Cakes

I enjoy baking cakes for people. My daughter looks forward to it for 

her birthday and has fun thinking about what her cake should be. The sky's

the limit! I wanted to share what I've done so far, but keep in mind I

know they are far from perfect and are nowhere near 'professional' 

standard--but I enjoy doing it!

March 08, 2007

This cake was my first attempt at baking for someone's birthday. With my hubby away at work and my 7-month-old baby in her high chair, I got started--and have yet to look back.

Pretty sure it was a yellow cake with a basic frosting that I colored. I was more interested in the decorating than the taste at the time. It is meant to be a book because Nate LOVES to read, probably more than I do (and yes, that is saying something).

**Keep in mind--this is my very first cake attempt.**

August 08, 2008

For Kyleigh's 2nd birthday, she chose Abby Kadabby from Sesame Street for her theme. So I went out and bought a cake pan (after all this is only cake #2 for me), colors for the icing, piping bags, tips...you get the idea.

The cake is a simple yellow cake with a buttercream frosting. 

Just as a side note, I was up til about 2 or 3 in the morning working on this--using a star tip to pipe out every little detail was not the brightest idea I ever had.

March 08, 2009

Nate is turning 29. So without him knowing (which is no easy feat in a small apartment, I assure you) I baked him a cake. For this birthday, I went for a throw-back to a childhood cartoon-- He-Man. It was a yellow one layer cake with caramel swirls throughout. The frosting was a basic white vanilla frosting that I divided up into lots of little batches for all the colors. Then I went to work creating He-Man. The cake was a hit!

August 07, 2009

For her third birthday, Kyleigh asked for a princess castle cake. It didn't turn out as good as I had planned, but she was happy! The turrets are regular ice cream cones with waffle cones on top, turned upside down. The cake is a funfetti cake with buttercream frosting. 

October 03, 2009 

This is a cake I made for my father-in-law for his birthday. It is a pumpkin spice cake with a caramel icing (tasting like a liquid Werther's Originals candy). The fall leaves are made with store-bought white fondant. I used Wilson icing colors and kneaded the coloring in. I liked the marbled look and think it adds character to the leaves.
















June 29, 2010

For my baby's 1st birthday, we didn't really have a character theme. It was more of a color theme--pastel purples, pinks, and yellows. I went with a white cake with a light buttercream frosting. Everything was from scratch and I did all the piping as well.














June 29, 2011
For Abby's 2nd birthday party there wasn't really a theme, although Abby did pick out a lot of Dora the Explorer decorations at Party City. I decided to go with a sunflower cake because Abby loves flowers and is always sunny. :) That and it works well with the Dora decorations.
The bottom layer of cake is my own Chocolate Buttermilk Cake, the layer of icing "adhering" the two layers together is a White Chocolate Butter Frosting, the top layer of cake is my own White Cake and everything is topped of with my Buttercream Frosting.

February 16, 2012

My Mom and her co-workers threw a baby shower for a fellow co-worker who is expecting her second baby. They remembered how much they enjoyed cupcakes I've brought in before, so they were kind enough to ask me to make the cupcakes for their party.
At their request, I made my fluffy white cake cupcakes. The icing they wanted was my Espresso Cream Frosting. Originially, the frosting was purple for my Mom's birthday, but as this was for a baby boy, I tinted the icing blue. I cut out little feet from a sugar sheet for half of the cupcakes with half of those having little sayings--'Oh Boy!', 'Sweet Baby', & 'Pitter Patter'.
I made the display by using 2 Wilton cake separator plates and 2 Wilton fillable pillars. I filled the pillars with baby shower decorations--transparent blue little pacifiers and a pack of multi-colored mini clothespins.

February 18, 2012

When a good friend of mine started planning her daughter's birthday, I offered to make the cake. After all, I do love having a project to focus on. :) The birthday girl had said she wanted a rock star themed cake with pinks, blacks, purples, and at the last minute added in blue. 
Following the requests, I made my fluffy white cake and buttercream frosting. Then to jazz it up a bit, we added my Oreo Cream Frosting in between the layers. 
I used purple colored fondant for the dark purple stripes, the curtains, and most of the guitar. White fondant was used for the music notes and the other part of the guitar. I used gumpaste to create the singer and the letters. The silhouettes were drawn and cut from sugar sheets. To darken the curtains, I sprayed them with Wilton black spray color. To make the letters purple, I sprayed them with Duff's Cake Graffiti spray. The music notes were painted with color gels diluted with lemon extract. Then the letters and singer got a nice dusting of silver lust dust.
     

June 29, 2012



For her 3rd birthday, Abby asked for a caterpillar cake and a Very Hungry Caterpillar party. The cake is my white cake with sprinkles in it. I made two bundt cakes and sliced them up then I pieced it back together to create the caterpillar. I piped the butter icing on in different ways to differentiate the sections. I tinted the icing with a base green, then striped the piping bag with blue and green coloring so that the icing would be streaked when it came out. The sun is also sections from the bundts with the same butter frosting, only tinted lemon yellow with copper and golden yellow color streaks. The face on the sun and the head of the caterpillar are my white cake cupcakes and iced the same way. The feet are brownie bites with black feet and legs piped on top. The butterflies are sugar cookies. Both the cookies and the brownie bites are store-bought -- they were leftover from the desserts we brought to the family 4th of July cook-out.











August 8, 2012
     For Kyleigh's 6th birthday, she wanted something very elaborate. I told her that wouldn't be possible for the family dinner but maybe for her party. So we came up with a design that we could both live with and Kyleigh picked out the flavors for her cake all on her own. :)
     It is a two layer cake. The bottom layer is a very moist Buttermilk Chocolate cake. The top layer is a wonderfully fluffy Pumpkin Spice cake. In between the two layers is a Brown Sugar frosting. (It is to die for!) The entire cake is covered in a Basic Butter frosting because I find it easiest to decorate with.

August 03, 2013
   For Abby's party with her friends, in honor of her 4th birthday, she wanted a Lalaloopsy cake. After giving me a lengthy list of all the characters she wanted to have make an appearance on her cake, we settled on her favorite: Tippy Tumblelina and her little sister Twisty Tumblelina. 
     It is a double layer white funfetti cake with Oreo icing in the middle. It is covered and decorated with a basic buttercream frosting. 
     I drew out the heads of both characters with a black tube of Wilton Decorating icing and filled in with the buttercream. Both girls have their crowns, but the candle got put on top of Tippy's crown before I could snap a picture. Both crowns got dusted with a gold luster dust and the eyes got dusted with a silver luster dust. I added "stitches" to Abby's name and around the cake, in keeping with the Lalaloopsy theme. I also drew pink and purple hearts around the edges and make them look like buttons.