Penguin Iceberg Cake

My friend Bryan requested a penguin cake for his girlfriend's birthday. I LOVE penguins so was more than up for the challenge.! I immediately thought about making the entire cake an iceberg with a water slide and pool of water full of penguins. First I stacked and iced three 9 in cakes, and then cut part of another round to form the "hill," frosted everything, and covered the cake with white snow-like sparkles. I made a curvy water slide out of blue icing, and iced the inside of the pool with the same blue icing. I later piped set blue jello to fill up the pool. Jello makes fun "water" for cakes..trust me. Structurally, this cake was a challenge. I added several dowels but still had to deal with a lot of slippage due to the weight and composition..O_o.. The penguins I made out of gumpaste. I also added piped purple snowflakes made from candy melts.!

Bat Cakepops

I just couldn't be done with Halloween themed cute things already so early in the season.! ...So I had to make purple cinnamon vampire bat cakepops of course.!  To make these cute little bats, I popped the already made cakepops (I used a yellow cake & white icing and added lots of cinnamon, allspice & nutmeg. Let the cake cool, crumble with 3/4 a can of icing, then form into balls) into the freezer whilst I piped bat wings onto wax paper out of melted purple candy melts. I recommend only taking one or two cakepops out of the freezer at a time, because they soften quickly, and they're much easier to work with when they're still firm. To make a bat, dip the end of a candy stick into the melted purple candy melts, and then into the middle of a cakepop. I then pinched the head to form little bat-like ears, and covered the cakepop with purple candy melts. Since I had piped the wings earlier and they were solidified, they were ready to attach, so I poked them in on either side before the chocolate around the cakepop had a chance to solidify. After letting the bats sit a minute or two, I then piped on eyes, mouth, and vampire teeth :) I think they turned out adorable.! Happy Halloween everybody.! :D 

Irish Guinness Cupcakes with Bailey's Icing

I made these irish themed cupcakes for my friend Katherine's birthday.! :) Guinness cupcakes with Bailey's icing, light green sprinkles, and chocolate four leaf clovers and trinity knots. YUM. I found basic recipes online, but wasn't sure how they would turn out. The recipe I used called for a cup of Guinness, but I just poured in the whole bottle...similarly, the icing called for only 2 TBSP of Bailey's, plus milk to reach the desired consistency...I just decided to use only Bailey's. I have to say, they turned out tasting exactly like Guinness in cupcake form..which is what I was going for, so I'd say a success.! For the icing, I combined some powdered sugar, a bit of green food gel, and enough Bailey's to reach the perfect shade/taste of Bailey's soaked Old Greg hair. YES. it was pretty delicious. :) To top these, I sprinkled on some light green sprinkles, then free handed the decorations using colored chocolate melts.