Turbo Power Rangers

Wow what a weekend! 3 cakes in a row whew! But alas we made it through...
Here is the last cake from little my cake marathon, I had a request for the red Power Ranger from the Turbo Power Rangers  series, so I looked him up a little bit and couldn't decide on the design I wanted to go with, so figured I'd wing it on the day. It was as I was leveling the cakes and happened to stack them on top of each other in a way they looked rounded, that I was struck by inspiration and decided to sculpt the Power Ranger's helmet. So I went with it, mixed up all my colors, and then later that day sent it off to the party! Talk about last minute creativity!
Here's how it turned out...

Red Power Ranger Cake

Power Rangers Helmet Side

Damask 80th Birthday Cake

Damask 80th Birthday Cake

I love damask, and I have not yet had the opportunity to put it on a cake. This weekend is our family reunion and my aunt's 80th birthday, so for her I have designed a very elegant 2 tier square cake, with a lemon cake base and lemon curd filling.

It will be donned with damask and quilting, and accented with edible pearls and fondant roses. The accent colors are pink and lavender, with a white base and black damask piping and borders. I am also adding chocolate filigree to the bottom tier sides, and placing a matching style of filigree on the top of the cake.

Damask 80th Birthday Cake- Top

Damask 80th Birthday Cake- Front

Fondant Roses and Chocolate Filigree

It's Strawberry Shortcake!

A basket of strawberry shortcake...

This week I am creating a Strawberry Shortcake character cake, for Abby who is turning a big 7! I gave her several Strawberry Girl options, and this is the one she liked best. I am making a 9x13 cake, double layered, with pink marbled vanilla cake and buttercream filling.
The sides of the cake are going to be chocolate buttercream basketweave and decorated with strawberry blossoms and sitting in a bed of grass. On top of the cake, in each of the corners, I am going to have miniature strawberry bushes decorated with blossoms and fondant strawberries, and then in the middle of the will be Strawberry herself and Happy 7th Birthday Abby.


Here's how she turned out!

Strawberry Shortcake 7th Birthday Cake

Strawberry Shortcake Birthday Cake Side Basketweave

You'll Never Walk Alone: Liverpool FC

Liverpool Football Club Logo

Yay more soccer fans!

This weekend I made a Liverpool Soccer (Football) Fan Cake for a joint father-daughter birthday party (love it!). They are both mega fans of Liverpool FC so I made them a surprise birthday cake and incorporated as much LFC fan stuff as I could fit onto it.
I chose to make a stadium cake, I had never done one before and really wanted to so I gave it a whirl and it turned out great. It had a 9x13 2 layer base, with 2 more layers carved and stacked for the stadium bleachers. I left one long side open so that the center of the field could easily be seen.
On the center field, I hand piped the LFC logo, and wrote Happy Brithday (centre) Neil (left) Tegan (right) in the green banner at the bottom. I built miniature soccer nets as well as a red and white soccer ball to also go on the field.
For the audience, I individually hand piped [way to many] dots using the LFC fan colors, and made miniature flags and banners out of fondant to place amongst the crowd.
On the very back of the cake I wrote "This Is Anfield" the sign that people entering the stadium go under at the entrance, and threw on some LFC fan facts on the stadium upper walls.

Front- Liverpool FC Soccer Fan Cake

Back- Liverpool Soccer Fan Cake

Field- Liverpool Football Club Soccer Fan Cake

My Little Pony

This week I am doing a birthday cake for a little girl who is turning 5, and loves My Little Pony- in particular "Fluttershy". 

 So for her I have designed a 2 tier cake (carrot cake- great choice for pony lovers) that is going to have an 8" round bottom and a 6" round top. The base tier will be a soft cream yellow, with small butterflies and carrots piped on, and the top tier will be pink with quilted lines and edible pearls! Of course topped off with a pretty fondant bow...Oooh La La!

Top of the cake- Hand-piped pony

On the very top of the cake I am going to hand pipe an image of Fluttershy which I have hand-drawn out to be holding a flag with a birthday banner on it.

Front of cake- Bow replaces where Fluttershy is

Here's what I have for her so far...

...the bow is going to be sitting on the shelf of the bottom tier and trailing down the cake.

My Fondant Bow (Lavender)

My Little Princess!

My little sweetie girl is having her big first birthday party coming up, I have decided to make her a princess castle cake along with a tray of assorted girly girl cookies, and gourmet cupcakes for the adults who aren't as into tonnes of icing (a recommended option to have at parties). The body of the cake will be 3 layers high, with carved out pillars and iced ice cream cones for turrets, and an additional 3 cake layers up the center of the castle. I am trying my hand at something brand new for this cake (as it is my own and I love to experiment) and I am going to pipe out chocolate garnishes and decorations and use them as detail for my cake. So we shall see how it works out!

So far for the cookies we have circles, hearts, and flowers. The nice thing about doing cookies and a cake is that I can use my leftover royal icing to make intricate transfers that I will put on the cake to give it a nice feminine lacy look. But piped chocolate has a similar affect, so I'll feel out my design as I go.

Well our party went very well, the cake and cupcakes were a hit! Boy did the cake ever use a lot of buttercream! I used a basket weave for the brickwork around the castle walls and the weight piles on quickly. I ended up with a slightly simpler design than my original plan (VERY busy trying do work on the rest of the party as well as my cake) but I have decided that I LOVE chocolate garnishes! So elegant and pretty to look at, and I found very easy to work with and temper. I was very pleased with my first attempt at it (and did it ever save me time on my cake...instant stick on's and voila! an elegant cake with 1/2 the effort of detailed piped buttercream).

I had lots of extra chocolate, so I made some fancy garnishes for my cupcakes (double chocolate...mmmm very popular) and they instantly added spark to my table, definitely something I will be adding to my repetoire! I can see them being excellent for fancy christmas and new years parties or like my event an addition to a birthday cake for those who don't enjoy icing as much but want a sweet little something. 

Mina loved her Girly Girl Sugar Cookies, (so did her brother), flowers hearts, and circles, kept it simple...