'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!!

Poppy Seed Cake with Fresh Berries

This was my son's request: poppy seed cake, whipped cream, strawberries, blueberries, kiwis, black berries.....  He is always so specific when it comes to his cakes!  So, we did an almond poppy seed fruit 'pizza' cake.  It was so delicious!  The whipped topping was a mix of freshly made whipped cream, and lemon cream cheese frosting.  Add the fresh fruit and it's done.

Close up of all that yumminess!  It was one of our all time favorite flavors of cake!  Happy birthday Ronny boy!  We love you tons!!!

"Blaze and the Monster Machines" Girl Version

The original idea for this cake was simple!  Take my other "Blaze" cake and make it in girl colors with the two little people characters instead of the painted trucks.  But as you can see, plans had to be changed!  This happens a lot to me!

 See this cute girl?  Ya, well Gabby was supposed to be a tiny little girl that would sit next to a big monster truck.  She ended up MUCH larger than I meant to do!

 So I ended up making a BIG monster truck coming out of a gift box instead!  I gotta work on proportions apparently.  But it was fun doing something different and I loved making the bow and ribbon for the gift box.  Plus, this is much more girly!

 Folds of the wrapping paper.  Cake was completely covered in modeling chocolate.

 Blaze's cool giant tires busting out of the cake.  Made of fruity pebble treats and covered in modeling chocolate.

 Gabby's cute little self.  Made of gum paste

 AJ rocking the thumbs up!  Made of gum paste with a wooden skewer as his skeleton. 

I REALLY loved making the front messy with the torn 'paper' and cake crumbs!  And I really really love making new designs and not repeating cake ideas.  So it all worked out in the end!  Oh, and it was yummy gluten free vanilla pound cake with creamy vanilla butter cream frosting!

Happy Birthday, Whitney!!!

Pina Colada Birthday Cake

As I told my kids, no fancy, shmancy cakes this year!  Just yummy flavors!  This cake had vanilla cake, coconut filling (like the kind for German chocolate cake but no nuts), fresh chopped pineapple filling and coconut cream butter cream frosting.  The kids at her party thought it tasted like Cap'n Crunch cereal, but the next day the flavors were more pronounced and had a great pina colada flavor!

Happy Birthday, Rachel!!!  We love you to the moon and back!!

Strawberry Lemon/Lime Cake

Lemon lime cake with strawberry cream cheese frosting and lemon cream cheese filling with fresh strawberries.  My baby girl never got her actual birthday cake, so better late than never!!  Happy birthday Livvy girl!  We love you tons and tons!

Cherry Chocolate Celebration cake

My dad just retired after working his tail off for 25 years!  He loves cherry chocolates so I did a chocolate cake with cherry cream cheese frosting and a hot fudge drizzle.  Super yummy!!

Gold and White Chalkboard Wedding Cake

I got to make a giant 5 tiered cake!  And I had to drive it 3 hours to it's destination!!  The most tense 3 hours of my cake life!  I loved making this cake, though!!  It was a special cake to me because it was for a very close family friend.  She's basically a sister to me, and my kids call her their aunt, so it was a treat to make her cake for her!  It was fun taking the bride's ideas and mixing them all together to create something special just for her!

 It was fun getting pictures of the cake at it's venue, even though the lighting was a little hard to get good pictures.  

 Little Batman logo for the groom!

 The gorgeous bouquet that I based the flowers off of for the top of the cake.

 Wedding day!!  Pi day!

 The adorable proposal at campfire.  The airplane representing the time they spent apart while the groom was out of state.

 The first date at Jamba Juice.  Sharing a smoothie as they fell in love!

 They met on the dating site Tinder and this is the little logo for that site!

The lights were down and the evening was coming to an end but this image captured the fun sparkles in the cake!  This was probably the absolute best wedding I've been to!  I love you Nicole!!!!  Thank you Nicole and Grant for letting me be a part of your special day!  

Peanut Butter Cupcakes

These cupcakes were to die for!!  The peanut butter frosting was so smooth and silky!  Ahhh, it's a good thing we didn't have many left over cause I could have eaten them all!!!

Cherry Limeade 'Mystery' Birthday Cake

I told my kids, "NO INTRICATE CAKES THIS YEAR!!!"  My goal instead is yummy flavors that look pretty.  Thus this cake.  We decided on vanilla cake, cherry cream cheese frosting and key lime curd filling.  Um, and I just say it was SOOOOO yummy and light and refreshing!  I'll be making this again!

 And of course we had to throw a little fun into it.  My kids friends now expect something fabulous at the birthday parties and they couldn't understand why this cake was so cool.  My daughter had been pumping the cake up all week long.  We had this surprise inside.  Not the best pictures cause I tipped the cake over while cutting it.  But the reaction from the kids was priceless!  SKITTLES!!!  Too much fun!

Happy birthday Ali girl!  We love you oodles and oodles, or should I say, Skittles and skittles!!!

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!

Girly Baptism Cake

I've gotten very behind in my cake posts!  I'll be quick with these next few cakes.  This is a cake I made for my adorable niece's baptism.  I tried to make the rosettes and 'skirt' look like her cute dress.  She looked like a little angel that day, and we were so blessed to be there with her on her special day!

 Bree loves blue more than pink, so I had to add a touch of blue to her cake.  Along with all the other girly stuff!

 My sweet and talented friend Brandi took these pictures for me again.  She's seriously the best!  Please go check out her site and all her other mad skills!

The best part of this cake?  It was rootbeer float favored!  It was a challenge coming up with the perfect recipe for that flavor, but I think we nailed it!  Congratulations, BreeAnna!  We love you very much!!!

Happy Birthday Monster Cake

This cake was super fun to make for my little birthday boy!  His request was simple. Do exactly what he wants and don't try to change the colors or monsters or amount of eyes and no tail or pointy teeth!  He's not picky at all, except when it comes to his birthday cake.  And he's only 6!!!  I looked online for some little monster clip art pictures and let him choose 2 he wanted.  He picked these 2 adorable little monsters and he made sure I drew a picture of what he wanted exactly!

 I wanted to do two pointy teeth on the green monster, but he said it would look evil if we did that...

 I wanted to give the blue monster a tail, but he said 'no way!'...

 I wanted to do yellow spots on the blue monster, he said they had to be light blue...

I wanted to do 3 eyes on the green monster, he said it had to be ONE!  See, my little guy's not picky at all!!  RIGHT!  It was really a joy making this cake exactly as he wanted it.  And he couldn't have been happier with it!!!  Happy birthday Ronny boy!  

We love you oodles and oodles!