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!

Indiana Jones meets The Avengers; Birthday Cake Form!

So, for some reason the cakes I make for my kids are always my favorites.  Maybe it's because I try to make it so personal for them, or because they get to be involved in the process.  Whatever the reason, it's such a joy making their cakes.  This cake was for my boy who turned nine.  His request?  Indiana Jones and the Avengers......ummmmm.  WHAT?!  My brain almost exploded with all the ideas that instantly ran through my mind.  I love both themes, Indiana Jones is probably a little more dear to my heart, so I was excited to make this happen.

And I have to thank Brandi again for taking the incredible pictures!!!  She's always so great to squeeze me in to her hectic schedule!  She's really so talented with a camera you've got to go check out her skills with people! :)  http://www.teuscherphotography.com/

 ANYONE who's seen Indiana Jones knows exactly what this is!  The original treasure on this pedestal was a little gold fertility idol.  So, switch that out with the tesseract!  Add some carvings that are based on the Avenger's symbols, and BANG, there you go!

 Thor's hammer artwork and Black Widow's symbol with some swirls in it for the top row of carvings.

The second level of carvings are the radioactive symbol for Hulk and Captain America's shield.

The third level of carvings are Iron Man's arc reactor and Hawkeye's bow and arrow.  Plus, check out Indiana Jones sweet whip.  That was a last second idea that was much needed!  Braided gum paste isn't the easiest thing to work with....dries too fast!

 Tesseract all lit up by not using the studio lights.....

 .....and with the studio lights.

 Making that boiled sugar cube was SOOOO much harder than I thought it would be.  But I'm so glad it turned out and I was glad I spent the time doing it!

The hat was super fun.  What's more iconic for Indiana Jones than his hat?!  Totally edible; the whole cake and all the decorations!

It was heartbreaking to cut into this cake, as it always is for me, but it had to be done.  The party was a hit and my son was a happy birthday boy!  Happy Birthday JR!  You're so much fun, and such a joy to our family!  Keep that imagination flying and you'll reach the stars!

"Frozen" Ice Castle Cake

I didn't get the best pictures of this cake, and it really didn't turn out quite like I wanted, but it was fun for my daughter who is OBSESSED with Disney's 'Frozen!'  I didn't want to do another castle cake like all the other castle cakes out there, so I struggled and struggled for several days before I knew what I was going to do for this cake.  That was my biggest problem.  Finding a real vision of what I wanted to do.  Yet again it was my husband who helped me decide.  He said, "Why don't you just carve a castle out of the cake you made?"  That got me thinking about the smooth lines of Elsa's Ice Castle, and the possibility of using boiled sugar like in a couple of past cakes.

 I tried one version of the ice castle by pouring the sugar over a castle shape I spent HOURS making, and it was an EPIC FAIL!!!  I crushed that sugar castle in the garbage after spending way too much time on it!  My poor little girl thought her dreams of a ice castle were gone.  Then I thought of this site I saw a while ago when researching for the Hunger Games cake.  So I spent about 3 hours cutting the hardened sugar to get the shape I was looking for.

 Once I had the castle finally planned out, I tried to tackle the idea for the back of the cake.  Sheesh, the job is never done!!!  So, frosting and a touch of fondant finished out the mountain for Elsa's castle.

Not my most pleasing cake, and I was glad to have it finally done, but it make my little customer happy!  We celebrated around my birthday too, so the flavor was my choice!  Carrot spice cake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting.  Super yummy and finally done!  Perfect.  Happy Birthday Livvy Lou.  We love you more every day!!!

Under the Sea Little Mermaid Birthday Cake

Okay, I know, I know, there is no Little Mermaid on this cake, but there was one eventually.  My adorable little 4 year old customer had a cute little toy Ariel that we put on the top of her cake, but I didn't have it when we took the pictures.  It was still fun to capture all the colors and details of this super fun cake!!  And yes, Brandi Teuscher took these awesomely vibrant pictures!

 How fun is that pink, sugar coral?!  I used the technique I've seen Buddy do on Cake Boss where he pours the boiled sugar over ice.  HOW FUN!!!  It's so neat to do new things with my cakes!

The little starfish were just made with flower cutters then I used a small round decorating tip to make the texture.  Then I brushed on pink petal dust to give it even more texture. 

 I struggled with these bubbles.  I didn't want them to look cheesy, so I tried to make them kind of curvy and I added pearl dust to them to make them shiny.  I was pretty happy with how they turned out.

 I had to look at one of my kids little seashells so make sure I got this right.  Marbled fondant and different little Wilton tools created this fun little shell.

I really did love how colorful this cake turned out and it was such a happy cake.  What a lucky little girl to have such loving parents to get her her very own Under the Sea magical cake for her birthday!  I hope it made her day super special!!!  Happy Birthday, Summer!!

Hunger Games: Katniss Everdeen's Mockingjay Wedding Dress Cake

There may or may not be a lot of photos of this cake because it was INSANELY COOL......I'm just going to put that out there.  When my daughter suggested doing a Hunger Games birthday party I was pretty hesitant.  I mean, she's only 12 and Hunger Games is a pretty intense theme.  "But," she said, "you can do a really simple cake.  Like the reaping bowl or something."  Famous last words.....

I've gotten into this horrible habit of looking at ideas for cakes and thinking, "make it cooler."  It's kind of my motto for cake making.  But sometimes it gets me into trouble.  Like this cake for instance.  I could have made things really easy for myself, but I just couldn't quit thinking of ideas to make it super cool.  Plus, my sweet daughter kept telling me she was tired of people always thinking her sister's cake was so cool.  (You can see that one here.)

So this is what happened!  We love Hunger Games, and we love Katniss, and we LOVED the idea of making her dress as a cake.  I spent so many nights struggling to get to sleep because I just couldn't quit thinking of what to do for this cake.

These gum paste feathers were made shiny by painting them with vanilla and brown food gel mixed together.  It gave them so much dimension. 

The white feathers and lacy detail were done with gum paste as well.

My favorite part of this cake?  My daughter and her adorable friend actually helped me with the flames.  She's always asking if she can help with my cakes and I NEVER say yes, but I wanted her to be involved with her cake.  I boiled the sugar and poured it onto tin foil then she and her friend shaped the flames then painted the flames with red food coloring to give them this super cool effect!  I LOVE THEM!

No fondant on this cake because my girl hates fondant.  Just yummy butter cream frosting and then the sugar details on this bad boy!

Oh, and did I mention that it IS LIT UP FROM INSIDE?!  It was such a pain getting those tiny little battery operated tea lights into the cake, but it was so worth it in the end!

You can't see in these amazing pictures, but the lights actually flickered like a real flame.

See, aren't those flames so cool?!  Way to go my brilliant daughter!

Aren't these photos INCREDIBLE?!?!  My friend Brandi took them for me again, she's becoming a staple for my photos!  Her site is here if you want to see her other work.  You can also check out her stuff on Facebook here.  She's so incredibly talented!!!

I know I say I love making all my cakes, but his one was super fun for me.  And I couldn't have been happier with the results.  It was also very very fun trying out the boiled sugar trick.  I'll be doing more stuff with that in the future!  I love you, Ali girl!  Happy 12th birthday, we love you so much!