Gender Reveal Present Cake

 I was sooo excited to make my first gender reveal cake for my friends.!!! What an awesome fun way to be a part of such a wonderful surprise.! I decided a present with gender neutral colors would be most appropriate. I baked 3 tiers of cake in 9 in square pans and iced the cake and in between each layer with frosting slightly tinted with a small amount of green food gel. I rolled out gumpaste (an edible clay) thinly and used a cutter to cut several polka dots to decorate the present. Then, I fashioned the bow out of gumpaste tinted with yellow food gel.

 Cutting the cake together....! Boy or girl.?! Boy or girl.?!?

 :)

 Yayyy..!!!! Their sweet little boy will soon have a baby sister.!

This was my first try with polka dots in a came. It's pretty simple to do. I baked several pink and purple 'dots' in a mini cupcake tin. Once they cooled, I used a small round cookie cutter to make each dot a perfect circle. Then I alternated the pink and purple in circles in the greased cake pans. Do not lay the circles flat, but standing up instead so that they will be polka dots when you cut into the cake. Then, carefully fill up the pans with batter. Next time, I will definitely be adding more polka dots so don't be afraid to add plenty!

Tiffany & Co. Box Cake

My friend Precious requested a Tiffany & Co. Box cake and this is what I came up with.! To start, I baked a cake in a 9x13 pan and let it cool completely. Then, I cut the cake in half. I iced the bottom half before placing the top layer on slightly askewed. I finished icing the entire surface of the cake a beautiful Tiffany's blue (tinted with a small amount of light blue food gel). Then, I sprinkled blue and white sugar to line the inside of the jewelry box. I made the pearl necklace by rolling up small beads of gumpaste, which is an edible clay-like dough that hardens as it dries. To assemble the bow, I rolled out two thin, (6ish in) long rectangles and cut all of their edges straight. I cut the first rectangle in half. I formed a loop, bringing the edges together and "gluing" the seam with a small amount of water. As the loop dried, I stuffed a small piece of paper towel in the loop to maintain the structure. Repeat with the second half of the strip you already have. As the loops are drying, take your second rectangle, cut it in half and shape the ribbon ends with these pieces. I took another small piece of gumpaste to wrap around the center of the bow. Again, use a small amount of water to assemble and secure the bow. I also added a layer of shimmery silver luster dust for added luminance.! Next, I shaped the name tag out of thinly rolled gumpaste. Then I piped on the name tag and "Tiffany & Co." With black tinted icing. I finished everything off with a generous sprinkling of edible sugar pearls.!

Brain Cake

 In honor of Halloween I made a brain cake.! First, I baked a cake in an ovenproof glass bowl to create a domed shape. Once the cake completely cooled, I used a serrated knife to slightly shape the cake. I cut down the center of the brain to create the separate hemispheres.

 Then, I iced the entire cake and let it chill slightly in the refrigerator. While I was waiting, I tinted my gumpaste with a small amount of food gel (I used a combination of brown, pink & black- a very little bit goes a long way) and mixed it all together. I didn't intend to make such a dark color, but I think that it turned out well.

I iced the cake with another layer of frosting. Then, I rolled out pieces of gumpaste and laid them in different patterns to create "brain tissue" and cover the cake, making sure to maintain the line separating the hemispheres.

 Lastly, I used a clean brush to paint the "brain" generously with seedless raspberry jam.! ..And you're let with an OooOooozy, spooky brain...!

Traditionally, I have been making my friends cakes that look like other types of food to celebrate their close together birthdays. They were in town for the Richmond zombie walk, so I thought that this year a brain cake would be appropriate.! 

Garden gnome zombies ready to devour a brain cake whilst my pumpkin clad black cat looks on excitedly! Happy Halloween.!!

Barn with Piggies Cake

 My wonderful Grandpa just turned 86! He has been a hardworking farmer his entire life. Now that he's not physically able to complete the farm tasks that he's always loved, he enjoys watching the family complete any new farming schemes he decides upon. If you couldn't already guess this year's project, we added four cute little pigs to the family.

 

Here are the sweet piggies peeking out of their pigpen! Travis is the one to the left. The other three are tentatively referred to (and not really referred to because for some reason Travis is the star) as Porkchop, Egg & Cheese Biscuit, and Baconator (one is not pictured).

 I made the piggies out of gumpaste (an edible clay like substance that hardens as it dries) tinted with pink food gel a few days before the party. I used foodsafe black marker to draw on faces and splotches for each pig. I baked and cooled two 9x13 cakes that I iced with green tinted buttercream icing. First I used a decorating tip (#233) commonly used for grass to create small 3-D grassy patches, and then squeezed and dragged additional icing around the top of the cake using that same decorating tip. To make the barn, I made a small batch of Royal Icing (*It is very important to use royal icing- it acts as a very strong glue and hardens enough to connect the separate pieces of graham cracker. It's not the tastiest icing, you certainly wouldn't ice a cake using it, but it's a handy technique for decorations). I iced the sides of the barn red and let them completely dry. Cover Royal Icing not being used immediately carefully and completely with plastic wrap so that it doesn't crust and harden. Then, I piped a generous amount of white royal icing to "glue" the sides of the graham cracker barn together and let them dry completely. Right before presenting the finished cake, I put Travis on top of the barn and accented the pigs with mud puddles (hot fudge dusted with cocoa powder).

 This is Grandpa's Barn- clearly my graham cracker representation is dead on accurate.

 My sweet nephew was thrilled to see Travis the pig on the roof of the barn! "Muddy" (hot fudge) pig hoof-prints make up the 86 that Travis traced on the roof. 

Barbie Dress Cake

My friend asked if I would make a cake for her daughter's birthday. I thought it would be fun to try an old school Barbie dress cake, and this is what I came up with.!

First I baked one cake in a 9 in round pan and one in the bottom of a glass oven proof pyrex bowl. After everything cooled, I iced the bottom cake and most of the skirt (the domed cake upside down that was baked in the bowl) with pink icing. Then I stuck the Barbie in the middle of the cake. I piped a bodice with hot pink icing and added extra details like pink sanding sugar and edible pearls all over the dress. To make the white ruffles in the center of the dress, I piped a simple shell design that I then covered by overlaying it with the draping ruffled design.

Pusheen Birthday Cake

Somehow don't know who Pusheen the cat is.?! Check it out:

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/sites/pusheen

There are adorable different versions of Pusheen for just about every occasion.! I knew that my friend Todd would greatly appreciate a birthday Pusheen wearing a shirt of a birthday Pusheen wearing a shirt with his name on it all portrayed in cake form...but really...who wouldn't.?! :)

To make this cute rotund feline fellow, I baked one 9 in cake round and one smaller 5 or 6 in cake round. Once everything sufficiently cooled, I cut the top of the larger cake round to form the pointy ears and a space for the birthday hat to fit into perfectly. I cut the smaller cake round into a triangle birthday hat to set right on big Pusheen's cute little partying cake cat head. I iced a stripe of a white shirt, and iced the rest with lightly gray tinted icing to form the cat. I used a darker gray icing to pipe on details such as eyes, stripes, whiskers, tails, etc. I accented the green party hats with colored chocolate covered candy decorating bits. Because Cats.

 :)

Basketball Jersey Cake

I surprised my friend Brie with this cake for her birthday- she absolutely loved it.! She's a basketball star and told me that her favorite colors are yellow and red. Her jersey number is 24 and she's also turning 24 so that worked out perfectly.! All I had to add was her nickname to the back of the cake and it was finished. To make the cake, first I baked a cake in a 9x13 pan (for the jersey) and also in a glass oven proof Pyrex bowl (for the basketball). You will probably have to drop the temperature of the oven for the basketball portion since it is a much thicker cake, it will take longer to bake but you don't want it to get too brown. I literally just took a knife to cut out the jersey shape in the larger cake and an arc for the basketball to fit in. Then I simply iced everything and piped on extra details.!