Girls' Superhero Cake

My daughter loves her superheros and has been talking about her birthday cake for the longest time.  She told me exactly what she wanted: A super tall cake (she wanted a 3-tier), superhero girls on the top and villains on the bottom.

 I wonder what she will design for her cake next year!

Cinderella Cake

For this lovely little girl, the past few years' cakes were: My Little Pony, Bubble Guppies and Hot Pink.  This year was Cinderella and I had so much fun making this lovely carriage.

There is something so magical about pink and gold!  This cake was layers of vanilla bean cake with strawberry buttercream.

4th Birthday Cake: Superhero Cake

There is a wonderful non-profit organization called Icing Smiles which provide custom cakes to families affected by critical illness.  Their goal is to create a custom cake for the ill child, or their sibling, that provides a temporary escape from worry and creates a positive memory during a difficult time.  Volunteer "Sugar Angels" are matched up with the families across the country to deliver a "Smile" in the form of a custom cake.

I was honoured to be a sugar angel for Frankie, currently battling Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), who turned 4.   He is a true little superhero!

Please help if you can:  The US Icing Smiles has been around for over 4 years and has delivered over 5000+ custom cakes.  In Canada, they have been around for over 1 year and unfortunately are in danger of losing their charity status.  We have 1 more week to raise enough funds to keep this going - please help if you can - every little bit helps.

4th Birthday Cake: Thomas & Friends Cake

Actually, Thomas the Train is not on this cake... we have Diesel 10, Gordon, James and Henry which is the little boys favorites - all handmade out of sugarpaste.  The top tier of the cake was chocolate sour cream cake and the bottom tier was vanilla butter cake.

I have been lucky enough to design Reed's cakes for many years.  On his 1st birthday, it was his favorite stuffed animal.  On his 2nd birthday, it was and Elmo cake - see 2nd design . On his 3rd birthday, I actually wasn't available as it was too close to my baby due date and I wasn't taking any cake orders.  I wonder what he will be interested in when he turns 5! 

4th Birthday Cake: Stegosaurus Cake

Every year, I look forward to celebrating my wonderful nephew's birthday.  I adore creating a cake for him and watching his reaction when he sees the cake.  On his 1st birthday, I made a Heffalump cake, his 2nd birthday was a Tractor and last year it was a Crane.

This year, Maseo is crazy about Dinosaurs, especially the Stegosaurus.

 

The cake was his favorite: strawberry vanilla cake.  And he just loved picking out each of the sugarpaste plates before we served the cake.  I'm excited to see what he is interested in next year so I can make it come to life in cake!

4th Birthday: Princess Castle Cake

This past weekend, I created this wonderful princess castle cake for a 4th birthday.  Last year, the birthday girl was into all things Egypt and I made her a Sphinx Cake.  This year, her parents surprised her with a princess themed cake and a surprise trip to Disney!

The top and middle tier were chocolate sour cream cake with chocolate swiss meringue buttercream.  The bottom tier was vanilla butter cake with vanilla swiss merinuge buttercream.  I covered the castle with edible gold dust, added in some edible glitter on the rice krispie turrets and Cinderella was handmade out of sugarpaste.

Star Wars: Yoda Cake

"Do or do not.... there is no try" ~ Yoda.

And here is Yoda - 9 layers of Vanilla Butter Cake!

I really had a lot of fun (and stress) making the Yoda cake for a little boy who turned 4. Yoda was quite challenging, as he is a pretty thin character and he's got a big head. I also wanted to make him all out of cake, so I didn't want to use Styrofoam or Rice Krispies.

I worked hours and hours on him into the wee hours of the morning. At 2am, was still a bit shakey so I thought I'd let him "settle" overnight.

In the morning, I made a little tweak to his cane, turned around to do some dishes and "Thump"! He fell over on the table and cracked in half....

His head survived, but the body did not. I had less than 2 hours to make buttercream, dye more fondant, carve out his body and decorate him again.... I never worked so fast but the result was great - he was a little fatter than I planned - but now he was not going to fall again. Here's a view from the top!

Cake Decorator's Tip: Don't try to push the limits on gravity, gravity always wins! :-) And always make extra cake for sculpted cakes. I lucked out on this one as I had lots of vanilla cake on hand which was for my next cake.