September: Painted Cakes

Well, I thought I was Miss Artiste, so I got all painterly on a couple of cakes this month.  Marshmallow fondant makes a really nice canvas, so that's what I used.  The first occasion was a 60th birthday party and the second was to celebrate the marriage of a good friend at work.

Honestly, I think my roses need work, but the colors on the 60th birthday cake were very nice. 

My pearls of fondant were a little gigantic, but I was running out of time and needed something big enough to cover a lot of ground fast.  I also wished I'd had time to pipe some greenery on top.  *sigh*  When the party guests cut into the cake, they were treated to three layers of a deep chocolate devil's food cake.

I was frankly shocked at how well my calligraphy turned out.  I thought I was going to faint I was so nervous before the first stroke.  So, I just did it.

I sort of liked this color combination, too.  And halfway through the painting, my technique actually improved.  I also felt bolder with my brush strokes.  It's amazing how just a little bit of confidence can improve your work.  The two types of piped flowers were new to me--sunflowers and mums.  Since I used an all butter frosting, the piping was tricky.  And I'll tell you right now, chrysanthemums are INSANELY hard to make out of frosting.  Don't do it unless you're just a nut job like me!  :-)

Bryce's Creeper Cake

Another year, another crazy cake for the boy.  He always has the most interesting ideas.  This year, we did a "Creeper" cake.  Creepers, if you aren't a big Minecraft fan, are these creatures that hang out in the game and come around to destroy the stuff you build.  At least, that's my understanding.  I really have no clue.  I just know what Bryce tells me.

This rendering is admittedly a bit more organic than the pixelated dudes that you see in the game.  He looks like a shiny Creeper plushy or something.  I somehow managed to give my Creeper a club foot, which Louis very much wanted to eat (and did).Still, I think it does capture the essence of Creeper-ness.  And the color palette isn't too far off either.

Happy Birthday, Bryce!

Creeper on Fire!

Club Foot Creeper

Bookish Banana

This cake was a quickie, but filled with love and gratitude for my colleagues at work who did so much to get a big book shifting project complete way ahead of our scheduled deadline.  I'm so lucky to have a great bunch of people working with me!

The cake is banana and the frosting was made with two sticks of butter, 2 lbs of confectioners sugar, and half a can of full fat coconut milk.  Scrumtrulescent!

Monkey Cake

Monkey cake was a 1st birthday cake for a cute little baby girl.  I worked on it all day Saturday and delivered it this morning to her family.  Hope they enjoyed it!

The design was based on an image I found of Hello Kitty dressed up in a monkey costume.  I just left out the whiskers and the bow.  It kind of looks like a monkey, right?  A really cute anime monkey?

It was a two-layer fudge marble cake with a butter cream coating and outer coating of chocolate fondant.  The belly face, hands, and feet were vanilla marshmallow fondant.  The pink ears were strawberry fondant.

I ended up giving Monkey a teeny chocolate belly button, which is unfortunately not pictured here.  I think the belly button made the cake over-the-top cute.

Happy Birthday, little cutie!

Two October Cakes

For Michael and I, October is a month full of memories and birthdays.  We were married in a simple ceremony in late October.  My parents were married in October as well.  Our mothers were both born in October.  I love to make these wonderful ladies a special cake--a tradition I started last year and which I hope to continue for many many years to come.

First, my mother's birthday on the 10th.

(Sorry about the bad lighting.)  She requested a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and I gladly obliged with a 3 layer carrot cake.  I used Paula Deen's grandmother's cake recipe--which turned out moist and just as carrot cake should taste. I however omitted the walnuts and raisins because that's what mom wanted.  I piped giant rosettes of cream cheese frosting onto the top for a little visual interest.  Cream cheese frosted cakes with those little carrots on top bore me, and I saw these rosettes somewhere (though I can't find the site anymore).

Next came Michael's mother's cake on the 16th.  She loves dense fruity cakes and requested a blackberry walnut Bundt cake.  And of course, I obliged.

This cake was absolutely loaded--blackberry jam, walnuts, raisins, butter, buttermilk, brown sugar, and way more cinnamon and nutmeg than I would have thought prudent.  I can't say that this type of cake is my cup of tea, but it was exactly what she wanted and I like to please my birthday girls.