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!!!

Pink Princess Cake with Shooting Stars

This weeks cake was inspired by one my friend had seen and described to me. 

It's a very glittery pink princess cake! Yay! :) 

I started by making all the fun little details that would make this cake special.

Using gum paste (with very little 'Deep Pink' coloring) I made numerous pink daisies. I let them dry in small plastic spoons to give them a nice curve in the middle, as well as a few petals moving different directions to give them.a more natural look.

When they were dry, I dusted them with pearl dust and added a small gumpaste flower center (which was also dusted with pearl dust) 

Using the same pink gum paste, I made a pink bow for the front of the cake. 

Placing rolled-up paper towels into the centers of the bow loops helps it stay in shape and not collapse on itself while it's drying. 

After it was dry, I dusted it with hot pink disco dust. Absolutely Fabulous! Haha! :)

Because this cake was a 2nd b-day cake, and would be eaten by many toddlers, I decided to use lollipop sticks instead of wire to hold up my stars. I used white gum paste and cut out stars, placed one on each side of the stick and 'glued' them together with water. Then once they dried I dusted them with white pearl dust to give them a nice shimmery star look. 

 

Besides the pearls, name banner and letters, I was ready for the cake assembling to start. 

I baked a vanilla bean cake with real Madagascar Vanilla Beans (yummmm!!!) 

Banana cream filling (with a pink frosting barrier)

After everything was stacked and frosted it was time to start putting everything together. 

I used fondant to make the banner, letters, and pearls (dusting them all with white pearl dust). I added pearls to the top, bottom, and the places where the piping touches in the middle. I stuck all the flowers down with a little extra buttercream, and dusted the whole cake with the disco dust so it shimmered. 

I also added a silver and pink tiara, as well as a little wand on the front next to the bow. 

And to finish it off....the stars!!! I added 5 stars, all a little off center from each other.

I absolutely love how this cake came out!!! Super cute and girly! <3 always thankful for all these different, fun cake projects!

Pink Lemonade Petit Fours

I was so excited for class this week!!! I have been waiting for this class since day one. I LOVE petit fours! They are some of my favorite desserts because they are easy, simple, elegant, and can come in so many varieties/styles/designs. I could not wait to learn how to make them properly :)

I started with a 9x13 Pink Lemonade cake, cut into 2x2in squares. I chose not to fill them this time because I did not have enough time this week (2 kids home sick from school all week did not give me a lot of spare time).

I also crumbed coated the 2x2in squares with pink buttercream and colored the poured fondant pink as well, to cover the Pink Lemonade cakes color.

I used a (clean!) hair pick to hold the cakes while I poured some fondant over the top, making sure to cover all corners properly and not to have it too thick on the top/sides.

After I made sure the excess was off, I placed it on a cake cooling rack (over a piece of wax paper, to catch the drips) and let them set up just a little bit.

Before they set up completely I placed the decorations on top. I had some leftover glittery blossom flowers, so I put them on top of a few petit fours.

Putting them in cute little petit four wrappers, available at your local bakery or craft store, really helped jazz them up and make them look much more professional and complete looking.

I put them all together in a 1/4 sheet box. There were quite a few with flowers on them.

But I also did a few with scroll like decorations, as well as some ruffles and flower/scroll/dot buttercream decorations. Just trying out a few different things to see how they worked out.

Then ended up looking wonderful though! I really loved them. cant wait to make another batch!

They were a big hit with everyone I shared them with! :)

Doll Dress Cake #2 w/Flower Cupcakes

My project this weekend was a birthday cake for my daughters friend's party. She was turning 7 and loved Princesses and her favorite color is Purple :) so this cake was a total winner for her! She was SO SO excited to see her finished cake!
I started by practicing with my new frosting tip (#070-a handy little ruffle tip that actually looks a lot like fabric!). I went around the outside of the pan to get a feel for it, and it actually worked out pretty well.

I also made some flowers to place on top of the cupcakes that will be going with this cake. I used pink and two shades of purple to make some simple drop flowers. And finished them off with edible glitter to make them shimmer.

The flowers ended up onto of the cupcakes for the party. They turned out AMAZING!!! I loved them SO SO SO much! They were simple vanilla with whip kreme buttercream but everyone was in love with them.

Now it was time to decorate the cake. She wanted the dress to be pink and purple so we started with a pink crumb coat (purple frosting filling inside the cake) and added extra pink frosting on the front so that the front of her skirt could be a pink Corneille lace pattern. Because she loves princesses, I made sure to add a lot of glitter on the front/pink part of the skirt.

I then added layer after layer of ruffles (the pics look kind of blue but it was just a dark plum purple) until we finished the bottom of the dress, as well as adding a simple beaded border to the bottom and front of the dress to help finish off the edges. I also added one of the light purple glittery flowers(and two small white ones) to the front of the dress to help finish it off.

I was really happy with it, so of course something had to happen! Haha! Well, my cake cooling rack fell over and smashed into the side of my cake ripping off 4 layers of ruffles (which cannot be added in easily). To avoid disaster I was able to add a bunch more layers of ruffles, but it was a rather tricky fix.
Then on the way there, the extra ruffles were too heavy and the back/top ruffle started to rip and tear but that's alright...it's in the back! Hahaha! That's what I kept telling myself to stay calm and not freak out on my husband while we were driving! Lol!
Despite everything...It ended up looking wonderful! The birthday girl (and everyone else) loved it!!! :) I had a ton of fun making this cake and was so happy with how the cupcakes turned out! Everyone was happy and went back for seconds, so I would say this project was a success.

My First 2 Tier Cake!!!

I was both nervous and excited to make a tiered cake! It is very intimidating! But it really is not as hard as one would think, at least for my tiny 2 tier cake.
Due to the complexity of the work this week (and outside factors/stresses that had nothing to do with the cake) I did not take as many pictures as I would've wanted. I stacked my cakes and began decorating before taking many pics. Sorry!!! I feel horrible, but like I said it was just not my week.

I began by baking two 9inch round cakes, and two 5inch rounds (that I actually cut out of a 13x9 cake pan). I filled them with ganache, crumb coated, and frosted them.
I stacked them by placing 4 cut-off dowels under the area I was stacking my 5in round. After sprinkling a little dehydrated coconut between the layers, and placing the 5inch cake on a foil covered cardboard (I could only find a 6inch board, so I had to make sure my frosting covered up the edges so they didn't show), I placed the smaller cake on top. To help secure the cake I sharpened two dowels and hammered (yes, with an actual hammer!) them all the way through both layers of cake/cardboard. This really helps make sure the cake does not shift in transport.
After they got stacked, we have free reign to do whatever designs we wanted for our class final. One of my favorite design techniques is the Corneille Lace so I had fun and played around with it.
I decided to use a large, dark purple ruffle as a border to help cover the cardboard. And even though it looks kind of blue in the picture it was a awesome royal blue color.

I had a lot of left over flowers from my projects a week or so ago. So I decided to turn this into a Cascading Flower cake! I have been obsessed with them lately and thought this was a good opportunity to learn how to make that work well (with great instruction from my teacher!!!)
I started by figuring out exactly where I wanted the flowers placed. Using a 'S' shape to help them look more natural as the fall down the side, I was able to find flowers that worked and fit onto the cake well. I also placed a big glob of green frosting on the top of the cake and stacked some of my buttercream roses.

After getting the bulk of the flowers on, my teacher helped me make it more natural looking by continuing the flowers onto the border and adding leaves in a few select places.

I think it looks great! The colors are not really what I would use for a wedding cake but this was more inspired by my daughter than a wedding. Maybe it's a classy birthday cake or something. I don't know but this week I was more focused on the techniques used than the styling of the cake. Using my last class as a opportunity to get as much knowledge out of my teacher as possible :)

Gluten-free, Sugar-free Chocolate cupcakes

In an attempt to make a yummy treat for my in-laws I discovered a new gluten and sugar free cupcake recipe. They taste okay, not great but just okay. Absolutely need to perfect my recipe but for a first attempt they are pretty great. I also got to use the hearts and flowers I made last night.

The flourless dough:

Baked cupcakes actually looked better than I expected:

I whipped up some SugarFree vanilla buttercream to go ontop:

 

I topped the cupcakes with the buttercream and added the toppers I had made a few nights before (http://sherilynncakes.blogspot.com/2013/02/hearts-flowers.html) 

For Sugar Free and Gluten Free cupcakes...they look pretty cute! Haha! :)