Construction Site Cake - January 2015

I made this construction themed cake for my nephew Gavin for his 4th birthday.

My sister was expecting a lot of people at the party so I also made the cake below. 

The picture below is how the inside of the cake looked!

More pictures and details coming soon... 😊

(I created my animated name at this site.)

Gender Reveal Cake - It's a... ??? - November 2013

When my sister Valerie was pregnant with their second baby, she and her husband decided to find out the gender.  After some persuading from her friends :) they decided to have a gender reveal party, and they asked me if I would bake the cake for it.  My mom offered to decorate it, but they didn't want us both to know the gender ahead of time, so after I baked and assembled the cake I frosted it with a layer of icing that would conceal any of the colored cake before handing it off.  Then, my mom finished frosting and decorating it.

I baked French vanilla almond sour cream cake in 2- 9 inch cake pans and French vanilla almond sour cream cake tinted 'the mystery color' in 3- 9 inch cake pans.  Since I was using a crystal cake stand, I put a round cake circle on the stand under the cake so no one would see the color of the cake through the crystal.  ;)  I alternated layers of colored and white cake and iced them with white frosting in between as I stacked them.  When all the layers were assembled I iced the cake with a crumb coat.  After the crumb coat set I iced the cake with just enough frosting so my mom couldn't see the color of the cake when she went to decorate it.

My mom iced the cake with white frosting and made little peaks on the sides.  My sister had asked her to write 'Oh, Baby!' on the cake, so she piped it in green icing on the top.  Then she used pearlized pink, blue, and green sixlets around the base of the cake and several on the top.

The cake turned out really cute and sweet, and when they cut the cake everyone was excited to find out they were having a... 

...BOY!  :)

(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.)

Calvin and Hobbes Themed Cupcakes - April 2013

I made these Calvin and Hobbes themed cupcakes for my son, Caleb, to share with his class at school for his birthday.  (You can see his Calvin and Hobbes birthday cake here.)

To make these cupcakes I layered some orange tinted cake batter (red for some) with some chocolate cake batter in cupcake liners and baked them.  I was trying to get a striped look inside, but I didn't do thin enough layers, so it was more like a one big stripe-ish look for most of them (see picture below), but oh well, still something different.  :)

 

After the cupcakes baked and completely cooled, I iced the orange cupcakes with orange colored buttercream and the red cupcakes with red buttercream.  Then I piped black buttercream icing stripes on all the cupcakes.  Then using an open star tip (I think I used a #22) I piped white tufts of fur along the sides of the orange, Hobbes, cupcakes, and yellow spikes of hair along the top of the red, Calvin, cupcakes.  I did the Hobbes cupcakes first, and looking back, I think if I were to do it again I'd do the white fur tufts similarly to the hair I did on the Calvin cupcakes.  But I did like how the cupcakes came out, a little simplistic nod to Calvin and Hobbes.  :)

(I created my animated name at this site.)

Calvin and Hobbes Snowman Cake - April 2013

I made this Calvin and Hobbes cake, featuring their very unique snowmen, for my son, Caleb, for his 11th birthday.  I loved Calvin and Hobbes growing up, so when I introduced it to my kids I thought it was cool that they liked it, especially Caleb, he really took off with it.  I was excited when he picked it for his birthday theme, and I pretty much immediately knew this was what I wanted to do for his cake.

For this cake I baked one 12 inch round cake and two 6 inch round cakes.  A while back I had seen Duff Goldman's zebra striped cake mix in the store.  I thought it looked cool and was interested so I took a look at the back of the box to see how they said to do it.  When Caleb decided to have a Calvin and Hobbes party I thought it would be fun to use that technique to make the inside of the cake look tiger striped (and 'Calvin striped' (red and black like his shirt) for other cakes).

 

I used a chocolate cake mix and a white cake mix that I colored orange by putting food coloring in the batter and followed the directions that I had seen for the Duff zebra cake.  The two 6 inch cakes I made tiger striped, and the 12 inch cake had some Calvin stripes next to some Hobbes tiger stripes with white cake batter that I mixed up in addition around it to look like snow.  (I took part of that white cake batter and added red to it to make the red for the Calvin stripes.)

 

After the cakes were completely cooled I leveled them and stacked them (icing in between).  I stacked the 6 inch cakes a little off center towards the back of the 12 inch cake (which was off center towards the back of the cake board) to give room for my snowmen and other items.  I crumb coated the cakes and let the icing set.  Then I iced the cakes and the cake board with white buttercream purposely going in different directions leaving visible lines and some peaks to give it that snowy look.

 

 

All the figures and other items on the cake I made of fondant ahead of time.  I found all the different snowmen Calvin had made in the comics and then let Caleb choose several that he wanted.  I had him put them in the order he wanted from most to least in case I couldn't get to them all.  I think I was able to get all but one done, the snowman swimming away from the snow sharks.  Well, the one holding his head out in front of him I decided not to do for the logistics of it and the time it would take to make it work.



Calvin and Hobbes Comic Strip by Bill Watterson





Calvin and Hobbes Comic Strip by Bill Watterson





Calvin and Hobbes Comic Strip by Bill Watterson



 

I had the pictures of the snowmen (and multiple pictures of Calvin and Hobbes) right next to me and constantly referenced to them as I was making all the figures to try and get them to look just like they did in the comics.  The bodies of the snowmen are made with white fondant shaped for how each particular snowman looked.  For the mouths that were open I made using a fondant tool to shape them.  I made the little carrot noses out of orange fondant, let them dry a just little bit, and attached them to the snowmen using a dab of water.  The arms are made of brown fondant.  I let the arms dry so they would hold their shape when they were on the snowmen.  When I attached them I made a small hole in the snowman's body with a toothpick and then inserted the arms.  I made a couple extra in case any of them broke.  I used a black food coloring marker for the eyes, mouths, and buttons (and the words on the sign).  The two hats on the snowmen are made from fondant as well as the sled the little snowman is on.  The snow shovel and sign are made of fondant except for the sticks which are toothpicks.  For the tiny snowmen I forget if I pinch their arms out from the bodies or if I attached a little pinch of fondant to the bodies.  I think it might have been the first way.  Whichever way it was they were painted with a dab of brown food coloring. 

Calvin and Hobbes Comic Strip by Bill Watterson

Calvin and Hobbes Comic Strip by Bill Watterson



Calvin and Hobbes Comic Strip by Bill Watterson

I made Hobbes and his scarf out of fondant with his eyes and stripes drawn on with a black food coloring marker.  I set his arms aside to dry before attaching them because I wanted them to stay how I put them once I attached them.  When I went to attach them they didn't sit against the body exactly right and I had to work with them a bit to get them attached and looking okay.  So, I didn't get them positioned exactly how I had wanted.  Looking at him after he was together, I would have wanted his arms to be a little more relaxed looking and his head to be looking down towards the snowman, but I was still very happy with Hobbes' overall look.

Calvin and Hobbes Comic Strip by Bill Watterson

 

All the elements of Calvin were also made with fondant with his eyes and mouth drawn on with a black food coloring marker.  I did let his arms dry some also, but I didn't wait as much as I did with Hobbes' so I could have a little more give in the body and arms when attaching them.

Calvin and Hobbes Comic Strip by Bill Watterson

 

After I iced the cake I got some more icing and put a blob of it on the cake board to look like a mound of snow.  Then I put the fondant sled I'd made sticking out of the snow to look like Calvin and Hobbes had crashed it in the snow.  Then I started at the top cake layer and made a furrow in the icing down the side of the cake and on the top of the bottom cake layer to make it look like they had sledded down the cake before they crashed.

 

Next I placed my fondant snow fort and pile of snowballs on the bottom cake.  I had some extra snowballs that I didn't need for the snowball pile so I decided to use them to make an 11 on the side of the top cake like they had thrown them there.

 

Then I started placing the snowmen and Calvin and Hobbes on the cakes and cake board.  After I placed the little snowman on the sled and the snowman it sledded through I made a little furrow in the icing following after the sled.  I knew I had made my little sled too short, but I didn't notice until after that the little snowman's sled in the comic is really long and extends all the way past the other side of the snowman he sledded through.  Grr...

I also made a 6 inch 'Calvin striped' cake with the leftover batter that I had.  I used that 6 inch cake and the top from leveling it as well as the tops from the leveled 6 inch tiger cakes to make a 'snowball' cake for extra cake at the party.

 

I was super excited and so pleased with how the cake turned out.  I thought it really captured the characters well and the spirit of Calvin and Hobbes.  I loved how the inside of the cake came out as well.  Everyone thought the tiger stripes were really cool.  Caleb absolutely loved the cake and was really excited about it as well.  :)  The kids and adults at the party thought it was awesome, especially those familiar with Calvin and Hobbes, they really thought it was great.  :)

(I created my animated name at this site.)