Simply Delightful Cakes

My son turned 5 years old today and requested a Wreck It Ralph cake. In my mind, I'm thinking "Oh that's going to be pretty easy. It's just a building." Ha! I officially hate square cakes...or maybe I just need more practice! Luckily I was able to cover up most of my boo-boos! In case you haven't seen the movie yet, here is a picture the cake on the movie. I think Ralph and Fix-It Felix turned out great! A lot better than what I had in my mind. Usually it's the opposite!    To prevent them from continuously tipping over on the top, they had to move to the ground for more pictures. : ) He was pretty proud! (Especially since I let him glue the shrubs to the board!)

I'm so glad I was asked to make these super cute cupcakes!  Who doesn't just love those little minions?! I try to teach myself something on each cake, or cupcake in this case, that I do. On these I learned how to paint - super handy!! Painting is so much faster!

Over this past weekend, I had the privilege to make a bachelorette cake for a dear friend of mine. She requested a cake made to look like male parts, but with kids in the house, I told her absolutely not. It was a bit later that her maid of honor and I chatted for a while about the theme of the party. She planned an outlaw/jail themed party for the bride-to-be and everyone was instructed to wear black and white. Knowing nothing more, I set to work on this cake. I learned quite a bit with this cake. I've worked with black fondant before, but I learned how to make my own, and how HARD it can be...and how much I hate that color : ) And I made black frosting for the first time as well, and hated it even more! I did feel pretty accomplished when it was all said and done though!

One of my associates has a little girl who is turning 1 this weekend and asked me to make a cake a for her. I knew with a little one, I probably shouldn't use fondant, like I normally do, so I dug out my frosting skills and didn't do too bad! This is also the first tiered cake I've done.   This is the bottom tier, for the adults, made of fondant. The white things poking out are the support for the top tier. I could have cut them down a little bit more, but for this cake, I wanted to ensure that the mom was going to be able to get the top tier off the cake for her little girl without wrecking it. This is the top tier of the cake, specifically for little Mia to dig her hands into. (I even added a little extra frosting to ensure she was extra messy!)  And what's a cake without a topper? Boring.... so by request, I created a cute little elephant to go on top. I love how it turned out...and to think this was the easiest part of the whole cake! And the cake al...

I cannot believe how fast the last three years have gone by! My little Jim is 3! After a few months of anticipation, Jimmy and I finally sat down to think of what kind of cake he wanted this year. All he wanted was a monster truck cake, but I didn't have the motivation to get it done. When we took a break, he hopped down from the couch and went to the playroom to play on his guitar. And then it clicked! I'd make him a guitar cake for his 3rd birthday! All week the only thing he could talk about was his guitar cake. "Do you know what have to do today? Make my guitar cake!" 

Just before I delivered the pregnant belly cake to the baby shower, another co-worker asked if I could make a cake for a little baby girl who is turning 3 months old this weekend. I thought it was kind of an odd request, but I agreed. She didn't give me anything to go off of other than it was for a baby, so just said it didn't have to be very big.  So here's what I came up with. Some little buttons on the sides, some frilly trim on the bottom and a rattle on the top. I would have liked to write something on the top, but didn't know what to say...after all it was exactly a birthday?

This is the pregnant belly cake I made for a co-worker's baby shower. Super cute and love how it turned out! French Vanilla cake with Buttercream Frosting - Yummm....!  I added the bow as a last minute detail, though I wasn't planning on it originally.  The beautiful mom-to-be with her cake. She loved it! For those wanting to make one of your own, I used the  Wilton Sports Ball Cake Pan  for the belly and the  Wilton Mini Ball Pan  for the boobs. The larger pan should be filled with 2 1/2 cups of batter and the small pan can be filled 2/3 full, but closer to full, in my opinion, to make sure they rise over the edge for a clean cut for the base. Normally when baking cakes, I line the pan with parchment paper so it doesn't stick. In this case I followed the directions and greased the pan then coated it in flour. I was super nervous about not using parchment paper, but it came out with ease! Happy baking!

I called my sister Kim last week to see how her booth at the wedding fair went. Last year we were both there, I for the hotel, and she for the catering company she was working for. This year she was promoting the golf course she works at (as the Restaurant Manager). They are going to begin doing wedding events there and she's going to be heading it up! Woot Woot! Go Kim! After a few minutes of chit-chat, we got off the phone and she quickly called me back a short while later after flipping through the latest edition of Brides & Grooms magazine, which is a publication of the Missoulian newspaper.  The  groom's cake  I made for Kile's wedding in May was in it! Granted it was submitted by Dax Photography, who photographed my sister's wedding, and who was also the photographer at my wedding, so it has his name on it and no mention of me, but still! Its there, and Dax knows where to find me if someone asks about it!   And my beautiful sister Kile is on t...