He? She? Open to see!

Hello everyone! Just recently I made a cake to surprise a family with the sex of their baby. I was given a photograph of a cake that the couple liked. They wanted it to look exactly like it. Also, I was given the envelope with what the sex of the baby is. It was so exciting, only the doctor and I knew what the sex of the baby was. It was awesome! : ) So to surprise everyone at the party the color of the outside of the cake had to be thick enough the hide the colored filling and top tier (the bottom tier was chocolate so that I could not dye). Unfortunately, the cake color on the outside was, you guessed it, white. It was okay I created a dam on the interior of the cake, that way the colored frosting could not "squeeze" out. Here is what the dam looked like:

 

 

 

And if you didn't guess it yet, yes, it is a girl! Anyway, the next thing I had to do was add the top tier which I dyed pink as well.

 

 

 Next, I frosted the cake white with the whipped cream frosting. Once it was nice and smooth and you could not see any cake underneath, it was time to decorate. Everything was handmade with fondant pieces, except for the writing. To make it that adorable I wrote in marker to create the curls the mom-to-be wanted. The bow and curly cues made the cake look like it was perfect gift for the parents-to-be : )

 

 

Here is a close up of the gift tag.

 

 

The mom-to-be also wanted cupcakes to go with this surprise cake, so I matched the cupcakes to the color scheme, bringing the whole thing together : ) Take a look at the overall look. It was so colorful, if I do say so myself : )

 

 

Toy Story Tiered Cake

This Toy Story cake was three tiers of hand piped and handmade decorations. The entire cake is a rainbow cake in the inside (did not take a picture, but to see the colors you can check out the "penguin" post, it has pictures). It is entirely covered with whipped cream frosting. I hand piped all the detail that you see.

The top tier is made to look like the Toy Story logo saying "Happy Birthday" (store bought letters), with a sky colored background and hand piped fluffy clouds : )

The second tier is made to look like "Woody." The "pants," belt, and buckle are handmade with 50/50 gumpaste and fondant. The cow spots on the vest are handmade with chocolate. All the other decorations are hand piped on with whipped cream frosting.

The bottom tier is made to look like "Buzz." All the designs and decorations are hand pipe on with whipped cream frosting, except the "Lightyear" name tag and flight logo on front, those two items are handmade with chocolate.



Here is a side view of the cake...

And here is the other side : )

"Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?..."

A young man just had his 2nd birthday and everyone wanted a Spongebob Squarepants themed cake. I had free range on this cake. This is what I came up with:

 

 

Everything is handmade or hand-piped on this cake!

 

 

Here is a side view of all the hand-piped and handmade accents of this Spongebob Squarepants themed cake.

 

The letters are cut out from gumpaste and the jelly fish is hand-piped.

 

The coral, life saver, and Spongebob's house are all handmade of gumpaste (Spongebob's house is also hand painted with gel food coloring to give the "pineapple")

 

Gary is handmade of fondant.

 

Spongebob is handmade of fondant and the handmade candle is made from gumpaste. 

 

Patrick is handmade of fondant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Timeless Classic

This Marilyn Monroe cake is a simple, yet elegant take on this classic. A photograph, with added embellishments, of her sits on a handmade plaque and made to look as though Marilyn, herself, signed this cake. The edging on this cake is made to look like the ruffles that you would see in her photographs wearing her iconic white dress. Enjoy the memories made of whipped cream frosting and devil's food cake : )

 

Hand piped with chocolate (it gives writing and details a cleaner look)

Tween's Birthday

This red, white, and blue cheer leading themed cake is F-E-A-R-C-E! It is made with whipped cream frosting and made with handmade gumpaste/fondant accents and hand piped detailing. The sheet cake itself was based of the American flag with the red and white strips and the cheerleaders megaphone was layers of cake shaped to look like that. Awesome, right!?! There are many bows, confetti, and a pair of pompoms that this little tween cheerleader wanted on her cake. Overall, this red, white, and blue themed cheerleader cake fit the theme for this tween's birthday party to a "T".

 

 

 

Corvette Cake

This Corvette themed cake is made with a handmade gumpaste/fondant Corvette logo, checkered board design, racing strips, and a printed photo of the birthday man's prized Corvette! I created this one layer, whipped cream frosted “fast” cake by making all the decorations to fit the birthday man. I received a photograph of his beloved Corvette and printed it. I created a plaque out of gumpaste to glue the picture on. Unfortunately, this technique makes this accent inedible, but otherwise awesome : ) The checkered board and racing strips were very simple, I just rolled out black and white fondant/gumpaste (50/50) mixture and cut into the specified measurements. On the other hand, the Corvette logo was tedious, but well worth it in the end. It makes the cake (No pun intended) : ) Overall, the look of this cake would make any man proud of his "baby."

 

 

See, it is totally worth it : )



 

"Colorful" Penguin

This adorable penguin cake has a colorful secret . . . its center is the rainbow! Inside this penguin’s belly is a vanilla flavored cake (two layers total). One layer was dyed orange, yellow, and red; the other, purple, blue, and green. (It is done this way prior to baking; one just divides the batter into sixths, dying each section till the desired color. Once this is done, pour three colors [similar to what I did to make it more cohesive] into a pan, DO NOT STIR! Tap the pan if there are air bubbles, and then bake regularly.) Believe me, it is awesome. : )  Take a look for yourself:

 

 

 

Once I baked the cakes, I filled the layers with whipped cream frosting and cut it into my desired shape, and then finished icing the cake with the whipped cream.

 

 

 

 I know I have said not to use whipped cream and fondant together because it makes it mushy, soft, and not so pretty, well . . . I did it again, but remember it seems to work best when it is 50/50 fondant and gumpaste mixed together. After covering the cake with the fondant/gumpaste mixture I added the finishing touches and whala! An adorable, “colorful” penguin cake : )

 

 

 

Pretty Princesses

Every Princess deserves a “princess” cake. This little girl’s mom picked out a similar design on the Internet and asked if I could customize it to fit her design and color theme. The accents on this cake are made by hand using gumpaste (flowers and grass on the edges, as well as, the shaped butterflies and dragonflies). I bought the princesses to place on the cake because it is much easier and inexpensive than making them myself. On top, the store bought crown is the centerpiece of the cake, the little Princess received her crown and wand (it was a kit at the store) for her birthday. All the edging and filler was piped to look like grass because this “princess” cake was a “princess/garden themed cake” (hence the flower decor). The flavoring of this cake was a marble cake layered with a vanilla flavored whipped cream and a light purple whipped cream frosting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Classy Western" Cupcakes

These cupcakes are for a regular of mine. The theme was "Classy Western" with purples and grays being the primary color palate. This is what I came up with:

 

 

 

 

The cupcakes had the same style, a horseshoe (either light purple or gray), a sheriff’s star (deep purple), and a light brown lasso. I will add that all of the decorations are edible; I used fondant and let it dry for a few days before placing on top of the cupcakes. This entire design came out completely cute, especially on the cream colored background from the red velvet cake’s cream cheese frosting. Also, the wrappers I found for these cupcakes were the “cherry on top.” They were light purple with a dark purple western pattern printed on them. Perfect, right? : )

Celebrate, Come on!

These cupcakes you will see are for three girls’ graduation. Class of 2012! Each girl wanted her own individual flavor cupcake and decoration to match her school colors; mind you I needed to make close to 200 cupcakes for this one party. The first cupcake was a classic red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting. Its decorations were: icing was gold with black edible balls (because black frosting looks good, but dyes the mouths and teeth. Funny, but only for other people, not the one eating the cupcake : ) ) and black cupcake liners.



The next cupcake was an apple streusel cupcake with cream cheese frosting. I created this cupcake by buying a premade apple pie filling and added it to a spice cake batter. Once the cupcake cooked half way I sprinkled it with homemade streusel topping, and then I let it finish cooking. It was very moist and crunchy, it was an apple pie, but in cake form : ) The decorations were: icing was light blue with edible silver and silver cupcake liners.

The final cupcake was a lemon cake with a raspberry jelly filling with whipped cream frosting. Simple, yet delicious. Its decorations were: icing was teal with black edible balls (for the same reason I stated earlier : ) ) and black cupcake liners.

Here is how they looked next to each other:

Here is how some looked on their stands with push-in graduation caps:

All together now:

Hey Everybody!

Hey Everybody! Long time, but don't worry I will have some cakes posted real soon. Until then, you can check out my facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/TabbysCakesandGoodies) where I post pictures quicker, but unfortunatly, no history on the cakes... that's only here on my blog! : ) Stay tuned everyone!

"Making A Wish" Cupcakes

My sister is a volunteer for the "Make A Wish Foundation." She asked me to create some cupcakes for one of her kids that she helps make a wish for. This child is stimulated by flashing lights and what kid does not like chocolate. So the dilemma, flashing lights on a chocolate cupcake with some delicious whipped cream frosting. Well, my mom and other sister came up with an idea of flashing rings placed on top of the cupcakes, but it is not something they can eat without taking it off. I like to create all edible decorations, just in case : ) So my sister said the bright colors of a stoplight would be perfect (bright colors could help stimulate the child). Thus, stoplight colored inspired cupcakes. The child and family enjoyed the cupcakes very much. It always puts a smile on my face when everyone enjoys my cakes, cupcakes, and goodies with a smile on their faces : )

Baby Girl Baby Shower Cake and Cupcakes

One of the last cakes and cupcakes I did was for a baby girl baby shower. The mother wanted a two tiered cake that she had seen on the Internet, all she wanted was a few alterations. Now, I know I have told you guys many times not to use fondant with whipped cream frosting, well I had to break that rule again. This time though I combined the fondant with gumpaste (50/50) that way I could make the diamond pattern on the bottom tier. The pink is the whipped cream frosting and the yellow diamond pattern is the mixture of fondant and gumpaste. It worked out very well and surprisingly smooth and stayed pretty soft, I did put it on the morning of the shower, thus no sogginess : ) The top tier was whipped cream frosting with hand-piped vine work and flowers. The flowers and pink bow were handmade from gumpaste, hardening which allows the items to keep their shape. I love using gumpaste because it hardens in just 24 hours depending on the thickness, versus fondant which can take a few days to weeks to harden depending on the thickness. Overall, this cake turned out beautifully and the inside just as much. It was a simple marble cake with a vanilla cream filling and, of course, whipped cream frosting : )

The cupcakes that went with the two tiered cake were for the mom-to-be's mother. She loves buttercream, so since the tiered cake was whipped cream, I decorated the chocolate cupcakes with my homemade buttercream. The designs for the cupcakes were simple. The first was a pink flower pattern with edible silver glitter and an edible silver ball in the middle. The second design was a cream colored spiral pattern with a sprinkle of edible silver balls. Both designs complemented each other very nicely, as well as, complementing the cake colors to blend everything together. Simple designs, excellent taste : ) Also, the cupcakes were on one of my stands that I loan out, which adds to the overall look.

Here's how well they looked together...

The 50 and the Wild One

Here are some recent cakes I did. One is for a 50th wedding anniversary, it is a three tiered cake with handmade gumpaste flowers and air brushed in edible gold coloring. There are mini white gumpaste inlays inside each flower; the flowers are accented by white silk leaves to add texture to the cake. The topper on the cake is a simple plastic golden 50, which can be bought at any hobby store. The couple's children also wanted a fishing themed birthday cake for the groom-again for his 70th birthday. Apparently he loves to fish, so the cake was based off a plaque found a local country store. It reads, "Good things come to those who bait." Both cakes are covered in a whipped cream frosting. Here's a little note for some people: gumpaste can be used with whipped cream frosting, but fondant can not because the whipped cream frosting softens the fondant, which allows colors to seep and can make something so beautiful turn ugly within minutes (especially when it is placed in the refrigerator).

Another cake I have recently done was for three children. Their mother wanted a jungle themed cake. This is a tri-layered sheet cake (chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla cake flavors with a banana cream center). I don't mean to toot my own horn but it was delicious and everyone at the party agreed : ) This jungle themed cake is made with whipped cream frosting and decorated to look like a wild jungle with vines, thus the crazy grass texture on the cake and leaves everywhere. I know that I said not to mix fondant with whipped cream, but there is an exception when the three animals (giraffe, elephant, and monkey (which were made of fondant)) had over a week and a half to dry out, thus no seepage on the cake : ) I added gumpaste leaves, tall grass, and palm trees (air brushed in edible green) adding to the jungle theme.