Texas Hold ‘em Cake

Some friends of ours were having a summer picnic and a Texas Hold ‘em game, (yes I am slightly behind in my posts).  I was asked to bring a cake and decided to make a small poker table. 

I started with a round cake and cut the sides to make a six-sided table.  The cake was frosted with green buttercream frosting, and black fondant around the edges of the cake. I used square pillars with a Wilton cake plate under the cake and covered the pillars with black fondant to look like table legs.

The playing cards and poker chips are made of fondant and I used fine tip edible markers to draw the cards.   The fun part was deciding the how the hand was going to play out.  Even Doug got involved in helping with this part.  Can you tell which hand wins?

The not so fun part of this cake was the fact that it was WAY too hot for fondant.  I used a brand of fondant that didn’t hold up well in the heat and it was melting pretty bad.  Now I know some people don’t put their cakes in the refrigerator, but I always do and 99% of the time I don’t have a problem.  Plus with this soft fondant I wanted to try to firm it up a bit.  But it was so hot and humid that when I took the cake out it literally started dripping black liquid!  I set it up between two fans and dabbed off some of the moisture.  The texture you see on the black was from me dabbing with a paper towel.  The funny thing is, everyone kept asking “how did you make it look like leather?”  I just said “bake on a hot summer day!”

African Violet Cake

I had seen this cake on Pinterest and thought it was the cutest thing. So when Administrative Professional’s Day came up I immediately thought this would be a cute little cake to make. 

The cake was made using a 4” round cake pan, covered with fondant.  The “soil” was crushed Oreo's.  The flowers and leaves were simple fondant cut outs. 

Dinosaur Cake

Every year I donate a cake to a silent auction for our local food bank.  Last year’s winner wanted a dinosaur cake for her 3 year old son Ian who loves dinosaurs.

The dinosaurs were made from chocolate lollipop molds.  I used gumpaste to make large leaves for the trees, and when they were dry I attached them to pretzel rods with melted chocolate.  I actually found the large chocolate boulders at the grocery store a few months earlier and said to myself “I need to remember those, they look like real rocks!”  I think they look much better than if I had tried to make boulders from fondant.  Plus they’re chocolate!  Some chocolate covered bridge mix and buttercream leaves were the final touches.

Happy Birthday Ian!

Star Wars

A simple Star Wars cake.  Buttercream with fondant accents.

Graduation Cake with Cheetah Print

Dallas was very specific about her requested cake design.  She gave me details with combinations of pictures and notes.  I like a girl who knows what she wants.

The cheetah print was something new for me.  I practiced using some gel icing colors and the print turned out well but it also never dried.  I decided to try some airbrush colors and they worked perfect!  It was really pretty simple, just blobs of silver paint surrounded by black squiggly outlines.  No pattern, all random.

I made the graduation cap just like I have before using a mini wonder mold pan and a square of dried gumpaste. 

Pigs in the Mud

Most of my friends have little boys and I don’t get to make too many cute girly cakes.  So when a co worker said his daughter wanted a cake for her birthday I thought – cool, maybe a pink castle or lots of flowers.  Then she said…pigs in the mud.  Hmm, OK.

The little fondant pigs turned out so cute. I added some water, grass and a few flowers to prevent the cake from being all brown, and I just love this cake!  And so did Alyssa! 

Did you see the little pig butt in the mud?  :)

iPod Touch

This is the third cake I’ve made for William.  He requested an iPod playing his favorite song.  He even drew a picture for me so I would know what it should look like.  The design is all fondant cut outs. 

Funny story…William is a very sharp little boy.  And I know his cakes have to be right on the money or he will notice.  I was all done with this cake, everything was all cleaned up and put away.  I had even gone to bed.  I woke up and sat up straight in bed as a thought came to mind.  I proceeded to get up and head to the kitchen. 

Doug:  “what are you doing?” 

Me:  “I forgot the buttons!”

I then proceeded to add the buttons on the sides of the iPod  :)

Super Mario Cake

This was the second Super Mario cake I made for Gyasi.  I used the same process for the fondant design as I did for his first Mario cake.

Happy Birthday Gyasi!

Pink Converse Baby Shower Cake

A baby shower cake was requested for a colleague at work.  My only guidance was pink with dots and stripes.  I had been wanting to make these baby converse shoes for a while so I figured I’d give it a shot.  I did a search for how to make them online and found quite a few resources, this template and tutorial is what I used.  They were quite time consuming but lots of fun and I think they turned out soooo cute!  I also brushed them with petal dust to make them sparkly.

I used the globe pillar set from Wilton.  The rattles and baby bottles were made from a chocolate mold and the dots and stripes are fondant.

Cowboy Cake

This was one of those cakes that really comes together at the last step.  I wasn’t sure as I was making it but once all the pieces were in place it looked awesome!

I made the base of the cowboy hat ahead of time using fondant and gum paste so it would dry and hold it’s shape.  I didn’t use a pattern for this I just looked at lots of cowboy hat photos and made it up as I went along.  I decided I would use 6” round pans for the hat part so I placed one on a large sheet of parchment paper and drew a large oval around it.  I rolled out the fondant/gum paste and trimmed to match the oval, I then placed it on a large cooling rack to allow air to circulate underneath and used a few small kitchen towels rolled up underneath the edges to create the curve.  Once it had dried a few days I turned it over to make sure the bottom was dry as well.  It took about a week for me to feel comfortable moving it.
For the top of the hat I stacked 6” rounds and carved out the shape at the top and covered with fondant.  Once I placed the cake on the base, I just smiled.  It looked so cool.  A small band of black around the base and some lettering and it was done!
The cupcakes were strawberry and chocolate with raspberry filling and a 1M vanilla buttercream swirl. Each cupcake had a chocolate topper of either a cowboy hat, cowboy boot or rocking horse.
The stand is from The Cupcake Tower and it’s one of my new favorite displays for cupcakes!
This was Britton headed for cupcakes…

 Happy 1st Birthday Britton!

Cute as a button

This cake was for a baby shower.  Beth couldn’t decide between a ruffle cake and a button theme.  I suggested…why not both?  Beth agreed and this is what I came up with.

The cake is a 6” round, the ruffles are buttercream and the buttons are fondant.  I used the Wilton Fondant and Gum Paste Silicone Mold to make the buttons, it was very easy to use.

The cupcakes each have a 1M buttercream swirl and a button topper.  The cupcake flavors were vanilla with raspberry filling and chocolate with peanut butter filling.

The cupcake tower was a recent purchase I splurged on. You can find it at The Cupcake Tower. It’s a really great product, I started with the tiny size and I’ll be able to add more layers if I need to.  It comes apart and stores flat which is awesome, because I’m running out of room for my cake supplies!

 

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Overload!

This cake was made for a teenage boy who loves chocolate and peanut butter.  It’s a 4 layer chocolate cake with peanut butter dream buttercream filling and chocolate frosting.  Reese’s Pieces top it all off!  I think that’s enough said.

 Happy Birthday Andrew!