Coming Up...

November is a busy month for me...but I am so excited!

10/29: Lego Man Cake

10/31: Halloween Cupcakes

11/02: Strawberry Cake

11/04: Fall Cupcakes

11/12: Wedding Anniversary Cookies & Cake Re-make

11/18: Backyardigans Ice Cream Cake

11/25: Thanksgiving Cupcakes

I Love Lucy cake because I Love My Mom!

My mother is a I Love Lucy fanatic, always has been.
She has collected I Love Lucy items my whole life and has a whole room devoted to the show. We call it the I Love Lucy room...shocker, huh?

My mother celebrated her 63rd Birthday on the 20th and since I couldn't make it out to Stockton to see her during the week, the family celebrated yesterday.

I wanted to make her something special...and I couldn't go wrong with I Love Lucy.

When I asked my Dad what kind of cake she'd like, he told me white cake with caramel something. First, I planned to make my popular caramel banana cake but then I realized I had a packet of Cheesecake Mousse mix that I'd been waiting for an opportunity to use...and this was my opportunity!

I printed the show logo and used it to carve the same heart shape for the cake. I wanted it to be as much like the real thing as possible...I was dealing with a fanatic here!


Then I piped the cheesecake mousse into the center and doused it with caramel sauce!


This cake was super easy to frost...which came as a surprise.
I covered the cake in vanilla swiss meringue buttercream.


Then, I covered it in red fondant.

I placed the logo on top of the fondant covered cake and went over the "I Love Lucy" with a pen as a guide, because I have made it no secret that my free hand writing is not the best. I opted to pipe dots...well because that's easier to not screw-up.


I asked my boyfriend to take some "action shots" of me decorating the cake since I rarely have any because I'm usually the one taking the photos.


Apparently, this is an "action shot." Silly, boyfriend.


My sister and I also got my Mom a collector's bottle of I Love Lucy wine for her birthday, to go with the cake :)


She loved them both.


Happy Birthday Ma Mere!!!

Friday the 13th Jason Voorhees Birthday Cake

When I got an email from Sunshine, a new customer - requesting a bloody Friday the 13th cake with the Jason Voorhees mask for her son's birthday...I was all over it!

She had great ideas for the cake and sent me this picture as inspiration:

She wanted red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting and filling, black fondant and lots of blood! Now that's my kind of cake!

The first task at hand was figuring out how to make the mask.
I decided to try out a 50/50 mixture of buttercream fondant and gum paste. Gum paste generally doesn't taste very good, but mixed with the buttercream flavored fondant it could have been eaten and taste not so bad.


I used a simple template I found online to shape the mask and coordinate where the holes went. Although the holes could have been smaller, I didn't have any smaller tools to make it match the template.

I set the mask over a roll of paper towels with a small ball of gum paste under the nose for shape and let it dry for 3 days to ensure the curve was firm enough to hold up once it was placed on the cake.

The night before, I used brown gel paste food coloring and some vodka to brush some color onto the mask with a paint brush, then used a paper towel to rub it in and remove excess paint for a stained/dirty look.

When I originally planned out this cake, I had decided to use a plastic knife because I was concerned about the strength required to hold up the mask...but then I realized that was a cop-out and that a real baker would make the knife themselves. So I did.

I used a wooden skewer throughout and folded gum paste around it for the blade, I needed it to dry hard and hold it's shape. Once it was dry, I painted it with silver pearl dust mixed with vodka. I left a couple inches of the skewer exposed so that I could pierce the cake without making a huge gash in the fondant. The morning of the delivery I added black fondant for the handle.


For the blood, I used a strawberry jelly. I whisked and whisked and whisked until it was a liquid consistency then added a generous amount of red food coloring and few drops of blue for the most realistic look I could get.

Now, the fun part... I placed the mask in the center of the cake, put the knife through the eye hole and went crazy with the blood!


When Sunshine told me "the more blood, the better" I took it seriously.


I really wanted to write Happy Birthday Gage with my finger in blood but because of the black fondant it would not have been thick enough to read clearly, so I piped it on with the blood instead.

I was very pleased with this cake and it was one of my best deliveries yet, Sunshine and her friends made me feel like a ROCKSTAR snapping tons of pictures! They loved the cake and that's the best part of this job!

Baseball Cap Cake

When my best friend from High School called to tell me she'd be in town for her nephew's 2nd birthday and she wanted me to make the cake...I was soooo excited!

Her nephew has a fascination with hats of all kinds and also baseball. It didn't take me long to decide on a baseball cap cake.

I was supposed to make a Raiders helmet cake later this month but that order was canceled, so this cake was set to fulfill my excitement of doing a domed hat/helmet cake :)

Kid friendly flavors were needed for this cake so I suggested the Oreo cookies n' cream recipe that has become very popular...because it's awesome and who doesn't like Oreos?

The cake is 1/2 chocolate and 1/2 white with Oreo cookies n' cream filling and vanilla swiss meringue buttercream.


I used my soccer ball cake pan for the top of the cap, carved it to the size I wanted it and added some indentations to appear as creases in the hat.


I covered the cap in blue buttercream fondant, attached a bill and added some green accents.


When I was done....I was pleased but I felt something was missing. I considered making a baseball out of fondant or chocolate...then decided cupcakes are more my style!

I made a small batch of white cupcakes with matching blue and green liners, frosted them with the vanilla swiss meringue buttercream and used red decorating gel to add the stitching.


I added two cupcakes because the little guy was turning 2.


Not only was this a fun cake to make...but I got to see my best friend too!