Bright Birthday Cake

I baked this cake for the daughter of my friend and co-worker, Toni. She wanted a cake to match the party invitations.

It's an 11" x 15" single layer "cinnamon toast" cake. I used a recipe from Cupcakes by the Cake Doctor by Anne Byrne. Delicious! I coated the cake in buttercream frosting and decorated it with fondant appliques.

Happy Birthday to Me!

My birthday was September 8th so of course I baked myself a birthday cake. I wanted to try something new and I definitely wanted buttercream frosting. I recently discovered Cupcake Cafe a wonderful, all-buttercream cake shop that does amazing cakes. I turned to them for inspiration and found a lovely wedding cake covered in lilacs (see tiered cake below).

I thought I would do my interpretation of that cake in a single tier, so I made a four-layer, french vanilla cake with red raspberry filling. I mixed a (too dark) shade of ivory buttercream and two shades of purple, some brown for stems and green for leaves. I wasn't sure how to actually make the flowers, so I experimented with a few tips and ended up with something completely different!

I don't think they are actually lilacs. Some people thought they were wisteria and others thought they were hydrangeas. (My kids thought they were grapes). But everyone thought the cake was beautiful and tasted great. In fact, it was pretty much devoured in one sitting.

All in all, I enjoyed my birthday celebration with family and friends. And I got the birthday cake I wanted because I baked it myself!

Pink Petals Birthday Cake

This is a carrot cake that a friend ordered for her own birthday. It's a triple-layer carrot cake filled and frosted with cream cheese frosting. I was free to decorate it as I wished, so I took the opportunity to try something new. I found this Lilly Pulitzer-style cake created by Laurie Lucov Wedding Cakes . I liked the pink and green combination and the whimsical design. I thought I could interpret it in a single layer cake.

But...the fates had a different idea. The chocolate transfers turned out horrible and my latticework looked even worse...I had to scrape off the latticework and re-smooth the cream cheese frosting...hence the marbled sides. I made a batch of royal icing and made the flowers, let them dry until they could be handled and arranged them on the cake. Once the cake was finished I thought something was missing, so I brushed it with shimmer dust.

Most importantly - Tallie loved it! Happy Birthday, Tallie!

Glorious Ganache

This cake was very simple to make. It's a five layer yellow cake with Bavarian cream filling. It is covered in buttercream frosting and drizzled with chocolate ganache.

Peeps Cupcakes

In addition to making the Sunflower Cake for Easter, I wanted to make cupcakes for the kids. I frosted some in white buttercream and others in chocolate. I piped green buttercream grass and the girls helped me place Peeps marshmallows bunnies on top. Click here to see more pictures.

Sunflower Cakes & Cupcakes

I wanted to bake a cake for Easter, but I wanted it to be something unexpected - no bunnies or eggs. I decided sunflowers would be very spring like. A quick Google search found Debbie Weaver's instructions for making sunflowers for decorating cupcakes or cakes. I baked an 8" three-layer yellow pound cake, filled with Bavarian cream. I frosted it with buttercream and followed her instructions and this was the final product. I used dark chocolate cocoa powder to help achieve the dark brown color of the seeds. The great thing was that it tasted as good as it looked. Once I convinced everyone it was OK to cut it, they devoured it! You can click here to view all of my sunflower cake and cupcake photos.

A friend of mine, Robin, saw my first sunflower cake pictures and asked if I would decorate a cake for her mother's birthday party. She brought me two 9" round lemon-flavored cakes. I torted them and filled them with lemon curd. I frosted them in a lemon-cream cheese frosting. I used buttercream for the flowers. You can click here to see all the photos.














Robin's sister-in-law, Sam, loves sunflowers. I had to bake some cakes the following Sunday, one of which was a sunflower cake for a friend and co-worker, Debbie. So I used the extra cake batter to make cupcakes for Sam. Debbie's cake was a square lemon cake. I filled it and frosted it with lemon buttercream frosting. It was a belated Administration Professionals Appreciation day cake.

Wilton Cake Decorating: Course 1

I recently took Wilton courses 1 & 2 in cake decorating. We learned to decorate cakes using buttercream icing, royal icing, and colorflow.

Our first assignment was to bake a cake using a character pan and a star tip. I chose a purse because I wanted something with as few colors possible. This technique is easy, but it causes my hand to cramp.

Our second assignment was to learn how to make a shell border, write freehand, and pipe characters from icing. We had to make clowns. I'm not a fan of clowns so I wasn't thrilled about the assignment. Basically, the trunks, arms, and legs of the clowns were thickly piped frosting with no structural support. The heads were plastic picks.

The frosting was still wet when we left class and I had a pretty long drive home. I think I hit every pothole along the way and knew there was no way the two sitting clowns would still be upright.
When I got home we all had a good laugh because the sitting clowns had fallen down. They looked drunk. The third clown looked like he just didn't have the strength to climb to the top of the cake! I dubbed it my "Drunk Ass Clowns Cake" and everyone who sees it, loves it.

Our final class had us decorate a cake with basic buttercream roses. Making a good rose is quite a challenge, but I think I did OK.