oh dear. these cakes are growing stale...

My goodness... these cake pictures are growing stale sitting in the picture folder and not here in the world wide web... time for a photo catch up!

 HELLO KITTY 30th Birthday cake, b/c your never too old for Hello Kitty!

 My sons 3rd birthday... he loves to "mow!"

^--Made this for a lactose intolerant friend, hehe, an ice cream cake... how perfectly ironic.

"My Little Ponyyyyyy!" are you singing with me?? 

This was my biggest cake to date, none the less, 2 cakes instead of one. 

I found that unless you actually make a cartoon cake look like its character like in the Curious George cake, you are basically going to have to add some "plastic..." aka Little Pony figures to give it that "Pony" theme. I was more than "ok" with that, as it took off some pressure of getting an exact replica of a character off my plate... so to speak. I went with a scenery theme, with an elevated cloud cake where Rainbow Dash looked onto Pony land from above. Some grass, flowers, a babbling brook, carefree stone bridge and all. The name Scarlet was made out of white chocolate i melted, and then piped onto some parchment paper, let dry, then transferred to the cake for some 3D effect. 

BEST part of all, the inside of the cake... rainbow!!

This was my first attempt to make a rainbow cake, and i was ecstatic with the  results! Now the "proper" way would have been to bake several different cake pans with the individual color batters, then once cooled, stack them together. BUT, i went for the mix up the batters one at a time, then evenly pour them in, one at a time. I would do this again in a heartbeat! The presentation that the inside of the cake gave was perfect, and definitely a "wow factor." 

This was my first girly cake, and  i cant wait to do one again!

 Ooooh George... Curious curious George... You are too adorable for just PBS... now we can enjoy you in cake form. :) This cake was fun, and the most precise cake to date. Its one thing to do a cake like spaghetti, or the universe.. but to do a cake with a very recognizable character?... now thats a different story.
As i researched out some ideas for this cake, it was easy to see how George can be done right, and George can be done very, very wrong. I went the simple approach, and i am very glad i did. Too much crazy can take away from a clean classic look. The cake its self is a 2 layer chocolate cake, with chocolate filling, and frosted light yellow. Georges face is fondant that i mixed to "monkey colors."
The red cursive name went along with the Curious George writing that is so recognizable in the books and on TV.  To get Georges face exact, I printed out a photo that i liked of him, cut out each paper section, rolled my fondant, traced around it, cut out the fondant, placed them all in the right place, and outlined with black icing! Voila! 
This cake is an example of taking a chance! I never did  a "portrait" before, and now i am confident i could  do it again...
well, as long as its a cartoon :)

 Ice cream cake... yum... only this isn't realllly an ice cream cake, its only an ice cream cake.
That melting scoop of ice cream is just melted white chocolate mixed with frosting to the exact consistency of vanilla ice cream. This creation was whipped up in an afternoon while i neglected my laundry and dishes, and while 3 out of 4 children napped peacefully :) I am learning as i go, making mistakes, taking chances and getting messy! (As Miss Frizzel would put it) Every Tuesday I will attempt to create a cake, just for kicks, and for lots and lots of practice! Wish  me luck on this grand cake adventure!!

Its about time we talked about the planet/bowling cake..... I love this cake :)

My oldest son requested a cake with angels surrounding the Universe praising God... thats a tall order from a soon to be 7yr old! We also were going bowling for his birthday, and at the time, it was a surprise!
So, naturally, a solar system with angels, and bowling made complete sense! And i was thrilled!!
Did you find the connection? As a child i was told that  thunder was the angels bowling in the heavens!
The cake is 100% gluten free, and 100% crazy fun.
The angels, not pictured here, made their appearance at the bowling party, surrounding the cake. (They were little action figures  with little paper wings glued on ) The planets, rocket ship and blowing pins were all made from a marshmallow fondant that was molded to desired shapes. It was the first time I tried to makefondant and it was super fun and easy! This cake was so much fun to make, and honestly really simple... Anyone with a little bit of creativity could  replicate this! Although, i am not too sure there is another kid  that wishes bowling and the universe as a choice for a birthday cake celebration! But if there is!!!!
Her are the blue prints ;) "Your welcome."

Oh the spaghetti cake... it all started out as a joke.
Miles, loving his gf spaghetti at the age of 5, declared one night at dinner his LOVE for the saucy noodle goodness. I in return said, "how about a spaghetti cake?" YES, yes, a spaghetti cake, yup, it was set in his mind; a spaghetti cake was a fantastic way to ring in the age of 6!
I, in return thought, "what did i get myself into here??"
It took some quick thinking on my feet the day b4 the birthday as i set out to create a feast of confectionery noodles and sauce... i should have never underestimated the creativity that  was nurtured from the start of life its self! The cake, simple, a 9"x13" edges cornered off into the shape of a soft oval. The noodles? Just dirty iced the cake, then with a massive zip lock bag filled with "custom" colored noodle frosting (just a tinge of yellow) nipped the tip of the baggy, and went back and forth and  back and forth, and sideways, and back and forth, and back and forth and, you get the idea. Until, the entire cake was covered with the Italian craze, noodles. Then, onto the chunky red sauce. I knew i wanted it thick and chunky and deep red, just like real tomato sauce. But how? Ah, of course, an entire bottle of red food coloring, add a little complementary color, green, (just a drop!!) chopped up some Swedish fish gummies, and voila! Bon appetit!
How could spaghetti be topped with none other than meatballs? How about brownie balls? Before the cake was made, i whipped up a batch of, you guessed it, gluten free brownies, and just about a minuet after they cooled, rolled some up into meatball size and rolled them again, but this time into some cocoa powder. The coca  powder gave it that depth i was looking for and 3D color and shading. Next time you plow through some amazing meatballs, stop, look, feel and discover the complex nature of that meatball.... oh yeah, its that  depthy. (you know it must be deep, cuz i used the word "depthy....")
The fork and spoon,well, that was just showing off, ha ha... no really i was like "whoa,  watch this. BAM!"
I did have to have it "set" in the fridge so that the noodle didn't drop too far south, or, aka, melt out of its noodle form. All in all, it was SO much fun to make, andddd really easy.  Needles to say, he loved it.  It will forever be that, "Ah, the spaghetti cake... i remember that!!" and that was all that i was going for all along... and well, a good laugh of course!

Our 3rd son was born in September 2010, and now the time had come for his 1st Birthday! I knew at this point i wanted to do a fun cake, and now knew i had some capability to achieve it! Owls were a bit trendy at the time, and completely adorable, so an owl cake was on the cards! If I remember correctly, i poured my batter (gluten free) into 2 round pans, one small for the head, and one larger for the body. Once they were cooled i cut the back part off the body cake and presented it as the wing. A little chocolate frosting, 2 giant marshmallows, a widdled down carrot, and PRESTO, the Owl was born!!

See, summer is our birthday month for our boys. Starts in May, June, July and then finished up by September. Our 2nd oldest son was just about to turn 4, and I had just wowed the crowd with the spaghetti cake, SO, whatever he chose  for his cake had to pretty awesome. Well, when you ask a funny, spunky 3yr old what they want for a birthday cake, don't be surprised when they answer you with: cheese curl cake!!! The challenge was on. I poured my batter into a bunt cake mold,  cut it slightly unequaled in half,  made a very chemically processed orange frosting color, mixed coloring with straight powdered sugar for the cheese  powdered stuff, and ta ta! All except for the crunch, the audience was disgusted and fooled by our giant cheese curl cake. Even had an orange colored cake inside....  

it was weird and awesome, all in the same bite. 

The Beginning...

I had a problem. My 1st born was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes and Celiac Disease about 2 months after he turned 3 yrs old, and only a week b4 his little brother had his 1st Birthday. So, what was i  to do with the big weight of "the cake." Cakes are such a big deal when it comes to birthdays. In my mind, i feel like its the eye of the storm, and all else  surrounds its presence. Ok, well, maybe its not that  intense, but it sure felt like it to me. Now, here i was, faced with a problem that no Betty Crocker was gonna fix. (at least not at that point; they didn't market a gluten free option in 2009) So I bought an "all natural" gluten free, egg free, soy free, dairy free, nut free, sugar free, taste free cake mix, and frosting that was  thick and slimy and awkward. It was all i knew to do. It was  disgusting, and gritty and made me thrilled that the next birthday in our family was months and months away! The thought of facing another gluten free cake made me cringe, and not to mention, the idea of doing anything "fancy" with a crumbly cake was out the door. I thought we would be stuck scooping out cake of a 9"x13" cake pan for the rest of our lives...... and to a creative person, this was, welll, not the picture i had in mind. I wanted to make fantastic cakes, and make a birthday worth remembering, and to me, the cake was the center picture of the day. It was the mental pin that you could always go back in time and say "AH, YES, my  4th birthday, the volcano cake! I remember that!!"
SO, i did it. I took a chance. On our oldest sons 4th birthday, I made a GOOD home made, gluten free volcano cake, and for our 2yr old  at the time, made a snow man cake, then next came a treasure chest, and a dump truck, soon followed by the "famous" Spaghetti cake..... I did it. I crossed that hurdle that  said: "its too hard, just give up" and went full force into making a challenge every time a cake appeared.

It may be just cake to you, but to me, its a memory in the baking making, and i am ready to bake it  up! 

   ^not the best, but one of the firsts!

^favorite cake to date!