9.21.2008

Lady Bugs

Here is a picture of a some cupcakes I made for a seven year old's birthday party. The cupcakes are different sizes. The flower lollypops in the "grass" cupcakes are made of white chocolate, so YES - they are edible...YUM!

This cake was just for fun. It was going to be a lady bug, but I did not realize at the time that I was out of red coloring for my icing. Thus, the yellow bug. The cake was lemon flavored, so I guess it was appropriate. I took it to work - the teachers devoured it!

Girly Cakes



When I started making cakes about a year ago, I had no idea how many "girly" cakes I would be faced with. Most of these are freebies, here. The first one was a cake that a co-worker wanted for a friend.


This cake was a last minute freebie for a pre-teen girl's birthday. I thought it turned out ok, but I really need to work on my letter spacing...maybe next time I will be able to fit the entire word Birthday on the cake.

Well, there is nothing more girly than unicorns and rainbows. The cracked icing is from the crazy humidity at this outdoor party for a four year old.


Princess = girls. Enough said.

Awww....hearts. How sweet - and girly. :)


More princess paraphernalia.






And the matching cupcakes...


I can't remember who this cake was for. No doubt the customer was female.

Here is a surprise birthday cake for a friend's daughter who is in her 20s. All girls love pink!
And, even though I know many of you are not fans of the cupcake cake, my curiousity got the better of me, and I had to try one out. I know it is not my best work, but delicious anyway. We had fun eating the strawberry filled yellow cupcakes.





9.18.2008

All Things Chocolate...

Everyone loves chocolate, right? Yummy!
Here are my cakes that have some kind of chocolate ...ummm...something about them.

This is a triple chocolate fudge cake with chocolate ganache filling, AND chocolate butter cream icing. This is a chocolate cake with chocolate butter cream icing.

There is nothing better than a big chocolate horse - HA!!



Baby Shower Cakes

These are some baby shower cakes that I have made over the past year. Just as in my other posts, some are better than others. It is easy to see the areas that I need to work on. Like the writing on the one below. I was pleased with the rest of the cake. It was made to match the invitation.
This cake was for a co-worker that was having her fourth baby. Finally a girl! Next time I will not mix fondant feet with butter cream icing.

Yes - this is actually a baby shower cake. The bedding for the baby to be was black and white. The pattern on the linens was toile, however, I was not ready to tackle that. Thank goodness the bed skirt was polka dotted!





These next two pictures are from a shower cake, however, I did not choose the color scheme. I was pleased with the fondant baby.












9.16.2008

College Cakes



Sometimes (and usually during football season) someone will want a "college cake." I have only done two of these. One cake was decorated with the logo for Texas Tech, and the other was with the University of Texas logo.

I guess next time I will have to do a purple cake for Stephen F. Austin. Axe' em Jacks!!





TV and Cartoon Cakes

Obviously, my family can not eat as much cake as I like to make. I mean - we could, but really, that would not be a good move. To remedy this dilemma, I started making cakes for the kids at my school. (If you didn't know, I am a teacher - a music teacher, so I see a lot of different classes.) This gives me a lot of decorating practice, although I sometimes rush through the process.

Now, I know what some of you must be thinking... "What...making cakes for kids at school? What is wrong with these crazy teachers???"

This actually works out in my favor. Each class has to earn a cake through a reward system that I have. (I will not bore you with the complicated details.) Anyway, I do try to make it educational - we take a vote on what flavor of cake and how it will be decorated. We talk about the voting process and all kinds of educational things. : )

Anyway - back to the original train of thought - most classes want some kind of cake with a cartoon character on it. Some of these cakes have turned out well, and some have not. See for yourself.

Tom and Jerry - I rushed this one, but it isn't horrible for a "bribe" cake. (Except that Jerry's face may need a little work.) I used the piping gel transfer method.


A blast from the 1980s! Alvin and the Chipmunks for a second grade class.

Of course - Kids love Spongebob Square Pants! (Only he has no pants here!)




Ok - this was not a cake for school kids, but since Hannah Montana is on TV, I though I would post it on this blog. This was a birthday cake for a nine year old girl. I thought it turned out pretty well, but I was having some icing issures that day. It just didn't stick well and peeled off the cake.


Self-explanatory. Spiderman. He is the coolest superhero. Duh.
This was baked in the Wilton Spiderman pan.
The cupcakes are a result of leftover cake batter and icing that I could not throw out. The webs are not as great as I wanted, but at least the cake was recognizable.




This was just for fun. My family wanted cake, and I had a new pan. Voila! Yo Sammity Sam!
(Don't look at the spacing of the letters...yikes! At least it tasted good. Like I said - this was just to fulfill a cake craving.)



Tinkerbell - this was my first cake in a shaped pan. Yeah, I know - she has a tan.






Another pants-less Spongebob. This one is better that the other one.
















Car Cakes

Since I started decorating cakes about a year ago, I have made several car cakes. These are all made from Wilton shaped character pans. The Speedracer cake was baked in the Nascar pan. Hopefully I will learn the art of cake carving one of these days. That sure would free up a lot of space in my kitchen not having all of those shaped pans.




Ta-Ta Cakes

Amazingly enough, I have found my niche for making naughty, naked cakes. It all started with a friend that wanted one as a joke. Through my sophisticated research through Google, I found all kinds of pertinent information on "boob cakes."



Well, one prank cake led to a cake for a bachelor party, which led to a cake for someone recovering from ...ahem....enhancing surgery.


Typically, I am not one that is easily offended by nudity (obviously). However, being the responsible blogger that I am, I chose to censor these cakes. I will just say that the censored part was very realistic looking, and made from fondant.



My first boob cake.
















The next two are a little better. I guess practice makes perfect.















Football Cakes

In this post, I am going to add a few pictures of football cakes I have made over the past year.

Here is the first football cake that I made.

This cake was really easy to make, although I had trouble finding a pan. My friend, Carla, found the pan at a specialty bake shop and got it for me.



I used the Wilton football shaped pan for this and all of my football cakes.




Here are some more football cakes that I have done. Some were decorated with the star decorating tip and on others, I smoothed the icing.


Apparently, a real football has a certain number of "stitches" across the top. I have no idea about this, but naturally, my husband knows all about it. Needless to say, some of these footballs are more realistic than others, depending on the likeness of the icing stitches to a football's real stitches.

All of these football cakes so far have been chocolate cake. (That is the only way you could get me to sit through an entire football game - bribe me with chocolate!)








9.15.2008

Pizza Birthday!

I made a pizza cake this weekend for my daughter's seventh birthday party. We celebrated at a local pizza restaurant where there are tokens, rides, games, and pizza. I'll bet you know what I am talking about!

This cake was one of the easiest I have ever done. It is french vanilla cake with buttercream frosting. The only non-buttercream decor was the cheese. I chopped up some white chocolate for that. I started to grate it, but that was pretty time consuming. (It was late!)

I guess I will have to make some business cards. I don't have any, but was asked twice for one this weekend. I had the 'pizza' in the front seat of my car while I was driving through McDonald's, and the lady working the drive through was impressed. Then when I got to the party, the restaurant manager asked for a card, also. She loved the pizza cake!

I have to say - it was a hit!!

These are my cakes...

This is a blog that follows my cake-making attempts. Some cakes posted here will be great, and some will not. I am NOT a professional baker or decorator, but I just like to decorate cakes. Occasionally I will fill an order for a birthday or shower cake, but not often. I am a full time teacher and just don't have time to turn this hobby into a business.


Anyway, I hope you enjoy seeing the progress!