun I thought I would add the wordsearch my daughter created as a "party game" for her guests. Please feel free to right click it and print it off.