Topsy Turvy!

O-M-G!!!

FINALLY!!! I mean, seriously, finally!!

I put on my big girl decorator pants and attempted a topsy turvy cake again.

For those of you reading from the beginning (I know there are not many of you, but that's ok) you might remember my very first post. My first attempt at a topsy turvy cake was a pure disaster. And since then I've had unintentionally crooked cakes, but not an actual true, meant to be wonky cake.

Until now.....

Ta-DAH!

This was an Alice In Wonderland themed cake.

Really how else should an Alice In Wonderland cake be, but a little off balance.

Granted, there are some areas that could have been improved, and things that I would have done differently. But overall, I am incredibly happy about the way that it turned out.

A very merry unbirthday indeed!

The big 2-9

This was a wonderful cake to make. There was much discussion on theme, colors, shapes, everything. I'm glad because it shapes my ideas of what someone's expectations are.

It was just pretty, pink, and still grown up somehow at the same time.

Obviously it was for a 29th birthday party.

There were of course coordinating cupcakes to go along with the cake.

Here is a close up of what I call scrolling, for lack of a better word, on the bottom tier of the cake.

Getting better, I think that my days with henna parties really paid off there.

Popular

This style of cake is now called "The Maggie Cake". It's becoming one of my most requested styles.

This one was for a baby shower.


Of course, darn those windy German roads again, by the time I got to the house half of those branches had fallen over.

It was pretty for the pictures though!

Very Merry Unbirthday!

My first Alice in Wonderland cake!
This was for a 13th birthday party, and the recipient wanted it based more on the recent Tim Burton Alice than the old Disney one. Which was fine by me, except that I did not see the new one.

Unintentionally topsy turvy. Germany roads are not condusive to transporting tall cakes. At the house it was a little tipsy, but got even more "whimsical" on the car ride. I think I almost had a heart attack leaving my driveway.

But she made it, mostly in one piece. There was alot of cracking in the frosting, which I managed to smooth out a little when I got it set up.

This is the topper, which is supposed to be a tea pot. It's kind of hard to see the spout and handle.

The tea pot sits on The Hatter's hat.

Which sits on a harlequin kind of base.

Hopefully it did not fall over during the course of the party.

I Love the 80's ***UPDATED***

This was for an adult's 80's birthday party. How much fun was that?? That was my era, Duran Duran, casset tapes, jelly shoes, stirrup pants, you get the flashback. Unfortunately all those things do not translate well to cake decorating.

I thought it came out well though.

I ended up going with a "Boy Toy" belt buckle for the middle. Man, I wanted one of those, but my mom just would not let me get one. I know why now, but man, I was maaaaad back then. Besides I can see the irony of me having one back then, because believe you me, I was the farthest thing from a "boy toy" that you could imagine.
Anyway...

Here's another shot of the Rubik's Cube from another angle. This came out really well actually, everything lined up! And the jelly bracelets, that I actually had on hand for some reason. I think they were in my party supplies box.


I would end this post with a picture of me from the 80's, but I think I burned all of them.

UPDATE!
OK, I found one of my Senior portriats.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!!!!!! My hair is huge!

Happy 18th!

Another redo of a previous design. But instead of a shower, this one was for an 18th birthday.


Pretty incredibly girly.

Blossoms in Spring

Spring is spring....for real this time. It's sunny and my apple tree is starting to blossom in the back yard. Yay!

Let's celebrate with a cherry blossom cake for Maggie.




Another try at the cherry blossom cake. My method was a little bit cleaner this time, I planned a little better so that I could get more blossoms on the branches before the chocolate hardened up. I love this cake style, it's so pretty, and surprisingly easy to make.

Baby cakes

I'll be the first to admit that these kinds of cakes are not my strong point. Straight lines and super smooth edges, notsomuch, which is why I rarely do wedding cakes. Too much perfection required. Though I'd do a zombie wedding cake in a second!

Anyway, this was for a baby shower.

We went back and forth over what to do for the topper, and finally settled on this Anne Geddes style sleeping baby dressed in flowers. I thought that this was the best part of the cake. Well, that and my pretty awesome piping (ifIdosaysomyself).

I think it might be physically impossible for me to ever properly center a cake tier.

Twilight....AGAIN!

I know that the last time I said never again....

What? You've never seen a hypocrite before?

This is by far the largest cake I have ever made, each tier is made up of three layers. I did dowel it through the first and second tiers, but it still listed a little to the right, which really bummed me out.

For those of you suffering from OCTD*.

The apple.

The Rook.

Those flowers (my favorite part).

And the ribbon twining around it all.

I really don't get it. I guess I'm more of a Sonja Blue kind of fangirl.

*Obsessive Compulsive Twilight Disorder

Happy Anniversary

I just noticed that I did not write anything to go along with the pictures of this cake! DURRR....that's what 18 cakes in a month will do to you.

Anyway, Judi and John were celebrating their 24th wedding anniversary. Their daugter who lives in the states, emailed me to ask if I would do a surprise anniversary cake for them. Absolutely.

She wanted a snow theme, since she was born during a heavy snowstorm, and the last time they were all together they were snowed in for several days.

So this is what I came up with.
To make the snowpeople not so slumpy, I used a 50/50 mix of fondant and gumpaste, and they had structual wires inside to help them sit up a little better as well.


This is the first time I've used Royal Icing as a decoration. I usually use it as a glaze on lemon poundcake. I piped these snowflakes onto wax paper and let them dry overnight, then stuck them all over the cake. They turned out really well. I love the 3-D effect they add.

This is a white chocolate cake with white chocolate buttercream frosting.

Judi almost ruined it all by ordering a cake for John's birthday. But luckily she wanted it for the weekend before, and was going to share it with a bunch of people at a dinner.

Once all the details were figured out, Lenae and I snuck over to their house with an ill gotten key and delivered the cake, some flowers and balloons.

One day I hope The Kid will plan something like that for me.

Oh, Oh, Oh, It's Magic!

I personally love Wizards of Waverly Place, and Selena Gomez, she is so cute!

This cake was done to coordinate with the Wizard's party supplies. This was one of those cakes where I just could not stop adding more and more stuff to it. Though I think it worked for the overall look. I know that most little girls this age have raccoon fever, so the more going on, the better.
My piping is getting a little bit better I think, a little trouble around those feathers still. I think piping on a vertical surface is redonks difficult.
I think adding the name of the recipient on thiese fondant lollies is a great way to top it off, and finish the cake. Thank you Amy F. for the great idea!!!
And to think her mother and I had to convince her not to go with a Littlest Petshop cake.

Girly

But not too girly.
This cake was made to match this party set.
For some reason I had the hardest time taking pictures of this cake. I just kept standing right smack in the middle of the light and casting my own shadow in the frame. Basically I couldn't get out of my own way, that's just sad.
Hot pink buttercream frosting!
I had no idea those wing cutters would be so usefull!

Come to the Dark Side

We have cake!

I have not had much luck with Star Wars cakes in the past. My excuse for that one was that I was also taking care of the rest of the party, not just the cake. My poor kid, she sure gets the short end of the lightsaber sometimes.

Anyway.

Slightly more sucessfull this time around.

Just a general Star Wars kind of theme.

The Death Star and the Jedi Order emblem.

Lucky for me I had just gotten a big bag full of Star Wars party acessories from a friend who was cleaning out her stash.
Including this pretty cool Darth Vader candle holder for the top.

And all of those cut outs of the various characters.

The Dark Side smells like buttercream!

Sweet Blossom

A friend's husband called me up to do a surprise cake for her birthday this week.

We managed to decide on her favorite color, purple, and her favorite flower, cherry blossoms.

Turned out quite well I think. It's not as big as it looks, that top tier is made of two large cupcakes.

The branches are made of dark chocolate, and the flowers are fondant. I might just have to do an easy tutorial on making these cherry blossom branches some time in the future. They were surprisingly easy to make.

Here is a shot of the back. I think that little branch was one of the small ones that hardened up before I could throw some flowers on it. But, I usually like to continue a design on the back of the cake as well as the front. I think it finishes the whole composition off very nicely.

Funnily, as I was dropping this cake off today at the husband's office, the wife pulls up infront to take him to lunch. I think we spotted her before she did us, and we had to scoot back inside. He ended up going out and I waited in the building until they had gone, and I snuck the cake into his office. I am very, very sneaky. Hopefully he was able to pull off the surprise.

Happy Birthday Melissa!