Plants vs. Zombies Cake

I just learned about Plants vs Zombies when my husband downloaded it onto my iPhone a couple of weeks ago. I've never been into video games but caught myself playing this on my phone when I had a few minutes to spare (or laying in bed before going to sleep. Shhh, don't tell!) So, when I got an email from someone looking for a Plants vs Zombies cake and the lady wanted to know if I had ever even heard of this game, we had a good laugh.

At first, I was a little overwhelmed with the number of gumpaste figures I was going to have to sculpt. Sculpting figures is not something that I have spent a lot of time doing and I am always a little nervous that everything will not turn out exactly the way it is supposed to look. However, once I got going, I had the best time. Each figure looked better than the rest and when I finally got to put all of the pieces together I was really happy with it.

The best part was how loud the birthday boy yelled "Whoa!" when I delivered it yesterday. That made the whole thing worth while.

Happy Birthday Nico! I hope you had a super special day!

Pete & Marti's New Grandparents Shower Cake

Pete and Marti are grandparents. They live quite a ways from their new grand-daughter and were so excited about her arrival that Nana decided to throw them a "New Grandparents" shower.

The cake was a chocolate-vanilla swirl pound cake with chocolate buttercream filling. For this cake I learned how to make the gumpaste box top, worked again at trying to cover round cake with fondant, and transported it in the car (with the kids) 2.5 hours to the party. It ended up super cute and without a scratch on it.

Congratulations to Pete & Marti on the new grandbaby, Kera Grace!

Hello Kitty Birthday Cake

This cake I made for little Jacqueline's birthday party this last weekend. The cake was made from chocolate-vanilla swirl pound cake with strawberry buttercream filling.

Dragonfly Wedding Cake

So on 1-1-11, my mom and Charlie got married. We celebrated the following weekend with a small family gathering at their house...and I brought the cake. Are you surprised?

The newlyweds love dragonflies, so I made that the theme of the cake. It is red velvet with cream cheese filling covered in white fondant. I piped on the swirling dots with royal icing and used a real ribbon accent. I molded the dragonfly from gumpaste and hand pained him with blue, green and ivory luster dusts.

Congratulations Mom & Charlie!

Mele's Birthday Cake

So, my best friend. Mele (otherwise known as Munch) turned the big 3-0 and to celebrate I made the cake.
The cake was a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting, and it was my first attempt at making a fresh flower topper for a cake. Nana taught me how to wire the flowers so that I could make the topper using half of a floral Styrofoam ball. I also made the little jeweled flowers that are in the floral arrangement by gluing the crystal flowers on the ends of skewers I could then stick amongst the real flowers in the arrangement. I also made a bunch of butterflies on curling floral wire which stuck out of the cake, but I added those once we got to the party and the venue was too dark to get a good picture...but it looks pretty good without them too!


Happy Birthday Munch!

Pink Princess & Castle Cake

So, here is my second cake I made using my new Cricut Cake I got for Christmas from the teachers over at Talbot Hill Elementary. I made this cake as a 'thank you' for the Cricut, with many more to come of course!

The cake was a lemon pound cake with cream cheese buttercream and blueberry filling. The princess and all of the castles were cut out using the Cricut Cake. The strings of pearls were filler I bought in the floral dept of the local craft store.

Isn't she pretty!
(pronounced "pu-urdy"!)

Cupcake Bites

I got the book "Cake Pops" by Bekerella for my birthday and I just had to try these. They were pretty simple as they called for box cake and pre-made frosting (although I am sure I could substitute my own), and super fun to make with a friend. The best part is they are super cute and you can eat them in just one or two bites. Perfect!

New Year's Fortune Cookies

On New Year's Eve Slugger and I made these for a party she was attending that night. Well, really...she made them and I watched/helped when I could. They turned out so pretty that i had to write a post about them.

These were super easy for how impressive they turned out. Slugger bought the cookies at the Asian market. We warmed up the chocolate in the microwave and dipped them first in the chocolate and then into the sprinkles, setting them on parchment paper to dry before handling.

I think the trick was the sprinkles we bought at a candy supply store. The quality of the sprinkles was much more than store bought. The gold, in particular, really sparkled.

Happy New Year to all! May it be filled with good fortunes!

My First Cricut Cake Project

For Christmas, I recieved a Cricut Cake from all of the awesome teachers over at Talbot Hill Elementary. I am super excited about it and I really can not thank them enough. This was such a special gift (I might have even teared up :). Thank you from the bottom of my sugar bowl!

Here is my first attempt at using the Cricut Cake. I went with a snowflake theme. We ate it at Christmas dinner.