Slot Machine Cake

This cake was a challenge, but one of the first where I really came up with the entire concept and creatively figured out how to make it...with cake.! This was for my stepdad's joint retirement party- two of his close friends were retiring as well. They all enjoy casinos, so I thought it would be a nice tie to make a slot machine featuring pictures of the three of them, given the reason for the party too. I made three rectangular panels with color flow icing, and then drew common slot machine symbols on them using edible markers. I put each man's nickname on the square color flow "button" under their respective picture. I made a Las Vegas sign out of color flow icing, edible markers, and sprinkles. A family friend was kind enough to make a lever to add to the side of the slot machine, and then I added fake coins spilling out of the slot machine. It was really a hit.! :D

Watermelon Cake

I have to admit, I saw the idea for this cake in a magazine. It's still a pretty sweet watermelon resembling assemblage of cake though.! My favorite part is the streaks of different shades of green on the "rind" at the back of the cake- not that you can see that... the seeds are chocolate covered raisins.

Mother's Day Cake

Here's my Happy Mother's Day Cake.! I basically had these royal icing flowers left over from class and put them together with pastel green cream cheese icing. It's a carrot cake of course- I added walnuts on top after but since that's more of a taste element and detracts from the other decorations...I used this picture instead.

Easter Lamb Cake

This lamby cake was made for Easter.! The pan was difficult to use because you have to guess how much batter to put in, and then tie the sides together as it bakes and pray that when you take it apart there isn't cake stuck to the sides and crumbling everywhere in pieces..luckily for me, there wasn't.! My lamb was a little top heavy though, so I decided to just decorate him laying in a field of green colored coconut grass. For his wool, I piped big white rosettes and threw on more coconut. Then I added colorful jelly beans to enhance the overall Easterful effect.!

Abbey Road Cake

Yes. I made my own birthday cake. I don't care what anyone says though and don't want your pity because I wanted to make my own birthday cake, and think I made a pretty amazing one myself.! I found the Beatles font online (Bootle) and made a color flow Happy Birthday message in black and purple. My favorite color combination is aqua and black, and I used purple as an accent to border everything. I looked up a picture of the Abbey Road crossing and drew it, then traced for forever with color flow icing- it was so worth it though.! As you can see, I also made a template for George's trademark Gretsch guitar. I wanted something else to balance out the sides of the cake, and further implement the purple, aqua and black, so I made a quick swoosh of a treble clef and musical notes with leftover color flow icing.

Penguin Winter Cupcake Cake

This is the first attempt using my giant cupcake cake pan! I made this monstrous cupcake for Courtney during winter break. I made penguins participating in winterland wonderment out of color flow icing with a design I drew. I like my little snowflakes- they seem Dr.Seussical in purple and blue. To emulate snow in a fantastical, fun way, I half mixed in some blue food gel to achieve the desired effect with different shades, and sprinkled blue sprinkles everywhere on top for some extra shine.!

Victorian Christmas Cake

I made this Christmas themed coconut cake for another holiday family get together. I knew I wanted a different look but still wanted it to convey Christmas...so I thought it'd be fun to make some holly leaves and berries nestled in coconut snow, and accentuated the sides with red royal icing bows. I like that the buttercream icing is off-white...I think the overall effect is a more refined interpretation of Christmas..as a cake.

Christmas Carrot Cake

Mom loves Carrot Cake for any holiday..or any day..so I did my best to make it a festive Christmas-ful version.! Poinsettias and sparkly Christmas red writing contrasting the garland green piping at the bottom...and staggered yellow stars on around the sides just for fun.

mini cupcakes

I made these mini-cupcakes to surprise my friend Kirstyn for her birthday! It was difficult to bake anything at school because I was still living in a dorm at this point. I had a fun decorating day with Emily though at her apartment & made a bunch of different nifty designs. :)

Heart shaped Roses Cake

This was a joint Happy Birthday cake for my Grandma Nina and Congratulations cake for my Aunt Debbie. I don't particularly enjoy pink, but they do and the roses turned out well with different shades and the white roses too.!

Birdhouse Cake

Contrary to what it looks like- (a baby shower cake maybe..? for a huge crowd.?) this cake was for my Grandpa's 80th birthday party. I had a lot of flowers left over that I'd made in class, learning different techniques and such..and wanted to use them.! Our Wilton cake book had a pattern for color flow blue birds and a bird house, so I thought that Grandpa being the avid bird lover that he is would enjoy that part at least. Grandpa's..manly enough and enjoys beauty..that he didn't have a problem with his pastel flower covered monstrosity of a cake. :) I guess I could have at least darkened the color scheme a bit, but hey..still think it turned out neat.

Pirate Cake

Here we go! I LOVE this cake.! I made a pirate carrot cake for Jay's Birthday :) I found a picture of a pirate-esque skull and swords online that I liked, modified the colors a bit and traced over the picture using color flow icing. It's a time consuming process (HOURS) and the result is extremely fragile, but I like the look and creativity it allows as long as you have the time and patience. The more different colors you have for your color flow image, the longer it will take to mix the icings, and be aware of the different consistencies needed. I typically draw or trace an image onto parchment paper and tape that onto a flat cardboard cake circle to ensure a flat surface. Tape wax paper on top of that, and then you're ready to pipe on color flow icing.! Make sure to let areas dry fully, so I recommend tracing out an area in icing and then working on a different part for awhile before coming back to fill that spot in. After allowing color flow decorations to dry for AT LEAST a day, CAREFULLY remove by slowly running the wax paper over a table or counter edge until the decoration is loosened.

Henry's Cake

This was a quick cake that I made RIGHT after I got back from Italy and Greece, and RIGHT after the 4th of July- hence the color scheme. Still haven't gotten too exciting with my cake decorating at this point but the swirly rosettes around the edges are new.

**Just as a tip- Lemon cake with almond icing typically does NOT pair together well. I unthinkingly made this cake that exact combination...my cousin Matthew was the only one who really enjoyed eating it.

Purple Rose Cake

We made this cake in class. My first attempt at roses- & other new techniques with the bow and leaves. This feels like a Grandma cake...but a nice one.

Mini-Cake

I made this mini-cake for Carleigh :) Not much to be said about it but she enjoyed it.

Father's Day Cake

I was slightly inventive with this Father's Day Cake. I knew that I wanted the baseball, bat, and football on the cake and so free-hand drew them with toothpicks, then carefully filled them in with icing. Not bad.

Guitar Cake

As you can see, I made this guitar cake for Jason's birthday.! Next time I use this pan, I'll do things differently so the cake ends up with straighter guitar strings. Overall not too bad though

Summer Cake

Practicing a few new flower techniques.! Everyone seemed to enjoy when I practiced cake decorating outside of class, because that means they ended up with a cake...I gave this one to Amy & Trey Payne. I like all the bright colors

Chrissy's Grad. Cake

Here's my second cake- I don't get too exciting for awhile.! This was for my cousin Christopher's high school graduation...purple, black & white...pretty standard.

The beginning...

So here I go...making a cake blog. I already had a travel blog on blogspot from when I studied in London last semester, so I thought it'd be easy to just add a cake one.! And here it is.! I guess I'll start from the beginning of my journey in cakely endeavors and see where that takes me!
This was my very first cake decorating attempt. It's nothing super special, but I had the neatest rainbow in the class. It was no one's birthday.