Turtle Cinnamon Rolls

These are my delicious Turtle Cinnamon Rolls that I love!

Soft cinnamon rolls with the regular cinnamon gooeyness plus they're filled with nuts (usually pecans but walnuts were requested for these ones) and milk chocolate chips. And then when they come out of the oven, I smother them in caramel.  YUM!! 

And they're HUGE.  Like, so big that I can only fit 9 on a cookie sheet!  

I wish I could have kept the whole pan for myself, they smelled so good... Luckily I get to make them again for my family for Christmas morning.  I can't wait!



Snowman Cake Pops

Its always really fun (plus a little bit creepy) to have lots of little faces staring up at you!

Today I made Cake Pops for my Dear Husband to take into work for Treat Week.

Cute little snowmen- without hats.... but some have some awesme toupees!

In case you've never heard of cake pops and want to know what they are.... Well, you bake a cake and instead of decorating it, you crumble it up and mix it with frosting.  Then you roll it into lots of little balls, put 'em on a stick and dip them in chocolate or candy melts... YUM! 

Cake Pops were invented by Bakerella. Check out some amazing cake pops on her website..

Cat in the Hat Cake

Here's a Cat in the Hat cake I made for a baby shower.

Harry Potter Cake

I got asked to do a Harry Potter cake.  It was a little hard to come up with an idea since I haven't read any of the books or seen any of the movies in the last 5 years, so I was really hoping that what I came up with wasn't totally lame to a Harry Potter fan.

So I tried to make it look like a big, well-worn book of spells. And  on of the front I tried to put something that looked like the Hogwarts crest and an edible pair of Harry's glasses. When I delivered the cake (which was a surprise for her!) she seemed to like it so that made all the effort worth it!

Ayda's Princess Castle Cake

My little girl (who just barely discovered her girly side) is turning 4 today. She loves princesses, dress ups, and pink and purple. So I made her a BIG princess castle cake!

This cake was A LOT of work- it took pretty much the ENTIRE day. I feel like I sacrificed a little bit of the look for taste- I would rather eat buttercream than fondant (even though my kids LOVE marshmallow fondant and they'd rather eat that than cake!). The cake would have looked so much smoother, but at least I will enjoy eating it.

Making this cake I used 3 bags of marshmallows, 1 box of rice krispies, a pound of butter, a couple cups of shortening, at least 4 lbs of powdered sugar, 2 cake mixes, 6 eggs, 1 cup of canola oil, 6 sugar cones, and a bottle of edible glitter.

Edible glitter- I'd never used it before but it is SO pretty! :)

This one of my favorite things- the stairs I carved out of rice krispie treats!

This cake was kind of frustrating. I'm not a good architect! Notice there aren't any pictures of the back... it's because even though I put supports in, it's sagging like crazy in the back! And before I even finished assembling the cake, one of the towers fell and took out a chunk of cake.... I was so ready to be done with it by the end of the day!

But, most importantly, Ayda absolutely LOVES her cake and she doesn't care about the little flaws. :)

Dump Truck for my little boy!

My little boy is turning TWO tomorrow! He loves pretty much anything with wheels- trucks, tractors, motorcycles- so I just HAD to make him a dump truck cake!

I had a cool/slightly cheesy idea to make the clouds into actual shapes of vehicles. I wonder if he'll notice.... probably not.

I made the rocks out of marshmallow fondant. I'm pretty sure the kids are going to LOVE eating the rocks! And I can already imagine Toren saying, "Dump it out" when he sees them! I'm so excited to show him his birthday cake!

Baby Blessing Cake

I got to do a cute baby blessing cake! It's all buttercream except for the feet and name.

These are actually baby Alison's footprints! It was a lot harder to get her footprints in the fondant than I expected but it still turned out pretty good.

And I am STILL loving these letter stamps! They take so much stress of my plate since I am HORRIBLE at writing with icing.

Topsy Turvy Cake

To end my crazy weekend of cakes, I made a cake for Cordelle's 30th birthday. His wife said he likes modern/contemporary things and black and white so I decided to make him a black and white topsy turvy cake! This was my first time ever making one AND my first time ever making a tiered cake. So it was FULL of experiments.

If I ever make another topsy turvy cake, I'll probably cut it even more angled. Once I got the frosting and fondant on it, it seemed like it lost some of the topsy... But I'd say for a cake of many firsts, it turned out pretty good. :)

Happy 30th birthday, Cordelle!

Buzz Lightyear Cake

Jaq is turning 2 and she really loves Buzz Lightyear. I will admit that I was kind of nervous to try and take on such a popular character, but I surprised myself!

A close up on the lettering. These were the other style of rubber scrapbooking stamps that I bought. I'm loving them!

I really tried to focus on the little details that make Buzz look like Buzz.

Then I decided to add some of Buzz's most popular quotes:

"Come in Star Command" and

"To infinity and beyond"

I'm really proud of myself for making this cake. I think it turned out awesome!!!

Only one more cake to go on my 3-cake weekend. It's been busy but super fun and I'm way excited to make the next one!

Dora Cake Redemption

I feel like I finally have redeemed myself from the Dora cake disaster last year. Ayda wanted a Dora cake for her birthday. I didn't try. And it was a disaster.

I am absolutely embarassed to post this. It was HIDEOUS!!!!

Here is my redemption!!!!

It looks a little more like Dora than the last one.

My fondant was a little dry so it all cracked a little. I'm struggling finding the right consistency....

But I was super excited to try out my new stamps I got for the fondant!

Rubber scrapbooking stamps.... Why didn't I think of that before!?

I think all the colorful fondant beads gave it that little "Dora" touch.

Happy 2nd birthday, Lily!!!

Tractor Cake

I have to start off by saying that I'm really grateful for all the people that are letting me practice on them and learn new things for decorating cakes. This one isn't amazing, but I wanted to try sculpting something for the first time.

This cake is for Mason, who is turning 4. When I asked his mom what he wanted she said he wanted a tractor cake and"He would like yellow cake and as much yellow frosting as possible - the kid has an obsession." So yellow I did! I hope it's enough!!!

I felt like I went super traditional with the cake part. Just buttercream frosting with a squiggily border.

I modeled the tractor out of rice krispie treats and then covered them with marshmallow fondant. I bet it would have looked better if I had covered it with frosting and then fondant.... I think a better support system would have been better. Next time I'll plan that through a little more.

It reminds me of a cartoon tractor the way it tips and sags in some places.

For some reason this is my favorite part... the slow moving vehicle sign. It's the little things that make it cute.

Happy 4th birthday, Mason!

P.S. I don't have any cakes lined up for October yet. So if anybody knows anyone that might want a cake, let them know! Thanks!!!!

Caleb's Boot Scoot Bike Cake

My neighbor, Caleb, is turning 3 tomorrow. So I made his cake just like one of his favorite things in the world- his boot scoot bike! (For those of you who don't know what one is, it's like a mini bike with out pedals or training wheels.) Caleb is AMAZING at riding his bike.

I put a fork under the cake just so you could see how big it turned out!

I did all the tires, handle bars, and seat in marshmallow fondant and the rest was buttercream.

It was fun adding the details, like treads on the tires and grips on the handle bars. I even had fun making tiny little bolts!


Today was definitely a bad cake day for me.... so many things went wrong. Like the cake stuck to my pans (even after greasing and flouring), so I had to make another batch. Then I had to move some of the pieces of cake before I decorated it and totally forgot how they went back on.... About halfway through I thought this cake might have been just a little big for my novice undertaking. I think this was one of my most frustrating cake days yet. But, it turned out looking pretty good and I feel good just knowing that kids don't care if their cake doesn't look perfect! :)

Flowers for a Little Girl

Ari is turning 5 and loves girly things. So I made her a cutesy little flower cake.

I frosted it with buttercream frosting and then made the flowers out of marshmallow fondant.

The cake would be a ton cuter if I had covered the whole thing in fondant but I decided to sacrifice looks for taste. For me, there's nothing better than good 'ol buttercream!

Thanks, Marilyn, for giving me the opportunity to practice my cake making skills!

For Chocolate Lovers ONLY!

I've been wanting to make an "adult cake" for a while. I really wanted to do something other than buttercream frosting. So since today is my Mom's birthday, I offered to make her a cake.

I've been wanting to do this for so long! I made ganache!!!

(All you do is take chocolate and melt it with really hot heavy whipping cream, mix it up really good, and let it cool a bit, then pour it on!)

THEN I marbled some white and semi-sweet chocolate and cut it into some fun shapes and stuck them in the ganache.

Then I sprinkled on chopped up marbled chocolate.

Because I can never have enough chocolate.

So there you have it. A triple chocolate cake with a fudgy filling, covered with chocolate ganache, then decorated with CHOCOLATE! I am SUPER excited to get to eat my creation tonight at my Mom's birthday party!!!!!

Soccer Party #2

I just did my second soccer themed order. This time I decorated 72, yes- that's 6 dozen- cupcakes!!! I decorated about 4 dozen of them to look like grass and then the rest of them to look like soccer balls so they could be arranged like balls sitting in a field of grass.

This birthday party was for Caden, a neighbor boy turning 9. So I made him his own personal soccer ball cake. He looked pretty excited when he saw it and that made me super happy! :)

That was a lot of cupcakes!

I've got at least 4 tentative cakes for September and I'm so excited! Especially since they're all going to be so different. The cakes might include a bike theme, Dora, and a tractor cake. I can't wait to start designing them!

Soccer Cake

Seth is turning 4 and loves soccer. So I made him a soccer ball cake on a field of grass.

Today was my first time making grass. It turned out to be super easy... but really time consuming!

I baked the ball in a Pyrex bowl to make it round. I turned the temp down to 325 and checked it every 5-10 minutes to make sure it didn't burn. I was worried that it might not come out of the bowl very well, but I greased and floured it and it came out perfect!

I'm super excited to see Seth's face when he see's his cake at his birthday party tomorrow!

Happy 4th Birthday, Seth!!!

Ladybug Party

I decided it was about time to start my cake blog. I'm a little rusty on my cake decorating skills since I haven't made anything in a while. It was so fun to get to decorate again! This week's cake was for cute little Ella's first birthday. The theme was ladybugs everything. So I did just that.


I made 3 dozen cute little ladybug cupcakes made out of red velvet cake with chocolate chips mixed in. I used white chocolate chips upside down for the eyes and piped a little black dot in the center. Then I used chocolate chips for the ladybug's dots. That made it super easy! It was a little crazy having all those ladybugs sitting on my counter staring at me the whole time. I will admit, I did find the idea online, but they still turned out super cute!


Then I made Ella a 6" round smash cake. This one I designed all on my own. My main idea was to have the big ladybug's trail spell out her name. Then I added all the little ladybugs on the leaves. Some of them were only 1/8" big. I've never done anything so tiny and intricate.

All and all I think the cake and cupcakes turned out cute. I know they are FAR from perfect, but I had tons of fun making them.

Happy 1st Birthday, Ella!