Duct Tape 30th Birthday Cake

Our good friend Mike celebrated his 30th birthday with a duct tape themed party, so naturally this meant a duct tape cake was in order. I used 6" rounds to make the rolls of "tape"; I just cut holes in the center and inserted left over cardboard rolls from real duct tape. I tried to make it appear as though the cake was decorated with torn duct tape, which was difficult because it was almost like trying to make it look bad on purpose. But I think it turned out as planned! And the flavor experiments mostly seemed to work out. White Chocolate Creme Brulee with raspberry filling was my favorite. Peanut butter chocolate chip was good, but not without some complications. (Note: it's best to use the mini chocolate chips in less dense cakes. I tried giant chips, and they sank to the bottom of the pan. Fail.)

Lego Yankees Eric Birthday Cake

Here's a cake for all you lego lovers and Yankees fans out there. It was a BaseballLegoPalooza for Eric's Birthday! I went into this cake thinking it would be relatively simple, but I didn't account for the fact that legos are extremely precise toys. Once it donned on me how important proportions and measurements would be to this cake, I went out and purchased a big box of legos and actually built a model of this cake out of real legos first. That was a good plan because it allowed me to count the exact number of little nubs I needed on my base and on each lego to make this work. Getting the spacing exactly right was basically impossible, so I just tried to get it as close as I could! Other lessons learned:

• It is much, much easier to frost a big cake than a bunch of small pieces of cake. Pieces of cake like to crumble. I think I spent longer frosting the legos than making the entire rest of the cake!


• If you're making a big figure out of fondant, allow at least a week for drying time. Mushy figures = no good.


• Dowel rods work well for making lego hands from fondant, and also baseball bats.


• Gel food colors work pretty well as paints, as evidenced by the baseball and cap. Painting the little laces on the baseball was an excercise in patience for sure.


• The pockets on baseball pants actually go on the back. Oops.

Animal Cupcake Tower

Last weekend I had the opportunity to do a fun cupcake tower for an animal-themed 4th birthday party. The topper cake featured a fondant party monkey and decorations, and each of the 46 cupcakes was decorated with a fondant animal face. These took for-ev-er to make, but I love how they turned out!

Much thanks to Paul and Mike for building me the awesome tower base, sanding it and painting it to look all pretty. They are so handy with power tools! Lesson learned though: if you are going to Home Depot to buy sheets of MDF, don't bring the Nissan Altima...bring the F150. Duh. You can just imagine four people and two large sheets of MDF riding in my car...but somehow we did it! Must have looked hilarious though!

Next project: Lego Cake. Coming this weekend!

Almond Babies!

When a coworker asked me to make four dozen Jordan almonds decorated like tiny babies for a baby shower she is throwing, I have to admit I was a little intimidated! It took some practice, but I think these little guys are adorable. The little faces are made of fondant balls, and the bonnets, hair and bows are Royal icing. We also did 20 jungle animal almonds using some great sugar decorations from Petit Flours (an awesome website). The koalas are my favorite.

This must be animal theme party week, because my next project is a cupcake tower with monkeys, lions, tigers, puppies, giraffes, bears, and more! Stay tuned for that one after Sunday!

Ballerina Birthday

I did this cake for the daughter of a friend. She likes purple and ballerinas, so this is what I came up with! This was a fun cake to make. I especially liked making my first pair of gumpaste shoes. Loved how they turned out!

Happy Mardi Gras!

This year, I tried my hand at my first homemade King Cake for Mardi Gras...complete with colored sugars, beads, and a tiny baby and coin baked inside. It was delicious. Hope everyone had a great Fat Tuesday and is ready for Lent!

French Fry Cupcakes? Yes!

My friend Bill gave me an awesome cupcake cookbook that I have been dying to experiment with, and our annual Super Bowl party seemed the perfect time. I made these French Fry cupcakes (the fries are pound cake!) with hopes of fooling our guests...and it worked! Everyone thought I had gone off the deep end and put fried food on cake. The "ketchup" frosting was the perfect touch.