My First Wedding Cake

Pink & White Wedding Cake

Milestone Birthday

My Grandmother turned 90 this past week.  We celebrated with a big party and lots of friends and family.  My assignment was to make the cake.  I had been given a Cricut Cake for Christmas so this was my chance to use it.  My husband spent quite a bit of time playing with the settings to get it working just right and thankfully cut out all of the designs while I worked on the rest of the cake.  We had tested it a few nights before using fondant rolled out and placed on the cutting mat, but we just couldn't get it thin enough to work right.  I bought Wilton icing sheets and they worked perfectly.  I printed some photos of my grandmother throughout her life with edible ink and icing sheets to decorate the bottom tier.  My grandmother has always loved photography so adding the photos was perfect.  This was my first 3 tiered cake so I was extremely nervous how it was all going to work out.  In the end it was a big hit and my grandmother loved it so it was worth the stress and hours of work :-)

90th Birthday Cake

Gum Paste Roses

Winter Birthday Cake

Snowman Birthday Cake

Fondant Snowman

Cupcake Birthday Cake

We decided to celebrate our family kids' November birthdays at one party since we had several to celebrate.   I needed to make a cake for 5 kids ranging in age from 6 to 13 and for both boys and girls.  I decided to go with a generic birthday theme rather than trying to accommodate each kid so I put brightly colored cupcakes on top of the cake (white icing with edible glitter).  Since they were going on the cake, I wanted the entire cupcake to be edible so I used silicon baking cups and Wilton candy melts to create edible cups for them.  It turned out cute and the kids loved that they could eat the entire cupcake, wrapper and all!

Cupcake Birthday Cake

Here's how I made the edible cupcake cups:
I used silicon baking cups as molds and also to bake the cupcakes in to ensure the cupcakes would fit in them.  The paper wrappers seemed to be slightly larger than the silicone mold.  I particularly like this one made by Wilton because the flower petals around the sides made it easy to remove the candy cup.  I used Wilton white candy melts, but they would be cute in various colors.

I used about 10 candy melts for each one and microwaved about a minute and a half.  I then used a knife to spread the melted candy around the sides of the mold.

I put the mold in the freezer until the candy had hardened.  Then gently pulled the "petals" of the mold away from the candy to release it and peeled the mold off.

Here's the finished, totally edible, cupcake wrapper!  Just drop in a cupcake and decorate :-)

Happy Halloween!

University of Texas Longhorns birthday cake for my son with a Halloween twist...

Texas Longhorns Halloween Birthday Cake

Texas Longhorns Halloween Cake

Texas Longhorns Halloween Cake

Texas Longhorns Halloween Cake

Texas Longhorns Halloween Cake

Football Season!

We celebrated our October family birthdays yesterday so I went with football themed cakes.  I didn't have a lot of time so these were kept pretty simple and fondant free.  I used a color flow technique for the logos, but had found a recipe online that didn't require Wilton's Color Flow icing mix.  You beat 1 egg white and approximately one cup of sifted powdered sugar until the mixture turns white and forms stiff peaks.  I added a little more powdered sugar to get a slightly stiffer mixture to draw the outside lines.  I then added very small amounts of water until I got a runnier consistency to fill in the insides of the design.  You want it to be runny so that it "flows" into all the corners and edges of the design.  For tight areas, you can use a toothpick to push it where you want it to fill in.   This icing dries very hard, but it needs about 24 hours to dry.  To prepare the work surface, take the picture you want to duplicate and tape it to a thick piece of cardboard.  Tape waxed paper over the picture.  Then use your icing mixture to trace the outside lines of the design.  Let those harden a little and then fill in the design.  When you are ready to use it, remove the design and wax paper from the cardboard.  Carefully peel off the wax paper and place it on your cake.  It's a really easy technique that adds a cool touch to your cakes.  As easy as it is, this is the second time I've used this technique and I've screwed it up both times!  The first time I used it was before I knew you were supposed to cut the tops off cakes to get a flat work surface.  My design came out perfect, but when I placed it on the rounded cake top, it cracked in several places.  This time I knew I had to get those cakes flat to lay my icing pieces on.  However, I made them the night before and even though they had been drying for a few hours, I wasn't even thinking when I laid pieces of saran wrap over them to sit overnight.  The next morning the saran wrap had stuck to them.  So even though they looked okay, they didn't have the smooth and shiny finish they should have had.  So with that said, here is the picture of the cakes. 

Houston Texas Cake & Texas Longhorns Cake

I wanted to add a chocolate football to the Texans cake, so I melted chocolate chips and poured it on a piece of waxed paper on a cookie sheet.  I put it in the fridge to harden, then let it sit out a little while to soften.  I used a football shaped cookie cutter to cut the shape out of the chocolate and then used the same icing mixture to draw the details on the football.  I kept it in the fridge until I was ready to add it to the cake.  They were a big hit with the family and ironically, my brother was dressed to match his cake!

Happy Birthday Dad!

70th Birthday Submarine Cake