Yo Gabba Gabba!

This show must be a hit with the little ones...looks kinda scary to me.

A little man was turning 2 and his mama wanted a cool cake for his party.

She requested chocolate cake with strawberries.
I love strawberries.

I covered the cake generously with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream.

Then covered it with homemade marshmallow fondant.
I made all of the characters with fondant too.

No faces.

Faces.

I totally underestimated the amount of time it would take me to make these guys...but I was pleased with the result and feel much more confident going into the next cake with fondant characters.

I love the stereo.

Happy 2nd Birthday Jackson!!!

Cupcakes will never be enough...but THANK YOU

In September, my father was forced into early retirement due to a below-the-knee amputation on his right leg.

For as long as I can remember, my father has battled multiple health problems and always fought through them to provide for his family.

Now, it is time for his to focus on himself and getting healthy so he and my mother can enjoy their retirement together.

My father's last employer was a HUGE part of making this sudden and difficult transition for my parents, as easy as possible. They were compassionate, understanding and helpful in allowing my father to recover without worrying about all the small details surrounding a sudden disability and retirement.

To say THANKS, I wanted to bake them something sweet and delicious.

Two of my most popular cupcakes are the Vanilla Caramel and the Oreo Cookies n' Cream so I made them both.

I wanted to try these out too:

I went with my father last month to pick up his things and I was overwhelmed by the amount of co-workers happy to see my father and see him healthy. One after another came out of their offices to give their best wishes to my father. He was truly loved and appreciated and I know that he will be missed.

So, THANK YOU to everyone at Herrick Steel in Stockton, Ca.

THANK YOU for providing my father with his best job, best bosses, best co-workers and for taking such good care of him Monday through Friday for so many years.

Halloween Birthday Cake

A friend from High School asked me to make her twin boys a Halloween themed cake for their 1st Birthday.
She sent me a few pictures...wanted the top tier from one cake, bottom tier from another and the topper from another but she also gave me creative go ahead...

She requested marble cake with chocolate buttercream.

This was my first time making marble cake...and it was fun. See:

I filled and frosted both tiers with chocolate swiss meringue buttercream.

Then....I decided I was going to make my own fondant from scratch.
I used Wilton's marshmallow fondant recipe.
My tip: SIFT YOUR POWDERED SUGAR or you will have lumpy fondant.
I also only used between 6-7 cups of powdered sugar, not 8.
I made my fondant and used it the same day without any problems.

I am very grateful it worked out well, because I didn't have a back-up plan.
I will probably be making my own fondant from now on.
I feel cool.

I used Rice Krispy Treats to shape two witch hats, two headstones and a ghost body.
I gave each treat a thin coating of the buttercream just to smooth it out a little bit.

After that...I covered everything in fondant and got to decorating.

Happy Birthday Jett and Chase!!!

Freddy Krueger Birthday Cake

Remember this cake?
Well, this birthday boy wanted another spooky cake for his party and this time he wanted Freddy Krueger's famous glove.

The cake is Red Velvet, filled and frosted with Cream Cheese Buttercream - must be his favorite.

I carved out a collar and made the cake look like Freddy's sweater by covering it with red and black fondant.

I used Rice Krispy Treats to shape a hand, then covered it with some fondant and gumpaste.
I brushed the whole thing with a little bit of silver to give it a metal look.

Then, I literally took a knife a cut the claw marks going down the cake.

Once everything was in it's place, I used some whisked Raspberry Jam and food coloring for the blood and made a mess.

Happy Birthday Gage!!!

Junior Huskies Cheerleading

My niece Hailey is a cheerleader...and a damn good one if I do say so myself!
Here she is shaking her hips!

She asked me if I would make her team cupcakes the next time they were in my area for a game, and of course I said yes!

She was very specific about what she wanted...footballs and pom poms.
Well, she got the footballs.

I decided that I just wouldn't be happy with fondant pom poms, so I opted not to make them unless they were going to look good and be satisfactory to Hailey...she would definitely let me know if they weren't.

Hailey cheers for the Fremont Junior Huskies and their colors are Orange, Black and White.

I had made orange, white and black buttercream and hoped to make them really cool looking by blending them together for a swirl effect...but it didn't work out so great.

So...after piping this color combo on a dozen cupcakes, I scraped it off and made a new clean batch of white buttercream.

Here's Ethan hanging out with me while I pipe on the new buttercream.
I love him, he's so cute.

A dozen cupcakes got the white buttercream, some orange and black sprinkles and fondant toppers.

The other dozen cupcakes got green buttercream grass and chocolate fondant football toppers.

The girls ate them all up and all said "THANK YOU, ERIN" in unison up to the bleachers where I was sitting...and taking pictures.

I asked my niece to step aside so I could get a photo of her alone, and she posed like this.
I love her.

Thank You For Making Us Dinner After We Had A Baby Cupcakes!

The week before our son was born, I got a call from the Relief Society president at our local church.
She wanted to know what kind of meals we would like delivered to us the first week home from the hospital. My mother had taken it upon herself to let the church know we were new to the area and having a baby.

I was raised in a large Mormon family and knew that this is exactly the kind of thing members of the church love to do, even for people they don't even know.

We are blessed.

So....after taking 11 weeks to finally write out Thank You cards, I decided cupcakes would sweeten things up and make up for my procrastination.

I decided on simple Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream, not knowing about allergies or any preferences - Vanilla is usually a safe bet.

I wanted them to be pretty and floral...so I made a bunch of flowers with Vanilla Fondant.

I piped the Buttercream three different ways, just for fun.

I package the cupcakes in 6 packs, tied them with some matching ribbon and placed the Thank You cards on top.

THANK YOU!!!

Housewarming....Cake!

A few weeks back, my buddy CharLOTT sent me this link to a pink lemonade cake recipe by Paula Deen and said it sounded super yummy.

So, I promised her when she moved into her new house (closer to me) I would bake it for her as a housewarming gift!

Pink lemonade cake/cupcakes has been on my list of things I want to bake for a long time, so I jumped at the opportunity to finally cross it off the list.

I followed the cake recipe exactly, only adding a bit of pink food coloring to make the cake really pop.

I used my usual swiss meringue buttercream recipe instead of the one listed, just because it's my favorite.
I did use about 7-8 tablespoons of the frozen pink lemonade concentrate though.
I left the buttercream white because I thought it would look pretty with the pink cake when you sliced it.

I wanted to make this a rose cake, inspired by i am baker.
Check her out...she is simply amazing.
You'll probably never read my blog again after seeing her stuff, she's that talented.

I went with smaller roses, just to be different.

Not bad, eh?

Happy Housewarming CharLOTT!