Stephanie's Sweet Creations

Super Mario Bros. #2

2011-04-25T08:08:00.000-07:00

I had another request for a Super Mario Bros. cake this past weekend! The little boy was turning 6 and wanted Mario and Luigi for sure on the cake!

The cake was a chocolate cake filled with Vanilla cream!

Here is the view of Luigi!And the view of Mario!

View from the back. I love those killer plants!

And the cake as a whole! Happy Birthday Braden! I hope you loved it!

Construction Tractor Cake

2011-04-21T09:37:00.000-07:00

The little boy this was for, wanted a construction tractor cake.

This is what I came up with.I added some buttercream covered in brown sugar for the "dirt".I loved how the little dump truck turned out...that was my favorite part!

The cake was a strawberry cake with a whipped vanilla cream filling!

Happy Birthday Bryzick!!

Sample Cakes

2011-04-21T09:30:00.000-07:00

I had an engaged couple over to discuss their wedding cake options the other day! For the meeting, I made up some samples to try!

This first one was a spice cake with cream cheese filling.Second was some chocolate cupcakes with a whipped vanilla cream filling. Topped with a chocolate buttercream and gold sugar sprinkles.The last was a vanilla cake filled with a raspberry cream filling.It was a success and I booked a wedding cake / cupcakes tier for July! I can't wait to do it!

Spring Birthday!

2011-03-22T11:53:00.000-07:00

My sister's birthday was this weekend and I wanted to make her a fun springy, flowery cake!

This is what I came up with!I love all of the bright colors! The cake itself if a chocolate cake (my sister's favorite) with a creamy OREO filling! So yummy!Happy Birthday Mel! I love you!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2011-03-17T07:57:00.001-07:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

In honor of the celebration, I did an order of cupcakes for a work party!

I made a vanilla cake (which I made green in color) filled the cupcakes with a lemon mousse filling (for the pot of gold in the middle) and topped it off with a vanilla buttercream tinted yellow with gold and green sprinkles! I love how the turned out!!

I also made some white chocolate covered pretzel shamrocks with green sprinkles! Aren't they cute? I was going to put these on top of the cupcakes...but the cupcakes turned out so nice and elegant, the shamrocks would have taken away from them! But I still ike them! :)

Have a good day!!

Grandma's Birthday

2011-03-01T08:09:00.001-08:00

Today is my grandma's birthday! I made this cake for her party tonight! She loves the color blue so I always try to incorporate that into her cake!

I made her a vanilla cake with a pumpkin mousse filling. Yummy!

Happy Birthday Grandma!! Love you!

Look Whoo's Turning 1!!

2011-02-28T11:37:00.001-08:00

My little niece Alexis turned 1 this past weekend! My sister did her birthday decorations in the theme "Look whoo's turning 1". I made her cakes around that theme!

On the left is the main cake - all chocolate with a chocolate cream filling and the left is the smash cake for Alexis! The invitation is in the back.The smash cake with the invite! I made the eyes, beak and bow out of chocolate - easy to eat and melts in the mouth for no choking!Here is the owl topper I made out of fondant for the cake!I brush painted the bottom tier with pink food coloring to make it a soft pink and used cute little edible pearls for the middles of the flowers!Happy Birthday Alexis! Your aunt Stephanie loves you!!And...did she love it????Heck yeah she did! :)

Kitty Cake

2011-02-28T11:29:00.000-08:00

I made a cake this past weekend for a little girl who was turning 7! Her best friend is her cat Joey and her mom wanted the cat as part of the cake - along with pink!

This is what I came up with!I made the bottom tier a chocolate cake with OREO cream filling and the top tier was a vanilla cake with rasberry cream filling.

All decorations were made out of fondant.

The paw prints were made with food coloring and a stamp that I bought just for this cake! It was my first time using a stamp on a cake and I think it turned out cute! When the little girl Andee walked in to pick up the cake, she looked at the cake, a big smile crossed her face and she said "It's Joey!" It made my day! She was thrilled with the cake!

Happy Birthday Andee!

Birthday Chica!

2010-11-29T09:55:00.000-08:00

My little niece, Emilyn turned 1 this past weekend!

One of her most favorite characters to watch on tv is Chica on Sprouts! So that is what we decided to make for her 1st Birthday!

So here she is, Chica the chicken, along with a little cake just for Emy!This was my first time carving a cake. Although it was not a lot of carving, it was still nerve racking trying to get it just perfect! All in all, I think it turned out pretty good!And Emy's little cake was decorated with a whipped strawberry creme. She LOVED it!!!Happy Birthday Sweetie! Your aunt LOVES you!!!

To Infinity And Beyond!!

2010-11-08T12:16:00.000-08:00

My little nephew Maguire is now 2!! I cannot believe it! They grow SO FAST!

This year, Big Mac is super into Toy Story and anything BUZZ!

So I made him a Buzz Lightyear cake! I love how it turned out with the "galaxy" and the little martians! He loved it (especially the toy I placed on top!)

My sister in law wanted me to make a pumpkin cake. So I made up a recipe on the fly and it turned out SO YUMMY! I made a pumpkin mousse using this stuff

(this is limited...go buy yourself some, it is divine!!)I plopped a thick filling of the mousse and drizzled a semi-sweet chocolate over top of the mousse for the filling! It was super delicious (I LOVE when cakes are made for family and I get a chance to sample the cake...ya know...for research, to make sure the end product was good!) My other sister in law even told me it was the best cake she has ever eaten! Yeah!

I am so glad it turned out good in taste and look! Happy Birthday Big Mac!!!

Topsy Turvy Birthday

2010-11-02T09:18:00.000-07:00

I made my first attempted topsy turvy cake! I am pretty excited with how it turned out!

This was my vision/drawing...

And this was the actual cake! I wanted it to be turquoise and hot pink and think that the colors came out really good! This was for a little girl's 10th birthday! I hope she loves it!!

Happy Birthday Karsyn!

Cupcakes for a Work Party

2010-10-28T07:50:00.000-07:00

My mom asked me to make some cupcakes for her work party. Since it is Halloween time, I decided to make some worms in dirt cupcakes and some candy corn cupcakes!

The "dirt" cupcakes were a chocolate cupcake with a whipped marshmellow cream filling, chocolate frosting, covered in crushed up chocolate graham crackers, with a gummy worm on top!The candy corn cupcakes were made of yellow cake - the bottom half yellow, the top half orange with a vanilla whipped frosting and topped with a little candy corn! Hope they enjoy them!

My First Wedding!

2010-10-04T10:49:00.000-07:00

My brother, Travis, got married this past weekend! I was thrilled and nervous that they wanted me to do their wedding cake! it was my first wedding cake. Their theme was fall, decorations and colors, she thought pumpkins would be cute as the topper, she wanted the fondant brown, and instead of stacked she wanted them placed out separately, one carrot, one pumpkin spice and one vanilla. She sent me a few pictures of ones she had found as references and all had fall leaves on them. So here is what I came up with...I used stamps for the leaves, made the impression in the fondant, cut them out and then hend painted them once they dried. The pumpkins are also made out of fondant. This is the top tier, french vanilla cake with a raspberry cream filling.This is the middle tier that is a pumpkin spice cake with a whipped vanilla cream cheese filling.And this is the bottom tier, the one they cut and fed to each other. Carrot cake is my brother's favorite, so that is what this is with the same whipped vanila cream cheese filling as the middle!And here they are set up at the wedding reception! I had a blast making them and hopefully can do some more in the future!

Super Mario Bros Cake

2010-09-28T16:01:00.000-07:00

I love how this cake turned out! The boys who this was ordered for also loved it! They were super excited and said they wanted me to do their cake next year too! :)

Kylee's 13th Birthday

2010-09-09T11:57:00.001-07:00

Kylee turned 13 yesterday! I cannot believe she is a teenager! Yikes!

For all the kids birthdays this year, we gave them the option to have a party and presents or to just have a simple party and get their room's re-done...of course they chose for their rooms to get re-done. My point in this story in regards to my cake is the color scheme. Kylee chose her room to be hot pink with black and silver accents! It turned out great...as did the cake and the cupcakes!

I made one small little cake for the candles to go into...plus I always like the look of a small cake with a bunch of cupcakes! :)

I stacked them on black and silver trays in varying heights (used some pink crepe paper in one of my apothecary jars I made for the tall tier!)

My youngest helped me cut out the fondant accents!

They turned out pretty, elegant, girly and YUMMY! And of course that is what counts the most!

Happy Birthday Kylee!!

Cherry Pie Cupcakes

2010-09-02T09:46:00.000-07:00

I did it! I tried a new creation last night and they are delicious!! :)

I LOVE cherry pie, so I wanted to try to incorporate that into a cupcake!

I started with a nice graham cracker crust, a yellow cake mix on top of that and then some cherry pie filling. Once baked up, the cherry filling sunk down to the bottom of the cupcake, but it was perfect there!! I topped them with a vanilla whipped frosting, and decorated some with the juice of the pie filling and graham cracker crumbs, and some with a cherry and graham cracker crumbs! I love how they turned out and my family loved eating them! :)

Tell me, which decoration do you think looks better?? With or without the cherry on top?

Cuppies!

2010-08-26T12:50:00.000-07:00

I love to call them cuppies, especially since my brother cracks up every time I call them that! :)

My new found passion is in cupcakes! I am inspired every week by Cupcake Wars!! Love that show! Cannot see how they come up with the stuff they do and wish I had the imagination and culinary skills behind coming up with new recipes on the fly!!

Several weeks ago, I tried a new cake mix - just an ordinary store bought mis, but it sounded so good and I wanted to try it out! It was Betty Crocker's Butter Pecan mix. It was so yummy! I made a whipped vanilla filling and eating them just like that was heavenly! For the party we were going to, I added some buttercream frosting and dipped them in blue and pink sugar crystals - TOO sweet for my taste, but the kids LOVED them (of course, it was sugar!!) But they did look super cute!

The other day, our house got majorly toilet papered! It was the last day of summer vacation for the kids and they got to spend the morning, cleaning up a TON of toilet paper from our yard! However, the neighbors came and helped - so to make a long story short, I made them some thank you cupcakes! (sorry for the pictures, they were taken on the way out the door to the neighbors!)

I decided to venture out and create something - so I made a cinnamon vanilla cupcake with a cream cheese buttercream sprinkled with a little cinnamon and brown sugar! They were very yummy!! Have not heard yet what the neighbors thought of them, but I left one cupcake for each member of my own family and they were all raving and wishing we did not give the rest away! So yeah on that one!

I have a few more ideas on recipes I want to try...I will post when I do!! :)

Hawaiian Sea Turtle Birthday Cake

2010-08-03T08:28:00.000-07:00

This cake request was for a Hawaiian themed cake with sea turtles! I loved making the fondant sea turtles and think that they turned out so cute! I loved this whole cake and it was so fun to make! Cake was a lemon cake with a whipped lemon filling and vanilla buttercream frosting!

All accents are made out of fondant, except for the brown sugar "sand" and the coconuts that are actually whoppers!

Happy Birthday Kasey!

Dad's Birthday

2010-07-19T09:31:00.001-07:00

My dad is ever the partier, so I decided to attempt a glass of beer for his birthday cake! I made 4, 6 inch hexagon shaped vanilla cakes, stacked them with a layer of OREO cream filling and frosted with vanilla buttercream. it turned out pretty good, but the handle I made out of fondant was a little heavy so I had to make a support to help it stay in the cake...next time I will use a better strategy for that! :)

After the cakes were done, I made some cupcakes with the leftover batter and made some fondant pretzels to go on top of them, as well as made the fondant pretzels to spell "dad".

I like how it turned out - and my dad inhaled his piece of cake in about a minute, so it must have been really good! :) After my brothers seen how much my dad loved the cake, they decided to help feed him a little more! :)

With the left over cake tops and OREO filling, I made a trifle. It had more of a whipped cream base so it was nice and light! Yummy!

Baseball Birthday

2010-07-06T10:05:00.000-07:00

My son's 15th birthday was this past weekend! He wanted baseball themed cake. We had about 30 people coming over, so I wanted to do cupcakes, but Bowe really wanted cake...vanilla cake...with vanilla cream filling...I know, boring! So I decided to do some vanilla with vanilla cream filling, some chocolate with Oreo cream filling and the last was just vanilla with no filling. Something for everyone! I like the idea of cupcakes if there is a lot of people, it is just so much easier to dish out! Anyway, I went with a baseball bat shaped cake, a baseball mitt cake, and baseball cupcakes. Here is how they turned out! Everyone loved them and there was something for every taste! :) And most of all...Bowe loved it!

Birthday cakes and a Father's Day Fruit Bouquet

2010-06-22T09:42:00.000-07:00

In the past week we have had my husband's birthday, father's day, and Bowe's girlfriend's birthday! So here are my creations from those events! :)

First is Jason's Birthday! He did not want anything fancy, just a simple vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream frosting and a vanilla whipped mm filling. It was pretty yummy! I decorated it with candy instead of "fancy icing decorations"! Mmmm Hershey's kisses and Whoppers!

For Father's Day, the kids and I made Jason a fruit basket! It was yummy and I think it turned out looking really pretty! he loved it and ate most of it that day! ....with a little help from the kids and me of course!

The third item is a birthday cake for Bowe's girlfriend and her 2 brothers...triplets! They are all sports fanatics and love basketball so that is what I made for them! The boys like plain old vanilla cake - no fillings...so I made the vanilla cake in 2 colors, yellow and orange and stacked them every other color in 4 layers - with buttercream in between the layers and covered with buttercream. The basketball on top is chocolate cake, since Shay likes chocolate! And Shay also really wanted a raspberry filling, so I injected in a whipped raspberry filling before frosting the ball with buttercream. I finished with a dark chocolate net for the basketball hoop and dark chocolate for the finishes of the basketball...and their names in fondant with edible silver shimmer. Hope they liked it!!

Baby Blessing

2010-06-09T09:59:00.001-07:00

My niece Alexis was blessed this past Sunday! She did so good and was such a doll! Here is the cake I made for the lunch afterwards. It was a yellow cake with a chocolate mousse filling and vanilla buttercream frosting! Yummy!

S'mores Cupcakes and a Tinkerbell Cake

2010-05-25T09:12:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was my brother's birthday and a friend's niece's birthday!

For my brother, I decided since we were having a cook out - I would incorporate that theme and do S'mores cupcakes! They turned out delicious! Chocolate cake, a whipped marshmellow cream frosting, graham cracker cumbs and a piece of Hershey's candy bar on top! Yummy!!

My friend's little niece was turning 5 and she wanted a Tinkerbell cake. She also wanted some sparkles on the cake...so I chose to make a flower for the top and a bow for the bottom and completely cover them with pink sugar! They turned out adorable! I am definitely going to use this technique again in the future (my daughter Kylee already informed me that she wants it done for her birthday cake!)

The birthday girl wanted a chocolate cake with banana cream filling. So I did that for the top tier and I did a chocolate cake with a marshmellow cream filling for the bottom tier. I have to say, I was skeptical on the banana cream with chocolate cake...but I tasted it with some of the leftover cake tops and it was fabulous! I am really wanting to make another cake just so I can fill it with the banana cream I made! What a fun weekend!!

My new cake plates!

2010-04-26T08:16:00.000-07:00

Through my continual search for inspiration and my addiction to blog hopping, I have seen many different lovely home made cake plates from different blogs. I have loved them and have wanted to make my own for a while. I finally took a trip down to the good old Utah DI and picked up a few things. I get a little excited for the projects I am doing and always forget to take a before picture of everything...so instead you get a before they were painted, while the glue was still drying pic!! :)

Here is the first one, upside down (glue is drying) I loved this plate! It was so springy I could not resist and the bottom is a ceramic candle holder.Although I actually liked the candle holder or what ever it was with the hand painted flowers and bees, it just does not fit anything that I would use it for, but it was perfect for a taller cake stand!And here is my springy cake stand next to my tulips from the backyard!And the taller one, I spray painted black for a cohesive look.And the two together! I love them!!

Basketball Birthday

2010-04-26T08:03:00.001-07:00

My nephew is an avid basketball fanatic! So we had to make him a basketball themed cake this weekend for his 5th birthday! The cake is a double chocolate cake with a vanilla whipped frosting (not the easiest frosting for perfection...so look past those!! ) and the cupcakes are the same double chocolate cake, but with a whipped cream cheese filling and a vanilla whipped frosting. All of the basketballs and the hoop are made out of fondant!

Here is the cake without the decorations on yet. Since the frosting was a whipped cream based frosting, it is has more moisture, so it tends to make the fondant start to melt! :)

And here is the cake with all of the decorations on. I attempted to write the Jazz on the top since that is Brody's favorite!!

And up closeBrody even loved the fondant! He tore up the basketball hoop...almost ate the whole thing!Same with the cake! It must have been good because Broday usually never eats cake! :)

Happy Birthday, Buddy!

My Greatest Creation Ever!

2010-04-19T08:26:00.001-07:00

My daughter competed her dance solo and her team dance this past weekend! They did so good and I wanted to share / show off my wonderful little creation!

More pics/video on my family blog!

Congratulations Kaitlyn and the Juniors team!!

Lordy Lordy, look who's 40!!

2010-04-13T07:25:00.001-07:00

My brother in law turned 40 yesterday! We had a party for him this weekend. I decided to add a little humor and here is what I came up with.

The cake is carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Yummy! The dirt is crumbled cookies and the rocks are jelly beans!

Jewelry Box and Earring Holder

2010-04-07T09:31:00.001-07:00

My daughter was sick yesterday so I got to be a stay at home mom for a day! And I LOVED it! It got to take care of my little girl, do some deep cleaning that I have been wanting to do, and CRAFT! I have a whole long list of to do crafts from following all of the wonderful blogs that I do! :) For the life of me, I cannot remember which blog that I found the jewelry box re-make idea, but I did see the earring holder from here!
So I got to mark 2 of them off of my list! Yeah!
Jewelry Holder...
First, I started with a frame I just had!

Then I painted it black!

I had some old placemats that I thought would be perfect! They have a pattern on them similar to burlap - and since I had them, it was FREE! So I cut out a piece and stapled it to the back of the frame. Then I drilled a couple of holes and pulled ribbon through and tied knots. I had a couple of flowers in my scrapbook supplies and thought they would look cute on the frame as well!

Then I simply put my earrings through the little holes and hung it in my bedroom! I love it!

Next was to revamp this tired jewelry box. All of the furniture in my bedroom is black, so I went with the black theme again! I liked the idea of adding fabric to the glass and went with a deep red to match the red accents in my bedroom. I also had a little burlap flower in my stash and added that and a pearl to the front for a little girly-flare!

This is the inside...

And here they are together in my bedroom! Love them!! And better yet, I spent absolutely no money! Yeah! I LOVE stay at home mom days!!

Weekend of Family making cupcakes and a Hamburger Birthday Cake!

2010-03-29T08:33:00.000-07:00

This weekend we had a family party at my house with some egg coloring/decorating and cupcake decorating! My family is all so creative! I think they all turned out so good! Here are a few samples!

I loved this one I made, it was my favorite!!

I also had a birthday cake to do this weekend and they decided on my doing a hamburger and fries! Not too shabby! Looks good enough to eat!

I LOVE SPRING!

2010-03-25T10:00:00.001-07:00

Spring is my absolute favorite season - BY FAR!! I love all of the colors, the sounds, the weather getting warmer, the sound of lawnmowers, the smell of BBQ's...and the decorations! Here are a few that I have done for the spring time this year!

These flowers I made for my girls - this weekend we are having a spring "photo shoot"! They will look so good with their Easter dresses!

My attempt at modeling them! Man, I need to do my roots! :)

My spring wreath on the front door! I love it! So welcoming!

And you cannot forget my little stitchery made just for easter time!

I made these this past weekend! I love my Cricut! (I also used the Cricut for the live, laugh, love frame behind it!) I love the colors!!

So bright, lively...and well...springy!!

HAPPY SPRING TIME EVERYONE!

P P P Poker Face!

2010-03-18T09:35:00.000-07:00

This cake was made for my step-kids, grandpa, who is very sick wtih cancer. At such a sad depressing time in the lives of all who know and love him, his family wanted to have a party to celebrate with him and not be focused on the sickness. He is an avid fan of the poker playing! So I was given the suggestion of maybe making a sheet cake into a poker card...well I cannot just do a poker card! :) I had to challenge myself and for Rich, I needed to make something that was cool! I decided to make a hexagon shaped poker table with cards, chips and dice! The kids helped in making the poker chips so they could be a part of it too! I think it turned out pretty good and the look on all of their faces was worth it! My step-daughter picked out the cake flavor and wanted to do the funfetti - so we did that and added a filling of coconut cream...tasty!

76th Birthday cake

2010-03-08T09:28:00.000-08:00

This cake was for my grandma - it was her 76th birthday! her favorite color is blue and I wanted to add some roses and sparkles! She LOVED it!

Pics of an older cake

2010-02-22T11:38:00.000-08:00

About a month before I started my cake decorating classes, I made this little ditty for my ste-son, Bowe's 14th birthday. He is a real sports nut, so I decided to make the cake fashioned like a football field. I used coconut with some green food coloring to make it look like grass and then made marshmallow fondant (1st time making it, it was a SIGHT!) to cover the football. All in all, it turned out pretty good for no real training yet! And Bowe loved it, especially since his piece of cake was the whole football!!

Calla Lilly Cake

2010-02-22T11:34:00.000-08:00

French Vanilla cake with a very creamy, whipped chocolate buttercream frosting atopped with a few fondant calla lillies! :)

My Sister's Baby Shower

2010-02-08T09:47:00.001-08:00

So I held my sister's baby shower this past weekend. Here are a few things I made for the shower. To see more about the shower, go to my family blog!

OK, let's see...where to start...Well I wanted to decorate some letters for Alexis' room when she is born. The room is mainly Winnie the Pooh and pink - but I wanted something that would grow with her. I found some really pretty rose colored paper, some beautiful brown, rose and glittery paper with butterflies on it and a white and pink damask looking paper, so I used those. I painted the letters white and added the paper just on the inside of the letters. I found a really pretty butterfly and some flowers to add to the letters with the plain rose paper!

This paper is my FAVORITE!

I added some cute white ribbon to each letter to hang from!

Next, on to the cake and cupcakes. I wanted to make a cake, but the ease of cupcakes when you have many guests make them so much easier to eat! So I did both! And my sister got to take the cake home to eat with her hubby!

Since the theme was Winnie the Pooh for the shower, I made bees for the cupcakes!

Here is the process!

Step 1) Make bee shape out of yellow fondant - I used MM fondant - and use a dotter tool to add little eyes and a mouth! We want happy, Winnie the Pooh bees here! :)

Step 2) Add some antennaes. For this, I used some of the flower stamens I had for my sugar flowers. I just cut them down and colored the ends black. This was VERY time consuming! :)

Step 3) Add some black fondant around the body

Step 4) Add some wings. I used fondant for these as well. I just cut out some small circles and softened up the edges with a petal tool and attached them via a little vanilla!

Step 5) Make the icing on the cupcakes look like a beehive and attach bee!

I love how they turned out!

Now on to the baby!

Although, you will never see underneath the blankie, I wanted to bum to poke up just like how real babies sleep!

I decorated the fondant blankie like a little quilt and tucked her in!

Here is the final cake with the baby and a few buzzing bees!

Next is the diaper cake. I wanted to make this my present, as well as it being part of a game so there is a lot of stuff attached to the cake!

I got the cutest idea for some headbands off of one of the blogs I follow - Craftaholics Anonymous

Check out the link, she provides a tutorial and gander around the rest of her site! She always has so many great ideas! I have so many things from her site on my To Do list!

Anyway, these little nifty headbands are made out of knee high stockings! REALLY! They are soft for a newborn baby and they are stretchy enough to fit on an older girl!

I got a pack of knee highs from Walmart for $0.33!! And with items to put on the headbands from my stash of items I already had, it was only sixteen and a half cents to make each headband!!

My daughter is my model!

This one, I just took a piece of fabric and pulled all the sides and corners in and attached to the center using a button! And then added a little rhinestone to make it sparkle! (I also used both of these 2 headbands in the diaper cake on my middle and top tiers!)

Then I made one for my daughters!

And here is Kaitlyn trying it out! So cute!

Well a lot of planning and preparation over the past couple of weeks, but I think everything turned out good and I even got a little business out of it! Yeah!

New Year Savings!

2010-01-15T12:16:00.000-08:00

For the New Year, I am offering a special to those wanting some yummy cakes made by yours truly! Through Valentine's day, I will be offering all of my cakes $5.00 off of the posted pricing per tier! Email me with your requests in order to get your date saved!

Thanks for the support!

Hey Friends O'Mine...

2010-01-05T11:12:00.001-08:00

Hey Friends O' Mine...if you are not already a follower on my personal site, click here to see what fun my family and I have been having!! :)

First Birthday - Jungle Theme!

2010-01-04T09:33:00.000-08:00

My other nephew Tavin had his first birthday party a few weeks ago. Although I did not find out that I was supposed to be making the cakes until 3 days before the party (thanks, hubby!) I think it turned out exactly as I had imagined it! I started by making a few plush looking animals out of fondant.

Since there was a lion on the invite, I started with making the lion. I added the stitches to make it look like stuffed animals!

Then the zebra...

Then the elephant!

For the smash cake, I used a flower shaped pan - added the mane with a star tip and some chocolate chips and a hershey's kiss for the eyes and nose!

On the main cake, I wanted it to be more boyish colors, so I opted for green and blue and threw in some yellow to tie in the two cakes!

And the two together!

And he loved the party and the cake!! Happy Birthday, buddy!

A Couple of Projects

2010-01-04T09:18:00.001-08:00

Here are a few Christmas projects that I did during the month of December!

First, for my brother Travis and his girlfriend Jackie, I decided to make a vinyl design to put onto a red decorative plate to fill with hot chocolate and goodies. it took me a little while to get the design lined up and the sizing correct, but I think it turned out pretty good. Here is a picture of the vinyl before I applied it to the plate.

And here is the plate with the vinyl on it! So cute!

Next are a few little holiday signs that I made for the girls at work!

My mom, sister and I always find a project to do together for the Christmas season! I found this cute little penguin and this year we also had Kyrstin to do the project with us!

This is my moms! I love how her eyes are a little crooked...I tried to get mine a little crooked and they just are not crooked enough to be noticeable!

My sisters turned out so cute with the blue...but she was being a little camera shy!

Kyrstin did a cute read and green striped scarf on hers with red glitter trim!

And here is mine. I love how each of our personalities are so different that even when we do the exact same project, they all turn out so different!

And lastly, I made this for my little sister! I think it turned out so cute! Love ya sissy!

My daughter's 9th Birthday!

2009-12-08T15:38:00.001-08:00

I cannot believe my baby is nine already! Sad!

For her birthday, she wanted a 2 tier, OREO cake with OREO filling. She wanted pink and green as the colors and REALLY wanted me to do a scroll design on one of the tiers. I have NEVER done a scroll before and free-handing the scroll design took a little time and patience. I am not the steadiest at this technique yet...but I will master it one day! For a first timer, it looks not too shabby! The cake was very good and the filling was even better! And all it took for the filling was some heavy whipping cream, a little powdered sugar and some crushed up OREOS! it was to die for! too bad I am on a diet or I would have eaten more!

Kyrstin's Birthday

2009-12-08T15:28:00.000-08:00

So finally, my brother's GF turned 18...can you believe it! :) Anyway, I wanted to make her a cake for her birthday, so I decided to use 2 of her favorite colors, bright yellow and lime green! I had some really cute yellow and green ribbon that I got at the dollar rack at Michaels a while back so I used that on the bottom tier. I made a milk chocolate cake batter since Kyrstin LOVES her some chocolate! And I did a thick filling of marshmallow cream! It was VERY yummy!

My daughter put the candles in before I could get pics! Ha ha!

Shanty 2 Chic try

2009-12-08T15:20:00.000-08:00

I may have mentioned in a previous post about my love for the blog Shanty 2 Chic! I LOVE this blog! They have so many cute ideas! Well I picked one and tried it out! Here are my lovely little apothecaries!

I love them! I am planning on putting in some small christmas bulbs or fake snow for Christmas time!

To see a tutorial, click here I did not do mine exactly as the tutorial - they have jute around the tops and I opted for ribbon, I also opted for a smaller top knob...but I love the way mine turned out! Thanks for the idea, Shanty!

Thanksgiving treats!

2009-12-08T15:18:00.000-08:00

I saw the cutest tutorial for these on the web around Thanksgiving time...and I HAD to try them for the kids in my family! Cute little indian corn cobs!

Basket of Flowers

2009-12-07T09:15:00.001-08:00

For my mother in law's birthday I decided to do the basketweave technique that I had learned in my cake classes but had not done since then! it turned out pretty good! My only issue was that I mixed a darker brown buttercream with a lighter brown buttercream in the bag as I piped on the basket weave in an effort to give the basket dimension...but it seems in my pics that when I started there was more light brown and when I ended there was more dark brown! I did take a picture before I was completely finished that DID show the good mix of the browns...but I must have not noticed when I put the flowers in the cake that I was using what should have been the back of the cake...as the front! Anyway...I think it still turned out pretty good!

Mmmmm...chocolate buttercream with toffee! I made this cake a triple layer cake, so you get two times the filling!

Here is a picture of what should have been the front of the cake!~

You can see where the line of light and dark is in this picture...dang it! O well! I love all the flowers! I did them all out of fondant!

I used crushed up chocolate Teddy Grahams for the dirt. Looks pretty authentic!

YUM! It was good!

Little rosebud cuppies

2009-11-09T07:57:00.000-08:00

Last week was my co-worker, Emily's birthday. We had a little birthday celebration for her with a gift, decorations and of course cupcakes. She is a HUGE fan of pink, so I made french vanilla cupcakes tinted pink, white buttercream with pink sprinkles and of course pink fondant rosebuds.

My Nephew's First Birthday!

2009-11-09T07:49:00.000-08:00

I got the chance to do my nephew's first birthday cake this weekend! I was glad it turned out pretty much what it looked like in my head and not a jumble of a homemade cake! His theme was Mickey Mouse Clubhouse! What a fun cake to make! Everyone loved it! It was a german chocolate / french vanilla cake mix with a new whipped cream icing that I found on the internet that was more set up than regular whipped frosting. It was yummy, not as sweet as buttercream, but it was not as stiff as I would have liked. However, I covered the cakes in fondant, the bottom layer was a homemade marshmallow fondant and the top was a store bought fondant just because it is so hard to get a real red color so I bought the premade red color! The filling was a whipped marshmallow cookie filling...of my own design obviously since I cannot think of a better name for it!

Just in time for the Fall season...

2009-11-02T13:08:00.000-08:00

My good friend turned me on to a little blog - http://www.twinstitchers.blogspot.com/

I love the different patterns they have. I was able to get my first one for free due to a promotion they were having. I received the pattern and made it all up! Here is the finished project!

Halloween Cupcakes

2009-11-02T13:04:00.001-08:00

So I wanted to try my hand at making different items out of fondant and thought that my daughter's dance Halloween party was the perfect excuse! The pumpkins took the longest due to the little stem, vines and leaves on them. I also had bought some 4x4x4 whote glossy boxes on the internet and they were perfect for holding the cuppies! I decorated them with a little message from my daughter. I think they turned out adorable...what do you think??

Kyrstin's Diaper Cake

2009-10-17T09:09:00.001-07:00

I wanted to make a diaper cake - no not a cake to eat that looks like a diaper...a cake that looks like a cake to eat but is made out of diapers! Kyrstin's baby shower was the perfect reason to make one! I think it turned out really cute and it gave her a whole pack of diapers to use when she has the baby!

Marshmellow Cream filled Cupcakes!!

2009-10-17T08:59:00.000-07:00

We had a birthday at work this week - along with Boss's Day...so we decided to do a pot-luck. So I volunteered to do the cupcakes. I had bought some marshmellow cream and whipped cream for the baby shower but preperations got so hectic, I did not get the chance to fill those cupcakes so I wanted to try it with these! I just mixed about 1/2 a jar of marshmellow cream and about a cup of whipped cream together. I went through and poked a hole in the top of all my german chocolate cupcakes with a straw to give me an opening. I then used a large round decorating tip to insert into the cupcakes, filled the bag with the marshmellow whipped cream and insert into the cuppies! I was afraid that they did not fill up enough so I had my lovely assistant (my husband) try them out!

Yeah! It looks good! So I went on to decorate them. I used a cinnamon buttercream that turned out so yummy and decided on some bow's and stars. Yeah they really don't go together, but I wanted to make some small bows and I wanted to use my star cutouts! They turned out cute and yummy none-the-less!

Baby Shower

2009-10-17T08:53:00.000-07:00

For the baby shower I held for my brother's girlfriend, I wanted cupcakes to make it easier to serve 20-30 people. Kyrstin is a chocolate girl, so I did german chocolate cupcakes with a chocolate buttercream. The decorations had pinks and browns in them, so it worked out perfect and I just added some pink sprinkles and little pink trinkets to the tops of the cupcakes!

New Business Cards!

2009-10-16T15:20:00.000-07:00

So I decided to do something I have been putting off for several weeks, and I am glad I did, I got a really good deal!

I ordered my business cards today for my cakes...not that I plan on making this a full time business, I do it for fun and I am in no way professional yet! But I figured I can get my name out there to friends and family and maybe drum up some on the side - makin' a little money - business for myself!

I went to http://www.vistaprint.com/

They are awesome! You can choose out of several different templates and get your first 250 business cards for FREE!

Or, right now they are having a deal to order some of the business card templates - 500 of them - on 100 lb matte finish paper - with a printing on the back as well - business cards for $10.00!! And that is it! No shipping either! Wonderful! So I ordered me 500 cards! :)

I can't wait until I get them!

A few extra's

2009-10-07T15:09:00.000-07:00

Last year for my birthday, my great mom bought me a Cricut! I love using it for little signs. Here are a few that I have made!

Wilton Course 3 Final...I PASSED! :)

2009-10-07T14:59:00.000-07:00

OK, not hard to pass the class...all you really gotta do is pay your money and show up! :) But I think I really pulled it off for this one! Tiered on little pedastals, fondant covered, fondant roses - in 3 different colors - very pretty and very yummy! The top tier is a spice cake and the bottom tier is a yellow cake with raspberry buttercream filling!

My Birthday!

2009-10-07T14:52:00.000-07:00

So everyone kept saying that I should not have to make my own birthday cake...but I really wanted to! I like the practice and trying new techniques! For this I used the bow technique we used for the course 3 cake. I found some pretty ribbon at Michaels and used that for my inspiration of the colors...since I LOVE blue! I think it turned out really pretty! I absolutley love the little flowers that I used to cover up where the ribbon met! Happy Birthday to Me!

Wilton Course 3 cake

2009-10-07T14:49:00.000-07:00

Wilton Course 3 was all about fondant...so we learned how to cover a cake in fondant. We also learned how to make a small bow - and whalah - it looks like a present!

Kylee's Friend Party

2009-10-07T14:42:00.000-07:00

For Kylee's friend party, I decided to make some cupcakes. I only made the extra small oval cake because I had extra cake batter! I wanted to use an icing tip for the cupcakes and they turned out really pretty! I love the blue!

Kylee's Birthday

2009-10-07T14:40:00.000-07:00

My step-daughter, Kylee looked through my Wilton books for an idea on what she wanted for her birthday cake. She found a 2 tiered cake with a big fondant bow on the top! I made her a funfetti cake mix with a whipped cream cheese filling. I loved the bright colors that Kylee chose!

Wilton Course 2 final

2009-10-07T14:29:00.000-07:00

For the Wilton Course 2 final, I have a yellow cake (can you tell that is my favorite) with a rapsberry cream filling and a vanilla buttercream frosting - made into a lovely basketweave design with cute little royal icing flowers on top!

Let's try something new!

2009-10-07T14:26:00.000-07:00

I wanted to try something new just for the heck of it! I made 2 bundt cakes, one yellow and one german chocolate. Flipped them one on top of the other...covered them in a vanilla buttercream along with a red colored fondant. My attempts were to make an apple to celebrate the kids going back to school. The fondant really did end up getting to the point of being red, but my pics look more like it is orange...and in turn makes it look like a pumpkin! I will have to do this again around Halloween time!!

A Friend's Birthday

2009-10-07T14:23:00.000-07:00

One of my friend's and the mother of my daughter's 2 half brothers (yes this woman was also married to my ex husband...who is now her ex husband as well!) had her birthday! I was excited to have a girly cake to make after the last two! I could use my buttercream rose technique I had learned from the Wilton Course 1 class! I wanted to make them very vibrant and bright and think I accomplished that! This was a yellow cake with a whipped buttercream filling with chopped up M&M's and a vanilla buttercream frosting!

Another Brother in Law's Birthday

2009-10-07T14:20:00.000-07:00

My brother in law's birthdays are within 2 days of each other! This brother in law is a policeman, is into guns/hunting, and into karate (even competes in Vegas...very good!) So I had multiple things to choose from for him. My mom found a symbol of his karate stuff and I decided to use that for the design of the cake! This was a lemon cake with a whipped lemon mousse filling and vanilla buttercream frosting!

Brother in Law's Birthday

2009-10-07T14:16:00.001-07:00

This one was for my brother in law's birthday. As I was making it I was pondering what to make for him...what is he really in to...VIDEO GAMES! So I attempted to model a Playstation paddle out of marshmellow fondant. This type of fondant is a little too gooey and did not hold it's shape all that well...but you could tell what it was at least! This was a yellow cake with semi-sweet chocolate chips, a chocolate mousse filling and a vanilla buttercream frosting.

In the Beginning...

2009-10-07T14:11:00.000-07:00

My first cake...Wilton Course 1 Final. carrot cake, with whipped cream cheese filling and a cream cheese frosting. This kind of frosting is harder to make smooth - plus it was my first cake! The instructor did not tell us until after that we did not have to put all of the techniques learned in course 1 onto the cake...o well!

Yeah...cake!!!

2009-10-06T14:55:00.001-07:00

So I decided to steal my friend - Emily's - idea and have a blog set up just for my cakes! I will be getting the images and notes on each of my cakes and post them shortly!! What a great idea to keep track of my cake making progress! I may also throw in some of my other home-made goodies here and there as well! I do like to keep busy - especially around Christmas time! I am always making new little crafts and decorations! We will see how many of those I get to since I have been SO involved in my cakes lately!
Well...stay tuned!