It's... a... Dinglehopper! - July 2006

This is the other Ariel (Little Mermaid) themed cake that I made for Cara's 7th birthday.  I also made some little fish cookies and starfish cookies for the goodie bags.  (See the Under the Sea... Under the Sea... post for information and more pictures of the other cake I made for her party.)

 

 

I saw a version of a treasure chest cake on the Family Fun website and although it would usually be at a pirate party I thought it would also go nice with Cara's Little Mermaid theme (you know all the treasures Ariel collects). So, I took some ideas from that cake and changed it some to make it the look I wanted.

I used a loaf pan to make the treasure chest; then I sliced the top half off to use for the lid. I iced the bottom half of the treasure chest with buttercream icing. I got the wood grain look by running a fork lightly through the icing. All of the treasure is just some of Cara's pretend jewelry, jewels, and gold coins, so that part, of course, was not eaten. I washed it off and filled the treasure chest, and then we just took it all out before we cut the cake so no one would find any 'surprises' in their cake. :) (Some treasure chest cakes fill them with candy necklaces, ring pops, etc. so that's a way you could do it and be able to eat the treasure, but I decided to go this route this time.) After filling the chest I put the top half back on and iced it the same way as the bottom. The straps are strips of red fruit roll-up and the studs are brown mini M&M's. The sand is extra cake that I crumbled around the base of the treasure chest.

 

The little fish and starfish cookies were little sugar cookies that I made to put in the goodie bags. For time's sake my sister, Casandra, actually came over and made, cut, and baked the cookies for me. Then later I went and decorated them by painting on them with food coloring.

Under the Sea... Under the Sea... - July 2006

This is one of the Ariel (Little Mermaid) themed cakes I made for my daughter, Cara's, 7th birthday.  (See the It's... a... Dinglehopper! post for information and more pictures of the other cake and some cookies that I also made for the party.) 

The main part of the King Triton's Castle cake is made using one cake I baked in a batter bowl and one smaller cake I baked in a big glass measuring cup.  The towers on the castle were baked in regular and mini ice cream cones, then I peeled away the cone to use the cake that was formed inside.  All the cake was iced using buttercream icing.

The seaweed around the cake is a green fruit roll-up that I cut and twisted.  The only non edible items on Triton's castle are the thin spires which are toothpicks covered in icing, and then Ariel, Triton, Sebastian, and Flounder are pictures printed out from the computer that I laminated.

All the Cupcakes of the Rainbow - May 2006

These are the rainbow cupcakes that I made for my daughter, Cara, to celebrate her birthday at school in 1st grade.

The colored batter before we baked them.

Since Cara's birthday is in the summer, near the end of school we let her bring cupcakes to celebrate her birthday with her classmates in school.  So, for 1st grade she wanted rainbow cupcakes, and she wanted the inside to be colored also.  So, we made vanilla cupcakes and added the appropriate food coloring to the batter before we put them in the oven.  After they baked we mixed up different colored icings (by adding food coloring to white icing) to match the cupcakes.  The kids thought it was cool that when they bit into it there was color inside too.

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PARTIES I'VE LINKED THIS POST TO:

Creative Bloggers' Party and Hop - Homemaker on a Dime

Made by You Monday - Skip to My Lou

Just Something I Whipped Up - The Girl Creative

Tuesday To Do - The Blackberry Vine

Show Me What You Got - Our Delightful Home
 Whatever Goes Wednesday - Someday Crafts
What I Whipped Up Wednesday - Sugar and Dots
{wow me} Wednesday - Ginger Snap Crafts
These Chicks Cooked Recipe Swap - This Chick Cooks
Mrs. Fox's Sweet Party - Mrs. Fox's Sweets
Cast Party Wednesday - Lady Behind the Curtain
Strut Your Stuff - Somewhat Simple
Sweet Treats Thursday - Something Swanky
For the Kids Friday - Sun Scholars
Kitchen Fun and Crafty Friday - Kitchen Fun With My 3 Sons
Fun Stuff Fridays - Toys in the Dryer
Decorating Challenge - Food Corner

Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel - April 2006

I made these cakes for my son, Caleb's, 4th birthday.

 

 

Everything on Batman is cake iced in buttercream except his nose and the ears on his cowl.  Those are made from Bugles covered in buttercream icing (you know the cone shaped chip snack).  The cake was baked in a batter bowl and then I built up the top of his head some more using some extra cake from the logo cake.

The Batman logo cake was just a 9x13 cake that I cut into an oval and decorated with buttercream.

Happy Birthday Jesus - December 2005

This is a cake the kids and I made for our family get together at Christmas.

 

One time when we were younger my mom made a cake with us at Christmas as a birthday cake for Jesus.  We wrote 'Happy Birthday Jesus' on the cake.  So, I thought that would be fun to do with the kids.

We made a cake and decided to decorate it by drawing a nativity scene on the cake with icing.  We ended up having less time to decorate it than I thought so it's not the best artistry, but it didn't matter to the kids, the meaning still came through.  :)  So, I put on a stable and manger with baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and we put a star in the sky.  Then I thought I'd let each kid decide one thing to put on the cake.  Cara wanted the angel, Carissa was just one year old so I gave her some choices and she wanted the lamb, and Caleb wanted... Scooby Doo!  :)  He was SO excited about it.  I thought, sure, why not, and piped him on the cake (after a brief discussion about Scooby Doo not really being there that night, although a dog may have been).  :)

A Blue's Clues Cupcake House - November 2005

This little Blue's Clues House cake was made for my daughter, Carissa, for her 1st birthday [well a little after :) ].

 

I was going to make this Blue's Clues house to be at Carissa's birthday party along with her Blue cake [see the We Are Looking for Blue's Clue's... post], but I ran out of time.  So a couple days after the party I decided I'd still make it since I already had the cupcakes made.  It is made out of 3 of my triangle cupcakes [see the From a Caterpillar to a Butterfly post for triangle cupcake explanation :) ], two forming the square [well squarish shape :) ] of the house and one for the roof.  Originally I was going to make it standing up, but by the time I made it I figured she would like it just as much laying on a plate... and she did.  :)

We are looking for Blue's Clues... - November 2005

I made this 3D Blue's Clues cake for my daughter, Carissa's, 1st birthday.

 

 

 

All of Blue is made out of cake iced in buttercream with the exception of 2 little clementine oranges that are supporting the bottom of the ears.  The thin pieces of cake I had made for the ears didn't want to stay in place, and I had a bowl of clementine oranges sitting on the counter, so I washed two of them and put one behind the bottom of each ear to support them.  That got them to stay up so I figured I'd just ice over the clementine oranges too since the ears were now staying put.  :)

The head was a cake baked in a batter bowl, and the body was a cake baked in a large glass measuring cup.  The nose was one of my triangle cupcakes (see the From a Caterpillar to a Butterfly post for triangle cupcake explanation) that I shaped to look like Blue's nose.  The feet were regular cupcakes turned upside down.

Carissa loved having a cake that looked like Blue!

Aloha, Piggy! - October 2005

So, I decided to throw my husband, Ronnie, a surprise luau themed birthday party. He had mentioned a couple months earlier that a luau type party would be fun to have sometime, so I decided why not do it for his birthday.  So, this is the luau pig cake I made for his birthday.

 

 

 

 For the cake I got it in my mind that I wanted it to be a 3D luau pig.  You have to have a pig at a luau, right.  :)  So I planned and figured out how I could do it, and after Ronnie went to work the day of the party I proceeded to assemble a little piggy.  This was the first real 3D cake I had done.  All of the pig is cake iced in buttercream.  I baked the cake in various pans and stuff to get the shapes I needed to piece together the piggy.  The ears, feet, and tail are cake that I cut off from one of the other cakes.  The apple is of course just a real apple, and then the flowers are one of those silk flower lei necklaces.  We decorated the house with Hawaiian style things, tiki torches, shell dishes, grass mats, etc.  My mom made a ham, we had pineapple, and other fresh fruit and goodies.  The pig was a fun way to make it feel even more like a luau.