Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Flowery Hello Kitty Cake



Fondant flowers are one of my very favorite things to make. I made them in various shades of purple, pink, and some yellow ones. I used white pearl and silver dragees of different sizes for the centers of the flowers. 


I also made up some larger flowers with a bunch of different colors and sizes. 


I used a vanilla confetti cake recipe to make 2 - 10 in rounds. 


And used royal icing to make a little Hello Kitty to put on the top of the cake.


I used a soft fluffy, pink buttercream to cover the cake. Added white fondant pearls to the bottom of the cake and added all of my flowers onto the sides and top of the cake.


I added the "Happy Birthday" message and the Hello Kitty image to the top. I also added a little fondant flower to the image to help it pop. 


It turned out really well and was very girly and fun! Sweet little Sophia loved it and had a wonderful 2nd birthday!!!



Purple Penguin Cake

I had a request for a penguin cake...and well, not being very good at carving cakes, I had to find a simple way to achieve that. This idea was simple but ADORABLE! 
Two small 6in round cakes. I cut the top off the bottom cake, but did not cut the top off the second cake. I was so lucky that the cake on top actually raised into a perfect little dome (otherwise I would've had to carve it out a little bit). 
Since the customer's favorite color was purple, we decided to go with a purple penguin. 


I made a tiny little pink bow for the top of her head (to add to the adorable factor, lol!) 


Little button eyes, thin purple fondant for wings, and yellow fondant feet and beak.....ADORABLE!!! HAHA! :)  


Probably one of my very favorite cakes! It's so super adorable and just got cuter the longer you looked at it. I loved it!!!


Seahawks Football Cake and Cupcakes

While football season may be a few months away, true fans celebrate with their team year round! And so is the case with this weeks cake. It was made for a 80 year old Seahawks super fan! He was having a large party with all of his kids, grandkids, and great grandchildren so we did a small cake and a bunch of cupcakes for everyone. We chose to do vanilla cupcakes with fresh raspberry filling and vanilla buttercream. 
For decorations I chose to make some chocolate football toppers (as always, I found the mold for these online at amazon). I used white chocolate for the laces and then milk chocolate for the footballs. They were adorable!


I also made some stars in Seahawk colors to be toppers as well, for those who did not want chocolate. 


I made up 100 vanilla cupcakes for the party, and also used dark blue and lime green cupcake papers to match the Seahawk team colors. 


I used an apple corer to cut out the center of the cupcakes. I cut off the inside but kept the top so that I could put it back on when they were filled. 


I made some amazing raspberry filling with some fresh raspberries (it was delicious!), then filled up all the cupcakes. 


I placed the tops back on so that the raspberry filling wouldn't spill out all over the place.


And then topped them with a light, fluffy vanilla buttercream.


This is what they looked like in the middle. They were one of my very favorite flavors to date! Absolutely amazing!


After they were all filled and frosted, I added all of the chocolate toppers and stars to the cupcakes. 


All stacked up and ready to go! :) I also made a small cake to cut. It was a small 6 in cake with blue and green stripes. I used a lot of the stars and footballs to make a little starburst topper to add to the top of the cake as well.


Once I got there and I was able to put it all together I was so pleased with the final product. The football and star topper looked wonderful and festive for the big surprise birthday party!


We made a large display for cupcakes as well. 


Everything looked amazing when it was all set up. I am actually really happy/surprised that I was able to match the Seahawks colors so closely (Americolor, if you are in need). I had such a fun time working on this project!
Go Seahawks!!!


Rocking 40th Birthday Cake

Hello Everyone! 
Hope you're all ready for a fun, new twist on the "40th" birthday cake. No "Over the Hill" cakes here.....we celebrate the awesomeness that is 40! They wanted a German Chocolate Cake with a "Rocking 40" theme, with a lot of guitars. 
The biggest challenge I encountered with this cake project was the guitars. Molding them out of fondant was an option, but seemed rather tedious and time consuming. I found a really inexpensive chocolate mold on amazon that made that whole process a lot easier. I used different shades of blue candy melts in the chocolate mold and loved the results. I also used some Candy Melt Markers to draw on all the details. 
I also make some matching fondant stars in various sizes to help decorate the rest of the cake. 


I attached some of the star (and guitars) to floral wire so I could make a starburst topper for the little cake. 
***Sorry for the fuzz pic, I had shortening on the lens and didn't notice until after I delivered the cake. 


The German Chocolate cake came out wonderfully for the first attempt. I made two 8 inch cakes and let them cool while I worked on the frosting.


After the cakes cooled; I filled them with a caramel, coconut, pecan filling and stacked them. I covered it with a thin coat of chocolate buttercream. I was going to cover the cake in ganache so I did not want to make it too thick or overly sweet.


I mixed my ganache up (2:1 chocolate to cream), let it cool slightly because I still wanted to be able to pour it. And then started layering my ganache.

Layer One went on a little thinner than I expected but I wasn't too worried since I had more layers. This is the first time I had ever poured ganache over an entire cake, I normally just use it as a filling. I wish that I had taken the time on layer one to pop any bubbles and fix all the little imperfections that were starting to appear. Lesson learned I guess.


Layer Two of ganache went on a lot smoother and thicker. That little flaw on the top drove me crazy! That is why you should probably fix it on layer one. I tried to fix it at this point, because it became extremely obvious. But it didn't really make much of a difference.


Layer Three of ganache was wonderful and thick as well. I loved the look that ganache gives to the cake. I was very frustrated with that dang bubble on the top, but other than that the cake looked gorgeous. Haha! :)


After the ganache had set overnight I started to decorate the cake. The decorations were very easy to adhere to the ganache, which made decorating it a LOT easier than some other cakes I have done. But you can't pick anything back up, so make sure you have it where you want it. Haha!
Cannot express how much I loved this cake! The pictures really do not do it justice. The dark chocolate ganache color with the blues and silvers was absolutely amazing! I would love to use this color scheme again soon!


Here's the final product with the "40" topper :


As I said, the pictures do not do it justice. It is really gorgeous! And...isn't a "Rocking 40" cake so much more inspiring and fun than all of those gloomy and depressing "Over the Hill" cakes? :)