Simply Delightful Cakes

For her 5th birthday [last year] my daughter requested a Minnie Mouse cake. She had also requested one the year before but switched to a cat cake at the last minute. The year before she also requested a Minnie Mouse cake but switched to a princess cake at the last minute so this time time I said no switching!                                                

This cake was two months past its due date, but my son said it was worth the wait! “It’s better than awesome!”  After making the green ninja, Lloyd, the year before, this one was pretty quick to put together because I already had a good idea of what I was doing.

Another birthday has come and gone at our house! My four-year old daughter requested a cat cake for her birthday, when we had been planning for a Minnie Mouse cake.  She has been in love with "Baby Booties" and "Mama Booties" for quite some time now so I thought it would be fun to recreate her kitties for her cake. While there were many kitties to choose from, these were the lucky ones who made the cut. Spot, Lindy, Baby Booties, Mama Booties, Ta-tas, Whiskey, and Kiki. These little guys were so much fun to make, just a little time consuming! Shh....don't tell her that Zebra isn't a kittie! It's just a kittie with a mo-hawk! Hahaha!

It's Lego Ninjago time! I was so excited to hear my boy wanted one of these cakes. I had so much fun making it. If I could change one thing, I'd add a couple fondant swords to his back, but I ran out of fondant and time. I love how it turned out regardless! He didn't specify which color he wanted, but I knew deep down, he'd want Lloyd. :) Lego cake for the win! 7 year old boys are awesome!

My daughter's birthday has come and gone. May is such a busy month for me that I forgot to post her birthday last year, and this year I ran out of time as well. Two months later is bad, right?  Leading up to her birthday, all she wanted was a Minnie Mouse cake, but the day before I started to make it, she changed her mind and decided on princesses instead. With little time to spare, I threw together a Cinderella cake for her. She LOVED it, of course!

My sweet middle child turn the big 6 yesterday. Where did the time go?! He's BIG into green, so having a green cake was a big must for him. Since Star Wars is the new thing for little boys, he was eager to request a Yoda cake. After many chats with him, he changed his mind and instead wanted a Ninja Turtle cake. I could tell he was really wrestling with it... I suggested we do both and I can't begin to tell you how big his eyes got!   When he arrived home from school, he literally couldn't contain his excitement and proceeded to bounce off the walls until it was bedtime...5 long hours later!  I love how Yoda turned out! And I'm relieved I finally got Leonardo to stand on his own! In my head they were going to be dueling, but I put off making the "people" until the morning of... Not the best time to start!  The night before I was busy making these Ninja Turtle shell cupcakes for school. I don't need to tell you he loved them, right?

I've got one more cake in the books! Star Wars must have replaced the Superheros this year... And I have one more Star Wars cake to do this week too!   Super impressed with how this one turned out. And I love that I was able to use "Star Wars" font for the letters.  What's a birthday without cupcakes? Chewbacca anyone?

A couple weeks ago, my oldest celebrated his 7th birthday. In the days leading up to his birthday, he was sick on the couch with the flu so the last thing he wanted to think about was cake and what he wanted on it. As he got to feeling better, he decided on a Darth Vader cake. The two of us curled up on the couch and scrolled through Pinterest for ideas until we stumbled upon one similar to this one and he was sold. Despite my hate of black, I made his cake black and cursed the whole time I was attempting to cover it in fondant. Lately I've been doing a lot of buttercream frosting cakes, but since his party was going to be in a humid and warm waterpark, I didn't want to take the chance of it melting off the cake. He loved the little Darth Vader I put on the top of it too, especially since he's holding his birthday candle-light saber. 

This past week was a busy one in our household - between work and babysitting, there was hardly anytime left in the day. I had been planning this "Montana" themed baby shower cake for a couple months and was really excited about the vision I had for it in my head.  As always, it's a lot easier to put together in my head than it actually is to make it. I had a couple set backs while working on, and not working on the cake this week. First of all, I planned on making the fondant on Tuesday so I would be ready to start sculpting the animals on Wednesday. Both days came and went and I still had yet to start on it. After a labor-intensive Friday, I had the cake baked and frosted and 3 of the 4 animals made. Then my daughter found the animals while I was out of the kitchen...Luckily I was able to quickly repair the damage, complete the outside details of the cake, sculpt the moose, and make cupcakes with time to spare. Phew! I think it's safe to say this is one of ...

Just when I had all my cake "stuff" put away, I pulled it back out to make another superhero cake. By the end of August I will have made 5 this year. Never would have guessed that! I can't tell you how excited I am to share this one with you though!  My dear friend Sara got a hold of me last week in regards to her son's birthday party, which they planned last minute, as in 5 days prior. Seriously something I would do! I put off party planning until the last minute possible. Her son is into superheros, like most boys this age are, so of course he was wanting a superhero cake as well. Here's what they got: In retrospect, I'd probably have made the Superman logo a little bit bigger. Next time... Since there were going to be quite a few kids plus their parents, we figured some extra cupcakes might be a good option. (It's always hard to say how many people a cake will serve - it all depends on the cutter!) She volunteered to pick up some cupcakes t...

This past weekend I delivered a pretty princess cake for a young girl who loves Cinderella. Her mom sent me a handful of Cinderella cakes they both liked, and I did my best to combine all them into one cake. I especially love the bow...But I also love how the swirls came out, especially with the pearls! I didn't realize I assembled it a little catty-wompus until after the fact. It's so hard to tell how it'll sit until it's assembled! Aside from all the set-backs I had on this cake from the cake not coming out of the pan to the frosting melting to the pearls falling off in transport, I'm so glad it turned out mostly as planned! And then an hour after I delivered it, I fainted. I'd do it again in a heartbeat though!

Last week I had the pleasure of making a cake for a co-worker. Her son is a huge Marvel fanatic! Without him knowing, she had him tell her his top 5 favorite superheros. They were Iron Man, Captain America, Scarlet Witch, Ant-Man, and Dead Pool. I had only heard of the first two... But low and behold, Ant-Man and Dead Pool sections turned out to be my favorites.   His favorite was the Ant-Man section.  He and his mom were also blown away with the Dead Pool section too. She had no idea who he was either.  Scarlet Witch's cape gave me some problems, but I made it work. Her section was the hardest to come up with because she doesn't have any weapons - just her "M" looking face mask as one of her signatures. I was sure to add that, but opted for adding her cape instead of her little red corset outfit.  Who knew making one superhero cake would lead me to make two more? Just can't get enough of those heros!

Why oh why do I wait until 10pm the night before to start working on decorating cakes? I need to squash this cycle! Anyways, my son turned 5 last month and had a super hero cake at his pool party. I was delighted how well it went over with everyone, especially the moms there! I shouldn't have been surprised when one of them asked me to make her son's cake, but I was surprised because he also wanted super heroes!  I don't normally make rectangular cakes, but thought this would be a good time to try one out - this way it wouldn't look exactly like my son's.   I showed the birthday boy and his mom the sketch I drew up, and he was SO EXCITED! "That's the coolest cake ever!" That's why I do this. The excitement on their faces makes it all worth it! He then proceeded to point out each of the super heroes on the sketch. "There's Superman, and the Hulk, and that one is Captain America, and there's that green guy. I don't know his...

I shouldn't choose favorites, but this is BY FAR my favorite cake that I've done yet - simply because I didn't have any problems! The cakes came out of their pans perfectly and their edges weren't crispy, the fondant didn't give me any grief, and there was no cursing what-so-ever!   Last year my little guy was in love with Ninja Turtles, and he still is (probably more so this year) but he opted to have superheros on his cake instead - and a Ninja Turtle.   Since it was his 5th birthday, I divided the cake into five sections and let him pick the superheros to be on it. He was so confused to how it was going to look so I drew it out the best I could. I need to do that more often! I referenced it over and over during the decorating process! The only thing I'm not so pleased about is the Spiderman portion - mostly because by the time I made /it to piping on the spider, the black dye was separating itself from the frosting making it turn out more gray th...

Happy birthday to my daddy who turned the big 6-0 today! Because my sisters and I bought him a trip to Vegas for his birthday, I was going to make a Vegas themed cake, but when he's not farming, he's golfing. One of my sisters found this cake on-line, so I re-created it for her. He loved it! And it was a surprise! He came over when I was baking it, but thought I was making cookies :)

I challenged myself again with this Lego cake. Because we were on the road for my son's birthday, I told him I would make him a cake when we arrived at out destination. What I forgot to take into account was the elevation. It reeked havoc on the baking time of the cake and the frosting. (The wine came out pretty early!)  I was, however, very thankful my sister-in-law was eager to help out, once I had the cake baked and assembled. I taught her how to make fondant and had her helping me cut out all the Lego blocks for the side. We work on this all afternoon, and finished it up shortly after dinner. And he LOVED it. Mission accomplished!

My sweet little girl turned 1 today, so for the last few days, I've been busy in my kitchen baking, frosting, and molding her cake. With the exception of one cake, I've only made boy cakes. Do I have to say how exciting a girl cake can be after making so many boy cakes? ;)  I had been thinking for nights on end about what I wanted her cake to look like. When I was pregnant with her, I became hooked on owls, so I themed her room with a touch of owls. The only thing I knew I wanted on the cake was an owl. By this morning, I still didn't know what I wanted so I ended up just winging it. (No pun intended!)  With my little angel tugging at my ankles and my 4 year old sick on the couch, I think it turned out pretty darn good!

This cake took me out of my kitchen and into the kitchen of my mother-in-law's in Whitefish. With my birthday and my sister-in-law's birthday on the horizon, I set to work on making us a cake.  With my other sister-in-law in town as well, I walked her step-by-step on how to make this cake. She even successfully made a couple swirls with a baby in her front carrier. And conveniently enough, we were two small rows of frosting short. I made enough to finish the top of the cake, but in my annoyance, I forgot to fill the holes between swirls. Ah well, it was consumed two hours later!  I'm not sure if there is anything more annoying than not having enough frosting and having to make more! Happy birthday to me and Em!

If one cake wasn't enough to do, I made another one once I completed the Ninja Turtles. Normally I probably would have said no to doing two cakes in a weekend because I don't like to feel rushed. However, I knew the Ninja Turtles weren't going to take too long so I figured I could squeeze another one in.   The only relatively time consuming thing about this cake was baking it....and waiting for the black fondant to set. Otherwise this was a pretty low stress cake! Hooray! These keep getting easier and easier! I was a little disappointed when I dropped the cake off. Having worked at this hotel for 6 years, I should have known the pool area was going to be humid, causing my camera lens to fog up. So I quickly became frustrated with cleaning my lens and didn't quite get the picture I wanted. Ah well.  Happy Birthday Landon!