A Spa Skunk Cake

This is Madyson and she has turned 10.  Madyson has a spa day and .... (wait for it).... she thinks skunks are cool... and perhaps a bit misunderstood.  So of course this cake had to be a Spa-Skunk Birthday Cake!

You know?  I am loving this table cover.  It really works with the cake colours.

When you are a gum paste skunk at a spa, naturally you've got to carry a mirror

And of there is his friend wearing a plush blue robe.

Have a "Spa-Cial" Day Madyson!  Get it... Spa-----Cial???  Ohh! I crack myself up!

The "Clumsy" Fashionista

Thank you to Liz who requested a cake for her daughter Samantha's first birthday.  She wanted a to tiered cake, flavour chocolate to serve 40.  The theme....Elmo.

I decided to add a bit of pizazz by making the top tier Devils Food Cake, and the bottom tier Chocolate Fudge.

The bottom 10" tier with buttercream icing

And the top 8" tier.

Some fondant stars and a number 1.

Cover both layers with yellow fondant.

Stack the cakes add the stars, fondant rope, of course Elmo and voila!

Delish!

By the way.... This is titled "The Clumsy Fashionista" because as I was making my way up Liz's steps, I tumbled upwards.  I lost my shoe, hit my wrist on her step, but do not fear..... I saved the cake!

Wait a minute....

Maybe I am not too clumsy afterall....(?)

In The Night Garden

Thank you to Maria who requested that I decorate a cake for her son Luka.  This was super special because it was for Luka's first birthday.  Apparently, Luka is a huge fan of In the Night Garden. 



I had not heard of this program before, so I decided to tune in one evening at 8pm.  You know... to get to know my subject.  Luka ... Believe me... I tried to watch this.  But after about 3 minutes, I had to tune out.  I think it may have been an age thing.  I would like to honestly say that I got "it".  I mean I think I did because I had such a fun time decorating this 2 tiered cake.

Let's go through some of the steps:



This is a two layered cake.  One layer chocolate, the other a white cake.  I smoothed buttercream icing coloured in green.  I then added fondant trees around it.



Of course where there are trees, there is grass.

I added a top tier which was baked as a vanilla white cake with a chocolate marble swirl.  I smoothed blue icing to symbolize the sky.  More trees were added as well as some fondant clouds.

More grass and toadstools are added... and of course the fondant characters.  Happy Birthday Luka!

Tinkerbell Cake

Thank you so much to my friend Tricia who requested that I decorate a cake for her daughter Tia.  Tia is turning two and is apparently a fan of Tinkerbell.

This cake is a two layered white cake and is covered in buttercream icing.  I was able to apply the image to the cake using the cocoa transfer method. 

I enlarged a coloring sheet of Tinkerbell, then printed it out. Then I taped it to a small empty box. I used a push pin to poke small holes all around her for an outline. The picture is placed the picture on top of the cake. I then spread a tsp. of cocoa over the picture to complete the outline.

I removed the picture, and had an outline to do the icing with. I outlined her in black first, then filled in all the other colors next. I also added some gumpaste and royal icing flowers.

And voila!  Tinkerbell!

Spyro The Dragon

Thank you to my friend Kelly who thought of my cakes as her daughter Madyson's birthday neared.  Kelly requested a cake with Spyro the dragon.  Yikes!   I had never done a dragon before, but as usually as was up to the challenge.  Hmmmmm..... but how was I going to get the image of Spyro on Mady's cake?  I'll get back to that in a bit.

So Kelly wanted a marble cake to serve over 20 people.  We decided on a 10" two layered, that would end up being almost 5" high.

So here are the ingredients I used for my Marble Cake recipe:
- 2 cups sifted cake flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup butter or margarine
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup milk
- 3 egg whites 1 1/2 0Z. (1 1/2 sq.) unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
- 2 tablespoons hot water
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
(found on ifood.tv)

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together.

Cream the butter with extract; gradually add sugar, creaming until fluffy.
Beating only until smooth after each addition, alternately add dry ingredients in fourths and milk in thirds to the creamed mixture.
Beat egg whites until stiff, not dry, peaks are formed.

Fold beaten egg whites gently into batter until thoroughly blended.
Turn one half of the batter into a prepared 8x8x2-inch baking pan.
Lightly, but quickly, stir a mixture of the remaining ingredients into batter in bowl.

Spoon chocolate batter into pan. Gently lift white batter through chocolate until marbled effect is produced.
Spread batter evenly to edges of pan.

Bake at 350°F 40 to 45 minutes, or until cake tests done.

And now let's bring on Spyro the Dragon!

I went online and found a black and white drawing of Spyro.  I taped it to the base of a 9" square pan, and then taped parchment paper on top. 

On top of the parchment paper, I traced Spyro with a mixture of black buttercream icing and piping gel.  I used a #2 tip.  This gave me a nice thin line, but I still applied the lines a little thick.

I then applied the colours needed to make Spyro come alive.  I filled in colours in layers using a round tip. Make sure to use medium consistency frosting.  Using a knife dipped in hot water (and re-dipping as needed) I gently smooth frosting from the back to push down into crevices.  

I Filled in around pictures with my green background colour.  I chose the same colour I was using for the cake. 

I filled in the rest of the top and smoothed the icing out. I measured mine to a slightly smaller size than the diameter of the cake to place it on top of my already decorated cake.  I covered this with wax paper and lightly smoothed it with my handshands.  I then placed it in the freezer for overnight.

I removed the wax paper from the back of FBCT and placed it on top of the cake that had been completely frosted.  I peeled the wax paper from the front of FBCT, added boarders and wording.

And here we are!

Little Mermaid For a Three Year Old

My Niece's birthday cake. She Loves anything with The Little Mermaid. The 3 year old diva insisted that it be red velvet. I really enjoyed the making this.

Once the cake is cut, the contrast of the red velvet colour against the blue fondant will be striking!