Okkie monster!!

Why: A friend of my sister asked if I could make a cookie monster cake for her little one's birthday.

What: My sisters friend has a gluten allergy so I'm going to be perfectly honest and admit that I totally cheated and used a gluten free box mix for the cake. I'm great with making gluten free brownies and meringues but gluten free cakes and bread are still foreign to me. The cake was a yellow cake with real vanilla bean, the filling was chocolate mousse and the frosting was vanilla buttercream. It took a lot of food coloring to get close to the right shade of blue and I hope it didn't turn her kids face into a blueberry! The eyes were cupcakes that I cut into a dome shape (because really, a giant blob of frosting for the eyes just repulsed me) and the pupils were unsweetened chocolate pistoles. With the extra batter I made cupcakes and what I didn't use for the eyes I made into little cookies.

April showers bring May flowers

Why: Awhile ago I saw a cake on www.cakewrecks.com (it was an example of a good lookin cake) that I really really liked. I decided to work on my gum paste skills and make a display cake that was inspired by the original.

What: The original cake was all daffodils which was beautiful but I felt that it need a slight variety in color and type of flower. I made all the flowers out of gum paste (over 2 days! Way more intense than I thought it would be) and the green stems is marshmallow fondant. I am so very pleased with the results and now have a greater appreciation for gumpaste flowers ..well.. gum paste anything! I am so glad this was just for fun and practice because I severely under estimated the amount of time it took.

Adding a little color to my life

Why: I wanted to do something fun and a friend had mentioned her love of rainbow cakes/cupcakes. Since her super bowl party was quickly approaching, I thought it would be the perfect time to give it a go. I also thought it would be a great opportunity to break out my new light cube for the photos.

What: I did a simple white cake batter that I split up and colored with my gel food coloring. To get the layer effect I careful dropped some into each muffin cup and made it level. Towards the end I lost my patience and just did a mishmash of colors. For the party I did half with lemon curd and buttercream on top (a requirement for my sister) and the other half was a orangesicle frosting. I hate all things orange flavored but the orangesicle was still pretty tasty.

Almond paste is my new best friend

My new all time favorite!

Why: One of my sisters worker wanted an almond cake for her birthday. She sent along a recipe but I was sketched out because there was no flour! I've made some flourless items before but this recipe had no obvious substitutions so I had to come to the conclusion that the author just forgot to include it when publishing. I found something I was comfortable with and I'm very happy with the results.

What: Part of the guidelines was almond cake, pastry cream, fresh raspberries. The fresh raspberries were a little hard to find since it was the dead of winter but I managed. The cake is an almond bundt cake with almond paste mixed into the batter *drool* with pastry cream that I lightly flavored with almond extract and fresh raspberries. Since it was the first time I had made the cake and fiddled around the with the recipe I made a mini bundt for myself and it quickly disappeared which in my book means that it's a huge success. One of the cakes didn't release from the pan cleanly so I saved it for a super bowl party and filled it with pears instead of raspberries. I hate to say, the pears couldn't hold up against the almond flavors and the pear flavor was completely lost.

Who you gonna call?

Why: My sister's friend wanted a birthday cake that matched their halloween costumes. They had the full ghost buster uniform and instead of going for the no ghost sign that everyone and their dog thinks of, I decided to go with the Stay Puff marshmallow man.

What: The cake was a spice cake with cream cheese frosting. The background is all frosting (it was very thick frosting and difficult to work with!). I thought it would only be fitting if the Stay Puff man was made out of marshmallow fondant. The writing was done in white chocolate. Around the side it said "We came, we saw, we kicked it's butt"

Monkey business

Two of my most favorite things, cakes and donuts!

Why: One of my husbands coworker wanted a monkey cake for his kids birthday. His wife saw this decorating idea online and after 2 failed attempts, was ready to ask someone else to give it a go. Later on, a friend of mine wanted the same cake for her little boys birthday. Not wanting to miss the opportunity to make sure that their little one got all sugared up, I made a "smash" cake just for him.

What: To be honest, I don't remember what the first monkey cake was. I think it was yellow cake with raspberry whipped cream. The second cake was a chocolate cake with vanilla pudding in the middle. Both cakes were covered in ganache and the mouth and eyes were made out of marshmallow fondant. The small smash cake was just remainder chocolate cake covered in ganache.

Wedding Day

Why: Wedding cake for my sister's wedding.

What: The bottom layer was white cake with pastry cream and fresh raspberries. The middle and top layer was a lemon cake with lemon curd and vanilla buttercream. Covered in marshmallow fondant and gum paste flowers. For the reception there were also cupcakes in the same flavors.