Sophie is One!

You might remember the baby shower cake I made for Sophie last year. (If not, click here.) Well, now Sophie is 1 and celebrating her birthday in grand sailor fashion.  The color scheme was pink, navy blue, and white, and there were lots to do!

First, I made marshmallow pops. Ahead of time, I took mint lifesaver candy and painted them with edible ink to resemble life preservers. Then I took marshmallows and stuck them into one end of a decorative straw. I dipped half the marshmallow lot into melted pink chocolate, and the other half of the lot into melted navy blue chocolate (this was white chocolate wafers melted down using the double boiler method, and then added food coloring afterwards). Then I added sprinkles and the lifesaver candy on top before the chocolate coating could fully dry.
I like how these turned out and would opt to do these again in the future!

Second, I made vanilla cupcakes topped with a pink buttercream swirl and white sprinkles. They turned out more coral than pink but with the cupcake wrapper and sprinkles, it still looked good.

 

 

Third, and possibly most difficult of all, I had to do a cake! I was excited about this one though, because I knew ahead of time what I was going to do. Sophie's mom had shown me a picture ahead of time of what she wanted the cake to look like. I made the bottom tier (8" round) vanilla , and the top tier (6" round) chocolate. I covered them both in pink fondant .. it was difficult this time as the fondant was heavy and started to rip as soon as I put it on the cake.

While decorating, outside the weather was turning bad (it would turn out to be the weekend of freezing rain, city-wide power outages, and lots of downed trees!). However, with the ripping fondant and softening buttercream on the cake, I had to go out to the store and get more fondant. So yes I drove in freezing rain - lesson learned: stock up on fondant!! :p

So back to the cake - I was able to finally get the cakes covered and stacked. I decorated the bottom tier with vertical stripes of white fondant. Then I took two strips of white fondant, rolled them out into long worm-like strings, and then carefully intertwined them making sure they didn't tear. This makes the rope look. I draped these at the bottom of each tier. I cut out a piece of fondant, and with navy blue edible ink, I painted on the number "1" and stuck this to the front of the cake.

Ahead of time, I had created a navy blue anchor out of gumpaste. This had since dried and hardened so I placed it at the bottom of the cake, resting along the ropes. I had also made parts of the sailboat and now put them together on the top tier.  The mast of the sailboat is actually a thin popsicle stick (from the craft store) used for support, and painted in edible navy blue ink. The sailboat was stuck onto the cake using buttercream icing.


Update:
Sophie's mom has a knack for decorating and was featured in a blog (along with my cake)!
http://thesweetpeachpaperie.com/sweet-customers-sophie-is-one/

 

 

One Direction is the Story of My Life!!

One Direction just released another album, so of course with a preteen birthday coming up...she wants a One Direction cake!! I'm not sure how much more of these guys I can take, but I love this kid so I will oblige! :) I'm kidding, I like some of their songs, its been growing on me. Especially their new one, Story of My Life.

This chocolate cake is 8" round, and has 2-layers in it. I covered it in rolled black fondant. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and went on well on the first try. Yesterday, I cut out the letters to "one direction" as well as all the band members' names and left them overnight to dry and harden. I put the boys' names around the sides, separated by a white fondant heart. I also lined the bottom of the cake with a white fondant ribbon.

The top of the cake was trickier since I had to do to logo! I cut out "1D" from rolled fondant, and stuck it to the cake using a dab of water. I used black edible ink and a thin stiff paintbrush to draw in the markings (just like the official logo has). Lastly, I piped "Happy Birthday Pragathi" right onto the cakeboard. I took it to the party with the lazy Susan turntable; this way you could spin it and see all the names on the sides.

Happy Diwali!

Today in my culture, it's Diwali - the Festival of Lights. After lighting up the outside of the family home with candles and lamps (as per custom!), I decided to make a cheesecake! Ok, I had a craving. I just had to indulge!

I had a box of Smarties and since I was already in the decorating mood, I decided to decorate my cheesecake. YUM!! Happy Diwali! :)

Sports Cookies, Hoboken Style!

Buddy Valastro of Cake Boss (and my idol!) had an online contest of who could bake and decorate the best sports cookies. He makes them in his book, so I followed his sugar cookie recipe. I made tennis ball, baseball, and basketball cookies and attempted a football cookie. I cut out a piece of colored rolled fondant, used buttercream icing to help it stick to the cookie, and piped the details on.
My favorite is the baseball one, because I could pipe the seams on in different ways (two-seam or four-seam baseballs). I didn't end up winning but they were fun to make. And even yummier to eat!

Going Simple

My uncle had a milestone birthday and my aunt asked me to make a cake for him. Since there were going to be more than 1 cake anyway, and lots of desert, she asked for it to be really simple.

I'm working on my border piping skills. Here I did a shell border. I wish I had a larger start tip so that I can make it bigger.

It turned out to be simpler than I would've liked. But everyone really liked how it tasted (it was a regular vanilla cake, but sometimes going simple like that makes people nostalgic, and that's the best kind of cake!) so it worked out in the end.

Red Velvets

I made these cupcakes for the workplace to help celebrate the upcoming wedding of two coworkers. What I did different was sprinkle the top with a bit of cake crumbles so that you could see what type of cake you were eating!

The Behemoth

A few months ago, I received a request for a 1st birthday cake that had to feed a lot of people! It had to be a 3-tier tall cake, each tier having 3-4 layers within it. The bottom tier was 10", the middle tier was 8", and the top tier was 6". This would be by far the biggest cake I'd ever made so far! I was given a picture of how the tiers were to look like. So I tried my best to recreate that, but at the same time didn't want to copy every single detail.

The bottom tier was about 5" tall, and was covered in white buttercream icing. I gave it a blue Chevron fondant pattern.

The middle tier was about 4" tall, and the client wanted this covered in yellow icing with white dots. The dots were made by rolling out white fondant, and using the ends of a Wilton tip to cut out perfect circles.

The top tier was about 5" tall, and again covered in white icing. They wanted the letter V on a fondant plaque, since that was the birthday girl's initial. I encircled the middle of this tier with a blue fondant ribbon overlapping a yellow one. I used Wilton silicone molds to create pink and yellow fondant rose buttons to decorate the bottom of this tier.

They requested butterflies adorn the cake. I didn't want it to look too busy, so I just made a few. I rolled out purple gumpaste, pressed a butterfly stencil into it, cut it out, bent it in a way that looks like the butterfly is resting on a flower, and let it dry overnight. I then dusted it carefully with purple pearl dust (edible!) so that the details of the wings from the stencil would show. Each butterfly was carefully placed onto a tier.

Thee also wanted a fondant "1" at the top of the cake. This was also done ahead of time using gumpaste and toothpicks so that it could be stuck into the top and then easily removed once the cake was cut into. She also requested a flower on top, so I layered fondant rose petals (dried ahead of time) on top of each other.

The bottom of each tier was then piped with white dots to give it a completed look.

This one weighed a lot, and took two people to carry it to the car!

 

Its a bird! Its a plane! No, its...

SUPERMAN!!!

Yet another birthday, this time for a grown-up comic book superhero fan. I really liked the Frozen Buttercream Transfer done with the Hello Kitty cake and wanted to try it again, this time to try and perfect it.

I had made regular vanilla cupcakes, and topped it with a blue buttercream swirl. Yes, I used Spiderman cupcake wrappers since I couldn't find Superman ones anywhere!! (Is it bad to mix DC Comics with Marvel??)

I piped out the Superman logo backwards onto wax paper, and froze it overnight. The next morning, I carefully peeled off the paper and placed the logo carefully onto each cupcake. A few of them broke or weren't fully frozen yet, which was expected. I had made extras just in case!

The longer they sat on the cupcake, the more they started to melt and wilt onto the blue icing below. None of them broke off or bled onto the blue icing though, which was good news. In the end, I was happy with how these turned out. I think because these logos were smaller than the Hello Kitty one, it worked out better.

Damask

I've seen the damask trend, and have been wanting to try it. Now is my chance! This simple vanilla birthday cake was 8" round. I hadn't tried these types of patterns before, so I tested out my swirls on a sheet of wax paper first. Since it was being piped onto white buttercream icing, it couldn't be easily removed if I made a mistake, and would've smudged! Eventually, I just went with it and started piping all around the cake. For it being my first time piping like this, I think it turned out pretty decent.

Breakfast At Tiffany's

The theme for a friend's bridal shower was Breakfast At Tiffany's. Her bridesmaids requested 24 regular cupcakes, 50 mini cupcakes, and a two-tier gift box cake.

The regular cupcakes were red velvet (bride's favorite), iced with a Tiffany Blue buttercream icing swirl, and topped with a white fondant bow. Each bow is handmade (that's why they look a little bit different from each other!).

A close-up of the cupcake

Each of the mini cupcakes (also red velvet) were easier to make, since they just required a dollop of Tiffany Blue icing. I found it to be more elegant to pipe out the bow with white icing.

The cake was supposed to be two-tier, but wasn't going to feed that many people. I suggested the top tier be made of Styrofoam, and the bottom tier be edible. The bottom tier was a 9" square vanilla cake, with a 5" square Styrofoam dummy on top. I covered the top and bottom tiers in Tiffany Blue icing, and laced it with white fondant ribbon to resemble gift wrap. I made the top bow from scratch using half fondant / half gumpaste, and piped the edge of the bottom tier with white pearl-like buttercream  dots, hoping this would add to the elegance factor.

Top View, the finished bow

I hand-wrote the sign on a piece of hardened fondant (cut with a scalloped cookie cutter and left to dry overnight), using edible black ink and a thin stiff paintbrush. I thought this would give it a neater, finished look rather than piping out the phrase with black icing.

Adventure Time!

A friend requested Adventure Time themed cupcakes and cake pops for her boyfriend's birthday. He really likes angel food cake so that's what I made. It turned out really puffy but still soft on the inside.

The cupcake toppers were made on edible paper and backed with a piece of rolled fondant.

 

 

The Bee that is sometimes seen in the show resembles the cakepops I had made in March 2012 for a bumblebee themed party.  So I replicated them for this party!

Hello Kitty!

This birthday cake was made using the Frozen Buttercream Transfer method (FBCT) for a friend who loves this popular Japanese cat. The cake was 2-tier vanilla and dyed pink on the inside. I covered it in white buttercream icing, then piped a pink shell border on top and a pink star border around the bottom. The image was piped using buttercream icing and then put into the freezer for a few hours to harden. Once it was ready, it was flipped over onto the cake surface.

A Twin's Dilemma

When you're a twin, I guess it's hard to pick a theme for your birthday party!! This set of preteen twins decided on Transformers / One Direction. 40 cupcakes (1/2 vanilla, 1/2 chocolate) were made and topped with buttercream icing.

The One Direction cupcakes were to be classy/simple with just chocolate and vanilla swirls.

The Transformers cupcakes were more for the guys and topped with a fiery two-tones yellow and orange swirl.

 

 

They turned out pretty well!!

m-i-n-n-i-e -- m-o-u-s-e!!

2nd order for the day! Phew!
This order was for a birthday girl who's turning 1. The theme of her birthday party is Minnie Mouse, so of course everything has to be pink with white polkadots!

First up are 20 cupcakes (10 vanilla and 10 chocolate-flavoured) that were topped with pink icing. I made black fondant ears and pink bows beforehand to let them dry and harden.



vanilla on one side, chocolate on the other

  The 8" round two-tiered cake stands about 4" tall (without the cake topper). It's covered in pink fondant with white fondant dots. I piped a shell border on the bottom and laced with cake board with pink ribbon. The cake topper is a Disney hat with the birthday girl's name piped on it using pink icing. The hat was a challenge to make because it takes a few days to dry and harden, and the ears had to be stabilized. The big pink bow on top was made separately (also days in advance) with equal parts fondant and gumpaste to allow it to harden faster.


Minnie Mouse Cake

This was a fun cake to make because it's so different from what I have done in the past. I hope I get a chance to make more cake toppers so I can get better at it!

Keep Calm & Love One Direction

This order was for a 18th birthday party: 18 Oreo cupcakes and a 6" round vanilla fondant cake. The theme was One Direction and the colors were to be red, blue, and white (i.e Union Jack).

The cupcakes were made with an Oreo cookie on the bottom, and with a two-toned (red & blue) buttercream icing. This was the first time I'd done this type of icing and thought it came out really well. Each cupcake was then topped with a 2" round fondant cutout with an edible picture on top.  

Two-toned Buttercream Icing

 

Buttercream icing swirl



Finished cupcakes

 

Keep Calm & <3 One Direction



Close-Up of Cupcakes

The 6" round two-tier vanilla cake is separated with a layer of white buttercream icing and stands 5" tall. I covered it in red fondant, and piped a star border around the edges. Circling the cake is the saying, "One Band. One Dream. One Direction.". It is topped with a customized edible picture for the birthday girl. As you can see in the picture below, the red fondant has bled through the rice paper a little. Don't worry..after much afterthought, I now know how to prevent this from happening again in the future!

"One Band. One Dream. One Direction."



On a side note, I plan on using this two-toned buttercream method again. Instead of the IM swirl, it can also be used to create rosettes on a cupcake..like this: