Avah's Guitar Cake

Happy Birthday Avah who turned 5. The theme of the party was a reflection of Avah's love of Taylor Swift. Posters, sheet music, pictures and the sounds of taylor swift filled the hall. As usual when both families get to together there was lots of good food and lots of people. It was great to see everyone.
Avah had a VERY specific idea for her cake which she asked me to make back in January. She wanted a taylor swift guitar with a tear drop on it. She also wanted a rainbow on the cake. At first the tear drop was to be a rainbow but she then changed her mind and wanted the tear drop to be blue and the rainbow on the cake... So I did my best to fulfill her wishes.


I baked two large sheet cakes and layered them. Then I cut the shape of the guitar. I did break the top layer of cake when I flipping it over on top of the bottom layer. I used icing like glue and no one ever knew...


After crumb coating with white butter cream, I covered with brown butter cream. I didn't need to cover the neck of the guitar because it will be covered with fondant.



Fondant accents. I drew mostly straight lines with white buttercream for the strings once these accents were placed. I was going to drip spaghetti noodles in white chocolate to make straighter lines but I realized that was more work then I was willing to do... So I oped for the less straight, easier route...

I needed to make additional cake to feed all of the people at the party so I made two 9" chocolate cakes and cut them into the shape of guitar picks. I then tried to replicate a taylor swift guitar pick.


The table display.

A precious picture of cousins.

Happy Birthday Michelle

My little sister is 23! I made her a lemon cake with strawberry filling in honor of the spring like temperatures this weekend (to me lemon= spring, not sure why, 'cause you can buy lemons all year...). I kept the design simple, no tiara's or fondant formed flowers etc... Just buttercream icing. It's really my favorite thing to make, simple flowers in buttercream. I'm going to do more of this hopefully.



A rare moment when they were all in once place and looking at the camera...


Playing a round of Simon Says "put your finger on your nose"


These are the cupcakes I made for my neighbor to thank him for snowblowing my side walks this past winter. They are lemon filled with strawberry filling... Notice the same theme?

Leigh's Big 3-0

My good friend Leigh had a big birthday bash for her 30th. It was so fun. In true Leigh style it had lots of pink, alcohol and cool people to hang out with. The cake was inspired by one leigh spotted on cake central. Instead of making a champagne bottle for the top, I opted for a tiara because I just saw a tiara that my "facebook cake friend" Cassie just made and I wanted to try it.

Two "cake tragic" things happened with this cake (really that that dramatic, just sort of annoying) . I had plans to get the alcohol shaped cookie cutters from my favorite cake supply store in Allentown but last Saturday I left my house at 2 pm and the store closes at 2 pm.... So i went to stores around me but they didn't have them. I called my mom (because I still call my mom when I need help) and she went to this great little shop in fleetwood, pa http://www.foosecookiecutters.com. and found what i needed. My mom is awesome. Then just after I finished the cake and was packing it up to leave the tiara broke! I was sooooooo mad. It broke even more as I tried to fix it once I got to leigh's house. I eventually just put the two remaining pieces on the cake and royal icing glued then together.

Overall, it was another cake success, Leigh liked her cake and that's all that mattered!

Here are some pictures:

This was the original message on the cake, then I changed it at the last minute.


Back of the tiara


The broken tiara ready for transport...


Naked Cakes- I made one 10" x 3" and four 9"x2" cakes. I would have liked the bottom layer to be a little bigger. I have to find a 12" round pan to make more of a ridge on the bottom.


Cakes covered in butter cream icing and then smoothed with the Viva Paper Towel method. Did you know the viva paper towels are the only brand without a pattern so you can use them for this purpose...


Lots of fondant circles.


I taped the crown pattern to my flour canister and overlayed a piece of clear plastic. I then tiped the pattern in royal icing, went over it about three times to make it "strong" enough and then let it dry. I then painted with food coloring powder mixed with a little alcohol. The alcohol evaporates so it doesn't eat away the royal icing as water would do.