Leta's Monster Cake (and spooky Monster cupcake friends)

My niece Leta turns 4 this year! Her party had a "monster" theme - perfect for a birthday near Halloween. The orange cake monster is 2 tiers of white almond sour cream cake, with orange Swiss meringue buttercream filling.  White base is the same.

This pink guy has a mini-cupcake inverted on top of the regular-sized cupcake base to make him taller.  Piped with buttercream. Eyes are Dum-Dum suckers with Gummi-rings around them. 

This one is Karl's favorite - he says it looks similar to a monster from The Simpson's so it's automatically his totes fave. Buttercream frosting, black jimmie sprinkles and marshmallow fondant arms (pretzels are helping them protrude from the cake).

Lil' orange guy is frosted with Swiss meringue buttercream.  Blue buttercream horns and marshmallow fondant hands.

MONSTER CAKE TIME!!  Happy birthday, Leta!!!

Lincoln's Mickey Mouse cake

This  cake was made for a close friend's nephew, Lincoln, who was celebrating his 2nd birthday in August.  The cake was chocolate with chocolate Swiss meringue filling covered with marshmallow fondant.  All details made with MMF, with the exception of the stars, Mickey ears, Pluto and Mickey figures which were sculpted gum paste.  Some minor last-minute surgery was performed on Pluto as his tongue and right arm broke off at assembly...but a little sugar water got him back in business.

Devin's Fishing cake

For my nephew Devin's 12th birthday, he wanted an outdoors-themed cake.  He requested a campsite with a  tent, campfire and fishing scene.  Karl's idea was to make a giant fish which really turned out to be the centerpiece of the cake.  The cake itself was white, covered with marshmallow fondant. MMF was also used to make the rocks and cover the rice krispie treat sculpted fish.  Gumpaste trees, dock, tent, fire, cattails and of course the 'fishing Dev' figure.

Bill's Moustache Cake

A sweet 'stache cake was in order for my father-in-law's birthday in August.  I also made a few moustache pops to accompany the cake, which made for a fun family photo.  This was an itty-bitty cake (only about 8 inches tall).  The cake was chocolate, with chocolate swiss meringue frosting a with buttercream piping. Topper moustache was made of milk chocolate.

Ellyn and Darragh's Diego party

Darragh's mini-cake

Ellyn's mini-cake

It was a Diego party for family friends Ellyn & Dave's two kids' birthdays!  We went with a mini-cake for each of them, which turned out to be a great way for each of them to have their own special cake for the party.  Each mini-cake was about 12 inches tall - perfect size for the little ones.  I used all organic ingredients for the cakes by request, all the way down to organic vanilla extract and cupcake wrappers.  Only gumpaste and dipping chocolate for the cake pops (below) were not.  Cakes were 2-layer vanilla stacks, torted with a light buttercream and fresh organic strawberries, blackberries, raspberries and blueberries.  YUM.  Gumpaste and marshmallow fondant draping and details.  I did not make the Diego candles - but they were too cute to resist.

Back of Darragh's cake

Gumpaste elephant detail

Back of Ellyn's cake

Gumpaste alligator detail

CAKEPOPS!!!

Diego character cupcakes (Boots the monkey dropped by too)

Happy birthday Ellyn & Darragh!!! :) :)

Sophia's Beach Party cake

 

Summer beach party time for my niece Sophia's 4th birthday.  This one was SO fun, and I think Soph loved it.  The main cake was 3 layers of white cake torted with Swiss meringue buttercream.  Beach ball was also white cake wrapped in marshmallow fondant. Gumpaste seashells and life preservers, Marshmallow fondant waves and bubbles. Brown sugar for beach sand worked out better than I expected. Bonus: I found a new use for my leaf cutter - FISH!  

Strawberry cupcakes with brown sugar sand and tiny gumpaste beach balls.  See artsy-fartsy pictures below to see the ball making process:

Phil's Totally 80's cake

For my brother-in-law's 40th birthday bash, I made this 2-tiered vanilla cake with Swiss Meringue buttercream filling in between the layers.  I had wanted to add a few sweet little cassette tapes that I'd made but looked pretty sad and didn't make the cut.  Rubik's Cube is a rice krispie treat square; marshmallow fondant draped the layers and also made some nice little PacMan additions and zebra stripes.  Gumpaste letters and cube squares. A fun way to celebrate 40 years of Phil.

Deann and Nick's Wedding Reception

The bride's colors were black, white, purple & lime green.  The reception was at the new Mahaffie visitor's center on KC Road & Ridgeview - an fantastic place for an event like this; really modern and roomy.   We've driven by it a million times but this was the first time I'd been inside.

The Bride & Groom's cake was a 2-tiered layered vanilla cake (7" bottom, 5" top) filled with Swiss Meringue buttercream, draped in marshmallow fondant. Fresh spider mums on top and satin ribbon/bows. Piped Swiss Meringue pearl detail.

My friend and co-worker Denise's daughter was married in Vegas a few months ago, but had their reception here over the weekend.  This was my first wedding so I was excited but also a little nervous, hoping I could get it all done in time.  With the help of my mom and Karl I delivered 200 cupcakes and a small topper cake and I think the bride really liked how everything turned out. There were 100 vanilla/chocolate mixed cupcakes topped with Swiss Meringue buttercream and the other 100 were topped with disks of marshmallow fondant with crusting buttercream detail.  50 of those had small MMF daisies in the bride's colors.  The cupcake wrappers were fun - for half of them I cut the tops off of some paper doilies from a party store, and made a sleeve to drop the cupcake in (those are on the cupcake tree) and for the rest I wrapped and tied a small ribbon and bow around them.  KG was awesome to built the cupcake tree from cake drums and dummy cakes.

Ava's Magic Cake

For my niece Ava's 6th birthday, her party was "magic" themed.  This was all vanilla cake; 2 layers for the bottom tier filled with buttercream and sliced strawberries),  outer frosting was crusting buttercream.  The magician's hat is 3 layers, filled with buttercream.  The hat is covered with marshmallow fondant.  Bunny head is rice krispie treat wrapped in marshmallow fondant.  Gumpaste details (letters, ears, stars, etc.)  Once again, Aunt Meg made WAY too much cake!

Donna's Garden cake

For my mother-in-law's birthday in May.  I used marshmallow fondant panels around the cake for a base, gumpaste for the fence posts and flowers (which were a big hit with my niece, Leta), and crushed up Oreo cookies for the garden dirt.

William's Bakugan cake

Strawberry cake, MMF, Buttercream, Gumpaste

This was two tiers of strawberry cake with crusting buttercream frosting.  The ball on top was made using the Wilton sports mold, and draped with marshmallow fondant.  The dragon was sculpted from a big old slab of marshmallow fondant.  Scales on the body of the dragon were made using the wrong end of a piping tip.  Gumpaste details (wings, horns, stars, etc.).