Christmas Decor

I realize this blog is about cakes, but it is my blog after all and I wanted a place where I could easily find my Christmas decor from the year before...so here are some non-cake related pictures. I LOVE LOVE decorating for Christmas and didn't get to do much this year since we were out of town for two weekends at the end of November and beginning of December. In fact, when we went to get our tree, most of the trees were gone from the traditional home improvement stores. Luckily we found a nice one at a Garden Center nearby. Traditionally I've gone with a white, red, green theme, but this year it was a new house, new game. Since my walls are painted a blue-sage, I decided to try to incorporate some blue into the decor. It worked out okay, but I really liked the pale blue ornaments, and I really only found dark blue by the time I was able to shop....oh well, there is always next year!
Tree collection

  reindeer  Lucky Irish elf ClausThe christmas tree...

More pictures...

 Mantel....I kind of miss not having a traditional mantel to put things on...down on bottom there is more width of course..

 Below the projector...

Why do I always have a hard time aligning pictures?!?!

Tiffany's Box Cake

I just wanted to add a quick post of a cake I did recently for my sister in-law's special birthday (number will not be revealed on this post!). She requested a cake shaped like the Tiffany's jewelry box, which I think all girls fantasize about at some point or another. Plus that blue-green is to die for. Anyhoo, after a little mixing of colors I got it just right (which is pretty cool since we bought her a necklace from Tiffany's and had the box to prove it - right of cake). Also her parents bought her one of the new Tiffany's purses (thus the huge Tiffany's box in the background). The cake was my "perfect chocolate cake" recipe with an improvised chocolate-coffee frosting. Fondant on top with gumpaste  bow covered in luster dust. All in all I think the cake and the presents were a hit.

My Little Pony Cake

Sofia's big 4 cake was a pony themed cake, because we rented a pony for her party (and some small farm animals for petting). So as I thought about what to do for her cake, I knew she wanted bright colors etc., so I went with a My Little Pony cake. I thought about making the ponies out of fondant or gum paste, but there they were available for purchase for a small price, to save me hours of molding....sold!

So as part of the birthday fun, we decorated cupcakes, so I felt I could get away with a relatively small cake. This one was a double 10" cake. Covered in fondant with fondant flower and heart cut outs. A gum paste rainbow and butter cream clouds. Also the pony behind sat on a 3D sun (difficult to tell from these pictures) The birthday girl was very happy with her confectionary model, so mommy was too. I was going for more of a color theme, than "my little pony" so I found these adorable cupcake plates and scooped up a few for fun! Hope you enjoy!

Amazing Video

Okay, I just had to post the link up for this amazing video of a 3D Labradoodle cake being made in 4 minutes! Of course it is edited and in FastFWD essentially, but nonetheless, wow! This lady is amazing! I wish I could whip cakes up so easily! She also used a few different techniques I hadn't seen before, and the face is not edible, but I'm not a purist when it comes to that!
http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-make-sculpted-dog-cake-189521/

Tiger Cake

Okay, so I finally have a bit of time to put together a post for the tiger cake. This is probably one of the most challenging cakes I've made, hard competition to E's 'Go Dog Go' Cake from last year. So the head construction began with a Rice Krispies Treats sculpture, then I crushed some more to mold the nose and cheeks. I wish I'd made the snout wider after the fact. Then ice and cover in fondant, and onto making ears out of gum paste.

Afterwards, I worked on hand painting the stripes on the head and other details. Meanwhile my kids were home and kept asking, when are you going to make it orange, when are you going to do the orange?

So I did. I set up my "spray booth" in the butler's pantry, and tried to do the best I could to not get the orange everywhere, this was the second hardest part. Then every cake needs a body, so I made Ethan's out of yellow cake with raspberry preserves (his pick) and the rear out of chocolate cake with chocolate icing in the middle, covered in white frosting.

The legs were sculpted out of fondant and then the whole thing was covered in fondant (no easy task with only two hands!) Say hello Mr. Tiger Cake!

Here is the finished product. I had LOTS of trouble with the beard in general, and probably should have just left it off. All in all the birthday boy was pleased with his cake and that's all that really matters! Thanks for reading!

Pony Cake

I'm trying to be a little more consistent with my posts, so here is a pony cake I made for my niece a while back. I was instructed to use a Wilton cake pan mold, and then tediously pipe the frosting on. It took a LONG time! And my hands just aren't used to that kind of piping, so lots of breaks were needed to bring feeling back into my fingers! It turned out to be a cute cake and my niece loved it which was the most important thing!

Tennis Cake

I realize I'm quite behind on maintaining this blog and my apologies to my small following! ;) I wanted to post up some pictures of the cake I made for my brother's 18th Birthday. He is a very smart and talented kid who is now in his first semester in college. He played tennis all through high school and was pretty good from what I hear....thus the tennis themed cake.

 
Just a few more angles to show a little detail of the top. I included a picture of him on the front as well. Hope you like!