Dora the Explorer Birthday Cake

I LOVED all the bright colors on this cake!  Bright colors always make the best pictures!  Dora the Explorer was the request and I had to take a sophisticated turn for this cake.  The stripes were probably my favorite, or the flowers, or the balloons.....

 Gum paste little characters that took a super long time, but turned out so adorable.  (That MONKEY!!!  I had to repair him 4 times!!!  The gum paste was too thin.)

 Small styrofoam balls attached to wires covered in gum paste.  I really wanted them too look like there were floating away, but I couldn't figure out how to do it without the strings breaking.  Oh well, the bow ties them together instead!

 Modeling chocolate stripes placed on a slab of modeling chocolate before placing on the cake.  It also took a good amount of time but it was extremely worth it.

Happy birthday, Emma!!  I hope your day was full of adventures!

Birthday Cupcakes

Red velvet cupcakes to celebrate a special 18th birthday.  Not only her birthday, but the state championship competition for her high school drill team.  (I'm partial because it's my family's high school too!)

 Decorations done with gum paste.

Happy birthday, Kaitlin, and go CVHS!!

'Psych' TV Show Murder Mystery Birthday Cake

Last year I told my kids....."NO big fancy cakes!!"  This year, I said, "Let's do big elaborate cakes so I can stretch my creativity!"  Well, this is what evolved.  After YEARS of my girls trying to convince me that I would like the TV show 'Psych' I finally caved and gave it a try.  And well, I've laughed so hard every single episode!!!  Gus pretending he's Michael Jackson, oh my gosh!  I had tears in my eyes I was laughing so hard!  That show makes me feel young and I love it!

 But, on to the cake and what we were going for.  We had just watched a Yin and Yang episode and the creative juices were just flowing!  Cream pie, the number pi, pineapple, fedora hat, gun in the gears.....ya, we put it all in there.  Plus 6 hidden yin/yang symbols.

 2 of the hidden symbols are right here.  And yes, I LOVE making gears.  So sorry!  It's a weakness!

 Symbol in the cream pie.  It was a pain getting the gum paste to look like cream, but it finally came through.  With a touch of cocoa powder to make it look toasted!  HAHA, fooled the kids.  They all fought over who got the pie but it didn't taste nearly as good as it looked!  Gum paste is just too chewy.

 'P.S. oh and bring your physic along.'  My birthday girl wrote the letters on these squares. She did a terrific job! (Another symbol)

 You can't see it in this picture, but there was a hidden symbol on the side of the pineapple also.  And my 5 year old insisted that I make this look dirty with cocoa powder.  She's such a stickler for details!

 The last hidden symbol here on the hat.  

 The number pi wrapped around the cake, which was covered in black modeling chocolate.  No fondant for this child!

Now, if you think this cake was involved, that's NOTHING compared to the party!  Thanks to two VERY loved aunts, this party was a HUGE hit for a bunch of teenagers!  Happy birthday Ali girl!  We love you tons and tons!!

Most Stupendous 'Fancy Nancy' Birthday Cake!

There may or may not be a lot of pictures of this cake!  I had so much fun making this very girly cake!  And since it was Fancy Nancy themed, of course it had to be over-the-top adorable!!  Add a tea party element, and it's a hit!

 Strawberry flavored cake with butter cream frosting and gum paste accents.  A few donuts were made with modeling chocolate.

 Tea cups and plates made of gum paste.

 The bottom's of the cups were so adorable!

 'Fancy Nancy' wouldn't be complete without her extravagant words!

 All the tags were hand cut and painted.  The bow and ribbons were gum paste.

 All right, I have a confession to make.  I didn't have a ton of time for this cake, and I really wanted it to be special, so I succumbed to the dark side!  I used my daughter's play dough molds, eek!  Don't worry, they were thoroughly washed and dried.  But wow, did they make all these little pastries perfect for the cake!

Yes, lots of pictures, but I just loved this cake!  From the theme, to the flavor, to the colors it was a fun cake all around!  And oh so fabulously 'Fancy Nancy!' 

Adorable Minnie Mouse 'Christmas' Birthday Cake

Every once in a while I'll have a cake that just clicks in my mind.  So clearly that creating the decorations is a pure joy!  This would be one such cake.  This was made for an adorable little girl who just loves anything Minnie Mouse.  And I've been itching to make a Christmas cake for so long that it took very little effort to come up with the ideas for this cake!

 I drew my inspiration from a few different Christmas cards I found online.  That little 'ribbon' tree especially.  The lace and ribbons were card inspired as well.

 Minnie's got her little gifts all around her.  I cut squares out of modeling chocolate since it's nice and hard, then I 'wrapped' the presents in gum paste.  They turned out so fun!

 Little ribbon tree and candy canes all made out of gum paste.

 Hi, Minnie Mouse!!  You're looking quite festive!

 I think this is one of my all time favorite cakes.  Clean and smooth and simple.  And CHRISTMAS mixed with DISNEY!!!!  Can't go wrong there!

Happy Birthday, Reese, you adorable little girl!  I'm so glad I got to make your birthday cake!

Winter Wonderland Cupcakes

These cupcakes were so fun and yummy!  Vanilla bean cupcakes with raspberry compote filling and vanilla bean frosting!  One of my personal favorite mixes.  Made for a surprise 16th birthday party for a very sweet girl and friend of my daughter!

 The party had a hot chocolate 'bar' with all sorts of mix in's so the little hot chocolate mugs were a perfect touch to add to the snow flakes and snow ball cake toppers.

 You can't really see it, but the little snowballs were sparkled with regular white sugar.

 Snow flakes with edible silver accents.

 Gum paste mugs filled with ganache and topped with tiny little gum paste marshmallows.  They even kind of melted in the warm ganache just like they do in cocoa!

I really enjoyed making these little winter wonderland cupcakes!  Happy Birthday, June!!!  We hope it was as fabulous as you are!!!!

Disney Haunted Mansion Birthday Cake

When I first got this cake order I think I squealed in excitement!  I am kind of weird and I really like Halloween cakes.  I don't really get to do them, though.  I've done the zombie cake but it wasn't for Halloween, and I did my son's Steampunk Pumpkin cake but not much else.  Not many people have Halloween themed birthday parties.  Now, that being said, I don't like creepy, gross, bloody Halloween stuff, the zombie nearly killed me!  I like stuff like this.....  Clean, crisp, tidy Haunted Mansion cake!

 My teenage daughters have a special love of this Disneyland attraction ride, so they gave me some great pointers as I worked on this cake.  I knew I didn't want it to look like any other Haunted Mansion cake out there so I spent WAY too many hours stewing over what I was going to do to make this cake special and unique!

 I happened to come across a picture of the fortune telling crystal ball and candles.  I knew I'd hit my inspiration!

 I kind of had a different direction I was going to go with this black drapery, but once I had the wall paper framed in, I knew this had to be done!

 Hand painted 'wall paper' based on the wall paper in the ride.  I rolled out the gum paste and let it dry on a 9" round styrofoam.  Once it was dry I drew on the design with an edible marker.  Took some time, but it turned out pretty fun!

 I'm working on my photography skills to get good shots of my cakes.  I'm not perfect yet, but we'll get there.  

 I'm so bummed I didn't get a good shot with the lighting behind the candles!  They really light up!

 Madame Leota is made with gum paste then painted with edible markers, luster dust and cocoa butter.  It's the same process I used for the Elsa Frozen cake.

All in all I LOVED making this cake!  It's always fun to see my thoughts come to life in a cake!  Happy birthday Anya, and thank you for the opportunity to make such a fun cake!