Betty Boop Cake

My Mom loves Betty Boop...and carrot cake...so this is what I created to surprise her for her birthday.! First I found the image that I wanted to recreate using colorflow icing, and then decorated the rest with a little creativity, making use of the random decorating materials that I happened to have. In keeping with the Betty Boop heart theme, I baked the carrot cake in a heart shaped pan. I iced the cake with fresh cream cheese icing, covered the sides with walnuts, and then piped a light teal border around the cake to contrast all of the red, white, and black. After carefully placing the fragile Betty Boop colorflow decoration in the center, I didn't have a set plan of action. I felt like it'd be a good idea to make a giant black swoosh using gel down the entire left side of the cake...so I went with it.! I made random designs with the black gel and teal icing, and used sugar pearls and red heart shaped sprinkles as accents.

Peanuts Star Wars Cake

 I knew that I wanted to make a special, different type of cake for my cousins Mason & Shawn. I started brainstorming, and thought that it would be fun to use Earl Grey as a unique flavor, particularly since Mason & Shawn are both avid tea lovers. My friend Becca shared an awesome blog with me, and I actually found the recipe that I ended up using on it (http://www.dessertsforbreakfast.com/2012/05/announcing-sated-magazine-and-earl-grey.html). It's actually a chocolate cake with chocolate Earl Grey ganache.! Yum. :) I doubled the cake recipe to make a 9 x 13 cake and 3 cupcakes (which make up the cup of tea). I also doubled the ganache recipe, but used 9 teabags rather than 12, and ended up with a lot left over...which wasn't a problem...because it's delicious.!

 Mason & Shawn both enjoy reading, so that's when I thought to combine the concept of a book cake with a cup of tea- naturally Earl Grey tea. Mason is super into anything and everything Star Wars & Peanuts...hence the combination. I actually found a similar fan art picture of Charlie Brown and Sally through Google (http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110311232523/scratchpad/images/1/1b/Peanuts_meets_Star_Wars.jpg) which I slightly modified and then recreated out of color flow icing, along with a Han Solo Woodstock, a Snoopy Chewbacca, and a Storm Trooper Woodstock.! :D

 Decorations made out of color flow icing are incredibly fragile however, and although I had never before had a problem working with them, tragedy struck this time- probably since I had a large audience watching me assemble the cake. Charlie Brown Skywalker's body crashed to the floor O_o so I ended up re-piping his body with white icing and black gel, and I think it ended up looking fine. To create the cup of tea, I stacked the three cupcakes on top of each other (with ganache in between the layers and small wooden dowels in the middle to hold them together), and covered the cup of cupcakes with thinly rolled out white gumpaste. I then attached the gumpaste handle with toothpicks. I added a thin layer of white icing on top, and then drizzled on caramel sauce to give a milky tea appearance. I artfully, purposefully chose to drip the "tea" everywhere- it seemed more visually interesting to do so. The "tea bag" is also made out of gumpaste, as are the "pages" on the sides of the book. I popped everything else on, piped everything, and added silver star sprinkles.! It was a hit.! :D

Cockatiel Cakepops

 For my friend Olivia's birthday, I decided to make something different...and came up with cockatiel cakepops.! My reasoning being that her beloved pet cockatiel (Elvis), would serve as my creative, randomized inspiration.

 These cakepops didn't photograph too well- I swear they were cuter in person.! I shaped the cakepop into a cockatiel-like shape, attached the stick, dipped in melted white chocolate candy melts, and then just the head in melted yellow candy melts. I used pumpkin sprinkles for feet, two round sprinkles for eyes, added extra melted white chocolate using a toothpick to draw wings, and used an edible marker to draw red cheeks.

Olivia loved her cockatiel cakepops.! I tried to get a pic of Elvis with a cakepop, but the best part of it all was that Elvis was terrified of his cakepop brethren.! He kept flying away :/

Jasmine Disney Cupcakes

These cupcakes I made for work- the assignment being to pick a Disney princess and embody them in a very simple manner. I picked Jasmine, and so decided to use rich, vibrant, contrasting colors and lots of shimmer dust rather than more complex elements. I used a half moon shaped cutter on rolled out gold fondant to make the basic lamp shape, and then stretched, molded, and exacto-ed them more..exactly. :) I also used a small star cutter and then pinched the edges to form the magenta and blue stars. I cut out orange circles of fondant and then "glued" on black (tiger) stripes of fondant using a bit of water. I also heard an interpretation viewing them more conceptually as an orange, arabic sky. Good stuff either way. Let all those fondant pieces harden. I dusted the lamps and stars with their respective shades of shimmer dust, and set them atop cupcakes frosted with dark purple icing piped using a star tip and covered in purple glitter. Then I made a light shade of "Jasmine" turquoise that I piped using a round tip. Jasmine Cupcakes. Easy.

Baby Chick Cakepops

In keeping with stereotypically springtime animal Cakepops...and the fact that I still had some funfetti Cakepops left to decorate...and it was almost Easter...I made some Baby Chick Cakepops.! These were super simple to make, and I didn't create the idea at all, but they turned out cute. To make these Cakepops, I dipped each Cakepop in melted yellow vanilla candy coating, added two yellow rainbow chip sprinkles as wings, an orange one for the beak, and two