Star Light, Star Bright...

The bridal shower theme this weekend was based on Vincent Van Gogh's 'Starry Night' painting.

The ambiance was romantic: white lights strung across the pavilion, drapery for a vintage look, star confetti drizzled on the tables, candles and flower centerpieces on each table, and of course, my rendition of 'Starry Night' in cake form.

I used almost every circular tip (1-7) I own for this cake, along with the leaf tips (59 and 60).

The most challenging part of this cake was getting the colors vibrant enough. I went through a lot of food coloring. The trick to not using too much icing is to do all the light colors first and then gradually get darker.

I started with the stars. Then moved to the light blue swirls. Then I just started filling in other places. I made sure to keep a little bit of every color for the final touch of accent colors. The final thing I did was the chocolate tree.

To add the "painting" aspect, I put a picture frame around it. Congrats to the Bride and Groom on their upcoming nuptials and a BIG thank you for letting me be a part of the "Starry Night" Bridal Shower experience.

Aloha! A Luau Baby Shower Cake

One of my dear friends was having a baby shower a few months ago. She didn't want the typical baby blue tablecloths and baby Disney characters. She didn't want cars, or jungle or special character themes. She wanted something different.

A luau!

So when I first approached the idea, I thought of making a pregnant belly with coconut top bikini and grass skirt with a lei around the neck. But then I thought, this particular friend didn't really have such an enjoyable pregnancy. So to play it safe, I did a regular old tiki cake.

The only part of the cake that even had to do with "baby" was the surf board.

I made a large tiki hut face out of fondant as the cake topper and some chocolate mold fish as some decorations. The surfboard was fondant and the writing was used with a special food color pen.

The cake itself was vanilla with butter cream frosting. Instead of making a fondant covered cake, I decided to make it look more "beachy" to keep with the theme. So I frosted the top of the cake with icing, blended a half a box of vanilla wafers and covered the top with a sand-like texture.

I used the very delicious (although very expensive) Pirouette cookies for the tiki torches around the cake and secured them with a bow. This was really to tighten the cake so it would fit in the basket, but it really worked well aesthetically.

I used the flowers to fill in the gaps in the basket and give it some color.

I must have done something right on this one. It's the first cake I made that was COMPLETELY gone in less than 20 minutes.

Put Your Game Face on - Xbox Cake

I love when people say to me, "you can do a/an ______ cake."

I don't know. I've never tried!

When a friend of mine called me up one day and said, "You can make an Xbox cake, right?" i just laughed.

"I don't know, I've never made one before. I've only made the Rock Band Cake," I said.

Her reply, "Oh ok... well, you're gonna make an Xbox cake. No pressure."

Yikes! Where do you even start on something like this when you've never made a REAL 3D cake?
The console.

I just stared at the Xbox for a good 30 mintes to gather my thoughts and ideas. And then I decided to trace the console out. When the cake was cooled, I put the cut out of the Xbox shape on the cake and cut it out. Easy.

Than the controller. Hmm... Not so easy. But I sat there at the tray with the controller in front of me and carved it a little at a time. Here's a tip: I use the food coloring markers to draw it out before I cut.

After everything was cut and wrapped I took the little details and started working on those. I cut out the air vents, the buttons, the side panels, the analogs. All of it.

I used a bit of water and attached all the pieces. Then a little bit of icing for some last details and voila... you have an Xbox cake.

I've seen some pretty awesome Xbox cakes out there, but I'm still VERY proud of mine. My second 3D cake. Second! Imagine that. I think I have a gift for "winging" it.

 

I go hard in the 3D cakes!

Here's my Rock Band tribute cake. It was also made as a send off to a dear friend that was moving away.

What better way to send her off than a night of good old fashioned Rock Band?

So we did what we do best: go totally overboard and theme out our Rock Band party. We sprayed our hair pink, dressed in our Rock and Roll gear, set up the instruments and jammed out all night till our hands hurt and our voices were gone.

 But when it came time for dessert, my friends were in for quite a surprise: My first ever 3D cake.

The cake itself was basic vanilla with butter cream icing. Of course, I used my trusty Wilton cake recipe. The time and effort was all in the decorating.

I did the entire cake in homemade butter cream icing (one that's an absolute secret). I free hand piped the side of the cake that mimics the bars where the notes show up on the screen when you play Rock Band. I made all the instruments and Rock Band logo in fondant icing.

While it might not be the best, the most outrageous or even the most difficult cake, this one will always be my favorite. It was my first time stepping outside of that "safe" cake zone and doing something crazy.

It's also the day I learned I had more patience than I ever thought.