Underwater Musical First Birthday

This is my first cake for a total stranger. Sure they know a friend of mine, but basically they were going on Barbara's suggestion that I could make a nice cake for them. The mom said it was a First Birthday for her daughter and they were having it at KinderMusik and she wanted an Underwater theme with musical notes. Hmm.....

So I googled it. And found that there were a TON of Underwater theme'd cakes, but none with musical notes - so we decided to go with Underwater and add musical notes - easy enough.
















Oh - and there were 2 cakes needed. One for tearing apart by the little one and one for eating. My thought was a 1 year old might have trouble ripping apart a fondant cake - but at the same time giving a 1 year old a cake iced in blue buttercream might stain what was likely a really cute birthday outfit. Being a non-messy mom I thought fondant was the lesser of the two evils.
















After laying the fondant I popped on some underwater friends. All of them were made from fondant and set to dry for a day before placing on the cake. Octopus.....fish......

















Walrus, some sea coral, anemones, bubbles - do these look like bubbles? Maybe more like pearls?

















Oh and there are some of the musical notes - and the things that look like clouds when up close looked more like waves when further away. And in the back there is a stingray - he was my personal favorite.

















Some shark fins along the sides with a few more musical notes and a sea plant or two. And down on the table you can see my handy dandy edible marker - LOVE those things!!

















Then there was the babies cake - it was very cute - much smaller so it couldn't hold as many sea creatures.
















Although I failed to take a picture of it - I also made a one dimensional sign that said ONE in letters - different colors with bubbles and fish on it. I was hoping to receive a pic of it placed on the cake - it went in the space right behind the Octopus and next to the Stingray.

Sadly when I delivered the mom wasn't there - only my friend was there setting up for the party - although I was happy to see her. My understanding is that the cakes were a hit and the mom loved them - she emailed me later.

These cakes were White Cake with a Vanilla Buttercream icing and Vanilla Fondant cover with fondant figures.

Pink Bow Cupcakes.......in Gumpaste

Oops - forgot these Sweet Girlie Cupcakes. These went with the Zebra Stripe cake. They were little pink bows with a Zebra Stripe cupcake paper.

Completely cute picture right? All these little cupcakes with their cute pink bows - which by the way are not fondant, but instead I was trying out Gumpaste. At first the gumpaste was not my friend. I have gotten used to the tempermental feel of fondant - gumpaste is a bit sturdier and harder to manage because it is more resistant - or at least it was more resistant to what I was used to doing with fondant - which is be gentle and it works. Gumpaste you can be a little less careful with, but it wants you to work a little faster or it will dry on you - or only me maybe. Either way - I admit in the end it was a bit nicer to work with because it was sturdier - I just need to adjust the way I do things to work with it again.

Now here is the cool thing - the person I made these for runs a photography business and she took a few pics of the cupcakes (and the Zebra Cake) and gave them back to me. Her pics are AMAZING!!

These cupcakes were Chocolate Chocolate Chip with a Vanilla buttercream icing and a Vanilla buttercream Gumpaste Bow. Tah Dah!!

Zebra Strip Cake

I have been seeing Zebra striped cakes for awhile when I Google "fun girl cakes"........or "fun kids cakes"........or really just simply "fun cakes". There are always tier cakes that pop up with crazy tiers in different patterns and Zebra stripes are a favorite of many decorators.

But no one ever says......"hey can you do a Zebra stripe cake?"

Honestly this person didn't either. Instead she asked for a white cake with black polka dots and a giant pink bow. Then later as we talked in emails and I asked what color pink she mentioned that she had changed the theme of the invites a bit and went with a Zebra Stripe and a Pink Box.............what??? ZEBRA STRIPE??? So I took that as my chance and suggested that we dump the polka dots and match her invite. I found some cute Zebra striped cupcake papers to go with the small cupcakes that she also asked for and the rest was a perfect match up.




Then it was all just making the cake and putting the stripes on. Which was going to be sooooooooooooooo soooooooooooo simple..........right?

Yeah, famous last thoughts!

Really this time - laying the base fondant (the white layer) in a perfect covering without a tear or anything (yea me!) was the easiest part. Ironic right? After all those posts about tears due to fondant falling apart. Well anyway.........cutting the Zebra stripes was totally simple.......but picking them up and then attaching them to the white fondant without making a black stain from the icing tint..........that was HARD!! And obviously the only way I know that there would be a black stain on the white fondant if I messed up was because I DID MESS UP!! However, I figured out that if I brushed some water onto the white I could remove the black stain - but it did leave a faint shadow - that Dave said he couldn't see, but of course I saw like it was a neon blinking sign......the curse of the perfectionist.

Still........in the end the cake was really really cute. I loved it.

The person who asked for it also loved it..........which is the real goal.

This cake was Chocolate Chocolate Chip with a Vanilla Buttercream icing covered over with a Vanilla Fondant.

SuperCute!!

Baby's First Ribbit

Now this cake was about 3 years ago......in a few months it was 4 YEARS AGO!! Can you believe my BABY BOY is going to be 5 Years Old!! True - so sadly True. Yet at the same time it is so exciting to see him grow up each and every day.

The first year of his life he seemed to be quite a jumper. Sure he was a baby, sure he wasn't really "jumping", but his energy was the same as jumping all the time. Thus a frog seemed the perfect symbol. This was his little 6" baby cake - that he got to mash up and eat all on his own.


Then this cake was a half sheet of goodness. Half Banana cake and half Chocolate Chocolate Chip cake.....covered in Vanilla Buttercream. Yummy!!

And just in case anyone is a Stampin' Up! fan....yes this image is very similar to a stamp they make.