Party time!

I was excited to get this next project. It was my most complicated fondant design yet just due to the fact that there are so many different colors. It takes a long time just to prep all that fondant! The birthday party had a peace sign theme with a really cool pinata to match.

I finally think I have got the hang of covering a cake with fondant. Nice and smooth with no bubbles! A little bit of cornstarch left over but that will be an easy fix later. ;)

 I thought it would be easier to put a solid black circle in the center and do colored zebra stripes.

 The peace sign in the middle was different colors and instead of trying to blend various pieces of fondant I decided to do one white piece of fondant. I cut the peace sign out and then used the food coloring gels to paint the peace sign like watercolors. Ta-da!

It was a 12 inch vanilla cake with a vanilla buttercream icing. Yum!

Some Kute Kupcakes

The official year since I began baking cakes and cupcakes was in August. After the first attempted cake that was HUGE we decided some simple cupcakes would be just fine to celebrate this birthday. To add some cuteness to them I thought I would try making a letter topper on each cupcake.

I melted a white chocolate and added some food coloring. Once it was melted I piped the letter K on a cookie sheet that was covered with wax paper. You need to work quick so that the chocolate doesn't harden. If you are using a disposable piping bag you can always remove the tip and put the bag in the microwave for a few seconds to keep the chocolate soft. After I piped the letters, I put the baking sheet into the refrigerator for a few minutes to quickly harden the chocolate. Once the chocolate was firm I placed the letter on top of each cupcake. Voila!

Mmmm...cupcakes....

Delicious!!! Carrot cake with cream cheese icing and some walnuts on top. I love carrot cake and these cupcakes went to one happy friend on her birthday.

Monster Birthday

My next cake attempt had a lot of meaning for the little guy receiving it. This cake was meant to resemble the Monster Energy logo. A close friend had passed away who always wore Monster gear and the cake was for Maison so the M fit. :) This cake was actually never eaten! Maison saved it to remember his best friend.

Cupcakes and Babies

Months went by. Many Birthdays and various events. Cupcakes came to be the norm whenever I needed to bring something with me. I attempted another small cake with fondant again for a friend's baby shower. We welcomed baby Lily with some chocolate cake and my first attempt at making a gum paste flower. :)

Another Birthday, Another Learning Experience

A few weeks later I had another family member with a birthday. By now family and friends were interested to see what I could come up with when faced with the challenge. I decided to stick with the marshmallow fondant and starting investing in more tools to create my "art". :) A Texas Ranger fan, a birthday, and some chocolate cake...

I used two, eight-inch cakes, topped with a portion of a smaller six-inch cake for the ball shape on the top. I used a cream cheese icing and all decorations were fondant.

Lemon?!

My next cake was for a friend. A couple of friends encouraged my new hobby by buying me a fondant/gum paste kit. Another birthday, another attempt at fondant and this time I even tried to use gum paste too. I switched from a buttercream fondant to a marshmallow fondant. This was much better and easier to work with. I told my friend she could pick whatever flavor she wanted for her cake. After all, it was HER birthday. When she told me she wanted lemon cake with lemon icing I responded with, "Lemon?!".
I guess I figured everyone would want a chocolate cake and later learned that lemon is a really awesome flavor. :) I used a lemon cake, lemon icing and even made a lemon curd filling. Delicous!