Sesame Street/Elmo

I took a project class Saturday for tiered cakes and I was required to make a 10" and a 6" round cake both 4 inches high  to stack in the class. I don't like having that much cake around the house so when my fiance's cousin asked if we could make a cake for her daughter's birthday on Sunday I knew exactly where I was going to send that cake!

My fiance was also taking the tiered cakes class with me and we were going to work together on our cake for class, so I only thought it was fair he helped me with the decorating too. He helped and he was a good sport. He was actually very excited to work with fondant when he realized it was like play-doh and you could make whatever you want out of it.

All decorations for the top tier of the cake and to rest on top of the bottom tier.

Dots for the back of the bottom tier.

Thank goodness I just got a new cookie cutter set to make the letters! I let this harden around the outside of my 6" cake pan for a couple nights so it would be a plaque I could just slide into place.

Balloons! Made from fondant/gumpaste, threaded onto lollipop sticks and held in place with gum glue. I added a glaze that was a mix of equal parts clear vanilla extract and corn syrup to give them that latex shine.

Have to start with smooth, straight sides.

In the class itself, I doweled and stacked the cakes, piped on happy birthday, and piped on E's face with grass tip 233. I put the fondant half-moon shaped mouth down first, piped around it to create a fur texture, then added the fondant eyes and nose.

I also added the dots in class. Just piped a little dot of buttercream on the back and stuck them on. Later after I was home I placed the crayons and  goldfish. On the top tier, I did a sun and clouds with a white bead border tip 10 and stuck in the balloons.

 The plaque fit perfectly. See the little "2" peeking out?

I love the look of the glaze on the balloons!

I cut the goldfish using a cookie cutter out of yellow-orange fondant. Painted a bit of orange food coloring with clear vanilla and used a black food writer.

My fiance did most of the work on the street scene. The lampposts are threaded onto lollipops sticks and We even brushed the globes with the glaze that we used on the balloons to make them glossy.

Final Sketch

Double Baby Shower Cake and Party!

We had a double baby shower for my co-workers who are expecting just a few short weeks apart from each other. Not only did I make the cake but I co-hosted the shower so I had the rare opportunity to actually eat some of the cake that I made. Usually I just drop the cake off for delivery.

The cake is an 11x15" sheet vanilla cake with sweet buttercream. I piped pink and blue star borders and writing. The onesies are cut from fondant rolled out 1/16" thick, using the Wilton baby cutter set.

Styling for the baby shower. I used leftovers and extras that I've saved from previous baby showers for my sister. Added in some extra balloons. I found adorable "it's a boy" and "it's a girl" Hershey's kisses at Michael's.

We played games including guessing the date and time of both baby's' arrival and their weight and length. Cut ribbon to guess the size of the belly's. The clothespin game where you try not to say "baby" and if you do you get your clothespin stolen. I also brought a jar of gumballs. We were going to have a contest to see who could blow the biggest bubble before it popped. Prizes were Jelly Belly's, how appropriate. ;)

Corbin's First Birthday

My best friend's son's first birthday was a blast! With a smash cake for the birthday boy, cupcakes and a sheet cake.

The sheet cake was an 11x15" sheet, chocolate cake with strawberry jam filling, frosted with sweet frosting.
The smash cake was a 6" round, same cake, filling and frosting. The cupcakes were extra chocolate batter, no filling. The theme was dots, so I did a dot border around the cakes and sequin sprinkles on the cupcakes.

Crafts: Zachariah's Rockin' Party

If you are ever in need of custom guitar picks, I recommend this company to order from. The order shipped fast and there were 72 picks in the bag when I only ordered 60 for $32.99.

Template of the picks

Actual picks were a hit.

A few of the guitar picks were used in a jar to "Guess how many picks in the jar" as a game. I also hot glued extra strength magnets to the back of a few of them so we could play "Pin the pick on the guitar". The others were put in thank you cards for guests to keep.

Outline, freehand.

All acrylic paint, handpainted.

Pin the pick on the guitar was as blast, although the $9 magnetic spray paint was not worth it. We just used our fingers to hold the picks in place as we played. 

Crafts: Zachariah's Smash Cake Decor

The smash cake session for my nephew was beyond adorable. Here's what we did.

We used a silver plastic table cloth from Oriental Trading and hung it from a wall using masking tape, draping the cloth onto the floor to protect it from cake debris, and taping it to the floor as well. This was an awesome setup because after the smashing, all we had to do was remove the props and roll all the mess up and straight into the trash. Easy clean-up!


I found wood cut letters at walmart and used black spray paint around the edges and blue acrylic paint on the face to spell out his name and hung them from under the windowsill.

The piñata is hand cut from a cardboard box, covered with fringed tissue paper and 2 glue sticks worth of glue. The key to a sturdy piñata is to work with the shape of the box. I never cut the corner on the base where it attached to the front. Or the two side pieces on the bottom of the 1. After marking the piñata in 1 in bands all the way around, I alternated 2 strips of dark blue with 1 strip of light blue tissue paper and filled in any sparse areas. Since this was just a decorative piece and not an actually candy holding, hitting piñata, I didn't have to keep a fill hole. I did still add a loop of string in case we were to hang it somewhere.

Toss in 3 balloons of coordinating colors.

Crafts: Baby Shower Cupcakes and Cookies

 Custom made signs and cupcake picks. I made green and blue circles in Paint and added the text inside each circle. Printed off two copies of each circle onto 5x7" unlined index cards. Cut around each circle. Then glue them together so the front and back texts matched using non-toxic glue. The picks read: Little Boys? Snips and Snails & Puppy Dog Tails That's What They Are Made Of. I used ribbon from walmart to decorate the edge of the cupcake stand.

The Signs are in the same blue and green and were used on the food table. The clothesline sign was hung on the door to greet guests.

The same ribbon was used to tie shut the wrappers on the cookie pops.

Rockin' 1st Birthday: Drums and Guitar

My nephew is turning 1! I'm more than thrilled to make his two birthday cakes, a chocolate electric guitar cake and a vanilla drum cake (8" round). These cakes are covered with buttercream.

Chocolate Cake 

1 1/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup butter, room temp

1 tsp vanilla

3 eggs

2 cups cake flour, sifted

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup milk

6 oz semi sweet chocolate baking bars, melted and cooled

In mixing bowl combine sugar, butter and vanilla. Add eggs and beat for 1 minute. Add melted chocolate. Add flour, baking soda and salt. Gradually add milk. Prep guitar pan with Wilton cake release. Bake for 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees. I rotate my pan after 20 minutes to ensure even baking. Cool to room temp on wire rack then move to fridge to chill before frosting.

Buttercream Frosting
6 cups powdered sugar
4 sticks (2 cups) room temperature butter
2 tsp clear vanilla extract
2-4 tbsp heavy whipping cream
food coloring as needed

Mix together butter and sugar in stand mixer for 3 minutes on medium. Add vanilla and cream and beat for another minute.

The electric guitar pattern calls for 1 1/2 cup white (thin 1 cup with 1 tbsp light corn syrup), 1 3/4 blue, 3/4 cup light blue, and 3/4 cup black.



Follow the directions and must frost in order. For the areas that are iced smooth, it is harder to smooth them over since you don't want to take a long pass and run the colors together, smooth it as best you can, let it lightly crust over (after a few minutes) then take a non textured/colored paper towel (Viva brand) and lightly press to smooth any stray frosting. 

Vanilla Cake
1 cup butter, softened
2-1/2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1-1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
2 tsp clear vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk

Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs and yolks one at a time. Add vanilla. Alternatively beat in flour mixture and buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture until just combined. Divide batter between two 8x2" pans prepped with cake release and parchment cut to size. Baked at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. 


Buttercream Frosting
3 cups powdered sugar
2 sticks (1 cup) room temperature butter
1 tsp clear vanilla extract
2tbsp heavy whipping cream
food coloring as needed

Mix together butter and sugar in stand mixer for 3 minutes on medium. Add vanilla and cream and beat for another minute. I leveled and frosted the cakes with the buttercream then used Wilton food mist* in blue to spray the sides, while covering the top with a paper towel. *Be sure to cover your work surface with newspaper! Then used the leftover black from the guitar to add the details.

The drum was displayed on a cake stand with drumsticks sitting on the table.