Beachy Sea Creature Cake

 I made this cake for my friend Olivia- do you see it.?! (The Octopus is the O, a seaweed L, seaweed I's dotted with starfish, two crabs fighting to form the V, and a pink fish A.!) First, I iced the cake with lightly tinted blue icing. I just barely mixed a small amount of light blue food gel into white icing to create various shades of blue and white waves. Next, I covered a third of the cake with a sand mixture I made by mixing graham crackers and a little bit of brown sugar in a food processor.

Then, I crafted each sea creature out of gumpaste- an edible clay that I like to use. It's very pliable and easy to work with but I would suggest only using a small amount at a time, and always remember to keep the rest of your gumpaste tightly wrapped in plastic wrap and stowed in a sealed plastic ziploc; exposure to air will harden the gumpaste very quickly and make it impossible to work with. I also like to use food gel to tint icings and decorations, because you can use a very small amount and achieve a more intense, exact color than with food coloring without compromising the composition of the material. I added yellow sprinkles on the star fish by rubbing a small amount of water onto the gumpaste stars before sprinkling them on. Lastly, I accented the cake with edible pearls for an extra pop!

Taco Cakepops

I surprised my friend with taco cakepops for his birthday given his great love for taco bell.! I thought that mini tacos would be a fun new food like challenge to add to my cake making repertoire.

 Here's the finished, packaged product all ready to enjoy.!

 First,  like with any cakepops, you bake a cake. After letting the cake cool completely,  crumble it up in a large bowl. Add 3/4 of a container of icing and then its the fun part- time to get messy.! Knead the cake and icing mixture by hand. Form into individual cakepop sized balls. I like to put the balls in a pan to briefly stick in the freezer to firm up.

Take out one individual ball from the freezer at a time so that the other ones stay intact. I formed the ball into a taco shell shape, dipped the tip of a cakepop stick into melted yellow candy melts, and stuck the stick into the "taco shell". You may need to quickly stick this back into the freezer to solidify. Then, cover the outside of the shell with the yellow candy melts. Quickly spoon a thin layer of melted brown candy melts to serve as the "meat" inside the taco shell. Then, sprinkle green tinted coconut "lettuce", shredded orange candy melt "cheese", red candy coated chocolate sprinkles for tomatoes, and top with a healthy dollop of icing for sour cream. Enjoy.!