1st Birthday Cupcake Tower: 3 Little Monkeys

Monkey's are always a popular theme for first birthday cakes and cupcakes.  Now that I have a little one, I can see why - they love to monkey around!

This cupcake tower was to celebrate a 1st birthday for a little boy and his two grandpa's.  The little boy loves monkeys, so why not have 3 little monkeys on the cake to celebrate all 3 birthdays!  :-) 

4-tier Wedding Cake with Sugarpaste Orchids

Oh, how I love orchids!  When I create them out of sugarpaste, I love the process of creating each petal over the course of the week, dusting them with petal dust, putting them together and then finally placing them on the cake.

Ever since I made this bridal shower cake, I couldn't wait to make this wedding cake.  I loved how it all came together when I set it up at the wedding venue, The Church at Berkeley.

The flavors were chocolate sour cream cake with chocolate swiss meringue buttercream (bride's favorite) and zesty lemon butter cake with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream (groom's favorite).

The very next morning, I received this email from the bride, "Thank you sooo much. You truly outdid yourself this time! That cake was STUNNING!! People couldn't stop talking about it! The orchids?!! Oooh la la!!!! A-ma-z-ing!"  That sure made my day... actually, it made my week!  I love what I do!

8th Birthday Cake: Purse & Puppy Cake

A couple years ago, I had the pleasure to create a cute cake for a girl who loves dogs - she was turning 6 at the time.  Last year, she turned 7 and I made her a cute puppy cake.  This year for her 8th birthday, I made her little chihuahua, Coco, in a Chanel purse!

The cake is alternating layers of strawberry and chocolate cake.  Even the little dog is made out of cake.

1st Birthday: Bear Cake Photo Tutorial

Happy Friday everyone!  As promised from my Tuesday blog post, this is the follow-up of the Classic Pooh Bear cake.  I remembered to take some photos along the way with my iPhone.

Step 1:  The Cake:  The cake was 4 layers of 6" round chocolate sour cream and vanilla bean cake.  I placed these on a cardboard cakeboard in the shape of the bottom and legs, so I can transfer it onto the bottom fondant covered cake tier.

Step 2:  Carve while looking at your inspiration.   Usually I have photos on the wall showing all angles of my inspiration, but this one was a little easier with the bear.

Step 3:  Use leftover large cake pieces to fill in the head.  I actually had 2 nice pieces from the mid-body that I was able to use.

Step 4:  Ice with thin layer of buttercream.  I used a thin coat of chocolate swiss meringue buttercream and put in the fridge for about an hour.  Not the exact shade of bear, but tasty!

Step 5: Add thicker coat of buttercream.  Then I added in a thicker layer all around and just used the palette knife to make it look like fur.  I also made sugarpaste ears which I then iced with buttercream.  I used a a lighter shade of buttercream (less cocoa) for the feet and ears.  The eyes, nose, paws and ear details were made out of fondant.

Once it was done, I transferred it onto fondant covered bottom tier

Classic Pooh 1st Birthday Sweet Table

Last week, my daughter Sidney turned 1!  Ever since I did this wonderful Classic Pooh cake, I knew that the theme for her party would be Classic Pooh.  We read lots of the Pooh books and every morning she gives her Pooh doll, Bear, a big hug.

We had a wonderful family BBQ with fabulous weather, a visit to the park and enjoyed the sweet table.

The sweet table included: Lemon sandwich cookies with strawberry cream, homemade fudge with sea salt, triple chocolate brownies, chocolate covered pretzel pieces (those were for me), chocolate dipped rice krispie, cherries, watermelon and a 3D Classic Pooh cake which was chocolate & vanilla.

I will post more photos on Friday of the Bear cake, as I remembered to take step-by-step photos!  See you then!

1st Birthday Cupcake Tower

Another 1st birthday cupcake tower for the blog this week.  The color theme was purple and green for the party and I could create whatever design I wanted.  I came up with this sash-like design for the cupcake tower and the rest of the cupcake tower fell into place.

A view from the top of the tower.  See you Tuesday for some more 1st birthday Sweet Things, I'll be posting photos of my daughter's 1st birthday sweet table.

1st Birthday: Monkey Cake n' Cupcakes

1st birthday parties are such wonderful celebrations.  Here is a fun cupcake tower I made for little Hudson.  His mom said that he is quite a little monkey!

I was so happy how the cake topper turned out - not too busy but with enough bright colors.