Come Fly With Me...

A Butterfly Cake for Emma

Sometimes life comes at you fast. You wake up one morning and you realize, oh man, I was supposed to do something this weekend. And sometimes that something is actually quite big... like your baby's first birthday.

With the hustle and bustle of life, that's exactly what happened to a friend of mine. She realized that in the midst of crossing her t's and dotting her i's, she had forgotten one important aspect of her party planning - the cake!

So when she asked around the office if anyone knew someone who "did cakes", I laughed. It's not that I don't advertise it, I just kind of keep a little quite about my cake making. I often doubt myself on whether I have time, or if it will come out the way a person expects it. So I don't really offer. But, for a friend in need? No question.

I asked her to send me photos of idea she had, and I'd come up with something. Since Emma's room is all purple and green with butterflies, we decide that would be perfect. So I cake up with a sheet cake for the adults to eat and one small round cake that Emma can "smash into" - as every child should have that cake face look on their first birthday.

And while it was a stressful bake (I had started after working late on a Friday night), I am so glad that I had the experience of helping out a friend in need and seeing that beautiful little girls face smiling full of cake.

Happy birthday, doll!!

 

 

Patty Cake, Patty Cake...

So this is a different kind of cake... a Diaper cake!

Even when I'm not baking a cake, I'm thinking of cakes!

I always dip into my creative side when I go to a baby shower (that I'm not making an actual cake for). Sometimes I make the money kite or the oragami money. Other times I make Diaper cakes.

This is just a simple design I did in less than 20 minutes.

Using a water bottle for support, wrap diapers around the water bottle till the base is to your desired thickness. Then secure with a ribbon

Hint: use a rubber band as you are going along if you don't have any help holding the diapers together... otherwise you may lose the whole thing.

Keep layering as much as you want, securing each bundle with a bit of ribbon. Then just add accent pieces. I found that glue dots worked best for securing pieces to the ribbon.

Try not to poke holes into the diapers (for obvious reasons) and try not to add glue or tape either. The object here is to send the mommy-to-be home with diapers she can use.

I was putting this in a bag, so I fastened it all together with some clear plastic basket wrap.








If you want something more masculine, you can try out my motorcycle biker pup.

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.