Dr. Seuss "Cat in the Hat"-themed cake (click photos to enlarge).

I really wanted to slap some whimsy on this Dr. Seuss-themed cake via making it a topsy turvy, but alas, I was too chicken. The last time I tried one of "those" cakes (insert sneer and rolled eyes), I made a terrible mess. I WILL conquer that technique in the near future, though. That's a Promise with a capital P - and I don't use the "p" word lightly, much less capitalized. Cake was WASC with vanilla buttercream filling/icing. All accents were fondant. As always, everything was 100% edible. The idea of all the blue, obviously, was that the fish was supposed to be splashing around in water - but I think I got a little carried away.  A bit of blue overkill perhaps?  Other requests for the design included a fish on top, red and white striped bottom tier, and a funky candle on top.

I was also asked to "try" to make the fish hold the candle!  Hehe at how cute that would have been, but try as I may, I just couldn't work that part out. :(  Thanks to CC'ers "meghanb" for the candle inspiration and "KarolynAndrea" for the curly Q inspiration. Also, a big shout out and thanks to cake artist Fran McGregor for the fish design and the roly poly border design on the top tier. Yes, I'm confessing that although I put it all together, most of the ideas for this cake were flat-out stolen.  

Jake's mom was kind enough to share some photos of the big party with us. I love love love what she did with the table seen here:

  

She was also kind enough to let me nab some pictures of the birthday boy on his big day. His pictures were so adorable I couldn't pick just one.  Happy birthday Jake!

 

 

Chocolate on chocolate with chocolate ganache. (Click photos to enlarge pictures.)

I had my first reason to use ganache last week:  a chocolate butter cream on "chocolate chocolate-chip" cake to be decorated in pastel colors.  I didn't want to toss fondant on top of chocolate buttercream because I've done that before and it's messy - so I decided to finish my cake in buttercream, cover that with ganache, then cover the ganache with fondant.  Oh man, this was a decorator's dream.  So simple, so fast, so pain free.  After my practice cake, I did the "real" cake - my Barney cake (pictures to follow this post).  Here's photos of the practice cake (that I didn't bother to smooth).  This cake was a bit too rich for my liking, but my little girl, Molly, age 12, almost went out of her mind over it.  hehehe @ her!

Chocolate Roses (click photos to enlarge)!

I'm pretty much in love with the Wilton 1M cake decorating tip.  Even a "beginner" (aka me) can make icing look fabulous with this thing.  This magical tip can make cupcakes look like ice cream cones and Christmas trees, it can make butter cream look like smooth satiny ruffles (look for photos and a "how to" link on that in an upcoming blog post), it can make perfect zigzags, roses, stars, and drop flowers.  It can stuff an egg, fill a puff pastry, or top a cheesecake or pudding or trifle with a fat, perfect dollop of whipped heavy creme.  You can add a border to cake that looks like a feather boa, a splash of water, a snowflake.  Ohhhh the possibilities!  All I can say is this:  if you decorate cakes, this bad boy can make your life so much easier. Get one NOW.  I mean it, stop reading.  Go!

Once you have your shiny new tip in hand, couple it with this brilliant tutorial (from the fantastic “I am mommy” blog) to ice a perfectly elegant cake in butter cream roses:  http://iammommy.typepad.com/i_am_baker/2011/02/rose-cake-tutorial.html.  

Here’s my version, which I whipped up, first try, in about 15 minutes.  TOTAL.  Voila!

Presley's Little Mermaid Cake

Sometimes things just don't come easy... making you more grateful when they manage to finally come together.  I struggled with this cake and feel like I just barely pulled it off.  A long-time family friend of ours, Ashley, asked me to make a "Little Mermaid" cake for her 4 year old daughter and showed me the party plates.  She didn't care what I did - which, as you all know by now, thrills me way more than anything cake-related should.  Along with the obvious (Ariel, Founder, and Sebastian), I knew I wanted to do a brown octopus arm on the bottom of the cake (see photo below).  I also knew I wanted to do a silly little baby octopus in some shade of lavender.  I had great aspirations for this cake, but alas, everything that could have gone wrong seemingly did.  More parts broke on this cake than my last dozen cakes combined.  On top of that, poor Ariel isn't "right" (but she's a lot better than my trial run Arial who had a strange resemblance to a gorilla).  I put my fingers into the finished butter cream at least 4 times while decorating this cake.  But even with all the "oops" moments, I still loved doing the fondant work for it.  [Note to any potential "beach-themed" cake makers:  SAND GOES LAST.]  Cake is WASC with whipped vanilla bean filling and icing, all details are fondant and are completely edible - except the shish-ka-bab stick holding up the "Happy Birthday Presley" sign.  I've gotten into the habit of watching the movies my cakes are based on as a means of research, so Molly and I watched The Little Mermaid together.  Neither of us really remembered seeing it before and it was sweet to take a trip back in time.  No wonder this movie is such a classic.  For little reasons like this and countless others, I get so much more out of my cake-making than anyone knows.

Eloise in the Plaza Birthday Cake (click photos to enlarge them!)

 There aren't a lot of "Eloise in the Plaza" cakes "out there" on the net. If you don't believe me, go Google it and see. I found about 4 that were worthy (I'm so humble) of a good look, but none of them was anything like what we had in mind for this cake (we being me and Avery's mom).  Avery, just turning age 5, doesn't just love Eloise... she loves the Plaza Hotel, itself - which I think is just the cutest thing ever for someone who is barely 5.  So I decided if she loves the Plaza, the Plaza she shall have - and I put it right on top of her cake! I also included Eloise herself (an obvious decision), Weenie the pug, and Skipperdee the turtle. Avery's mom, Bridget, requested the pink on pink stripes and harlequin pattern for the two tiers, which I thought was ingenious.  (I'm certain I would have done it that way even if she hadn't requested it *wink wink*)  Cake was WASC with whipped vanilla bean butter cream filling and icing. Everything is completely edible right down to the pearl necklace. Happy birthday, Avery!