This was such a fun birthday cake to do for a darling, smart, inquisitive girl who enjoys traveling and documenting everything with her camera.  I can hardly believe she’s Sweet 16 already!

The cake is an 8″ chocolate cake with cookies and cream filling, smooth iced with vanilla buttercream.  All of the details are made from homemade fondant.

The name plaque is cut out of fondant with an Ohio-shaped cutter and painted with metallic gold paint.  The Eiffel Tower is piped with black buttercream onto a fondant plaque.

I wanted to give the feeling of travel all the way around the cake to highlight her adventuresome spirit.

Her camera also plays a big part in her life, so it had to be on there…

This was such a fun cake to do, I’m so glad I got to create it for you, Quinn.

Happy Birthday, girlfriend!

For all the Corona fans out there, this one’s for you!

Loved making this one…It was sort of a last-minute order, but I couldn’t resist doing it for a sweet mom who wanted to give her son a special surprise on his 21st birthday.

Note: The Corona is real, all the rest is cake or sugar…And no Coronas were hurt in the making of this cake, the birthday boy got to drink it –eventually :0)

It started as a 3 layer 7″ vanilla cake that I carved into a bucket shape and  rough-iced with buttercream.  I then cut a hole out of the middle to accommodate the Corona bottle. That was the tricky part…making the hole big enough for the bottle while leaving enough cake to maintain the structure (and to eat, or course!).

After letting it set up in the fridge for a few minutes, I covered the entire thing in Continue reading →

It’s been awhile since I made this cupcake cake for my son’s 5th grade teacher…Things have been a blur since school let out over a month ago. But this one was special, so I thought I’d share it…

To give a little background here, this class began their 5th grade year with a bit of a reputation. There are 15 strong-willed, rambunctious, inquisitive, competitive boys (mine being one of them) and only 7 girls in the class. Previous teachers had gotten worn down and exhausted by mid-year — they are definitely a handful (I want to be clear, we’ve loved each and everyone of their teachers).
Then came Mrs. Hammerton. She was tough but fun. Strict but silly. Demanding but compassionate. She expected a lot from every single one of her “Angels.” She got results and and inspired them everyday.

And they loved her for it.

On the day before school let out, we surprised her with this cake, ice cream, and an angel bracelet and poem. We wanted her to always remember her “Little Angels.” We also had enough donations from parents to get her a really nice gift card!

For ease of serving, it’s a cupcake cake made from 24 chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, iced all together to look like a cake. I wanted it to look like a piece of lined paper with doodles and the simply drawn image of an angel. The angel is actually an icing transfer made by piping layers of icing onto waxed paper in the shape of an angel (the elements nearest you go down first, layering until it’s all filled in). After freezing for a few minutes, the waxed paper can be peeled away and the image carefully laid onto the cake.

Congrats for making it through 5th grade, kids, and thanks so much to Mrs. Hammerton for being an inspiration and Guiding Angel to all of us!

We love you, Mrs. Hammerton!!

I’ve had the opportunity to create a number of Disney Frozen-themed treats this past year.

This one I made for Maria’s 7th birthday a few months ago…

It’s a 2-tier 6″/8″ cake made from chocolate and vanilla layers and serves about 35 people.  It’s iced with vanilla buttercream and the snowflakes, letters, and number are cut from homemade marshmallow fondant.  The Frozen edible image I ordered online and cut to fit the bottom tier.

The cupcakes are vanilla and chocolate with a blue buttercream swirl, purple edible crystals, and a fondant snowflake.

I also did these personalized cookies earlier this spring for another Frozen celebration…

I packaged them up for Sophia, the birthday girl, to hand out at school as a special treat!

Hope you had great birthdays, Maria and Sophia!  I sure had fun making your treats!