Sweet 16

This was a cake for a sweet 16 party. She loved zebra print and had a pink dress for the party, so we went with both for the cake. The cake was fudge marble with almond butter cream icing and fondant decorations.

Whales and Monsters

These whales were a challenge... They are made from twinkies, round cookies, frosting, and a bunch of other props. They turned out well and the kids LOVED them.



These monsters were fitting considering they were for middle schoolers ;)

Ants and Apples

These are two more of the cupcake styles from the awards ceremony.
The ants go marching...are chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting and chocolate covered almonds and blueberries for the ants. The ants are carrying fruit slices (sugared).






The apples are spice cupcakes with mini-donuts on top, frosted with vanilla icing and topped with a tootsie roll and laffy taffy in the shape of a leaf.

A piece of pie?

These pies are vanilla cupcakes with m&ms for the pie filling (green apple, peach, cherry, blueberry) and vanilla frosting for the pie crust.


I was asked to make refreshments for a middle school (end of the year) awards ceremony. I got the budget and made up some possible menu suggestions when I got the best idea. Cupcakes, fun ones (125 to be exact)... Middle schoolers would love it, and they did! The next few posts are all cupcakes from that event (I just can't get them all in one post).

MONSTER Truck

This truck was for a little boy that was turning 4 and LOVES monster trucks, especially The Grave Digger. The cake was fudge marble with vanilla almond butter cream icing (with LOTS of black food coloring). It's all edible except the trucks, cars, and supports. The most difficult part were the treads, wow... but after a few tries, it worked out.

Broken Eggs!!

Isn't it frustrating when you get home from the store only to find that your eggs are broken??? UGH!!

Well, it's a good thing these aren't real eggs then.

These are mini cupcakes that I made for my step-mother-in-law's birthday. She's a fun lady who works in managing resources and also helps my father-in-law with his hobby farm, (including egg laying chickens). I thought she'd get a kick out of these.

They are white mini-cupcakes with smooth cream cheese icing. The yolks are homemade lemon curd and the shells are white chocolate. It was very challenging to get the eggs to turn out properly. I used plastic Easter eggs, greased with Crisco as the molds. I then melted white chocolate and painted the inside of the eggs, let them sit, repeat painting, then let them cool. Sliding them out proved a challenge, but it just takes time and patience. The end result was a lot of fun and VERY tasty.

The Head(s) of the Class

I recently bought a new book full of great cupcake ideas. I get stuck on fondant decorations, but this book has some really good prop ideas. These were the first set I tried and they were a HUGE hit.

I made them for the seniors at the school I taught at last year. They are a good group of kids and I wanted to do something fun for them in their last few weeks as high schoolers.

There are white and chocolate cupcakes with white and chocolate icing. The hats are small peanut butter cups (up-side-down) with a chocolate covered graham cracker on top. The tassels are piped icing in their school color. The hair is made from a variety of things; sprinkles, sugar, icing, gum, fruit loops... and the ears are orange fruit loops.

I'm not sure if all the heads were the right color or shape, but their were 40+ graduate heads and they were enjoyed!

Fit for a princess...

This cake was for a little princess' 4th birthday. She went to Disney Land over the summer and really loved it. She wanted a cake for her birthday that reminded her of her fun trip. She loves pink and wanted strawberry cake so that the inside would be pink too.





This cake should feed between 35 - 40 people, is strawberry with almond butter cream icing, and has fondant decorations. The figurines are from Disney for her to keep after her party. Most little girls love princesses and I hope this princess cake makes Makena's 4th birthday really special.

Kattie,
Thank you so much for the cake! Makena LOVED it and was so excited to take it to her party. It will be hard to top that cake next year.
Thanks again,
Abby

Mom needs a cake too...

I made Tinkerbell and Hello Kitty cakes late last year for two sweet little girls. Their mom is a good friend of mine and she LOVED their special cakes. She picked them up, ooooed and ahhhhhed over them and left. On her way home, she called and asked if she could book me for her cake too. I was delighted to make this special cake for her. She is one of those selfless moms who eagerly takes care of her family, without regard for herself.





I told her that she could choose whatever she wanted for her birthday and so she did. She chose an Italian creme cake with cream cheese icing. She also mentioned that she loves roses and chocolate. I made the roses, leaves, and sign out of home made chocolate plastic (white and milk chocolate) and finished it off with fresh berries and chopped pecans. I hope she loves this cake and feels very special as she is celebrated! Happy Birthday Ruth!

Pokemon

I can say that I know far more about Pokemon now than I ever thought possible... A few weeks ago Adam and I met a family at the park while playing with Phoebe. The little boy is a brain cancer patient and is almost done with his treatment. The father had just been in a serious roll-over accident... This family had been through a lot recently and meeting them tugged at my heart. I wanted to do something to help, but the only thing I could think of was cake. I mentioned it to her and her face lightened up. The boy's birthday was coming soon and he LOVED Pokemon. Done.

He wanted half white and half chocolate, so I made 4 small cakes (2 white, 2 chocolate) and balanced a square white cake on top. Each small cake has the theme of one of his favorite 4 characters and the trainer of these little guys is on the top. The icing was almond, vanilla butter cream and I the decorations are fondant (not the characters). I hope this brightens his special 7th birthday!

"We don't need a cake..."

Sorry for the beautiful orange background... The kitchen I had to set up in was bright.





We had a baby shower for one of Adam's cousins (Welcome to the jungle cake) and I met his cousin's (Joe) fiance. We got to talking about their upcoming wedding and she mentioned that she couldn't find someone to make her a gluten-free wedding cake for any reasonable cost, and she was thinking of trying to make her own... Bad idea for a bride to have that on her plate on her wedding day... I offered my services to her as our wedding gift and she accepted. I made the top layer of the bride's cake vanilla (gluten-free) and the rest was classic white. The bride's cake had vanilla-almond butter cream icing with dragees and flowers and the groom's cake was chocolate with chocolate-fudge butter cream icing with hand dipped strawberries (notice the his and hers strawberries, that was fun to make). It smelled good enough to eat!

Double Trouble

This was a fun cake for a set of twins that were turning three. They love elephants and zebras, so I designed this fun cake using what they liked. All edible, except the wires for the balloons. The cake was white with almond butter cream icing, fondant decorations, and yummy Pepperidge Farm pirouettes for the fence around the swimming elephant.

It's a bird... it's a plane...

It's no secret that I'm a girly girl. I did not grow up with brothers and don't know much about little boys, so this cake was a bit of a challenge. It was for the son of a woman Adam works with, he was turning 6 and LOVES superheros. Superman is his favorite, so I had to give him a special place on the cake. I wanted to get him real action figures so that he could play with them after the cake was cut so there are plastic action figures along with the fondant decorations (city, street lights, action figure symbols, and wreckage around Superman's car) on this cake. The cake was chocolate fudge with butter cream icing. I never realized how difficult it is to get those little figures to stand up! I ended up having to wire each one to a dowel rod and stick it into the cake. I better get used to this if we ever have a little boy.

C'est La Vie

This cake was for a girl who was turning 15 and loved Paris and pink. Just so happens, I speak French and also like Paris and pink. The cake was white with almond butter cream icing and the decorations are all edible (minus the wires for the flowers). The stem of the flower says, he loves me...he loves me not... (hence the petals) and the ribbon around the middle of the cakes says, that's life...and life is beautiful.

Just for fun...

It's no secret that I love to bake and love to decorate cakes. My love for the art of food started as a little child when I used to use the kitchen table, graham crackers, and my hands as canvasses for frosting (after my mom finished cakes). We used to get up on chairs and be allowed to add ingredients to the bowl of whatever yummy thing my mom was making, and I love, love, love the smell of cooking goodness at my Grandma Boge's house. It's no wonder I love to make food fun with kids.

One of my good friends (Cara) from church recently had a beautiful baby boy (Seth). I went to visit and make some cupcakes with Joy, so that she could have some food fun with cupcakes. We frosted them and added words and sprinkles. I forgot how much fun just throwing sprinkles on cupcakes could be, but as I watched her face, it put a smile on mine.

No, this isn't for my portfolio, I won't charge a pretty penny for them, and probably couldn't recreate them if I tried, but Joy, Cara, Phoebe, and I had fun!

Her face proved it!