Star Wars!

This cake is a marble cake with vanilla fudge filling and frosting.  I had a request for a lightsaber cake - but to feed twenty kids!  So, after deliberation, it ended up being a square cake with the Star Wars logo and a lightsaber.

Fun to make - looks like fun to eat!

Reese's Birthday and Flavor Update!

Our good friends, Max and Charity, are hosting a birthday party for their 5 year old daughter, Reese, tomorrow.  Reese and I are good "pals" - I have taught her swim lessons, babysat for her, and we spend a lot of time together with our families.  :)

Charity is quite the baker and an excellent decorator and is going to be making some amazing treats for tomorrow - but I REALLY wanted to make Reese a special birthday cake.  This is just a fun, funky cake incorporating her favorite colors and my favorite colors!  :)  Happy birthday to my sweet little friend... :)  Love you, Reese!

The cake is a yellow cake with funfetti - pink, orange, blue, and green - with vanilla frosting... yum! 

Here are some photos:

I also have a new cake flavor - cookies and cream!  It is really yummy!  I am going to do another trial run which will be a dark chocolate cake with an oreo cookie crust and cream cheese filling.  The frosting is a cookies and cream buttercream frosting... YUM!

This weekend I will also be making an ultra special dessert for Father's Day... something fun and unique!  Be on the look-out - I hope it's successful!
Thanks!
Aly

It's a jungle out there!

This week I have been working on a baby shower cake for another jungle themed baby shower.  I modeled this cake after the one Lindsay and I had made last year for my sister-in-law - but this time I did it all by myself!  :)  And wow, this cake took forever - about 10 hours in total from baking to decorating.

The bottom tier is a lemon cake with vanilla filling and buttercream frosting.  The top tier is a red velvet cake with cream cheese filling and frosting. 

I used a zebra print design for the bottom and a giraffe print design for the top, both with green leaves and colorful flowers to make it "pop".  Then, I handmade from gumpaste and fondant a giraffe, an elephant, and a tree.  This was my first solo attempt at 3-D characters, and while they are not "amazing", they turned out decent.

Here is a photo:

 
I really enjoyed making this cake - I think I have officially found the love for cake making again!   It has been a while since I made a cake like this using fondant - and I just LOVE all the different and fun things you can do with fondant!

I hope the customer is satisfied... Out of all my cakes so far, I am most proud of this one!

Thanks for reading,
Aly

Cupcake Weekend

This weekend I had two big projects - an engagement party and a baby shower!

For the engagement party, I was asked to make 60 mini cupcakes with my chocolate chip cupcake recipe.  These were fun to make - they are chocolate chip cupcakes filled with dark chocolate ganache and buttercream frosting.  I put little pearls on top to make them classy... :)

The baby shower was regular size cupcakes.  20 were red velvet with cream cheese filling, 20 were lemon with lemon filling, and 20 were chocolate chip with dark chocolate ganache filling.  All have buttercream frosting.  I handmade 60 sports balls for decorations out of fondant.  :)

Here are some photos:

I think these all turned out cute... I hope everyone enjoys them!

So - in sum, I made 120 cupcakes this weekend... I went through a dozen eggs, 5 lbs of powdered sugar, over 1 lb of butter, and much much more... I finished them this morning with plenty of time for delivery!  PHEW! 

Thanks for looking!
Aly

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes - round 2!

I have some orders for some chocolate chip cupcakes so I wanted to make them again just to make sure my recipe was good... :)

I made some mini cupcakes and some regular size ones. 

These cupcakes are a yellow cake batter with mini chocolate chips, dark chocolate ganache filling, and buttercream frosting.  I ran out of buttercream frosting so I did some of the cupcakes with ganache frosting!  YUM!  :)

I picked up a new piping tip and am really happy with how pretty the cupcakes are turning out now!

Easter cake

It has been a while since I actually made a cake - instead of cupcakes!  I really attempted to make this cake for Easter look like an Easter basket - but I was struggling big time with the frosting.  Anyways - it turned out OK - just not what I was expecting.

This was a fudge marble cake with chocolate mousse filling and buttercream frosting.  Here are a couple photos:

Stay tuned for some mini cupcakes and a baby shower cake in the next couple of weeks!

Thanks for looking,
Aly

Taylor's 2nd Birthday!

Our friends, Aaron & Sharilyn, are having a birthday party for their daughter Taylor who turned 2 on April 14th.  (I can't believe she is already two!!!!) 

I went over today to help Sharilyn make cupcakes - the theme is butterflies.  She baked chocolate and lemon cupcakes.  We made the fondant butterflies and I made the frosting and decorated.  It was a fun and easy project! 

Here are some photos - I think they turned out reallllllly cute!  :)

Happy Birthday, Taylor!
Love,
Aly