Grandma's 93rd Birthday Cupcakes

For my Grandma's 93rd birthday party, I made 4 dozen cupcakes. 2 dozen were vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting (her favorite), and the other 2 dozen were a strawberry champagne cupcake with champagne buttercream. The accent piece on top is a piece of cut fondant stamped with a G for Genie, and painted with some luster dust to add a nice shimmer. The champagne cupcakes were so good. It was my first time ever making them, and it is definitely a recipe I will be making over and over again.

Katie's Bridal Shower Cake

My friend Katie is getting married next month. The theme of her wedding is nesting and love birds.. So I made this cake for her bridal shower with a bride and groom. I realized after I had made the love birds yellow that people would think they are ducks, but they are not ducks. The cake was lemon, with homemade lemon curd filling, and lemon cream cheese frosting. All of the accents are done in fondant except for the branch around the side of the cake. The branch was made out of chocolate frosting. Everyone loved the cake, especially the bride.

Pick Me Up Cupcakes

A friend of mine was going through a break up and needed some cheering up. What better way to cheer someone up than with a nice sweet treat. I made him a classic vanilla cupcake with chocolate frosting. He was super appreciative that I thought of him, and it was nice to see him smile. They did their job.

30th Birthday Chanel Purse Cake

This cake is a 14" round marble cake with fudge filling and cream cheese frosting. The purse is made out of 3 layers of 8" round cake (the same flavor, filling and frosting) and cut to look like a purse. The cakes are covered and decorated with fondant accents. The 14" cake is actually covered in a very hot pink. For some reason the photo makes it look more orange-y than it actually was. The pearls are also fondant and painted with a white shimmery luster dust. The picture does not really convey the sparkle and shine of the pearls very well. The handles of the purse are actually rolled to look like a rope handle, which you cannot see in the picture. The piping accents are all done with royal icing. It was a huge cake!!

New Year's Eve Champagne Cupcakes

For New Years Eve this year, my friend Deb asked me to make something yummy and sweet for the celebration. I knew there would be a lot of champagne to ring in the new year, and thought there was no better sweet treat than a champagne cupcake with sweet champagne buttercream frosting. I added little pearl accents to the cupcakes to make them sparkle a little more. They were absolutely delicious. It was the first time that I had made them, and I will definitely do so again. I am glad that I got to make something fun to ring in the new year. Not to mention, that I got a candy apple red Kitchenaid stand mixer for Christmas that I got to use for the first time. What a difference a mixer makes!! And of course, I got to display them in my new cupcake tree. It was a lot of fun.

Ashlyn's Panda Cake

For my niece Ashlyn's 7th birthday she wanted an elaborate Panda cake with bamboo. Unfortunately, I didn't have all of the time to make cake with all of the details that she wanted, but I think she was pretty happy with the outcome. The panda is black and white fondant, the bamboo are vanilla filled cookies spray painted with a sugar spray, and the rest is buttercream. The cake was chocolate with a buttercream filling and frosting. It turned out alright, but I do wish that I could have given her all of the details that she wanted for the cake. There is always next year!

Chris's Belated Bacon Birthday Cupcakes

So many people have looked at me like I was crazy when I mentioned that I was going to make my friend Chris maple bacon cupcakes with chocolate ganache for his birthday. I think people tend to underestimate just how amazing bacon and chocolate pair together. It is quite amazing. These cupcakes are actually maple cupcakes frosted with a chocolate ganache and topped with some chopped bacon. It only took me a month to get Chris his birthday cupcakes, but I am pretty sure he thought it was worth the wait. Definitely a recipe to keep and make over and over again.

Erin's Baby Shower Cake

One of my dear friends from all the way back to elementary school is having a baby girl. For her baby shower we decided to do a onesie cake with some sparkly gumpaste Mary Jane's and little rose accents. The cake is white cake with a lemon curd filling and fresh strawberries with lemon cream cheese frosting. I also did cupcakes with the yellow frosting and edible pearls to bring the two together. The baby's name is Claire so we definitely had to incorporate that somewhere. This was my first experience with a onesie cake and it turned out really well for my first time. It was definitely interesting having to carve the cake and make sure that both sides were even. Carving cakes can definitely be a daunting task for me, but it turned out great! My favorite was the little Mary Janes with some sparkle. They turned out amazing! Everyone was super impressed and Erin loved it..

Spa Weekend Purse & Shoe Cake

My mom and her friends get together every so often for a little spa retreat weekend at one of their houses. They usually get cupcakes for the event, but my mom thought this was a perfect opportunity for me to do a cake. She decided that she wanted something girlie like a purse cake. This was my first purse cake, and my first experience making a gumpaste/fondant shoe. The shoe is a little dark so you can't really see some of the details in the photo. The cake is red velvet with cream cheese frosting. I thought it would be cool to have the red cake jump out at you with the zebra print. The red accent roses just made it blend together that much more. The ladies loved the cake and I learned A LOT from the cake and shoes that I can use next time I need to make a cake like this. Success all around.

Michael & Michele's Wedding Cake

A friend of my mom's recently asked me to do her wedding cake! I know right? Huge deal!! I think people were a little shocked at how at ease and confident I was with the idea of actually making a wedding cake. The bottom tier of the wedding cake is red velvet with cream cheese frosting, the middle tier was vanilla and fudge marble with a fudge filling and cream cheese frosting, and the top tier was a lemon cake with lemon curd filling and lemon cream cheese frosting. The cake is covered with a cream colored fondant and all accents were done in royal icing. The flowers on top were fresh flowers that matched those of the bride and the bridal party. I have to be honest, I have become increasingly critical of myself and my work and it took me a little while to really take a step back and like the cake. Seeing the bride's expression and excitement when she saw the cake was amazing. I think it really helped to put things in perspective for me; to realize that it is an amazing cake.

I had a lot of fun getting this cake together. Since my kitchen is the size of a cardboard box, I knew that I was going to need to use a larger kitchen with actual counter space. Rolling fondant to cover the bottom tier alone would have taken me a year in my kitchen. Luckily, my mother was willing to let me take over her kitchen for the day and make a mess. What a sous chef she turned out to be. All in all, this was an amazing experience and I hope to have many many more where this came from.

Deb's Purple Sparkle Birthday Cupcakes

These cupcakes were for my friend Deb's birthday bash. Instead of bringing a big cake that you have to cut into and pass around, I decided that since we were going out, we needed something easy to eat. What is an easier baked good to eat than a cupcake? I made lemon cupcakes filled with lemon curd and a lemon cream cheese frosting to top. Deb is notorious for loving purple and sparkles. I added some subtle flares of purple with the purple streaks in the frosting and the purple edible glitter. I have to say, I was a little disappointed that the edible glitter wasn't very glittery. Nonetheless, she loved them and so did everyone else. By the end of the night the cupcakes had turned into beautiful creations touched by God and angel tears, and all hand made... even down to the cupcake tins and edible glitter. It was hysterical. I am just glad that everyone loved them, especially the birthday girl.

Adam's Going Away Cake

My dear friend Adam is packing his bags and leaving Santa Barbara for an adventure teaching English in Asia. Of course I couldn't let him leave without making him some kind of going away cake. I figured that since he was going to be doing some traveling, suitcases and the world came to mind instantly. The bottom cake is chocolate with chocolate frosting, the middle cake is lemon with lemon curd and lemon cream cheese frosting, and the top is red velvet with cream cheese frosting. All of the decorations are fondant. I hand painted the bottom suitcase accents, the middle suitcase as well as its accents with a gold and white shimmer. The wording on the globe says "Good luck friend" in Mandarin. At least I hope that is what it says. Hopefully google was right. I was hoping to do some fondant accent stickers on the suitcases but ran out of time. I ended up only doing a few. You can't see them, but there are two sets of blue and teal stars on the right and a "D" in orange and blue for the Denver Broncos (Adam is a huge fan).

Mom's Birthday Rose Cake

Since my mom loves flowers, especially roses, I decided to make her a classic rose cake for her birthday. The cake itself is a triple layer lemon cake with lemon curd filling and lemon cream cheese frosting. The borders are done in the lemon cream cheese frosting and the roses were hand made from fondant. It was my first time making fondant roses and it was quite the experience. It was a hot afternoon so the fondant was having a hard time sticking, it was as if it was melting in my hand. I am sure that the more I try to make them and work on them the better they will turn out. I had one happy mama for a birthday girl with this cake.

Father's Day Tie Cake

For Father's Day I made my mom's boyfriend a shirt and tie cake. It was chocolate and vanilla marble with a vanilla buttercream frosting. It was a lot of fun. The picture actually doesn't really give a great depiction of how it looked in person. There was another father at the father's day celebration, a family friend, who was also included in the cake festivities. Both fathers were thrilled with the cake and happy to be recognized.

I always have such great ideas for cakes to make for my father for events, but he ruins it by not liking anything too sweet. I think for his birthday or for another Father's Day I will have to make him something he likes, and then make a cake for everyone else with something themed especially for him.

Happy Father's Day to all of the dad's out there.

Hil's Grad School Graduation Cake

As I mentioned below, my friend Hil graduated from Graduate School with her Master's in Teacher Education yesterday. For her graduation celebration I made the cupcakes below, as well as this teacher themed cake for her. The cake was a triple layer lemon cake with lemon curd filling and a lemon cream cheese frosting. It was a total success. The angle of this picture is not all that great, as you cannot really see the chalkboard all that well with the ABC on the front.. but I think you get the picture. The yellow thing on the right is supposed to be a ruler, but you can't really see the details in the picture. Glad that I could be a part of her graduation by making her this cake.

Margarita Cupcakes

For my friend Hil's graduation from Graduate School, I was asked to do a cake (that you will see above) for a dinner celebration. Since I was not sure how many people would be attending, I came prepared with a dozen cupcakes just in case. Since Hil loves a nice margarita, I thought there would be no better cupcake than margarita. They were fantastic. I will definitely make these again.

Danielle's Graduation Cupcakes

My cousin graduated from high school and asked me to make her cupcakes for her graduation party. She requested red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. Since the cupcakes were already red, and her school colors were gold and maroon, I figured a yellow frosting would be perfect. I piped on the yellow cream cheese frosting, added some yellow pearl sprinkles and then added the fondant circles with the piped "D" for Danielle, and the fondant diplomas. They came out super cute. They were presented around a Barbie graduation cake in her school colors. It looked amazing.

Dave's 30th Birthday 80's Cake

A friend had an 80s themed 30th birthday party and asked me to make the cake. As a huge fan of the 80s it was hard to come up with just a few things to do for this cake. Obviously bold colors were a given. I added a cassette tape, funky sunglasses, a Rubik's cube, and of course the amazing game of Pac Man was represented. I may end up having to post more photos with different angles so that all aspects of the cake are shown. It was a huge success and the birthday boy was extremely pleased.

Mother's Day Strawberry Cream Cheese Tarts

Being the baker that I have become, Mother's Day would not be complete without some kind of baked good. I decided to make Strawberry Cream Cheese Tarts. The recipe actually called for blueberry, but I figured everyone who would be enjoying these would prefer something different. I cannot believe what a treat these were. So light, fresh and amazing. Needless to say, they were quite a hit at both Mother's Day celebrations.

Kyle's Buckaroo Cowboy Birthday Cake

So my friend Kyle from work turned 40 and had a Buckaroo Cowboy themed birthday party. I was so excited to make this cake.. I had so many different ideas that I honestly just had to start and see where the path lead. I did have some other aspects of the cake that I wanted to add but unfortunately time did not permit. The bottom tier is an almond sour cream cake, the middle was strawberry pound cake and the top was chocolate; all layers had buttercream frosting.

As I am sure you can tell, the bottom is a landscape, the middle is just grass, and the top is two cowboys in a hot tub. The birthday boy loved it and that is all I could have honestly asked for. It was a success.

Grandma's 92nd Birthday Grape Cake

So this cake was kind of a big deal for me because it was my first tiered cake. I had done a lot of reading up on how to implement it, so I think it went off fairly well. The bottom tier was chocolate cake with a chocolate buttercream. The top tier was red velvet with cream cheese frosting. Both were phenomenal. Both tiers were covered with fondant and painted gold with some shimmer dust I made into a paint-like consistency. All of the other decorations are made with fondant as well. I loved how well the colors worked together. The theme and decorations at her party were grapes and these magentas and golds. It went along perfectly with everything. I am honestly so proud of it and so happy that it came out the way it did. Everyone was super impressed, especially my Grandma

Sugar and Dairy Free Cake

So this was one of the most interesting cakes I have made to date. I got asked to make a sugarless and dairy free cake for a friend of a friends birthday. It was hard enough trying to find recipes that were both sugar free and dairy free, but then trying to decorate with that kind of icing was not easy. I ended up scratching the idea to use the sugar free icing for decorations. I used fondant to decorate and just let her know that they needed to be taken off before eating since fondant does contain sugar. I am still not sure how it turned out since I did not partake in the birthday festivities, but I am hoping it was at least edible for the birthday boy and his friends. It was definitely a challenging cake, and one that if I ever have to make again, might try to find some different recipes and test them out before sending it off with someone.

Saints Super Bowl Cupcakes

I have had a huge desire to do some baking recently, and thought what better day than the day my Saints go to the Super Bowl? I made red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and made little fondant footballs and fleur de lys' to top the cupcakes. I originally had the idea to make the fluer de lys' three tones with the white, gold and black. After making one of them I realized that would be a rather daunting task, so I just stuck to the black. I ended up brushing them with some gold shimmer dust and calling it a day. They came out really cute and they were a hit at the Super Bowl party I attended. It was my first time making red velvet cupcakes with this cream cheese frosting, this is definitely a recipe I am going to have to make again. It was so light and delicious.

Ashlyn's Pony Cake

For my niece Ashlyn's 6th birthday I wanted to make her a cake to celebrate at our family celebration. I asked both of her parents what she would want. Her dad (my brother) came back with Spongebob. Spongebob? Ok, easy enough. Then it changed to a "girlie skull" cake. Ok, getting a little more creative.. And then it changed again. She was so specific about what she wanted: "I want a chocolate cake that is pink and a white pony with brown spots and my name under the pony." I laughed so hard at how in depth she had decided her cake should be.. And she's just turning 6. It was the cutest thing ever! So my niece, of course, got what she wanted. I did have some issues with the frosting being too thin. I don't know what the issue was because as you can tell I have made a lot of buttercream. For whatever reason, on the day I made this cake it decided it was not going to cooperate. The pink icing was fine, but the white and yellow did not want to stay on. I kept having to put it in the fridge to let it set and then take it out to keep decorating. I felt really challenged by this cake in general. It took me a little while to come up with an idea and how I was actually going to get it done.. But I was pretty pleased with the end result, minus the melting buttercream. The cake was chocolate with buttercream. The pony and her name were made with fondant and the rest is dear old buttercream. She was thrilled, which made me thrilled. Have to keep that little girl happy :-)

Adam's 30th Birthday Boob Cake

The minute I started thinking about making a birthday cake for my friend Adam, boobs came to mind. I knew it had to be something boobilicious. I started looking around and found a few great ideas.. This cake was definitely an interesting one to make. I am thankful I had an entire day off of work to make it because I started around noon and did not finish until around 8-8:30 in the evening. I made a sheet cake and then two semi round cakes for the breasts. When I was measuring the bowl I was thinking of using to the sheet pan, I thought it would end up being perfect in size. It turns out that the bowls made the cakes much bigger than I anticipated. I had to cut the bowl cakes down in order to get them both to fit on the sheet cake without falling off of the sides. For my first attempt I think it came out pretty good. I know that the nipples are a little high and the breast part isn't sculpted as "womanly" as it could be, but for my first attempt I am more than happy. This was also my first time trying to do the corenelli lace. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be. All in all I was very happy. Adam was more than thrilled. He sure did love his boobs. The cake was chocolate with buttercream, covered in fondant with fondant nipples and the boustier and lace were all done with buttercream.

Turntable with Headphones

My brother Chris' roommate was having a birthday and his roommates girlfriend and him wanted nothing more than for to me make a cake for the celebration. At first when they told me their number one idea was for a turntable, I will be honest, I got a little scared. I had never really done anything like that before. The wheels started turning and this is what I came up with. Not knowing much about turntables or anything of the sort, I think it came out relatively well. The cake was chocolate fudge and vanilla marble with buttercream. I covered the cake in white fondant and painted it with a a silver shimmer dust which made for a very cool effect. The headphones are made of fondant and painted with the silver shimmer dust and black icing color. All of the other accents are made out of fondant. My brother, his roommate, and his roommates girlfriend were all thrilled. Everyone at the party raved and raved and raved. Let me tell you, it felt mighty awesome!! I was just glad they loved it as much as they did.

Baby Shower for a Co-Worker

A woman in my office was getting ready to have a baby so the office threw her a baby shower. I offered to make a cake. The first thing that popped into my head was rubber duckies. I searched high and low for plastic rubber duckies. I had thought about making them out of fondant, but was afraid of how horrible my sculpting skills would be. Maybe I should have tried it.. I don't know. At Rite Aid I finally found this cute set of rubber duckies. My thought was to have the three small ones on the cake and give the big mama to the mama. I had such problems with this cake that I needed all four to cover up my blunders. It all goes back to that bad flour. This cake basically crumbled into pieces, but somehow I thought I could salvage it and put it together. After a little phone call to the mom and another to my best friend, I started putting the pieces together with buttercream. It actually turned out really well. No one could really tell that it was a big ball of cake before I had buttercream glued it all back together. The cake was chocolate with buttercream and buttercream suds... again, I know, needing to branch out here. At least the rubber duckies were something totally different, being that they were plastic. She loved the cake and loved that she got to take these rubber duckies home. Everyone seemed to love the idea that all of the baby ducks fit onto the back of the mama duck. It was very cute.

Flower Cake for Nikki

My friend Nikki has always done a lot for me, so a few days before one of my recent hair appointments I decided that she needed to have one of my cakes. Mind you, her father and stepmother own the best bakery in Simi Valley! The cake is chocolate with buttercream.. I know, I need to branch out a little more. I get it. The flowers are made out of gum paste, but all other accents are buttercream. I just wanted to do something fun and delicious for Nikki. She totally loved it. From what I remember, I had one heck of a time with this cake. The first batch of chocolate cakes I made, I forgot to grease the pans. When I tried to remove them, both cakes crumbled into unsavable pieces. It was a daunting task, that is for sure, but the end result came out beautifully. After the crumbling of multiple cakes, a friend of mine mentioned that it could be that I had changed flour. Indeed, it was. When I changed back to the flour I had been using everything has gone off without a hitch. Who knew something like the brand of flour you use could make such a drastic difference? Certainly not I.

Chris's Boxing Birthday Cake

Within the past year my friend Chris has gotten heavily into boxing. I thought there was no better cake for him than a boxing cake. Unfortunately, it did not really come out how I had envisioned it. I have heard from the start of my interest in cake decorating how hard it is to get a really deep red. I never thought it would be all that hard. Well, let me tell you. I used so much of my red icing I thought there was no way it couldn't be red, but it never really turned. Instead, it kind of stayed in this weird dark salmon color. I shaped the gloves out of fondant and painted on the black accents with icing coloring. Like I said, not my best work but it is nonetheless a cake I made for my friend Chris. The cake is chocolate with buttercream icing and fondant boxing gloves.

Hil's Bridal Shower Cake

My friend Hilary got engaged and as a bridesmaid, I helped to plan one of her bridal showers. I asked her very early on if it would be ok if I made a cake.. Since I was very new at the whole thing I wasn't sure she would be ok with it, but she was thrilled. Since she has just stopped working at Tiffany & Co. I decided to make the cake Tiffany blue. It was a vanilla cake with buttercream. The hearts with the bride and grooms initials are also buttercream. The dress is fondant and decorated with little buttercream accents. The cake was a total hit. I had people telling me that they thought it was from a professional bakery. Obviously I was overjoyed at the thought since this was one of the very first cakes I have ever made. I am still thrilled when people tell me they love my cakes because I am still so new at it.. Anyway, she loved it and so did everyone else.

Wilton Course 3

This is the last cake I produced for a Wilton course. While there was supposed to be two cakes, I was very sick the day of the last class and had to miss. This class was all about fondant and gum paste, and boy I sure learned a lot. This ended up being the birthday cake for two of my brothers who have August birthdays. Since this cake was made a few days before their family birthday celebration, this was it. The cake was two layer chocolate fudge and vanilla marble with buttercream covered and decorated with fondant.

Wilton Course 2

Back in March or April of 2009 I decided that after years of desire, I was actually going to jump in and take a cake decorating class. I initially started looking at Santa Barbara City College's extension program. I found the class I wanted and went to sign up the day after registration opened and the course was already full. I was so bummed. My mom mentioned that Michael's Craft Store had cake decorating classes. So, off I went to sign up. Unfortunately, there were no signs ups for about two or three months. June finally came around and I got the call from the teacher that people were signing up and there would finally be a class. I didn't get any good pictures of my two cakes from the first course, but here is a picture of the cake I made for the final in the second course. The flowers are made of royal icing, the birds are color flow icing, the rest is buttercream. The cake is a two layer vanilla cake. I have always thought this would make a great spring or Easter cake.

Starting A New

Hey there! I have started this new blog Stoked on Cake as a way to start fresh with a name I will be using when selling cakes. When I first started blogging about my cakes, I wanted something fun but was not thinking in terms of a business name. After my cakes started selling, I figured that I may need a little more than just a friendly cake name that many people have and are using. Stoked on Cakes is a pretty fitting business name for me since my last name is Stokes. All I have heard my entire life is "Stokes is Stoked." So, what better name for a business!

On this site you will find cakes and other delicious treats that I have made for friends, family and customers. I will start all the way at the beginning with my Wilton class cakes and move forward to the present day. I hope you enjoy!!