Circus Cakes

"Disco" cupcakes

2012-02-13T12:46:00.000-08:00

These bad boys shimmered.

It was pure awesomeness.

And so, so easy. The inspiration for these came from here, thank you Pinterest.

I found the balls at Orson Gygi, and simply dipped the frosted cupcake upside down into a bowl of them.

I wish the pictures could capture the shimmer of them. I highly recommend it.

Cali's Purple Owl

2012-01-26T14:19:00.000-08:00

It's all about layering. Easy as... cake.

Angry Monkey

2011-11-30T12:10:00.001-08:00

My daughter "ordered" this cake. She was very specific about how she wanted it done. Fondant monkey face on top, sprinkles around the outside. She pulled out a swim suit that had little monkies all over it and pointed out on it... "I want this face."
"You want an angry monkey on your cake?"
"Yes."
What do you do?
And since it was her birthday, I let her and her best friend do the sprinkles by themselves.

Sprinkles

2011-11-30T12:06:00.001-08:00

Dr. Who

2011-11-30T11:52:00.001-08:00

Harley Davidson with flames

2011-11-30T11:50:00.001-08:00

Each layer was a different flavor.

Dinosaur

2011-11-30T11:45:00.001-08:00

I was givent this picture:

and asked to make a birthday cake out of it.

Harry Potter Snitch

2011-11-30T11:32:00.001-08:00

Winner Winner!

2011-05-01T18:14:00.000-07:00

First of all... more than I can express for the overwhelming support. So to return my part of the bargain, and with out any further ado... Kalee Faamoe

Congrats, Kalee, I'll be contacting you to about your cake :).

Also, if you were a part of our second give away in conjunction with Mama's On a Dime celebrating their new name, and as as special way to say thank you to them for all of their help with this, the winner for that cake is:

Kristi Searle

Thanks for your support in the contest, but also for supporting Mama's on a Dime! I'll be contacting you both via email for when and what cake details you'd like.

Bieber Fever

2011-04-07T20:21:00.001-07:00

Did I show you my Justin Bieber cake yet? No? You don't want to miss this!I thought I was somehow getting away with FIVE girls and not a single Beiber fan... alas, the oldest caught the bug. I let her try her hand on her own cake with the paisleys, and I think she did a great job. I didn't get a good pirture of it, but we added "Baby, baby, baby Oh" around the sides of the cake. She loved it. That's all that matters. I must add, it was hilarious watching the girls fight over the cake. We had "I want his hair", "I want his eye", "I want his lips", and we had "Do NOT give me a piece that has anything to do with him!" Girls, we are a fickle breed :).

A Wee Bit O' Irish Luck

2011-03-27T08:55:00.000-07:00

My family has a strong Irish roots, and strong Irish pride. So when my brother turned 30, with a birthday in March, his wife decided he needed a surprise party with an Irish theme. This cake needed to be Irish with out being St. Patrick's. My family debates on whether my brother's beer of choice is Guinness simply because it's Irish. I vote yes. I decided on a black base to make it more for a "man" and then added a Guinness and Celtic knots.And of course I couldn't resist writing a limerick. It can't be all serious you know.

"There once was a man named Billy

Who was as good as they come, really

And when he turned 30

He felt very flirty

Oh now isn't that Billy silly"

I tried to decided whether to make him flirty or dirty... :) I love the black on black Celtic knots around the sides. A "how to" on the bottle cap, it's really easy, I just pinched the fondant after I trimmed it.

3-D rainbow cake with glitter fondant how to and rainbow how not to

2011-03-27T08:08:00.000-07:00

My cousins baby turned one. Michelle's order went something like this "her birthday is on St. Patrick's Day so I want it springy and St. Patricksy, but not TOO St. Patricksy." I thought of this St. Patrick's day cake and started thinking about how I could tweak it to be "not TOO St. Patricksy". Here's what I came up with. The cake with a matching smash cake. So, the crack in the rainbow... my husband did that (bless his soul). He wanted to know how hard the rainbow had gotten so he pinched it... babe, it's not metal in your garage, it's gumpaste in my kitchen. He felt bad, but we rolled with it. Note, do not squeeze your rainbow to test its hardness. :) A general tip, I love, I mean L.O.V.E my matt. I got it at Orson Gygi's and it's right up there with my pizza cutter. I will not make a fondant cake with out it. Just dump a little powder sugar on it (a little bit goes a long way). And spread it around into a very thin layer. If you don't spread it in a THIN layer then the fondant, after you flip it over on to the cake, will have a visible white film of sugar on it. I didn't call attention to it yet, but I decided to play around and discovered how to make my fondant glittery (take a closer look at the finished pictures). I took these glittery color flakes to match the color of fondant I was using (found at cake supply stores and craft stores) and after I spread my sugar out (see how thin my layer is? You can barely see it), I sprinkled the glitter flakes all over my matt. Then I rolled my fondant out on it, hoping it would stick into my fondant. Guess what? It worked! How sad is it that I was bouncing up and down and giggling over my new found glitter fondant? I used gumpaste for my rainbow. I can get away with being lazy and using fondant for smaller things, or bulkier things that will settle on itself andhold itself up, but the rainbow needed to firm up. I mixed up my gumpaste (found in cake supply stores and craft stores in powder form), rolled it out and cut out my rainbow shape. I debated between coloring the fondant and piecing it together or making one solid shape and painting on the colors. I decided the less pieces I needed to hold together the better it would be so I settled on painting. I really think this was a good idea. I used some wooden skewers and then also added some toothpicks to hold the rainbow on the cake. When I used gumpaste on this cake I put it in a warm oven (it was off, but still warm) to harden the gumpaste quicker. My oven on this cake had just been on so I switched it off and threw the rainbow in to it to harden while the it cooled. This would be a how NOT to. The oven was still WAY too hot and after only a few minutes my rainbow had puffed up like a baking sugar cookie. I quickly pulled it out. It was a little misshapen, but I could work with it still. If you want to harden gumpaste fully you should make your piece days in advance. That's the only way to do it. Or keep your oven no hotter than 200 degrees, though that will just harden the outside enough to use it, the middle will still be soft. (As we discovered when my man pinched the rainbow. *smoosh*, nope, the middle is definitely not hard. Thanks for checking that out for me). I painted the colors on, added the clouds and flowers. This has become one of my favorite cakes. I love it!

Easiest moist cake recipe

2011-03-27T07:59:00.000-07:00

This is pretty much the cake recipe I use every time. It never fails. It stays so incredibly moist, and it's firm enough to carve and stack. Mix a cake mix according to the box directions. Then add: 1 small box of instant pudding (any flavor that matches the cake) and an extra 1/4 C water and an extra 1/3 C vegetable oil. Also add 2 tbsp flour. This makes the cake firmer for carving without affecting the flavor. So there you have it, my secret recipe :)

Damask Baby Shower cake and pregnant lady tutorial

2011-03-14T21:18:00.000-07:00

I actually had a model for my figure. They emailed me her baby shower invites, which had a professional picture of the very pregnant mama on it. "Just make it resemble her. And make it match the baby bedding (damask) and the shower plates (also damask). Hmmmm.... OK. I myself love damask. Don't you? I didn't get a final picture of it because they picked it up in boxes and set it all up themselves, but the finally product would have sat on a three tiered cake stand, with the cake on the top level, and the bottom two levels covered in the cupcakes.

Here's some how to tips (and as always with me, some how NOT to tips. I'm no professional. Just a cake hobbiest passing on what I figure out).

I molded the figure out of fondant, which held well enough, but if you want it to be truly solid you should use gumpaste. Gumpaste is easy to make, you can find it at cake supply stores or craft stores in powder form. You basically just add water and powdered sugar according to the directions on the can. I had the problem with the dowel poking up through the top of the head. The soft fondant kept settling down farther on it. I finally had to take it off and let it harden for a bit on the corner of my styrofoam block. I skipped all the basic sculpting steps. I rolled a lot of balls and "snakes" out of fondant, a lot like you would with playdough until it all fit together to look like this. For the hair I draped a piece over the head to see where I needed to shape it. My most valued tool... my pizza cutter. I kid you not, I don't make a single cake without it. I seriously think if it somehow broke, I would have to go to the store for a new one before I could finish my cake. Here I used it to cut locks into my hair piece. I tried to not flatten the bulge from where it sat on the head so I could keep it in perspective. One thing you have to know when working on fondant is that water is the best thing to use as "glue". The water breaks down the sugars and they bind together. I have various sizes of small paintbrushes in my cake supplies. I paint a lot on my cakes with food coloring plus I use them for my "gluing". I also have an exacto knife in my cake supplies. I used it to gently press a line in for her part. I then used it to giver her a hair cut. :)I tried to scatter her locks a bit to give it some dimension. I've made a figure before out fondant, a little hula girl. On that figure I sculpted with pre colored fondant. On this figure I decided to sculpt it out of all white and then paint it, to see which way I like better. I like sculpting with pre colored fondant better. Here's why: my biggest issue is I had trouble getting the color into small crevices, and I had trouble with bleeding color and my clumsy smudging.

To make skin color (which I also used on this cake) I use just a little bit of copper coloring.

Some more must have tools that I use on every cake. But especially for painting a cake. The liquid is actually vodka. For two reasons. Vodka spreads the color much more smoothly than water does. Water is really good to paint with if you want a textured look, like grass. But for smooth color, vodka works better. It doesn't leave your fondant sticky like water does, and the alcohol evaporates away. I usually just dip my brush (or toothpick for those tiny details) into the vodka, and then use the lid of the food coloring as my "palette" to mix my color onto my brush.

Again, toothpicks are great for the tiny details. (That's pretty much all I used on the tattoo cake).

I don't have a cake turn table yet (you can count on it being my next item I plan on buying!) I use either a hot chocolate container or a jar of peanut butter to lift the cake up off the counter so I can work the edges better and turn it easier. :)

Time for a face lift

2011-03-08T12:23:00.000-08:00

...on this blog anyway :). I've decided that with every cake post, there will be stories, either about the person whom the cake was made for, about the person who ordered the cake, about the occasion, or about the making, designing, or "discovering the look" of the cake itself. I'm going to share tips, recipes, how to's, and how NOT to's. I've decided that this is NOT a business for me (and shouldn't we all be thankful for that? Because frankly, all I charge is enough to cover the expenses. I don't make a dime off these cakes, and even more realistically, I probably lose a couple of dimes on them), so PLEASE keep asking me to make them. I can't just make a cake for no reason. And my family can't eat all the cakes I want to make. And I'll share with you what I do and learn along the way. Deal? (Hello? Anyone out there? **crickets**).
I'm even going to go back and start adding stories and probably more how NOT to's than how to's on the cakes already on here. Have a favorite? Watch for it's story, coming soon :).

Do it yourself cake plate (or tiers)

2011-03-07T06:24:00.000-08:00

I'm getting ready to do a baby shower cake with cupcakes. Ruby wants a smaller cake on top of three tiers of matching cupcakes. It's hard to find a cake tiered plate set that doesn't have some sort of stem coming out of the middle of the top plate like this one, at least in our area:

Ruby really wants that cake on the top level. So I found this idea and thought I would share it on here. I think it's a handy idea (not to mention very budget savvy) and can't wait to try it myself (because you know, I need more stuff like this ha). So check it out:

http://affordableutahweddings.com/how-to-diy-cake-plate/

And as usual, don't forget to check out the cake give away!!! Win a cake of your choice. Check that out too :).

Oreo cookie

2011-03-06T18:41:00.000-08:00

I actually have a different idea for this Oreo cake... one that involves a slab of ice cream as the middle layer. Of course it would have to be assembled by the person who orders it because if I assemble it and put it in the freezer, the fondant will freeze rock hard. :) And I mean rock hard, don't drop it on any toes.
So this cake was made with an 8 inch round pan cut in half for the cookie, and a 6 inch round pan for the center. I debated on whether to brace it or not. (bracing is using cardboard cake rounds and wooden dowels to keep the cake from sinking on under it's own stacked up weight, the dowels actually hold the weight under the cardboard. Need a better description? I sure would. Look here, it even has pictures). I wondered, where it wasn't the usual looking layered cake, and was acting more as a whole cake, if the cardboard would ruin the effect of having it be a whole cookie, so I opted to not brace it, allowing the cake to be cut as a whole. The outcome? Slightly tilted, but it held just fine.

Oh yeah, if you haven't heard you can win a cake of your choice for FREE. Find out how by clicking here.

Give away reminder

2011-02-23T19:22:00.000-08:00

Take a look around but don't forget to enter for your chance to WIN a cake HERE

Over the Hill bowling ball

2011-02-23T19:16:00.000-08:00

Daniel turned 40. Daniel had bowling league on his birthday. Daniel got surprised at the bowling alley with an "over the hill" cake.

Fall Wedding

2011-02-23T19:14:00.000-08:00

My Personal Heaven

2011-02-23T19:00:00.000-08:00

So I made my own birthday cake. Heaven on a plate. In all fairness I used the recipe from Bakerella here. But you know, I tried a thing or two to tweak it and make it extra moist. (Jami, if you're reading this, you MUST try this cake again with tweaks!!). It was for me and me alone (of course I shared with the circus) so I didn't worry about dripping icing on my cake plate. I was not at all bothered by the peanut butter cups that slid off the side (actually I just snagged those up with my fingers and ate them right then and there) and in line with Bakerella's warning, I needed milk. I pass on her warning, if you try this cake, make sure you have milk!

Boxing Ring

2011-02-23T18:58:00.000-08:00

Give away

2011-02-14T20:15:00.000-08:00

I've finally added more cake pictures. Exciting, right? Well, I think so :). But don't get lost in all the wonderful cakeness (I might stumble upon a couple of more pictures in the next day or two), if you've come looking for the give away it's right HERE. And if you didn't come looking for the give away, and just came to check out the cakes... well, hey! why don't you check out the give away?

Hello Kitty

2011-02-14T20:12:00.000-08:00

It's a girl thing

2011-02-14T20:10:00.000-08:00

Jack-o-lantern

2011-02-14T20:08:00.000-08:00

Women's bathroom?

2011-02-14T20:06:00.000-08:00

Nope. "Girl" brand skateboard logo... for a sweet sixteen BOY.

Mark and Sarah Wedding cake

2011-02-14T20:03:00.000-08:00

Brenna Lou's Butterflies

2011-02-14T19:57:00.000-08:00

When the niece asks for butterflies, the niece gets fluttery, delicate, edible butterflies!

VOTE... Three tiered cake give away

2011-02-11T17:19:00.001-08:00

*This give away is now closed*
I have SO many cakes to catch up on for this blog. SO many cute cakes! But I have a matter of... business, shall we say, before I begin to do that.
A GIVE AWAY!
Here's the deal, my man and I are trying to plan our wedding... in Turks and Caicos (google it, it's GORGEOUS) but that really adds up when we look at trying to do a wedding with our six kids. Turks and Caicos x 8.... We entered this contest to win the ultimate wedding of $100,000. I'm going to mix it up and say I'm not above bribes. I'll do a give away for a free three tiered cake of your design for any occasion you choose. Here's what you do: you get an entry into my cake give away for your initial vote on our contest entry. Let me know on any of my blogs or on my facebook that you voted and you're in. THEN for every person that comes to one of my blogs and tells me that they voted for us because you sent them, you both get entries. The more people you get to vote for us, the more entries YOU get for a FREE THREE TIERED CAKE of your choice. SPREAD THE WORD. I want my wedding. And I'm pretty sure you can think of an occasion for a fancy three tiered cake. :)
** Clarifying some things here :) You can only vote on our wedding entry once, but that's per email. If you have more than one email, just log out, and vote again by adding your info with your other email. If you vote more than once by using different emails, you get an entry in the cake give away per vote. Voting for the wedding contest goes until April 30th, so the cake give away will end May 1st . I'm willing to deliver the cake in Salt Lake or Davis counties. I'll meet you half way for Tooele or Utah counties or Vernal and Ogden areas. I'll deliver to St. George if it's a weekend. And I'm willing to mail the cake, I just can't make any guarantees to the condition of it upon arrival, though I promise to do my best with packaging it. You don't HAVE to have three tiers, but I'm willing to make up to that many for the winner. Thank you to everyone who is willing to take the time to vote and good luck.

Mini Cakes

2010-11-01T21:41:00.000-07:00

Want something different? Small but enough to say something sweet on that special occasion? Now along with my giant cupcakes, we have mini cakes. I added sparklers to this one, which turned out awesome :)

Once a Pirate, always a Pirate

2010-09-12T16:22:00.000-07:00

My debut into high school logos ha ha. My football helmets are getting A LOT better. Thank goodness since they seem to be a reocurring request!

Harley Davidson

2010-09-12T16:20:00.000-07:00

Wedding cake

2010-09-12T16:19:00.000-07:00

1st birthday cake with smash cake

2010-09-12T16:11:00.000-07:00

For my sweet great niece. The cupcake comes off the top for her smash cake. A princess cake for a sweet little princess.

Red M and M

2010-09-12T16:07:00.000-07:00

Owl city

2010-09-12T16:01:00.000-07:00

Marshmallows make the best cupcake eyes. The girls all joined in and helped me with these.

Intoducing my first wedding cake

2010-08-21T20:06:00.000-07:00

Oh how I stressed and worried over this cake. Frankly, I'm no professional, and my cakes are definitely homemade. I worry about every single one that heads out to people who ask for them for one reason or another. But a WEDDING cake...

Cherry drip cake

2010-08-21T20:03:00.000-07:00

All I can say about this cake is that I LOVE it. I would love to have the opportunity to make a layerd cake out of this. I think it would look amazing.

Purple party cake

2010-08-21T20:01:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when you have a large odd shape cake (originally intended for carving a shap out of) and the need of an extra last minute cake.

Lime green slugbug

2010-08-21T19:57:00.000-07:00

Slugbug, what color?
The request was very specific. Lime green slugbug with a "Hawaiian flower" on the hood.But I had to be a little creative with it so I made the inside tie-dye.

Cowboy hat and bandana

2010-08-21T19:55:00.000-07:00

Jaegermeister

2010-07-24T22:30:00.000-07:00

These pics are a little off because I took them with my phone instead of my camera but you still get the gist of the cake. When Kelten told me he wanted a jaeger cake all I could think of was those drunks puking it back up... so I put it on there ha ha. Sorry... if you ask me to do a cake you ARE going to get a bit of my personality wrapped up in it somewhere. He loved the puker though, and just like my fingerprints on the tiny lampshade of the crime scene cake, I giggled out loud all night over this little drunk.

Unicorn

2010-07-24T22:27:00.000-07:00

Superman Cake

2010-07-24T22:24:00.000-07:00

Transformers: Optimus Prime

2010-06-26T22:36:00.000-07:00

Baseball diamond grave

2010-06-26T22:28:00.000-07:00

For a 60th birthday... this shape was a little more tricky to get than I first expected, but I got it eventually. I painted the green on, thinking the paint strokes would add a cool texture to the grass.

Rock N' Roll Bedroom

2010-06-26T22:18:00.000-07:00

The "before" pictures of this room are gone, lost with a memory card that I can't find. It was a plain white bedroom with nothing in it but a long desk attached to the wall and a foozball table. We removed the foozball table, took the three girls to the store where they picked out this lovely mint green that we were a bit uncertain about and we started painting. I think the green turned out awesom. They wanted a music theme, which, after painting and finding wall accessories turned more into a rock n' roll theme, but that's basically the same thing, right? I had an idea to trace them onto the wall and this is what I finally ended up with: My man was amazing and built a triple bunkbed onto a wall for them, incorporating dressers. We were trying to fit all the necessities in with out taking to much space away from them. I think we did a good job, and the girls love it. That's all that really matters.

Sk8 Park

2010-05-25T18:57:00.000-07:00

Ayden is amazing. Did you know he can do a back flip? He showed me. I've never been able to do a back flip. Ever. Not even on a trampoline and this kid just did it from a standing jump on the floor. Impressive. Ayden is also an 8 year old skater boy. Happy birthday Ayden! I didn't get a picture with the cake after McKell put little skateboards all over it but it looked really cool with or without them, if I do say so myself (and quite often I'm saying so myself LOL). I think I nailed the concrete color, which was pure luck on the first try ha ha.

Birdie's dancing

2010-05-22T09:58:00.000-07:00

"Birdie" is turning five and wants a ballet cake. I went over and over how to do this cake in my head for weeks. Finally, after doing the mega cupcakes with non edible accents I started stretching my ideas. I was kind of opposed to using non edible accents on cakes because that seemed to defeat the purpose, but then I thought "why?" I'm still making the cake, the filling, the fondant. I'm still decorating it from head and abilities. And frankly, using tulle on a cake tutu was going to turn out much better than using fondant. So...
Here's a picture of my chocolate chip cookie cake with caramel filling before I covered it with fondant. It gets ordered with every cake I make, a fast favorite, everyone wants it. I don't blame them, it's amazing :).

Intoducing... Mega Cupcakes

2010-05-18T21:14:00.001-07:00

I put these together for a fundraiser auction for Girl's Camp. I had so much fun doing these, and they were a big hit too, which made me feel good :). I made a cupcake in each value's color.

2010-05-18T21:07:00.000-07:00

What goes better with Saint's football than ESPN on a flatscreen TV? We had lots of flavors going on in these cakes. Carrot cake, chocolate chip cookie cake, vanilla cheesecake cake, and spice cake. Still not a fan of my helmet carving abilities, but it's a better shape than my last one. which is a good sign that my next will be better too :).

The tattoo cake

2010-05-07T20:15:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday to my tatted out sister. This cake has the names of all her family on it, as well as all the old school tattoo designs I could think of. I hand painted them (sometimes with a toothpick because the detail was too small for my brush), and I would have to say if I ever had a project of this sort again, I'll just paint directly onto the cake instead of piecing it together. This cake has Jes's spunk and sassiness. Love her. I can say that painting on a cake is by far my favorite method. Check out the pin up tat I did of my sister :).

Spiral hearts

2010-05-02T09:32:00.000-07:00

My daughter's request for her 7th birthday cake was "blue hearts". I wanted an excuse to try a spiral cake, so this is what we ended up with. Not the cleanest best spiral, but I learned a lot with it and very much want to try it again! I also got to play with pearl dust and liquid pearl which I love. Notice the nice shimmer on the hearts? Two of my other daughters did the pearls around the bottom, they wanted to help and were so cute with doing it for their sister. Inside this cake was a yummy chocolate with layers a caramel filling. My favorite at this point. Man, that caramel is so good!

Seattle Seahawks

2010-05-02T09:24:00.000-07:00

A neighbor wanted this for her son's 20th birthday... he's avid into the Seahawks. My first helmet... I needed to cut the length in half, it's very elongated. As luck has it, I have another football cake, this time for the Saints, coming up, so I get to try it again. This time I'll have a better idea of how to carve it. Overall I'm happy with the logo and the field. I made the face mask out of gumpaste and let it dry over night, but it turned out that wasn't long enough. I broke when I tried to put it on the next morning. And crumbled with all my efforts to put it together again. With my neighbor coming to pick it up I was able to use a support of florist wire and toothpicks to make a fresh face mask. This cake was a good learning experience!

Spiderman

2010-04-24T21:11:00.000-07:00

For cutest nephew who turned 3. This cake is bigger than any I've done. Usually my two layers consist of two cakes, one on top of the other. This one has four cakes in it, with fillings in between the layers. Chocolate chip cookie cake with caramel filling on bottom and Swiss chocolate with cookies n' cream (new and improved recipe) on top. Everything made from scratch. I'm in love with the caramel recipe, Oh my goodness, it's to die for. I kept eating it from the bowl ha ha. I also found a better technique with mixing my fondant with this cake, it comes out smoother and I'm a LOT happier with it.

Caution-Crime Scene

2010-04-21T05:30:00.000-07:00

My co-worker is into CSI. Not the TV show, but the real field, she's taken a lot of forensic classes and her favorite was finger printing. My co-worker also recently bought an extremely tacky 90s velor, teal couch. And she LOVES it. So for her bday I decided to put those two aspects together. I even put finger prints on the lamp and lampshade. Speaking of lampshade... I giggled all night over that little thing, I was so in love with it. I know, I amuse myself.

M-I-C...K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

2010-04-20T05:27:00.000-07:00

I'd had a pretty rough day. Really rough. Anything that could piss me off, did. This cake was therapeutic. I loved it. I had a clear picture in my head, and the cake actually did what I told it to with out arguing. It was a better ending to my day than just huffing off to bed.

Lightning McQueen, Ka-chow!

2010-04-18T18:10:00.000-07:00

My friend asked me to do a Lightning McQueen cake for her son's bday next weekend. But then she sent me a text Thursday asking for it this weekend instead. I already had the Batman cake I needed to do, and we had plans to go out of town. I told her I would do it if I could. But after battling the bratty Batman cake I knew I wasn't going to get the Cars cake done. But I've know this friend FOREVER so I told her I would do it while we were gone and bring back with me for her to have. Which I did.

And it worked just fine until... the whole entire side of it melted from the sun. This is definitely getting racked up to one of my "cake disasters"! I tried my best to make it look OK for my friend, who said she loved it any way. Here's the final tweaked result: This cake was milk chocolate with cookies n'cream filling.

Holy Cake, Batman!

2010-04-18T16:51:00.000-07:00

Having five daughters and one son, boy cakes aren't something I get to do too often on my own accord :). So THANK YOU to my friends who let me do one for their boys. I fought with this cake. It didn't want to do what I wanted it to do, and it was hard for me to "feel" it. Usually I just follow how a cake "feels" as I'm putting it together. This cake was a brat so I put it away for the night, and the next morning I was able to finish up some details. I wasn't so mad at it after some sleep. This cake is a Swiss chocolate cake (so yummy! Made with buttermilk) and it's the first one that I added a filling too. Cookies n'cream.

Let's hear it for the girls

2010-04-11T18:22:00.000-07:00

My neighbor found out she has breast cancer and is going in for a double mastectomy this week. I made this cake for her family dinner before the surgery. She's being an optimist, saying she's always wanted to lift "the girls", and now she can. We kept the cake PG rated for the swarms of kids around both our houses.
Inside this cake is red velvet. Oh my goodness, it was SO good I wanted to keep the cake and eat it all myself lol. But then what kind of a neighbor would I be?

Aloha! Hula girl

2010-04-09T16:11:00.000-07:00

This was a last minute favor. I did the palm tree and hula girl out of fondant. I really wanted to try them with modeling chocolate, but I just didn't have the time to 1- make the modeling chocolate (I'm still sticking with making all my own stuff, even the fondant), and 2- let it harden.
My boss saw the Camaro and decided he needed a cake for his daughter's birthday. She's turning 13, and is taking hula lessons. The inside of this cake I tried a new flavor and it turned out fabulous, at least the little I tasted was. It's a chocolate chip cookie cake. I'm going to start trying a lot more gourmet flavors. Let's watch as hopefully in coming cakes my figures get better :).

Camaro... Transformers edition

2010-04-08T19:32:00.000-07:00

I now know that the difference between a regular yellow camaro, and the Transformers edition is... the racing stripes. Yup, that's it. So, here it is. I kind of thought that my first carving experience was going to be in about two weeks on a couch project (that's going to be an awesome cake by the way! Stay tuned, you don't want to miss it), but as it turns out, I ran into this little project last minute. Carve a camaro. OK, for the girl who when asked, "what kind of car was/is it?" answers, "yellow". As usual the perfectionist in me is screaming at what I see to be wrong with it, but I think overall in a cake carving experience, this was pretty good. And the man mentioned getting me a sprayer when he saw the racing stripes. Yes! I need one for the tattoo cake I have coming up in May (another one you should stay tuned for!). He's an ice cream freak, so the best I could do was make the base an ice cream cake road. Asphalt pie. I can't carve ice cream. Sorry, I know you're all disappointed with that discovery.

Princess cake

2010-03-26T21:33:00.000-07:00

Crown, castle, banner, sparkles and a frog... princess. What more can a girl ask for? I have a different idea for a crown now if I ever get the chance to take a crack at it again. A couple of different ideas actually :).

Peace, Love, and cake

2010-03-22T21:25:00.001-07:00

To sum Alle up, peace, love, and indie about do it. About. She's also brilliant, sweet, a firecracker, and amazing on all levels. But for the cake's sake, we'll stick with peace and love. Which of course means the cake itself has to be tie-dyed. (Hopefully Alle sends me a pic of the inside after she cut it so we can all see it :)). I took a few pictures of this cake because there were little details all over it that I loved. I'm in love with this cake.

St. Patrick's Day

2010-03-16T12:23:00.000-07:00

This was actually for a birthday, but they wanted it to be St. Patrick's themed. At first I didn't like it, it felt to plain and dull, so I kept going until... wa-lah! It's all in the details :) You can't tell from the pictures but the colors on the rainbow have shimmer dust on them.

Cake Ball cake

2010-03-14T08:30:00.000-07:00

Red Skull

2010-03-14T08:28:00.000-07:00

I took this picture before I put the trim around the edge... don't judge it by that! I love this cake!

Tiger Lily

2010-03-14T08:26:00.000-07:00

3D flowers

2010-03-13T17:46:00.000-08:00

so just throwing it out that I did steal this idea from google images... but I'm still pleased with myself for pulling it off! I made it for Emily's 10th bday.

Retro Flower Cake

2010-03-12T21:10:00.000-08:00

Happy 10th bday Deeds.

Spring Fling Cake

2010-03-09T22:29:00.000-08:00

Rose Bouquet Cake

2010-03-04T06:07:00.000-08:00

Tina's favorite flower is the lime green so this is what I came up with. I think this one could be a lot of fun with different color combos.

Circus cake

2010-01-31T19:27:00.001-08:00

Frog face birthday cake/cupcakes

2010-01-31T19:23:00.000-08:00

Polka dot bedroom

2010-01-31T19:20:00.000-08:00

Flower bedroom

2010-01-31T19:14:00.001-08:00