Rock Candy Baby Shower Cake - March 2014

I made this cake for my sister Valerie and her husband Josh for a baby shower in honor of their 2nd baby.  I also made some gluten free cupcakes (regular and mini) that matched the cake for some of her friends who have a gluten allergy.

My sister had seen the basic rock candy cake design in a picture.  She wanted to change the colors of the candy to go with their baby theme colors and wanted to add a personalized fondant topper to announce the baby's name.  I ended up making homemade rock candy for the cake.

More pictures and details to come... :)

[Right now I'm just trying to get everything on the blog, then I'll go back and fill in details; you can read a little longer explanation here if you want.  BUT if you have any questions in the meantime, in general or about this cake, please feel free to email me by clicking on the 'Contact Me' tab at the top of the page and using the email address found there.  I will try to get back with you as soon as possible.  Or you can always ask questions or leave a comment about this cake by clicking the comments link at the end of this post.  :)]

(I created my animated name at this site.)

Golf Themed Cake (with a Surprise Inside) - June 2013

I made this golf themed cake for my brother-in-law, Josh, for his birthday.

And, SURPRISE, the cake was PLAID inside!  :)

For this cake I used a new recipe that is so good!  I had heard about it a long time ago, but had never tried it.  It is a white almond sour cream cake.  Here is a link to the recipe that I used, and here is a link to the same person's recipe, just written a little differently.  I highly recommend trying this recipe out.

So, this is how I made the inside of the cake plaid.  After mixing my cake batter I separated it about in half and then took out a small portion from one of the bowls.  (Sorry, I don't have exact measurements that I used.)  In the bowl with the majority of the batter I added blue food coloring to make a light blue shade.  In the bowl with the small portion of batter I added blue food coloring to make a darker shade of blue.  I left the last bowl of batter white.  When pouring the batter into the pans I used my checkerboard cake pan set.  In two of the pans I poured the white batter in the center circle and the outer rings.  Then in the same pans I poured the light blue batter in the middle rings.  In the third pan I poured the light blue batter in the center circle and the outer ring, and then poured the dark blue batter in the middle ring of that pan.  This is how the batter looked in the pans ready to go into the oven.

After baking I flipped the cakes out of their pans after 15 minutes and let them finish cooling completely.  Then I leveled the tops of the cakes.

When stacking the cakes I put one of the white cakes on the bottom, the all blue cake next for the middle layer, and the other white cake went on top.  I used orange buttercream icing in between each cake layer.  (My brother-in-law is a Broncos fan, so I figured I'd incorporate those colors into his golf cake. :) )  Later when you cut into the cake you have plaid inside!  :)

I put a 1-1/2 inch strip of white fondant around the bottom of the cake.  Then I used a grass tip to cover the rest of the cake with green buttercream icing.  I made a diamond template that was 1 inch in diameter and about 1-1/2 inches tall.  I rolled out blue and orange fondant and cut out enough diamonds to go around the cake.  I attached the diamonds to the white strip at the bottom of the cake, and then drew on the dotted black diamonds with a black food coloring marker.  I made mini golf balls and placed them around the top edge of the cake. 

The golf tees are lollipop sticks covered in fondant and shaped to look like a tee.  Originally I was going to make cake balls for the golf balls on top of the tees, but my golf ball candy mold was still packed from moving, and I didn't have time to find it.  So, I just made them out of fondant and painted the letters on with black food coloring.  I may have used my black food coloring marker for the letters, I don't remember now which it was.  :)  I stuck the golf tees into the cake and attached the golf balls to the tops of the tees.

I really liked the look of this cake, and I was excited about the plaid inside!  :)  And everyone loved the new recipe that I used for the cake.  It was delicious.  :)

Afterwards I used the cake scraps that were leftover from leveling the cakes to make some cake balls.

(Created animated name at this site.)

Golf Themed Cheesecake Brownie Cupcakes - June 2012

I made these golf themed cheesecake brownie cupcakes for my brother-in-law, Josh, for his birthday.  This was made for the same party that I made my sister's high heel cupcakes for (see this post).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These brownie cupcakes were from the same batch that I used for Carissa's teacher's triathlon themed cupcakes a couple days earlier (see this post).  My mom mixed the cheesecake topping up for me and added some green food coloring to tint it.  It was just an instant cheesecake mix.  I put the cheesecake mixture in a piping bag and used a grass tip to pipe the grass on top of the brownie cupcakes.

I made some golf themed accessories out of fondant to go on the cupcakes.  The golf balls were just a small ball of fondant that I dotted with gray food coloring, I think I used a toothpick with a little of the tip broken off (takes longer than you think it would :) ).  I applied a little pressure when dotting the food coloring on to make slight dimples in the ball.  To make the flags I rolled out some yellow, red, and white fondant and cut out the rectangles.  Then I attached the fondant flags to a toothpick.  I let the flags dry upright so the flag would drape down some and look a little more natural.  The golf clubs were made by painting a toothpick with gray food coloring, attaching some brown fondant at the top for the grip, and then attaching some gray fondant at the bottom shaped like a club head.

I grouped cupcakes together to resemble a golf course.  Then I arranged the flags, golf balls, and clubs on the cupcakes.  I was going to make some holes in a few of the cupcakes, but as I started to try it I realized that it wasn't looking intentional and was going to be more of a headache than it was worth.

(I created my animated name at this site.)

Golf Ball Cheesecake Balls - June 2011

I made these golf ball cheesecake balls for my brother-in-law, Josh's, birthday.

 Most of them I made vanilla so they would be white like most golf balls, but I couldn't resist making some chocolate ones too.  :)

The picture below gives a peek at the yummy cheesecake inside.  :)

More details to come... but for now... to make these cheesecake balls I basically followed the instructions found on Bakerella's site for her cheesecake pops.  Mine just ended up being golf balls instead of pops.  :)

[Right now I'm just trying to get everything on the blog, then I'll go back and fill in details; you can read a little longer explanation here if you want. BUT if you have any questions in the meantime, in general or about these cheesecake balls, please feel free to email me by clicking on the 'Contact Me' tab at the top of the page and using the email address found there, and I will try to get back with you as soon as possible. Or you can always ask questions or leave a comment about these cheesecake balls by clicking the comments link at the end of this post.  :)]

(I created my animated name at this site.)

Fore! - June 2010

I made this golf ball mini cake for my brother-in-law, Josh's, birthday.  (It was for the same party as my sister, Valerie's, shopping cake which was the main cake for the party, but I wanted to do something little for him too.)

More pictures and details to come... :)

[Right now I'm just trying to get everything on the blog, then I'll go back and fill in details; you can read a little longer explanation here if you want. BUT if you have any questions in the meantime, in general or about this mini cake, please feel free to email me by clicking on the 'Contact Me' tab at the top of the page and using the email address found there, and I will try to get back with you as soon as possible. Or you can always ask questions or leave a comment about this mini cake by clicking the comments link at the end of this post. :) ]

 
 
 
 
 
Created animated name at this site.

Are You Seeing Spots? - June 2009

I made this polka dot cake for my sister, Valerie's, birthday.  We were also celebrating my brother-in-law, Josh's, birthday, so I added a little something on the cake for him too (see further down in the post).

Below is the 'little something' I added for Josh.  He is a Denver Broncos fan,

so I made a watermark of a football with the word BRONCOS on it on one of the orange spots.  :)

I had to refrigerate the cake because of the ganache I used in between the layers.  So, the moisture on the icing and fondant made the cake look shinier (below) when I brought it to the party, which wasn't a big deal.  Unfortunately though, it also 'erased' my Broncos watermark, so I just had to show Josh the picture I took of it beforehand.  :(

More details to come.  :)

[Right now I'm just trying to get everything on the blog, then I'll go back and fill in details; you can read a little longer explanation here if you want. BUT if you have any questions in the meantime, in general or about this cake, please feel free to email me by clicking on the 'Contact Me' tab at the top of the page and using the email address found there, and I will try to get back with you as soon as possible. Or you can always ask questions or leave a comment about this cake by clicking the comments link at the end of this post. :) ]

Little Cake... Big Flame - June 2008

This is a little cake I made for my brother-in-law, Josh's, birthday.  (It was at the same party as Valerie's chocolate dots cake - see previous post Chocolate Dots.)  I had a little piece of cake (just about 3"x6") leftover from one of the teacher's cakes I did a couple days earlier [see this post and this post :) ], so I decided to make him something with it.  He likes soccer a lot, so I just piped on a quick soccer ball and some grass.  I used all chocolate though for something different.  Nothing spectacular, just something fun.  :)  The real fun came later though when we lit the candles [see the pictures below :) ].

[Just a side note, since you'll see this happen again in posts to come: Josh and Valerie's birthdays are really close together so they always celebrate them at the same time.  They, Josh and Valerie, say to just do a cake for Valerie and not anything for him, he's fine with it, and we usually don't need that much cake.  But I'll usually try to do something little for him or incorporate him in somehow.  :)
Okay, that's it, back to the cake.  :) ] 

So, I thought that it would be funny to make Josh blow out all his candles on his cake. So, we proceeded to put all the candles close together in the middle of this little cake.

We lit them and all the candles together made this huge flame! 

[Josh warming his hands by the fire.  :)
I like how the camera made it look like a beam of light was coming out of the top.  :) ]



After we sang 'Happy Birthday' and went to take the candles

off the cake, we saw that they had fused together!

As we took the candles off we also noticed that one candle that was in the middle of the pack didn't get lit [how that could have happened with that huge flame I don't know :) ], so... we made him do the whole thing again!  :)  You know, technically he didn't blow out all his candles.  :)  We all had a good laugh.

A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away - June 2007

I made this cake for my brother-in-law, Josh's, birthday. (It was at the same party as Valerie's Wizard of Oz cake - see the I've a Feeling We're Not in Kansas Anymore post).  He likes Star Wars a lot, so I thought this would be good for him.  One of the bigger surprises for him was that this cake was made all out of cheesecake, which is his favorite.

To make this cake I just followed a cheesecake recipe and lined the pans I needed with parchment paper.  I used three 6 inch round pans and 1 half of a ball pan.  Before I stacked the cakes I covered one of the empty 6 inch pans with foil and put it on the board upside down.  Then I stacked the cakes on top of the pan.  That way when I put the legs and feet on it would give the feeling of empty space below R2-D2's body, since in the movie he is suspended in the air from his legs.  I just used classic white icing (tinted when needed) to ice and decorate it.

The legs and feet I shaped out of foam core board, covered with foil, and iced along with the rest of the cake.  For the blue and red lights (Logic Display and PSI) on R2-D2's dome I cut pieces of foil into the right shapes and then just painted over them with food coloring gel.  It gave it that reflective shiny look while still having the appropriate color (just remember to remove them before you serve the cake :) ).  The brown hoses on the feet are made out of fondant.  With it being made all out of cheesecake this cake was heavy, you would have thought you were picking up a real metal droid!  :)



(The legs and feet before they were covered and iced.)