Minecraft Creeper Cake

It has been so insanely busy with everything this summer that I have not had any time to blog. 

I hope you all had a wonderful summer! Hope you were able to get outside in the wonderful sunshine, try something new, and make lifelong memories! We made quite a few - like visiting Crater Lake, camping at the beach for the 4th, and many hot days grabbing ice cream. It was wonderfully perfect but BUSY! 

It's kind of nice to get back to a regular schedule but I do miss them while they're gone.

But anyway...back to the fun cake stuff :) 

I don't normally bake very much during the summer but because it was my son's birthday I told him I'd make him whatever cake he would like. It kind of became a challenge to see how creative he could get. Hahaha! It was fun though. 

He ended up settling on a MineCraft Creeper. Now, having never seen the game before (we bought it for him for his birthday, so I know what it is now but didn't then) I took this as a great chance for my son to be more hands on as well. He showed me a few pictures (for those of you that don't know, a 'Creeper' is one of the bad guys on the MineCraft game. This game is a Pixalized world where you can dig, build, and create whatever you'd like. My kids love it. It's creative and relatively non violent). 

We decided to make it look Pixalized by using many green squares put together to create his face. 

We started out with marshmallow fondant (melted marshmallows, water, and powdered sugar) 

and slowly started adding green to it...

... until we had MANY shades of green to work with.

I rolled it out thinly and had my son help me cut squares. This is the part where the dreaded MATH comes in. My cake was a 6in square. I made my fondant squares 1/2in each, requiring me to make 12x12=144 little squares to cover the top. I ended up making 200 because some break, or don't quite fit perfectly, or was the wrong color. It gave me some more flexibility when making it...it did require a bit more time though. 

I had to layer them to get them all on 2 plates but I got them on there. I made sure they could dry out a little more, which helped when constructing the cake. 

He also wanted a few TNT bricks to go around the base of the cake. I made some of the marshmallow fondant red, formed little squares, wrapped them with white fondant, made a little 'banana peel' topper and then wrote TNT on the front with some red food coloring. 

We frosted the cake with some simple green buttercream frosting and started placing on our squares. They weren't quite perfect but they did the trick, and honestly ended up looking a heck of a lot like the real Creeper. 

I used some black piping gel to paint the face on, and the '11' on the front. I also used a grass tip to make a pretty little border around the bottom. After placing the TNT bricks around the base, it's finished! :) yay! 

AND not only did it look great but it was absolutely delicious!!!! We had to make the cake green too! Couldn't resist. It was such a big hit! 

Can't wait to see what kind of creative cake theme he comes up with next year!!! :)

Red Bow Mini-Cupcakes

Last weekend my friend (and wonderful hair stylist! who I made cupcakes for in a previous post) needed a smaller order of 75 cupcakes. 

They loved the red velvet cupcakes I made for them previously, so we decided to do that flavor again. This time she wanted a different topper, but left it up to me as to the actual design. 

I started with the cupcakes first.

And let them cool. I also used Gold cupcake papers this time to change it up. They looked wonderful! 

I placed them in a 1/2 sheet box with cardboard in the bottom to support the cupcakes. 

While the cupcakes were baking and cooling, I used some red fondant, a chocolate mold, and ruby red disco dust to create pretty red hair bows to top the cupcakes. I used a flower former to help give them a more realistic bow look. 

After covering the cupcakes with cream cheese frosting (YUM!) I topped them with the bows. 

And I LOVED them!!!

They turned out wonderfully! They looked fun and glamorous but still clean and simple. Exactly what I was wanting to do! Everyone loved them! And I am so happy with how they turned out! :)

Sunflower Fondant Cake

My class this week focused on fondant. I had worked with fondant before but I had never covered a whole cake with it. Only to make small things (like cupcake toppers). However it turned out well. I was just playing around. There is no real occasion for this cake, but my friends are going to enjoy it. :)


I started out with two 8in (vanilla) round cakes, cut to be even on top, and then cooled.

I then used a simple ziplock bag (this was such a small area I didn't feel the need to dirty a pastry bag) to pipe a little barrier to help hold in my ganache/buttercream mixture.

Then filled it with a yummy combination of buttercream frosting and a ganache that I just couldn't get to set up (and I didn't have time to melt more chocolate into it either). But it tasted really yummy and it spread onto the cake very well.

After stacking the two cakes, I used a thinned down buttercream frosting to crumb coat the cake. Because we were adding fondant to this cake I did add a little more buttercream than I normally would to help it taste better for those that hate (and pick off the) fondant.

I was going to make my fondant but due to a crazy schedule this week, I just bought a tub of it. Much easier. A little more expensive. But for my schedule this worked best.

Once I got to class, I kneaded my fondant (using a little shortening to help keep the fondant from sticking) until it was nice and pliable. I used this time to add a little cheesecake flavoring, the oil based flavors used for candy making. Awesome! Now I have a yummy flavored Cheesecake Fondant! :) Then I rolled it out large enough to make sure the top (8in) and both sides (3-4in each) of my cake were properly covered. And flipped it on top of my cake.

Slowly, working from the top to the bottom, I rubbed the cake and helped it stick and smooth onto the buttercream below. Once I reached the bottom I used a pizza cutter to remove any excess fondant that remained around the bottom of my cake and smoothed it down.

After coloring my fondant blue, yellow, and orange, I started decorating.

I used some molds (pearl border and swags) to help make decorations for the cake. Using a lot of corn starch on the fondant and dusted on the mold. I had a few places where the swags stretched and ripped a little but they turned out alright as long as you don't look for a long time.

And the yellow pearl border across the bottom of the cake was simple, easy to add more or to fix if I messed it up, and stunning!

I made fondant flowers by using a silicone mold and two different colored fondants. The center of the flower was a cute little button.
I also dusted the swags with a white pearl luster dust. And I dusted the flowers with a gold luster dust all over to give them a warm feeling.

I made a sunflower cake topper to help make the cake look a little more finished. And added two simple leaves. All made using a plastic mold, cornstarch, and fondant.
To help complete the look I also dusted the sunflower with luster dust. I used Gold on the yellow, a cantaloupe colored luster dust on the orange, and a pretty green shimmer on the leaves.

And it's finished and ready to eat! :)