Lego Cake

I made this Lego cake for Logan (hence the L). He said he wanted chocolate cake. Well, he got it! Chocolate fudge cake with the MOST delicious chocolate frosting! (And yes, I will share this fabulous recipe. It makes a ton, so it definitely needs to be scaled down.) The lego board and legos are made out of modeling chocolate and the little pegs are made with melted candy melts. So Logan is going to get his chocolate fix for his birthday!

And a random side note... I think I've discovered my cake decorating style- I call it modern with a hint of rustic. I really like having something that looks smooth and nice, but I also LOVE having a little bit of the messy frosting showing- that way there is proof that there's something yummy hiding underneath.

Christmas Cookies

I got asked to make two dozen Christmas cookies and I immediately thought of these crunchy, buttery cookies I saw on Pinterest.



Yes, my photography skills still haven't improved.

 And I decided I wanted to try and make these big, soft, fluffy sugar cookies and decorate them with royal icing. This was my first time ever doing royal icing, which was time consuming, but fun. My piping skills are a little rusty, so some of the lines aren't as straight as I would have liked...

My favorite ones are the argyle. I have a slight obsession with argyle.

Oh, and these are the cookies my kids decorated.

Hello Kitty Cake

Miss Ayda told me she wanted a Hello Kitty cake and I was overjoyed! Hello Kitty is SO simple!

Of course, it could have turned out better. But, I thought, instead of making black frosting, I'll just do the outlines in melted chocolate. And it worked pretty well, but the eyes are a little off. Oh well, she's turning 5. She won't even notice.



Then I had some extra melted chocolate left in my piping bag and thought I'd just play around and write things and do designs onto my wax paper. Her name turned out somewhat cute so I thought I'd try transferring them to the cake. Then I added the squiggles... I probably shouldn't have, but too late now.

That's what I like about making a cake for my family... I can try new things and if it doesn't turn out well, who cares?! :) I also tried something new with the frosting... I did the crumb coat layer in pink and the 2nd thin layer in purple. It might just turn out to be a flop. I won't find out until tomorrow... Either way, she's going to like it. And I'm done making the cake before midnight. That's always a plus!

John Deere Cake

I just finished this cake for my little boy that is turning 3 tomorrow. I am SO incredibly excited to show it to him in the morning. He is OBSESSED with John Deere.

 I wanted to go simple with the cake so I just did a 2-layer 8" round with vanilla buttercream and the logo is made out of modeling chocolate. And I must say that I love modeling chocolate! I think I prefer it over fondant... it is so much easier to work with! I got the logo done in one try and didn't have any issues with tearing- not even with the tiny antlers.

Happy Birthday, Bud! 

Treasure Chest Cake

Well... it's been a while! But I got a request for a treasure chest cake and thought I'd take a 2nd stab at making cakes with 3 little kids. And I must say, it's still a little crazy. But I had fun making this cake and trying new things. My neighbor makes AMAZING cakes and uses modeling chocolate (which I had never even heard of before) and I decided to try it out. I LOVE it! It's pretty easy to work with and tastes way better than marshmallow fondant. The chocolate flavor reminds me of tootsie rolls. Yum!

Obviously it's been a while since I've made a cake and I think my skills are a little rusty. There are a few spots on the cake that turned out way below par, but I think overall it turned out pretty good. 

This cake took me a while to make... I worked on it Saturday afternoon (baking and crumb coating, then freezing overnight), Sunday night (frosting, covering with chocolate), and Monday night (finishing touches and assembling). It's 3 layers (two for the base and one for the lid) of white cake with a rich chocolate frosting covered in the modeling chocolate. And it weighs a ton!

Coming up next month: My kids' birthdays! I'm thinking a John Deere logo cake for Toren and a Hello Kitty  cake for Ayda. We'll see.

Twin Smash Cakes

A while back (before cute baby Miles was born) I was asked to do 2 small cakes (2 layer, 6"rounds) for a 1st birthday for cute little twin girls. I thought, sure, we'll see how it goes. I'm glad these were fairly simple cakes because I'm not quite sure we're ready to be making any more cakes yet.  It's a little tricky trying to work around the schedule of a baby who thinks he needs to eat every 2 hours.. And another reason I shouldn't be doing more cakes yet? Severe lack of sleep! I got the cakes posted and then the girls' mom called and said I spelled Sofia wrong ! (I spelled it Sophia... Whoops!) Luckily I saved some of the leftover fondant for my kids to play with later on today, so I got it fixed... and you can't even tell I messed up.  So for now I just need to get a little sleep so my brain can function... but someday we'll be back open for business! :) Eventually... I'll let you know.

P.S. For anyone that hasn't seen yet, this is my cute little bald bundle of joy, Miles. :)

Graduation Cake