Peace and Zebra's

 Another niece is turning 8.  The trend for 8 year old's appears to be zebra print cake with peace signs...  This time I made a black and white version.  Here is the birthday girl....She had zebra print flip flops to match the cake....

The pieces of the cake drying.  I found milkshake straws and love the them.  I used them to dry the Curly cues as well as for support in the middle of the cake.  They work great.

 Getting things together...

I tried something different and it worked!  I tried the zebra stripes on the inside technique from My Cake School.  If you aren't a member, you should join- the video are great and she provides lots of helpful easy to follow tips... http://www.mycakeschool.com/blog/how-to-make-a-cake-with-zebra-stripes-on-the-inside/ .  I was so excited I forgot to take a picture of what a cut piece looked like but it definitely worked.

 

Happy Birthday!

Bridal Dresses

Made these bridesmaid dresses in honor of a friends upcoming wedding. Not sure you can see the detail but I added pipping of white to the dresses and added touches of orange and blue as they are both sports nuts and it went with their favorite teams.  I also surprised her with his & her   "Jersey's"...

 Note: the puffiness of cotton candy will not last...

 It melts and then maked the hearts look a little "tragic"... Not the look I was going for a bridal party but oh well, they were still kinda cute...

A Mooshi Monster Party

My oldest niece turned 8 this week.  The cake requests are getting more specific with age. This year she wanted a purple and black zebra striped cake with a Piece sign on top with Mooshi Monsters hiding behind the peace sign... Whew... No problem- I can do that!   She is really into Mooshi Monsters and entered a contest to design her own.  With her mom's help they submitted an awesome drawing into the contest. As a surprise my sister sent me the picture and I turned it into a 3-D model for her cake.  She was surprised and loved it!

Here is the cake coming together...

Cake was strawberry flavored- I made "zebra stripes" by adding some black food coloring to the batter...

 The pieces drying...

Lilly's awesome creation- Disco Dazie (I hope they win)

 Lilly and Lindsey added their Mooshi Monsters to the cake...

 Two helpers during the cake photo shoot....

Sisterly love...Happy 8th Birthday!

Under the Sea

Today was the first birthday of a precious little girl... It was fun to celebrate and see all of my friends. Her birthday is perfectly placed so it will force us to have parties in the winter and get to catch up with each other...
Her mom gave me lots of creative freedom. She provided some of the birthday girl's favorite toys for inspiration. She loves her crab, clown fish and Orka so I used those as inspiration.  A search on cake central.com produced some great inspiration (in addition to giving me a computer virus, but that is another story...)   Below are some pictures of the cake coming together.  Enjoy!

The Octopus in its infancy...

 Made the coral out of white chocolate. Poured it over crushed ice to give it the trademarks of coral.

Pictures of the finished cake:

The aftermath...

Shades of Blue

Made this cake for an after Christmas friend's party. The theme was the 12 Days of Christmas. This cake represented the pipers pipping...  Lots of pipping... I learned the technique from the website mycakeschool.com.  I can't wait to try some of the other tutorials and cakes from the "school".
Here are some pictures of the cake coming together.
 

  

Wouldn't be complete without a picture of my super cute nieces...

 

Jillian wanted in on the action...

Yummy Desserts...

 

I also made an onion tart which turned out great.  Lots of sauteed onions, Gruyere cheese, Thyme baked on a puff pasty sheet. yummy...

Gingerbread Houses

We had lots of fun decorating our ginger bread houses!!!   Tried it for the first time this year. I think I was more excited then the kids, which isn't surprising.  I had to hold myself back from researching designs and getting too involved with the decorating... It was, after all, an activity for the children :)

Lilly's Finished House

 Avah's Finished House

Mini Ginger's designed by the next door neighbor girls. 

 Lindsey and Uncle Kevin's Ginger Bread house- This is Uncle Kevin's side

This is Lindsey's side...

Both Working very very hard... Uncle Kevin "Leased" some space from Lindsey

 Kevin Tried to repair a gingerbread house construction accident, but it didn't work... Oh well...

 

This was soooooo much fun... I'm already planning for next year!