Baby Girl Shower Cake

I was really happy with the way this cake turned out. The shower host gave me a copy of the invitation, which I used to develop the design. I had tried the technique with the stripes coming up and over the edge of the cake on the little first communion cakes I made, and I liked the way it looked. So I wanted to try the stripes on a fondant covered cake. I added the bead border on the top with frosting to give the top artwork a nice frame. I then added the pink fondant bow around the bottom of the cake, topped with a little plaque with the baby's initials. The little bassinet on the top of the cake I modeled after the invitation logo. I also got to try a new technique by striping the fondant and then rolling it out (on the bassinet), which was cool. I added the silver bead edge to the bassinet and the silver balls on the legs to finish off the design and bring in the touch of silver that was in the invitation. I love a good theme, so it was fun to bring the invitation to life on the cake. I also got to make matching cookie favors (see other post) which were also fun. The cake was alternating layers of vanilla and cookies and cream cake with chocolate custard filling. Hope you gals had a fun shower!

Baby Girl Shower Cookies

I have so much fun doing cookie favors! It's definitely a creative outlet for me. So I did some circle, square and baby bottle shaped cookies, and glazed them in pink and white. Once the glaze dried, I decorated the cookies with green, pink, and white royal icing. I kept them pretty simple (ok, my version of simple!) with stripes and polka dots and added the initials of the new baby girl. I have to admit that it was really fun to do a girl shower this time...seems like everything has been very blue lately. I think they turned out really cute, and they were a nice complement to the cake and the invitation designs (see other post). Congrats to the new mommy!

More Monkey Cupcakes

These little guys always make me smile. I had done similar cupcakes before, but these were a little different. I frosted the cupcakes with the monkey faces with peanut butter frosting this time (all the cupcakes were chocolate chocolate chip cake with peanut butter filling). And on the green cupcakes, I decided to "pipe" the monkeys out of chocolate instead of frosting. They were a little simpler and turned out pretty cute. The bananas were molded out of a lemon Starburst candy (Runts bananas work great, but I didn't want to go shopping again!) My little monkeys love these monkeys!

Dodger Cake

Gamblers beware! This is what happens when baseball fans lose a bet. My avid Angels fan friends had to host a Dodger party, and requested an "obnoxious blue" cake with a big white "LA" logo. I added the baseballs just to jazz it up a bit. The cake was cookies and cream with chocolate frosting between the layers. I'm glad I get to go to this party and see all the guests with blue teeth! Go Dodgers!

First Communion Cakes

How do you decorate a cake for 3 siblings (2 boys and a girl) that are all celebrating their first communion? Yeah, I didn't know either. So we decided on 3 separate cakes! These were all red velvet cakes with cream cheese icing. The polka dots, stripes, and ball borders were all made with fondant, as were the crosses and ribbons on top. I think they looked really bright and fun.

First Birthday Cookie Favors

This is a sampling of some cookie favors I made for a big First Birthday bash. I baked homemade sugar cookies (9 dozen!) in circle, square, and cupcake shapes. Then I glazed each cookie with a thin layer of icing. Once they dried, I piped decorations in white, baby blue and sage green royal icing. I added "A"s for the birthday boy's initial, and a few "1"s as well. The cupcake shaped cookies got a little sugar sprinkled for sparkle and a touch of gold luster dust for the flame of the candle. Once all the designs dried and the royal icing was nice and hard, I bagged each cookie and tied each bag with blue or green ribbon to match the party colors. They turned out adorable, and delicious (even the burned pan of cookies we tried were pretty darn good). Must be the real butter. Hope everyone liked their treats!

Deconstructing Elmo Cupcakes

I get a lot of questions like "how long does it take you to do those?" or "how do you do that?" So I thought I'd give the "behind the scenes" tour of making Elmo cupcakes. First, I start by making the faces. I've created my own templates by drawing the face parts on a sheet of paper. Then, I lay a sheet of wax paper over the template on a cookie sheet. I take Wilton candy melts in different colors and load them into a squeeze bottle (a lot like a ketchup or mustard bottle with the long nozzle on top). I melt the chocolate in the microwave and "draw" the designs on the wax paper. A few minutes in the fridge and they're ready to go. Now the cupcakes...

I start by adding a dollop of frosting to the tops of my cupcakes. This is just so I get a nice, mounded look with the frosting. This layer can be messy since it's covered up in the next step.

Then, I pipe icing through a special decorating tip that I believe was intended for piping grass; it has a bunch of little holes so the red frosting comes out like fur. [A side note when making red frosting: I used 2 entire jars of concentrated "no taste" red frosting color to get this red frosting to look right! ] I start the "fur" around the outside of the cupcake and work inward, covering the entire surface.

Voila! Elmo heads! Or little shag carpet cupcakes (not sure of the occasion these would celebrate...) You can tell people that Elmo turned his back and serve them like this, or you can add the chocolate face parts on top of the fur. I think I'll add the faces.

And there he is! So cute. You can't help but smile. I like to use the chocolate to make the faces simply because I think it tastes better than fondant, but fondant would also work for these. La la la la, la la la la, Elmo's World...