Rainbows and Flowers

Happy 4th Birthday to my little rose! She specifically requested rainbows, flowers, clouds and for the cake to be green.

This is a dairy and casein/gluten/egg/peanut free cake. My little girl is allergic to these items plus 7 other things (including coconut and almond). I used the Betty Crocker box mix (two of them to get a taller cake) and then substituted butter flavored crisco instead of butter and egg replacer for the eggs. I used an all crisco icing with soymilk and butter flavor and marshmallow fondant.

Now, normally I would make a cake for her from scratch but I wanted to see if this cake mix would get a better flavor than some of the other recipes, so we shall see how this goes! I am hoping to try some new recipes eventually but this time I had limited supplies and opted to go the easy, but still experimental, route.

All the decorations are fondant and buttercream.

Blessings!

Twilight: 16th Birthday Cake

I made this cake for a neighbor's 16th birthday. I had never read these books at all, but knew from the neighbors that she like it. I used a cream cheese frosting recipe that was a bit soft so there was some buckling with my squares. But overall I like the way it turned out. I suppose I need to be humbled with some small thing each time I make a cake. I know that the knowledge helps me feel more confident the next time I attempt another cake!! :)



I shaped these numbers from gumpaste and then painted the checkered pattern on with food coloring mixed in vanilla. I didn't have vodka soooo ya know...sometimes you've just got to use what you have in the pantry! There was some slight bleeding in the color because of it, but I was too cheap to go out and buy a food color pen! One day I will get some and go crazy! They look like fun!



The apple is fondant with a real apple stem that I washed and stuck in. I also painted the apple with some burgundy food color to keep it from looking too fake.


The top tier was a breeze (no cream cheese icing!) and was vanilla with vanilla buttercream and marshmallow fondant. The bottom tier is red velvet with cream cheese buttercream and marshmallow fondant. All accents are fondant and gumpaste.
And on a completely unrelated note...
Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Valentine's Day Cake

Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm calling this cake "My Heart Belongs to You". I made it for my husband since he was sad that I had made so much cake and given it all away. He requested cotton candy buttercream so I raced around yesterday trying to find cotton candy. Phew. I finally found it after trying 4 different stores. Thank goodness its a movie food found at places where you can rent movies! :) I grabbed hastily though and the one I grabbed was cherry. Soooo cherry cotton candy buttercream was the only option! Luckily it was tasty enough (albeit not exactly what he wanted). Next time I'll be more careful and look closely before rejoicing and running to the counter! LOL!

This was my first attempt at gumpaste anything and ultimately it was OK. I was frustrated by my lack of good spots to dry the penguin so he ended moved around a bit and cracking in spots. SIGH. Oh well. I know now what not to do. That's how we learn right?!?! :)

Penguins are a favorite in our household and given how crazy cold it still is all over our great nation I figured this was a great choice of bird to use. I really liked using a bit of a different color scheme and was happy to skip the hot pink.
This cake was white cake with cherry cotton candy buttercream filling and vanilla buttercream and gumpaste decorations.

Happy Valentine's Day! Hope you remember that you are loved! Single, attached, married or not; God's love is really the only love we need.

Blessings to you!

Birthday Cake!!

I made this little cute cake for my sweet neighbor who turned 32. She didn't know I was making it so it was a fun surprise! Today is her birthday! This was just a little something to let her know that her day will be sweet. I told her to have cake for breakfast!

I wanted to try out some more all buttercream decorating. It is white cake with a chocolate chip crown. I told her I'm calling it chocolate chip crown cake! :) That's a cute little name eh? And I covered it in buttercream with royal icing decorations and buttercream polka dots and borders. This is my first time doing a top border. Is that even what it is called? I was proud that it turned out okay.

Also there's a heart...so ya know...Valentine's week continues ;)

Spreading the love all week!

Blessings!

Valentines on the Mind

There's a big game today. Did you know that? Being not much of a football gal myself I only just discovered that this week. How did I discover it? Reading blogs about football cakes and cupcakes.

Pretty lame, eh?

Although, in my defense, I've had a lot on my mind.

What's been on my mind is a bit girlier. Just a teensy weensy bit girly in its nature. Like this...



And this...



And because the cupcakes looked lonely without someone to admire them...



This last one is my shameless attempt to give actual utility to some of my Valentine's platters which usually just look pretty for a few weeks in February.



I'm really a Valentine's Day crazy person.

It should just be said. I think that it would be obvious except I work REALLY hard to hide it. And I have pulled back...a bit. Shhhhh. Don't tell the heart-shaped lights hanging over my entertainment unit. I might pull them down and decide to get a little less kitschy next year.

Or maybe not.

A Thank You

I'm really a ridiculously erratic blogger. Really. I am so lucky to make the cakes that I make, when I do get to make them. I'm even luckier in that there are people out there actually taking the time to look at my cakes and share in my cake joys and frustrations. I'm only a hobbyist. And I certainly don't feel I deserve to be honored for my inconsistent blogging...but I am! How 'bout that?

So this is a thank you to Baking Momma for this lovely award and the lovely words she typed about me on her beautiful blog. Thanks!



Now I'm blessed to pass this award along to:

Sweet Things
Party Perfect
Thirty Handmade Days
Pink Little Cake

I love reading these blogs! I love all the blogs I read and I only recently discovered two of them...the other two I've been following a long time!

I hope you enjoy following them as much as I have!

Blessings!

Christmas, an Anniversary, and a Company Cake

So I know I've been MIA for A LONG LONG time...I mean a month in the blogosphere is similar to a year in other circles. Let me start by apologizing for missing a post and then not getting a picture of the Christmas cake to even make a belated post out of... such is life.

Here, however, is a picture of my hubby and I on our anniversary celebration. 6 years!!! We finally made it past 5! My hubby always says no one listens to what you have to say about marriage for the first 5 years...since you are "newlyweds". LOL!

I had wanted to remake our wedding cake (the top layer only) but didn't get a chance to and with my new weight loss regimen...decided it was best not to make a cake that would sit here and beg to be eaten.

The following weekend I made this cake for a belated Epiphany Party which is my hubby's yearly office party. The cake is based on their office logo which is basically a blue tree.


I was so thrilled that with my new cake turntable my fondant was much easier to apply and cut off and overall I had a clean look on the bottom of my cake with no holes to cover! So wonderful!
It is a chocolate cake with oreo buttercream (my hubby's new favorite) covered in marshmallow fondant. AND, the most exciting news of all...I used the below gift to make it!!!



My refurbished commercial KA mixer!!!!!!!!!!!!!! With a 6 quart bowl!!!!AHHHHHHHHHHHH! Yes ladies I can finally stop killing those poor handmixers (I've already had to toss 3) and move on to something more my size. This was the merriest gift of all! :)

So I'm back! On arriving back I discovered I won a blog award! I know little about it, but I know I get to name other blogs to receive this award now...so more on that next time!

Blessings in this New Year!