Zebra Purse

This was a surprise birthday cake for my two cousins who have late March birthdays. The family got together to celebrate Passover, so my stepmom and I thought it was a perfect time to celebrate their birthdays. They were so surprised! The cake is vanilla and fudge marble with chocolate fudge filling and cream cheese frosting.

Lil Rebel's First Birthday

For my friends Liz and Luke's sons first birthday, they had a Lil Rebel's theme. There were two kinds of cupcakes and a topper cake just for little Liam. The cupcakes were lemon with raspberry filling and lemon cream cheese frosting; and vanilla with chocolate mousse and buttercream frosting. The cake was chocolate with buttercream frosting. I am super happy with the way everything turned out, and of course, the final presentation on the cupcake tower.

Peacock Birthday Cake

This is a Peacock birthday cake I did over the weekend. It was a rather intimidating order because the birthday girl is also a cake designer.. and a fantastic one at that. All of the accents are made with fondant except for the feathers, which are real. The bottom picture of the bows is the back of the cake. The cascading feathers down the side came out better than I had imagined.

Optimus Prime Transformers Birthday Cake

I recently had an order for a Transformers Optimus Prime birthday cake for a 5 year old. At first I had so many different ideas about what could be done, and ultimately I decided to go with a full body shaped cake. This entire creation is all cake and all edible. The cake was chocolate with a whipped vanilla marshmallow frosting. This cake was definitely a learning experience.. But all in all I am happy with the outcome.

Birthday Limoncello Cupcakes

My step-mom has been dying to try my lemon cupcakes with lemon curd filling and lemon cream cheese frosting. So, for her and my Uncle's birthday celebration I decided to change it up a little and make Limoncello cupcakes with lemon curd filling and a limoncello buttercream. They turned out better than I could have imagined. They were definitely a little more exciting than a regular lemon cupcake.

30th Birthday Cupcakes

I recently got an order for cupcakes for a 30th birthday. The only catch was that the cupcakes had to be made excluding very specific ingredients due to a food allergy. After a couple rounds of tester cupcakes, I finally got a product that I was ok with. It was nice to be able to give the birthday girl a cupcake she could actually eat and enjoy. I also made the cupcake stand. It was my first attempt and I learned a lot from it. I love the way that it came out. It was a fun art project to do a few days before the delivery.

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.

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!!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.