Practicing the Basket Weave

It was my birthday on the 24th. I did not make my own cake, thank you very much. David got me a cake from Wal-Fart.


My dad and step-mom were coming over Saturday, and I wanted to make them some cake, since mine was almost gone (and had enough red food dye to stain fingers and teeth for days).






The two stacked cakes were kind-of lopsided.




It wasn't TOO bad.





I couldn't decide what to do on top. I was going to try and make some roses, but the icing was way to soft to attempt it. So, I just wrote Happy Birthday on it and added some little flowers with bows.

Mmmm. Almond Butter Cake with homemade strawberry filling and buttercream icing.

Twilight Revisted

I made a "Twilight" cake earlier this year, just to see if I could. This time, I decided to make it a one-tier (4 layer) cake, and give it as a gift to my boss and his family.

My boss' wife loves to cook. She loves new recipes and trying them out is a treat for her. At least once a week, sometimes more, I am treated to fantastic lunches, courtesy of plates made for me for lunch, sent over by his wife.

I decided to make a "Thank you" cake for her. She recently devoured the "Twilight" series of books (my boss' words.) They also have a 15 year old daughter who has read some.

Vanilla butter cake, with homemade raspberry filling, butter cream icing, covered in homemade marshmallow fondant.

The marshmallow fondant and cakes were made yesterday. I torted, filled, iced and refrigerated them.

Creating a dam of icing, so the filling does not ooze out the sides.



Mmmmmmm.

This morning, I took the iced cake from the fridge and got to work.

Marshmallow Fondant.

I had one heck of a time getting the chess squares down the side. It was not pretty. Good thing I could hide the bottom edge wreckage with the red ribbon.

Here is the final product. I made the chess pieces, flower and ribbon out of fondant and gum paste I colored with gel food coloring. The wonky apple is real. It was the only one I had in the fridge and it's all lopsided. I will be shopping this afternoon for groceries, so I'll pick up a nicer one.

This will be taken to work tomorrow, so my boss can take it home.

Escape Da Cakes

Just cause it's so dumb, it's funny. :)

Hey Uniqua, You're Really Brave and Strong!

If you are a parent of young children, toddler age, mostly, you will know who Uniqua is. All others, meet The Backyardigans.





It's really a fantastic show with music and stories galore. Isabel adores it. Her favorite is Uniqua (Not Urbanesca, Mo), the pink one who is...well, we're not quite sure what she is. She's a 'uniqua.' A Unique animal. Isabel calls her a bug.



Isabel: Make me a Uniqua cake. Are you making me a Uniqua cake? When are you making me a Uniqua cake.



Alright already, I GIVE.




The cakes were huge. I was attempting a new recipe and it made 12 cups of batter. That's a lot of cake people. Here they are, iced and in the fridge for a bit so the icing can get hard a bit.

I overdid it on the icing. I really did. This above icing was tinted pink.

After I iced the cake, I colored, rolled and cut the darker pink spots for Uniqua's face.

One happy gal. Seriously, look at how TALL that cake is?

Here she is. I was going to make her antennas out of fondant, but I did not have the patience to tint the white fondant the light pink color, so I made them out of pink metal wire.

The cake is tall. Isabel loved it.

Now, if only I can hire a staff to clean up after me.

Edible Shoes

There are several talented people out there who make cool cakes. One that I have been wanting to try is a shoe box cake. The shoe box? Easy Peasy. The shoe? Not so much.


I went on Cake Central's website (wow, that site is addicting!!) and found a tutorial on how to make a shoe out of gum paste. This Sunday, while the kids played a video game and David watched..probably Stargate, I sat down for my first attempt.







Here is what I made, before adding glittery dust to it. The support for the arch is too high. Next time, I'll able it better to get a better arch.





Here's a top view. See the "designer" label? :)





So, yea. Ignore the rough edges. It's my first one, but I am glad I have the tutorial to show me how!