Alaina's Ladybug Cake! (Click photos to enlarge!)

I loved the idea of making a cake for this baby’s big "First Birthday" event. Her mom, Peyton, wanted a recreation of the brilliant Sandy Thompson's (Chattanooga Cakes) ladybug cake in the same fun colors as the original: hot pink and green. Cake and ladybug were WASC with vanilla bean filling and icing, covered in MMF. All accents are fondant, including the pearl borders, which are made from a silicon mold (by First Impressions, found here). I can't tell you how much I love, love, love my First Impressions pearl molds. If you make cakes and don’t own these, I can't encourage you enough to pick some up. They’re one of the best investments you can make to neaten up the look of your work. If you want to see these babies in action, check out this perfect little picture tutorial at bakingproject.com by clicking here. And when you're done with that, feast your eyes on this birthday girl and see if you can stand the sweetness.  I dare you!

 

Be still my heart! How adorable is this little one?

Meet Alaina Claire!

I can't stop looking at this baby 

and her big blue eyes and her sassy boots!

I *thought* I had taken a decent photo of my cake (photo on the right, above), although no matter how many times I tried (can you say 50 photos?), I just couldn't capture the vibrancy of the colors.  Lucky for me, Peyton came to the rescue with her lovely little party snapshot (photo on the left, above). 

Smash cake!

This little cake eater, right here, is what it's ALL about!

That's all for now, but the oven's on, so I'll be back soon!

~ Peggy

Emelie's Castle Cake! (Click photos to enlarge.)

This fun cake was made using a “stone” embossing mat on crusted butter cream, upside-down ice cream cones for spires (covered in fondant and edible disco dust), and lots and lots and lots (over 150) of tiny little flowers.  I had a joyful week working on this little cake.  It made me really happy.  I heard it through the grapevine that this cake made Emelie, newly turned age 4, pretty happy, too.  Bottom tier was an 8" square and top tier was a 6" round.  I hand cut four tiny little cakes with a biscuit cutter (stacked two layers high and filled, of course) then covered them in pink fondant for the bases of the spires.  A dowel stuck in meant that the spires (ice cream cones) could just be set in place and easily removed.  The "water" is just scrapbook paper covered with contact paper (so the oils from the cake won't discolor the paper).  You can see the draft of Emelie's cake "side by side" with the final product by clicking the "Drafts" tab on my home page or by clicking here.

Johanna, Emelie's mom, was kind enough to allow me to share a picture from Emelie's big day.  Is this little curly-haired angel precious, or what?  Happy birthday Emelie.  I hope all your birthday wishes come true!

Oven's on.  I'll be back soon!

~ Peggy

Western-themed Anniversary Cake (click photos to enlarge).

I was really nervous about making this cowboy-themed cake. A few weeks prior to it, I began to feel anxious and started to fret. It was all in vain, though, because if I had to make a list of my top 5 most fun cakes ever, this would definitely make the cut.  

Lindsey, the sweet little newlywed who ordered this cake as a surprise for her husband Ray, only had a handful of requests for me: chocolate cake with chocolate butter cream, a replica of Ray's "winter" hat on top, a pair of jeans with a big ol' belt buckle, and a couple of horseshoes. In the end, I couldn't really find a spot for the horseshoes since the cake was pretty "busy," so I just slipped them around the backside of the cake. But you can see them here.

When the jeans were done, they didn't look right, so I hand painted them with a fanned brush and diluted (vodka) food color. Trying to make all the components look "real" and have the correct textures was the best part of this cake. 

The hat, the belt, the rivets...  they were all different and they were all so much fun to do. I hand-painted the bandanna (folded fondant) and although I'm not kidding myself about my lack of painting expertise, it actually turned out better than my worst fears (but not half as good as the way I envisioned it in my mind). Isn't that how it always goes?

A little birdy told me that Ray ate his entire hat, including 1/2 the BRIM. The little birdy provided this proof:

 

Happy Anniversary to this sweet couple.  Lindsey and Ray, I hope you have many more years ahead of you!  

 

Giddyup!

Oven's on.  I'll be back.

~ Peggy

Amanda's Double Chocolate Chip Birthday Cake! (Click photos to enlarge.)

Thank you, Nathan, for thinking about your lovely wife, Amanda, and asking me to make a birthday cake for her. This sweet girl is one of my biggest and most *favoritest* “cake supporters,” and to be able to bake a cake for her birthday was a real honor. She loves chocolate, so chocolate is what she got: double chocolate chip with whipped chocoIate butter-crème filling and icing. I used the easy-peasy Wilton 1M tip “swirly rose” method to ice it (technique tutorial found here) and rumor has it that our birthday girl was eating cake by breakfast time. 

Want a real treat? Check out Amanda’s blog here. She’s a talented writer, has exceptional taste (cakes notwithstanding), and she’s just fun to read. Yes, I’m a faithful, daily follower, and yes, I’m very partial to one post of hers in particular which you can read here (about YOURS TRULY). 

Amanda was good enough to allow me to use some of her personal photos from her "birthday morning."

 

 

  You can tell how excited her little girls were about her cake. Precious!

I have to say that gorgeous cake plate of hers didn't hurt the look of my (her) cake one bit! Love it!

Amanda, Amanda, Amanda! Who looks like this when they're fresh out of bed? You make it hard to not be a hater...

Oven's calling. I’ll be back soon!

~ Peggy