Spiderman Birthday!

So this is finally something new to post.  Even though the last two posts were just put up, they weren't really anything new.  I had the request for a Spiderman birthday cake for a little boy turning 4.  And I just happen to have a friend that had a Wilton Spiderman pan she was willing to lend me.  I think I could have handled spiderman on a sheet cake, but the shaped pan just makes it look that much better for a little boy.  The pan was a little smaller than I planned on, so I made some cupcakes to go with it with the leftover batter.

Halloween Cupcakes

I sent those spiderweb cupcakes into work with my husband, only to be asked for 50 of them the following week for a Halloween party.  Here they are, half chocolate, half yellow cake, with orange buttercream and black buttercream spiderwebs.

 A close up of the cupcakes.

And I almost got all 50 into one box.

A Disney Princess

I'm glad I decided to buy that castle cake pan a couple months ago, as it has already been used again.  This time a little girl was planning to have a Disney Princess birthday party, so I made her the princess castle cake and I was able to find some Disney Princess figurines.  The party theme ended up changing a little, so we didn't use the figurines, but at least now I have them if there happens to be another Disney Princess party in the future that I do a cake for.  

Spiderweb Cupcakes

I decided to try out a new yellow cake recipe today, and instead of a big cake, I went with cupcakes.  And since it's October I went for a Halloween inspired design on them.  

Business is picking up a little for this coming weekend, look for more posts over the weekend or early next week!

My Baby Boy turned 1!

The main cake for the party was the party monkey.  He's got a butter/sugar cookie party hat, and a combination of chocolate and vanilla buttercream frosting.  I knew we were going to have more people than this cake could serve though, so I was determined to produce some quality cupcakes to go with it.  I set out to put the monkey face on from all the party decorations from 1stwishes.com onto the cupcakes.  We ended up with only a few cupcakes left and maybe 2 pieces worth of the whole monkey cake at the end, so I'm glad I went with the extra cupcakes.

What's a 1st birthday party without a smash cake for the baby?  This is a double layer 6" round cake covered mostly in the chocolate buttercream, with a little vanilla buttercream for trim and the number 1.  I figured it was a "go big or go home" moment for him, so we went big.

Another angle of the cakes:

And just for fun, the birthday boy enjoying his smash cake:

Princess 6th Birthday Castle

One of the doctors that my husband works with liked what I did with that practice blue monkey cake that I did a few months ago that she asked if I could make a cake for her daughter's 6th birthday.  Basically she gave me free reign to do what I wanted with the guidelines that her daughter really likes pink (as most 6 year old girls do).  I decided to go with a princess castle cake for the birthday girl, which both she and her mother loved!  Having as much notice as I did, I was able to order the shaped cake pan from Wilton in time to do this one, which hopefully I will use many more times now!  I figure I can always do a knight's castle for a boy too.  Here's the finished product. 

I included the candles that spelled out Happy Birthday which were held in the drops of frosting around the cake.

The Pot-Luck Basketball

My contribution to the pot-luck lunches in my husband's clinic are going to be cakes from now on.  A doctor that had been here for 9+ years was leaving, and he was a major basketball fan.  In order to feed more people, I went with the two-tiered cake, with the top tier decorated as a basketball for him.  Everyone seemed to love it, as I was told it was gone in no time!

The Practice Monkey Cake

My son was probably only 4 months old when I had the monkey theme for his first birthday picked out.  I decided that since I didn't want to screw up his cake for his birthday I should probably practice doing it at least once before then.  This was the first attempt, without any of the right colors for the frosting that is.

While I know it definitely needs some work, I didn't think it came out too bad for my first try at it.  I ended up sending this one into work with my husband so we didn't eat the entire cake between the two of us at home.  I ended up being asked to make a cake for a little girl's 6th birthday after this one was seen!

My first two-tiered cake

This was my very first try at decorating cakes a few months ago.  The clinic my husband works in had a farewell picnic for many of the doctors and techs who were soon to be off to new duty stations.  As a dessert I decided to try out my new cake decorating tools.  I did a 10" bottom layer with an 8" top tier.  Both are yellow cake and I did my best with the buttercream frosting.  The cake was definitely a hit with everyone at the picnic, and I don't think it looked too bad for my first try.