green eggs and ham

Here is the cake I made for my brother's birthday. I got the idea from the food network's Dr Seuss competition. It seemed like tons of fun, and it was! Carving up a cake sure leaves lot's of crumbs though. I'm now working on perfecting my cake crumb parfait with the scraps.

The leftover doll cake batter I put in the refrigerator worked just fine after a couple of days. I couldn't tell any difference. The frozen batter worked pretty well too. I left it in the freezer for a couple of weeks. It wasn't quite as good as fresh, but pretty close. Good to know.

doll party

Here are some small sized doll cakes I made for someone who throws tea parties for little girls. They were really fun to make, and I think they turned out to be pretty cute. I am going to try making more soon. I refrigerated some batter and froze some too to see how that will effect the consistency of the cakes. It would be really nice if that works!

Easter Petit Fours

I made some Easter egg petit fours this year. I never did work out the construction issues on that easter basket. I have some modeling clay I've been playing around with to try to figure out how to make the fondant hold on upside down. Maybe next year..... I tried bunny petit fours, but the shape was too complicated and the white chocolate kept breaking. So - basic shapes it is from now on!

not cake

Rachel has a best friend. His name is Dog Dog. (Yes, we are so original around here!) He goes everywhere with her and she kisses him constantly. She tells me all the time what he is doing or saying. Last week though, I asked her what he said about something and she told me "he can't talk. He is just a pretend dog"! The mind of a 3 year old is deep! I live in terror of the day he gets lost or gets a big hole for all his stuffing to fall out. I decided to paint his portrait so we will always have him with us! Poor little Dog Dog!

birthday doll cakes

The first one that is posted is from last year. I thought it turned out pretty well since it was the first time I had worked with fondant to cover a whole cake. It was a little tricky. I wasn't thrilled with the color (too dark) but other than that liked it.

The second one is her cake from this year. I liked it better although the cake was so tall that I had a hard time rolling the fondant out big enough to cover it (hence the petticoats in the front!). They say necessity is a mother......

There is always ext year!

Easter Bunny

This is the Easter cake I made last year. I'm going to try to make an Easter Basket cake if I can work out the construction issues! I'll let you know how it goes!

donuts?

I have no idea what to say about this one!

cheesecakes

These I made for a friend's birthday party. The decoration on top is spun sugar. It looks really elegant - like stained glass - but isn't hard to make at all. It is a little tricky to get it into the shape you want, but once you get the hang of it not hard to do. It is a little messy to clean up though! I will make these again soon.

petit fours

These are petit fours I made for a party. They took 2 days with my 2 year old daughter "helping". I need to work on my photography skills because they really looked better than this photo shows. They also tasted really good. The almond paste made them very moist. I think when I make these again, I will get a better quality white chocolate. I used nestles white chocolate chips and they did not melt easily. I think they would make great Easter Egg shapes and look really nice for an Easter party.

yes - it's supposed to be off center!

This is the birthday cake I made for myself last year. It was my first attempt at something odd and fun. It was also my first attempt at using fondant icing. I think, if I were to try this one again, I would cover the entire cake with fondant to make it more smooth. I would like to try it again soon. I always learn something each time I make a new cake. I used dowels and cardboard circles to make sure the whole thing could be supported. I baked the layers all week and froze them. Then, on the day of construction, I assembled everything and iced it. The layers were cut on a diagonal to make the teetering appearance. The circles were fondant.

And in case you were wondering - it was chocolate! Yum!