Cute Plaid 1st Birthday Cake

You can't go wrong with a cute plaid patterned cake and a happy green dragon.  It was gluten-free chocolate cake with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream.

Willy Wonka Cake

Every April, I look forward to designing a cake for a lovely little girl named Parker.  It all started with this 1st birthday Hot Pink cake.  Then 2nd birthday Bubble Guppies, 3rd birthday My Little Pony and 4th birthday Cinderella cake.

This year was a colorful Willy Wonka themed cake.  I had so much fun with this one - adding in some bottle caps, sweet tarts, laffy taffy and nerds to the design.

Bubble Guppies Cake

Bubble Guppies cake for a 3rd Birthday.  The cake was alternating layers of chocolate sour cream and vanilla bean with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream.

Carousel Cake... and Cookies!

I had the pleasure of designing a celebration cake for my friends' 10 month old twins.  They were visiting from out of town to celebrate their Christening.  I mentioned previously about having fun with fondant covered cookies and this design was perfect!!

 The cake was alternating layers of zesty lemon and chocolate sour cream cake with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream with that added bonus of sugar cookies.  I also displayed it on a lazy Susan so it was fun to spin it around.

Monkey Cake

It's been over a month since I last posted.  I took a bit of a cake break and slowly getting back into things.  Finally getting around to posting this fun monkey cake I made for the March Issue of Today's Parent Magazine.

Monkey's are always very popular with the little ones because they are such monkey's themselves :-)  Hope everyone is happy, healthy and enjoying the springtime!

3rd Birthday: Animal Print Cake

It is so fun to make animal print cakes - the cakes just come alive with every spot or stripe you add.  This cake was for a boy turning 3 years old.

I can't take the credit for the design as I was given a photo of a cake to replicate and I just added in my own flair to it.  The cake was 3 tiers of chocolate sour cream cake and all decorations are handmade out of sugarpaste.

2nd Birthday: Elmo Cakes

There has been a lot of 2nd birthday parties lately and the most popular request has been Sesame Street cakes!  In particular, Elmo!

This design was a 2-tier cake with Elmo popping out of the box.  The flavor was Chocolate Sour Cream with Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream.

The client sent me over one of her photos which included the cute cookie monster cupcakes that she made.  She has her own blog called Crazy4Cupcakes.

Here is vanilla butter cake Elmo sitting with his 3 chocolate cake presents.

Lastly, a smaller Elmo sitting alongside a sugarpaste figure of the birthday girl.  

2nd Birthday: Yellow Tractor Cake

This past weekend was my nephew Maseo's 2nd birthday.  Last year I made him a fun Heffalump Cake and this year it was a tractor cake.  He actually calls dump trucks, excavator and any yellow truck a tractor.

Everything is completely edible on the cake.  It was lemon butter cake with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream.

He loved the cake and really wanted to play with the tractor.  I think it was confusing for him whether it was a toy or a cake.  We let him remove the sugarpaste wheels before we cut it up...  he then pointed at it and said "Broken".

3rd Birthday Cake: Captain Hook Cake

My clients were so pleased with their son Mason's 2nd birthday cake that I made for them last year.  This year they challenged me to the most difficult sugarpaste characters I have ever made - Captain Hook and Peter Pan.

I am happy with how they turned out - but they definitely were the most difficult as they were so tall and Captain Hook was very top heavy.  You can't really tell by the picture, but Captain hook was about 9 inches tall. All made out of sugar - except for a lollipop stick in each character.

The cake served 24 people and was 4 layers of strawberry vanilla cake with strawberry buttercream.

Twins' Birthday: In the Night Garden Cake

Ever since I posted about an In the Night Garden Cake that I made, it continues to be one of my most popular blog posts. This children's show from the UK is continuing to become more popular.

I never make a cake design twice - it always has to be different.  So, when I got a request for it again - I just have to change it up a little.

This 2-tier cake was for a twin's 2nd birthday party.  The top tier was Vanilla Butter Cake and bottom tier was Chocolate Sour Cream Cake.  All characters are handmade out of sugarpaste.

1st Birthday: Baby Einstein Cake

Baby Einstein is such fun and colorful theme.  This cake was for a 1st birthday.  I get a lot of inquiries for this design which I posted back in March and September.

This cake feeds about 35 people.  The top tier was chocolate velvet with chocolate buttercream and the bottom tier was Banana Sour Cream with chocolate buttercream.

2nd Birthday: Toy Story Cake

This past weekend, I made a wonderful and fun 2nd birthday cake based off of Disney's Toy Story movies.  The client was very flexible and said I could do whatever I wanted.

I really wanted to put my sugarpaste modelling skills to the test with these characters.  I'm so happy with the result and I had so much fun doing it!  I think my favorite is Mrs. Potato Head.

1st Birthday Cake

1st birthdays are always such a special occasion - I get so much joy talking to parents about creating a special cake for that event. I love being a part of it.

This cake design is so very popular. It is based off of a previous cake that I had made. I always like to change it up a little bit as I never make the same cake twice. The topper for this cake is the childs favourite baby giraffe - so cute! And they wanted to add a lovely quote on the cake "Happy 1st trip around the sun" - isn't that beautiful?

1st Birthday Cake: Sweet Monkey Cake

Today's blog post has a monkey theme to it. Firstly, a monkey birthday cake for a little girl who turned 1. I also added a cute little red bow just in front of the ear after I took this picture.

This cake was many layers of zesty lemon cake with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream covered in chocolate fondant (the stuff that tastes like tootsie roll)

And what is yummier than Banana Sour Cream cupcakes with chocolate buttercream? Actually maybe cream cheese icing on it....

These monkey cupcakes were chocolate sour cream cupcakes with vanilla buttercream with a design that I picked up from the Frosted Caken Cookie

I also made these with a more 2D-ish monkey face too. These were banana cupcakes with cream cheese icing.

Dinosaur Cake

I made this cake this past weekend for a little boy turning 2 who loves dinosaurs of all kinds. I love this color for the dino. I planned to add more decorations to it like dots or scales.... but I didn't want it to look too much like a dragon. Then I just fell in love with the plain red dino with the happy dino face.

Here's what his mom wrote me that evening "Big success...rhys loved it...once we cut the tail (boo hoo)...he hugged him and kissed him. We have pics!!!! Thanks a ton!"

I am excited to see their pictures. And here is a picture of the cake pre-fondant. The cake is Chocolate Sour Cream with Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream.

Cutest 1st Birthday Cake

Some of the stuffed animals these days are so cute! I made this cake as a replica of the little boys favorite stuffed animal, Buster. The character is actually named "Winnie the Horse". I think this is one of my most favorite cakes!

It was a lot more difficult to carve out this cake, but the mother sent me picture of the stuffed animal from all different angles so that really helped (see below). The main body was 4 layers of vanilla butter cake and each of the feet were 2 layers of vanilla butter cake.

I wonder if I could re-create my favorite childhood stuffed toy. Mine was a baby boy with a plastic head and pink stuffed body with small white polka dots. I carried it around all the time and I named it "Oh Boy" for some strange reason... What was your favorite childhood stuffed toy?

First Communion Cakes

One of the best parts of designing and making cakes is that you are part of the planning process for such special occasions. I love talking to my clients and seeing the excitement they have to create the most special, personlized and perfect event. Today I wanted to share a selection of cakes and cupcakes that I have done for First Communion celebrations.

The above cake is a 3-tier cake with sugarpaste rosary, cross and the little boy celebrating his first communion - the cakes were chocolate and vanilla. Below we have a bible shaped chocolate sour cream cake. And also chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with fondant doves.

Max & Ruby Cake

Last weekend, I made this fun Max & Ruby cake for a little girl who was turning 2. The cake was 4 layers of chocolate velvet cake with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream decorated with handmade sugarpaste decorations.

A couple weeks before the party, the mother called to order a second "plain" cake as there would be actually be 2 parties. She would just move over the sugarpaste decorations to the plain cake on party #2.

It was not a problem to do a plain cake.... however, I discovered that I actually cannot make a plain cake. I still had to dress it up with some decorations - this must be some sort of illness... I can't let a cake out of my studio without any decorations. :-) Have a look at my "plain" cake posted below.

btw - I should also mention that my inspiration for this cake came from a wonderful blog called the Frosted Cake n' Cookie.



Cake Decorators Tip: Sometimes it is hard to sculpt something that is a cartoon character and make sure they have a likeness and are cute. For Max and Ruby, I found a picture of cute 3D stuffed animal picture of them to use as my guide.