MONSTERS!

Who doesn't love Mike and Sully? This Monsters cake was created to resemble some of the most popular characters from the Monster, Inc movies. My favorite part about this cake was the minimal amount of fondant needed. I find that little kids really don't prefer the taste of fondant. Fondant icing usually makes the cakes look better, but not taste the best. So, I used a marshmallow fondant to create Mike and a few of the facial features on Sully and the rest of the cake is yummy buttercream frosting.

The cake was made using 2-8in yellow cake layers and 2-6in chocolate cake layers. I used 1 and a half cupcakes to create the top of Sully's head. I love how the piping turned out on Sully! So cute!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle

It seems that Ninja turtles are all the rage again! I remember my brother begging for the little figurines at the store in the 90's whenever we went shopping. I also remember watching the shows and movies with these crazy talking turtles...it makes me feel as if I am 12 years old again! Everything new is old!

These cupcakes were made for a sweet 4 year old birthday party. The cupcakes were a mix of chocolate and vanilla with peanutbutter buttercream and a stabilized whipped cream frosting. I've always tried to stay away from whipped cream frosting on my cupcakes because it was never stable enough to produce the look I was going for. However, this stabilized whipped cream frosting recipe is great!

Here is a look at the finished product:

Baby shower cupcake tree!

As much as I like making cakes and cupcakes my favorite by far is a cupcake tree design! I get to make both cake and cupcakes while mixing in lots of different ideas.  I was asked to design cupcakes and a cake topper for a mom to be who was expecting twin girls! I have three boys, so it was a lot of fun looking up pink cupcake and cake ideas.

The cupcakes were a mix of standard size and mini size with chocolate and vanilla flavoring. The frosting was a simple buttercream tinted slightly pink...I wanted to keep the pink really sweet looking and almost colorless. I created fondant toppers for half of the cupcakes to give them some variety.

The cake was a yellow butter cake with buttercream filling. I then covered the cake in a marshmallow fondant.

 And the finished product!

Funny 30th Birthday Cake!

I made this cake for my sister in-law! It was not my idea...therefore no blame. Her husband decided it would be funny to tease her about turning 30 and so this cake became my first AARP design...and maybe my last!

Score!

Hockey Cake...
This cake was designed for an 8 year old boy. It is an 11x15 three layer cake. I used buttercream frosting with a marshmallow fondant outside layer. All of the hockey decorations were created using fondant with the exception of the goals, which are wire covered in fondant.

Ombre Minnie Mouse Cake

I LOVE how pretty this cake is! A great friend of mine asked me to make her sweet little 3 year old's birthday cake. When she said her daughter wanted a Minnie Mouse cake I knew exactly which cake I wanted to make. I was inspired to make this cake after finding this Minnie Mouse cake at Rose Bakes.

There were a several things I needed to learn first:
1) How to make a rose cake...I found a great tutorial at I am Baker.
2) How to create an ombre effect. I didn't have time to look this up, so I just trusted my eye and used different shades of pink.
3) How to create a bow for Minnie Mouse. I used fondant to create the bow and used a tutorial I found on you tube.

Here is a look at the finished product

Lego Friends Cake

I was asked by a friend to make a Friends Lego cake for her soon to be six year old daughter. There are a lot of great lego cake designs out there and I was looking for a girl themed cake for inspiration. I ended up creating a lego cake that looked as if it was being unwrapped to reveal legos underneath.

First step in the process was learning how to make fondant legos. I found a great tutorial at Chef Mommy. Here is a pict of the work in progress. This was probably the most tedious part of making this cake, but the more tedious the better!

 This was also my first time covering a cake in fondant. I have always preferred the taste of buttercream frosting, but realized that I couldn't get the look I was going for without covering in fondant. I used a marshamallow fondant recipe found at Moms and Munchkins. I found this fondant was so easy to make and a lot cheaper than buying pre-made fondant from the store. After the fondant was made and the legos completed I started to assemble.

This cake was made using a 9in round wilton pan. I stacked three layers and filled with cream cheese buttercream frosting. I loved the way it turned out!