Cupcakes...they grow on ya

I've never been much of a cupcake fan. I don't know why, but they just don't taste as good as a whole cake. Plus, it's just not as fun to take a fork to a cupcake.

Anyway, I've been teaching a cake decorating class in our homeschool co-op and we've been practicing on cupcakes. Cuz really, what parent wants to send a whole cake with their kid to co-op every other week? So, I've been working with the little mini cakes since September, and they're starting to grow on me. It must be because they're so darn cute, cuz I don't actually eat any of them.

My girlfriend and I decided to do cupcakes for her sister's baby shower. She decorated very simply but pretty, with flowers. These are some of the sweet little things we whipped up. Aren't they just so soft and delicate and pretty?

We made vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with buttercream icing. Chocolate cake with buttercream icing is one of my favs!

Candy cake

Because 13 year old girls need more sugar than the meager amounts to be found in plain ole cake.

This was so much fun to do. All three of my kiddos now think they need a candy cake for their birthday.

The cake was vanilla with chocolate mousse filling and buttercream icing. All the candy accents were in fondant.

What every girl wants for her 30th birthday...

A My Little Pony castle cake. Duh!

A friend ordered this for his wife...like...8 months ago. We decided to add the black scrollwork to make it a little edgy. Cuz she's an edgy kind of gal. And check out the big MLP. She's got safety pins all through her hair. Um, yeah. Cuz the birthday girl is kinda like that.

The cakes were chocolate with ganache filling and buttercream icing. The top layer was all gluten free for the birthday girl.

Favorite things

For my daughter's 11th birthday this year she wanted to go with a "favorite things" theme. When she asked if she could help, I actually said yes. She was in shock. And then she got right to work with the fondant. She was thrilled that I let her be involved in making her cake. So, I'll explain some of her favorite things that were added to the cake.

Right on top was Scarlet's head. She's our bulldog. My daughter loves bulldogs.

Ahhh, here's Scarlet.

Next we added puppy prints around the side. Not only does she love bulldogs, but pretty much any dogs...including our other bulldog puppy.

Here are some piano keys, a baby's head (she loves babies), and an ice cream cone.

Here's a kiwi and a book (because she loves to read, not because she's a librarian).

She put on the blue marbled cross, because the blue marble looked cool, but mostly because she loves God. And she had to throw on a horse head.

The cake was red velvet with cream cheese icing. It was my first time making red velvet. Unfortunately I wasn't able to give an accurate assessment of the taste because when I sampled a tiny bit my throat felt like it was lined with razor blades. So, um, apparently I'm allergic to red dye. It almost killed me not being able to taste that luscious looking cake. Seriously, I know, right? A tragedy for sure.

Now that I think about it, it might have killed me if I did eat that luscious looking cake. But what a way to go, right?

Black Forest

I decided to try a new recipe for a black forest cake. It involves chocolate (good), cherries (good), and cherry liqueur (not so good). It sounds good...in theory. Not so good in reality. At least I didn't think so. Sure looks great though.

Next time I'll try replacing the liqueur with a cherry sauce. Or maybe I'll mix in some cherry liqueur with the cherry sauce and see if that goes over a little better.

A little love for Mom

This Mother's Day cake makes me drool. Chocolate cake, caramel filling, chocolate buttercream with chocolate covered strawberries on top. Amazing.

Autobots, roll out!

This autobot transformed into a chocolate OREO cake with a little ganache teaser.

Chocolate and transformers...two of my absolute favs.

Bob and Larry

I threw these boys together on a cake for our homeschool co-op

party cake walk.

Baby shower

Pink and brown themed baby shower. Mama-to-be requested Pumpkin Spice Cake with cream cheese icing and filling. How could I deny such a luscious request? Especially to a pregnant woman!? You just don't mess with pregnant women and food.

Aloha!

This was a labor of love. I made it for a luau we had to celebrate my grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary. My favorite parts were the octopus and the surf boards with their names on them...well, I really like the starfish, too.

The bottom layer was butter rum with butter rum icing and filling. It's a favorite.

The middle layer was pina colada with buttercream icing and a pineapple cream cheese filling. It was so moist and flavorful.

The top was chocolate kahlua with chocolate buttercream icing and a chocolate kahlua mousse filling. Need I say more?

Let's just say it went over very well. Oh, and I can't forget to mention that my 10 year old daughter made her cake decorating debut by helping with the fondant decorations. She made the sea turtle that's in the ocean on the back. Atta girl!

King Kaliente

We had a small party for my son's 9th birthday. He opted for a Super Mario party this year. I decided to do a cake like one of his favorite worlds on Super Mario Galaxy.

This was my first attempt at making figures. I used all fondant. The cake is iced in buttercream. For flavors we went with a basic butter cake with raspberry mousse filling.

Here is my little Mario man.


King Kaliente. He's one bad dude.

Here is the final cake. I'd like to say that Mario won the battle but sadly he was decapitated. My little guy kept his head.

Just so you know I'm not crazy...well, actually I am a little crazy, but that I'm not making it up, here are some pictures from the game.

Magic School Bus

This was done for a 4 year old's birthday party. His favorite episode of The Magic School Bus is "gets baked in a cake." The bus is supposed to be kind of exploding out of the cake.

Chocolate cake and icing. Raspberry mousse filling.

Softball party

This was for an end of the season softball party. It had to be done on short notice so I didn't get to spend as much time on it as I'd hoped, but the girls loved it anyway...especially having their names on it. Their uniform colors were red with gray pants.

top - vanilla

middle - strawberry lemonade

bottom - butter rum

each layer had buttercream icing and filling

My Little Pony Castle cake

This was made for my daughter's birthday. She wanted me to combine a castle cake with My Little Pony. I was short on time but this is what I came up with.

The bottom was strawberry lemonade cake with strawberries and cream filling. The top was vanilla with strawberries and cream filling. All icing was buttercream.

Kiley's cake

For a big 31st birthday bash. Butter rum on top with double chocolate snickers on bottom. Yum-o.

Horse lover

For a horse lover's 10th birthday.

White almond sour cream cake with blueberry cream cheese filling.

Ahoy, Matey!

For a nautical themed baby shower. White cake with raspberry filling.

Baby shower

I made these for a community baby shower that was held for a family that had lost their home in a fire. The mother was pregnant at the time of the fire. The baby's room had been decorated in blue and brown with stars.


This one was for the mom-to-be. She wanted plain white with buttercream icing.


This was the baby's cake. White with buttercream icing also, but raspberry filling in this one.

Here is a close up of the topper.

Boy and a Dirtbike

For a boy's birthday. The dirtbike was freehanded from a picture I had.

Chocolate with buttercream icing.

Mongo-cake

This cake was about 15" x 21". It was enormous (or maybe it just seemed that way while I was working on it).
French vanilla with raspberry filling and buttercream icing.