Our Cakes Throughout the Years: 40th Wedding Anniversary Cake

Here is a cake I made for my in-laws. This cake was to celebrate their 40th Wedding Anniversary. The bottom tier is vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream frosting. The middle and top tiers are chocolate cake with white chocolate buttercream. The cakes are covered in vanilla buttercream. The scrollwork is white chocolate buttercream painted with edible gold dust.

I handmade all the daisies out of fondant. The monogram and number 40 are handcarved out of gumpaste, and painted with edible gold dust. I used lavender-colored isomalt diamonds on the monogram as well.

Our Cakes Throughout the Years: Pre-School Celebration Cake

I wanted to make a special cake for my son's pre-school. It was their last day of school, and I wanted to give the students and teachers a little treat. It is a marble cake with buttercream frosting. The flowers, banner, and birds are made out of fondant. I used an edible black marker to write with.

Our Cakes Throughout the Years: Tropical Luau Birthday Cake

This is a cake I recently did for a little girl's birthday. She was having a tropical luau-theme birthday and requested this cake. This half sheet cake is a marble cake with vanilla buttercream frosting. I used piping gel to replicate water, and brown sugar to replicate sand. The hibiscus flowers, and the coral-style lettering under the water are made of fondant. I used modeling chocolate to make the turtle. The shells are made of white chocolate.

Our Cakes Throughout The Years: Doctor Who-Weeping Angels Cake

Here is a Doctor Who-Weeping Angels cake I made for my husband for Father's Day. We are both big Doctor Who and Torchwood fans, so I wanted to surprise him with a Doctor Who cake. The cake features the Weeping Angels characters, and I used quotes from the episode "Blink" on top of the cake.

The cake is a Guinness Chocolate cake with a Guinness Chocolate Buttercream frosting. The lettering is done in chocolate fondant. The angels are hand made out of modeling chocolate, and I used a face mold to make the face. I painted the angels in a silver edible paint.

Our Cakes Throughout The Years: Baby Shower Cake

This is a baby shower cake I made. The cake is covered in fondant, and is adorned with fondant stripes and polka dots. I made the baby booties and daisies out of a fondant/gumpaste mix.

Our Cakes Throughout the Years: Curious George Birthday Cake

This is my son's Curious George-themed birthday cake I made for him to celebrate his 3rd birthday. I made George out of rice cereal treats and covered him in fondant. I made the cake to look like George was decorating the cake himself. I made a little piping bag to go in George's left hand, and had some "frosting" (actually just yellow fondant) coming out of the piping bag onto the cake. The little cake is vanilla cake with buttercream frosting. I had my son decorate the cake, so it actually looked like George did it himself. :)

For his birthday, I also made banana cupcakes to go with the Curious George theme. I made banana cupcakes with peanut butter frosting, banana cupcakes with chocolate frosting, and my Elvis cupcakes (banana cupcakes with peanut butter frosting and topped with bacon).

Our Cakes Throughout the Years: Zebra Stripe Birthday Cake

I created this custom cake for a 15-year old's birthday. Her mom requested a zebra stripe pattern on the cake. The cake is covered in fondant. I used black fondant as a background on the bottom tier, and used white stripes. The middle tier is purple fondant with the girl's name handcarved out of fondant and painted with edible black glitter. The top tier is white fondant with black stripes. The stars are made out of fondant and dusted with black glitter. The numbers are made out of gumpaste and painted with edible purple and silver paint.

Our Cakes Throughout the Years: Bridal Shower Cake

I decorated this cake for one of my mom's co-worker's bridal shower at work. The cake is covered in vanilla-flavored pink buttercream. I created a swirled pattern on the top of the cake just to do something different than a typical sheet cake design. I handcarved a silhouette of a bride and painted her with edible pearl paint. I also made tiny roses to go in her bouquet, and one for her hair. I handmade fondant roses to adorn the corners of the cake. I also got inspired by a pink ruffle cake design to make a ruffle pattern on the sides of the cake.

Our Cakes Throughout the Years: Mother's Day Cake

I am the proud mom of an almost 3-year old boy, and decided to make a cake to celebrate Mother's Day. I hosted a BBQ for our parents and had some rosemary-thyme smoked pork ribs off of our own BBQ smoker (we're actually BBQ competitors and card carrying members of the Kansas City Barbeque Society).

The dessert I made was the cake shown above. It is a Guinness and Chocolate cake with a strawberry-rosewater coulis filling and also a vanilla sea salt frosting. The cake is covered in dark chocolate fondant and I piped the flower (I got inspired by a new flower which was planted in my garden) and scrolls with buttercream.

Our Cakes Throughout the Years: 1st Holy Communion Cake

This cake was made for my cousin's son for his 1st Holy Communion. I wanted to make him a special gift in honor of the occasion. The cake is a chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. The Bible cake is covered in a dark chocolate fondant, and white fondant (for the pages of the book). I handcarved the cross and chalice and painted them with edible paint.

My mom made red velvet cupcakes for the party as well. The cupcakes are frosted with a fluffy cream cheese frosting. They are adorned with chocolate fondant doves.

Our Cakes Throughout the Years: Easter Cupcakes

These were two cupcakes I made for our family Easter celebration. The top cupcake is my ode to Peeps cupcake. The vanilla cupcake is filled and topped with a marshmallow buttercream and topped with a marshmallow peep. The second cupcake is my ode to Cadbury Creme eggs. The chocolate cupcake is filled with a Cadbury Creme recipe I found online. I topped the cupcake with a chocolate frosting and drizzled the creme on top.

Our Cakes Throughout the Years: Christian-themed Baby Shower

This cake was created for a Christian-themed baby shower. The vanilla cake with pink frosting is covered in fondant. The decorations are also created out of fondant, with piping done in buttercream frosting. The Christian theme is interpreted on the cake with a clothes line between trees with angel wings, a halo, baby booties, and dress hanging from the line. I also found a quote from the Bible which refers to being born. I painted the cross, tree leaves, angel wings, and dress with edible glitter. This cake was such a joy to make! :o)

Our Cakes Throughout the Years: Lemon Chardonnay Cupcake with Blueberry Goat Cheese Filling

I was playing around again in my "test kitchen" and created a Lemon Chardonnay cupcake with a blueberry and goat cheese filling. The frosting on top is a chardonnay buttercream I created. I really enjoyed the cupcake but found the lemon to be a bit too overpowering over the chardonnay. Next time, I would definitely lighten up the amount of lemon added to the cake. I wanted the chardonnay to be the star. I created a chardonnay buttercream to balance out the lemon flavor. The buttercream almost had a meringue type of texture. The frosting was so light and airy. I loved it! The filling is a goat cheese base frosting with fresh blueberries mixed into the frosting. The blueberries are a great pairing with the lemon flavor of the cake.

Our Cakes Throughout the Years: The Commitments

"The Commitments" Cake
I finally wanted to make a cake just for myself, so I decided to create a cake based off of my favorite movie, "The Commitments". I am flying to Dublin next week to see the cast perform as a band in a charity concert at the O2 Arena, so I celebrated my trip by making a cake.

The cake is a Guinness & Chocolate flavored cake with a Vanilla Sea Salt Buttercream Frosting. I normally do not like any sort of chocolate cake (yes, a cake decorator that doesn't like chocolate..go figure). This Guinness and Chocolate cake though is PHENOMENAL!!!!! I got the recipe off of King Arthur Flour's website. Normally, I like creating my own cakes, but I read great reviews for KAF's Chocolate Stout Cake and knew I couldn't go wrong.

The cake itself is decorated to look like one of the black suits the members of the band wear for their performances. I also included notable props from the movie onto the cake: "Heroin(e) Kills" banner (yes, the extra "e" in heroine is supposed to be there LOL), the ad recruiting bandmates, and the Mr. Chippy van they travel in to their gigs. On the sides of the cake I wrote memorable quotes from the movie.

I loved working on this cake. It was, in a way, my dream cake. I'm so glad I did the cake, and get to enjoy eating it!! Now, it's off to Dublin to see "the World's Hardest Working Band". Sláinte!

Our Cakes Throughout the Years: Blackberry and Rosemary Cupcakes

Blackberry and Rosemary Cupcakes
This was a "test kitchen" cupcake my mom and I collaborated on. We had leftover vanilla cake batter, and decided to add fresh blackberries, rosemary, black pepper, lemon olive oil, blackberry ginger balsamic to the batter. The taste of these cupcakes were amazing!!!!! We had leftover vanilla buttercream frosting, and just added a little bit so as not to take away the taste of the cupcakes. I can't wait to make these again!!

Our Cakes Throughout the Years: Pink Mod Monkey Cake

Pink Mod Monkey 1st Birthday Cake
These adorable cakes were designed for a little girl's 1st Birthday. The cakes are covered/decorated in vanilla buttercream. The monkey face on the sheet cake is hand carved out of fondant and gumpaste. The smash cake decorations are made out of fondant and gumpaste.

Our Cakes Throughout the Years: Pink Skull Cake

Pink Skull Cake
This cake was designed for my friend's daughter's birthday. The birthday girl requested a pink skull theme. The cake is covered in whipped frosting, and decorated in pink and black buttercream. The border on the bottom is black fondant painted with edible black glitter. I handcarved the skull out of gumpaste, and painted it in edible pink glitter paint. The cake topper is a gumpaste heart painted in hot pink glitter paint, and I made the scroll out of gumpaste. I wrote the girl's name with edible black marker and shaded it to look like an old school tattoo style. I also made black poppies with hot pink center to adorn the cake. Also..not sure why the cake looks like it's crooked in the picture.. but it was completely level. :o)

Our Cakes Throughout the Years: Vanilla Cupcake with Honey, Lavender Sencha Tea Frosting

I have really been on a kick lately trying to come up with unique flavors. I recently was at Mitsuwa, a Japanese supermarket in Edgewater, NJ. I stopped by a Japanese tea kiosk and found a Lavender Sencha Tea. The tea has a wonderful, fresh lavender scent that flavors the green tea sencha. I instantly became inspired to use the tea to either flavor a cupcake or frosting. I decided to make a Honey, Lavender Sencha Tea Frosting to go with a basic vanilla cupcake. The frosting has a light tea flavor with hints of lavender. The honey adds a touch of sweetness, and I added a tiny amount of lemon flavoring to give it a bit of acidity to balance out the sweetness. The frosting is very light and delicate and goes so well with a vanilla cupcake. It also works well as an accompaniment with a cup of tea!

Our Cakes Throughout the Years: Pittsburgh Steelers Terrible Towel Cake

This cake was made for my husband who is a huge Pittsburgh Steelers fan. He asked for a Steelers-themed cake for his birthday, so I wanted to surprise him with a Terrible Towel cake. The cake is covered in fondant. I freehanded the Terrible Towel logo in edible black paint.

Our Cakes Throughout the Years: Chocolate Cupcakes with Toasted Almond Cardamom Frosting

So I was bored yesterday and decided to play around in my "test" kitchen. I decided to make chocolate cupcakes and add a unique frosting to them. I came up with a toasted almond cardamom frosting. The frosting is truly the highlight of the cupcake. I like to challenge myself and create unique flavors. The toasted almond cardamom frosting totally worked! I toasted some almonds, and ground them in my food processor along with some ground cardamom and a secret ingredient. I mixed it in with my frosting foundation and the taste was simply amazing!!!