Simple Valentine's Day Cake

Just like the Valentine's cupcakes in my previous post, there are very simple ways to decorate a festive cake. For this idea I started with three layers of 6" chocolate cake. The base icing is white. I took heart cookie cutters and placed outlines where I wanted them on the front and back of the cake. I used a #21 Wilton star tip and piped the hearts first. I piped rose swirls to cover the rest of the cake, just try to apply equal pressure throughout the entire cake when doing this. This doesn't have to be a perfect piping process. You can easily fill any holes with whatever look or method you want.

I topped the cake off with some bright pink disco dust and some red and pink sprinkles. It just adds a little color and flare.

This is also a two-toned cake...half of the cake is red. The other half is pink!

I wanted the hearts to be slightly dimensional. I used a combination of rose swirls, random swirls and stars to make the hearts. I think they look pretty good!

And that's it....aside from baking it should take you less than 30 minutes to decorate a cute cake for Valentine's Day, no matter how you choose to make it look, using this method!

Valentine's Day Cupcakes

These cupcakes were just an experiment. I figured I should get on the Valentine's Day bandwagon as soon as possible. I was also dying to try a new flavor! I have been snowed in most of the week with my kids and my hubby. If I didn't bake something TODAY I was going to go stir crazy!

These are chocolate banana cupcakes. For some reason, I love banana bread, banana pancakes....most things banana. But banana cakes?? They make me hesitate. So today I wanted to play around with it. I think I added to this recipe by using dark chocolate cocoa and extra mashed banana. The cupcakes are extremely moist. They are flavorful, not too sweet or rich, and just delicious. The buttercream is a Swiss meringue buttercream with hints of cream cheese and caramel. Surprisingly light and a perfect fit for these cupcakes!

There is something just simply wonderful about sprinkles. I used to snub them, I will admit it. I have officially been converted to a sprinkles fan lately!

The larger pieces on the cupcakes are fondant, cut with heart cutters and finished with luster dust. These are an extremely easy and quick way to decorate some festive, pretty and yet very simple Valentine's Day treats.

Tomorrow I will post some cake photos from another simple Valentine's Day dessert I am finishing up. I hope this one will be a slightly unique and equally cute idea!

These cupcakes made my boys very, very happy. I'd say the chocolate banana might be one of their favorite flavors!

Mmmmm......yummy! It's a keeper!

Even Mermaids Love Starbucks Coffee!

In case you ever wondered....much of the world loves Starbucks coffee. I know I love it...what's not to love?!?! So it's only natural that mermaids would love it too. Never leave your cup of Starbucks happiness unattended. Just a suggestion.

Only kidding. :)

This was a fun cake. It required a lot of imagination on my part! Unfortunately I didn't have as much time to make this cake as I usually do for most others. The main drive for me at the end turned out to be that it looked decent and was structurally sound. It was all of those things. I just wish I had more time for creativity and adding all the details to this cake that I would have liked to have seen.

My client wanted a cake for her sister and brother-in-law. Her sister loves Starbucks. Her BIL loves mermaids. So here is where the concept came in! Overall, I think it's a pretty darn funny idea.

And here she is...sneaking up on the unsuspecting victim!

My favorite detail of this cake was the man. I like his slightly long hair. His shirt?? I should have made it back. I feel like he looks to be wearing a woman's blouse with a collar from the 1970s! I still loved him though.

I made large eyes on the mermaid. I should have made them the same size as the man's. Why does it matter? It doesn't. I am just picky!!! I didn't have enough room to give her eye lashes and do all the things that would have made her as a fondant character just stunning. So...this means I need to make another mermaid cake sometime!!!! She is still cute!!

I also like the detail of the wood on the pier....

The sides of the cakes were piped with blue circles. They could be bubbles. Although they remind me of barnacles. Either way, I like the effect.

Curious George Cake

A Curious George birthday party!!! I was very excited about making this cake!!!

I remember when I was a child that the book Curious George Flies a Kite was one of my favorite stories. For some reason the part where he stumbled upon a rabbit hutch filled with baby bunnies was my favorite part. It's great to see that the Curious George legacy still lives on, probably even stronger than ever!

This cake was for my great friend's son....Garrett turned two this year. Every big kids deserves a big, fabulous cake!!!

And Garrett LOVES Curious George. He kept yelling with big eyes about his monkey cake. GO GEORGE!! Thanks for making my job so easy! :D

I really love that cakes make kids SO HAPPY!

This cake was a dark chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream filling.

The top tier was decorated with the star of the cake...George (made from fondant). The bananas and yellow hat were also made with fondant. The trees are made from pretzel sticks and covered in fondant leaves (the leaves were "glued" on with egg whites). The flowers are fondant....the vines and leaves were piped buttercream.

The second tier of the cake was piped using a #12 round tip, and included some fondant ribbons, stars and circles. Just a very fun and whimsical look.

To make the bananas, I shaped the fondant and let it dry for 24 hours. I made the lines with an edible for marker and colored the tips with some green petal dust. Since I tend to like the weirdest details and aspects of each of my cakes, I'd have to say that on this cake, the bananas were my favorite detail.

Especially the banana peel!

The #2 was also made from fondant. I formed it and dried it for four days. I then added a layer of luster dust to make it more vibrant.

The cake was finished around the bottom of the cake with rolled fondant balls, they were each of varying sizes. I chose to do this because it seems that in many of the books, Curious George loves balloons. This was a way to bring that aspect into the cake,more vibrant colors, without trying to actually add balloons and ruin the balance the cake already had.

I think my favorite details on George himself were his hair and hands/feet. I love making fondant animals. George was pretty simple. With drying time included, he took me two days to make. Overall this was an extremely simple cake to make.

Look at his adorable ears and feet!!!!

And there you have it...one fabulously looking Curious George cake! :D

Happy 2nd Birthday G-man!

Shark Cake and Cupcakes

I grew up in Hawaii. I have always loved turtles and sharks. I even have a tattoo of a Tiger Shark and a Green Sea Turtle. So, when I was presented with the idea of making a shark cake, of course I was thrilled!

Hint, hint: anyone need a turtle cake?? :D

I made a 10" cake with accompanying cupcakes for this project. Yes I cheated and BOUGHT the cupcake toppers! But they're still so very cute! The piping tip is also a new one that I just added to my collection. I think it's very quickly moving up the list toward the "my favorite piping ever" category.

The shark was much more simple to make than it looks. I molded the head out of rice krispie treats. I covered it in white fondant and hand-painted it. Then I added a fondant fin and teeth. The bubbles around the shark are just piped buttercream.

Sharky says hello. :D

Two additional details I like are the fondant surfboards with shark bites in them, and also the shells. The candy shells were formed in a candy mold and once dried I hand-painted them with petal dust. I really like how they turned out.

I think he's more of a happy looking shark, rather than a mean one. He seems to be smiling....

I think this one is going to be one of my favorite cakes of the year. A very happy birthday to Collin!

Cars Cake

Let's talk Cars! As in Cars the movie...not just cars in general.

A friend asked me to make a cake featuring the Cars characters. Especially Mater. I mean, Mater is my favorite....of course he would be the favorite of this special birthday boy too!

I chose not to make a cake based completely on the Cars 2 movie setting in Asia because I think what is most lovable about Mater is his home and place in Radiator Springs. Although, I also wanted to pep the cake up a bit...it has to be exciting if you want to please a three-year-old boy! Hence the race track idea at the top of the cake.

The race track is fondant. The desert is made out of crumbled Hawaiian creme cookies. Yum yum. I can't believe I shared those actually. :D

I have to say, I am a detailed person and some of my favorite aspects of this cake are the signs and the clouds. I just love the clouds! Well okay, I really do like the entire cake.

Very simple, yet fun idea! And Lightening McQueen looks as cool as ever.

And yes, Francesco does too!

This was an incredibly fun and extremely simple cake to make!

And there you have it. Happy birthday to Tyler!

Ballerina Cupcakes

I love making adorable cupcake toppers. Especially for kids! Even my boys liked these quite a bit (although my oldest son announced that they were pretty, but he doesn't like girls' toys or dolls so I should never make these for him!)

These cupcakes were for a big girl, who turned 5, who loves ballerinas and purple and pink galore!

Which is right up my alley!

I began by making some ballet slippers.

The slippers were all hand-made, with mini hand-made flowers and bows for toppers.

The 5's were made so the big girl could show off how old she is.

What ballerina in the making doesn't love flowers?? Well, I love flowers so I assumed she would as well. :D

I like the bright pink ones with the purple disco dust, personally!

 Then came the ballerina. I only made one of these...she was for the birthday girl. She is sitting on a lollipop stick for stability and wearing a pink tutu. She's about 2" tall, the perfect size for a cupcake!

 And of course, every ballerina needs tutus! These were also supported with lollipop sticks and are about 2" tall.

Some in pink...

Some in purple....

All complete with glitter!!

Ta-da!!!

I hope I get to make more ballerina cupcakes, these were a ton of fun! I'm so glad the birthday girl liked them!