Sunshine 1st Birthday Cake

I never thought I would say this but I am starting to fall in love with fondant!!! What?! I know.  I have been against it for so long because I love the taste of buttercream better.  But that is even starting to change for me.  When I cover a cake in fondant I use a fondant made out of marshmallows which many people who make cakes refer to it as MMF.  This fondant actually has a decent taste unlike the store-bought fondant that some others use.  The reason I enjoy using it is because as a cake decorator is really helps you to achieve that smooth finish you see in so many pictures.  If you know me I can be a little OCD about how smooth my cakes are and I can never get them completely smooth which drives me crazy.  This is where my love for fondant is growing.

With all that said I did a cake a couple weeks back for a little girl's first birthday.  Her theme was going to be a sunshine theme and they asked for a cake that would look something like the picture they sent me.  I really loved how this cake turned out.  It may even go up there with one of my favorites.

I will have to tell a funny story about this cake.  When the father and mother were emailing me they asked me to do a yellow pineapple cake.   So I made a pineapple cake and decorated it in yellow. The day before the party I was looking at the finished yellow cake a thought hit me which made me panic.  "Did they want a yellow pineapple FLAVORED cake or a cake decorated with a pineapple yellow?"  I was all in a panic and immediately searched for their email to see if I was going to have to completely redo the cake I just did.  But thankfully the email read a "a pineapple flavored yellow cake."  I am so glad they put in that extra word "flavored".  It reassured me that I had done what I was suppose to do.  Oh man!  Sometimes I can be such a stress bucket. ;)

Whale Baby Shower Cake

Today I finished and delivered a baby shower cake for (are you ready for this) the daughter of a co-worker of my mother-in-law.  This was the second cake they asked me to make for them and I was very excited to hear that they enjoyed their first cake enough to want a second.  The flavor of the cake was Chocolate Lovers with a cream cheese filling.  I have never put those two together and hope it tasted as great as it sounds.  The theme for the nursery is whales and so was the baby shower.  The grandmother-to-be sent me a picture of the invitation so I tried to replicate that as much as possible.

Here is the top half of the invitation

Here is what I came up with. The L is stands for the little boy's name.

My Baby Girl Turns 1!

This past December my little girl turned 1.  It is such a bitter sweet thing.  She no longer is a baby but she is developing such a little personality.

 Of course I had to throw her a party but I told myself I was going to do something small and just for family so that I could enjoy the day and not feel overwhelmed.  I must not know myself very well.  I did enjoy myself but I maybe went a little overboard. 

The theme revolved around her invitation that I created on Inkscape. Of course I incorporated a little bit of chevron as well.

Instead of doing a big cake I decided to do a smash cake and then do some fun cupcakes.  The flavors I did were banana pudding, peanut butter cup, and cookie dough.

Since there was only family I decided to serve a lunch.  We had...

 

Crockpot Mac n Cheese (always a favorite in our house) 

 

PB&J Sandwiches shaped like elephants

 

A Salad bar which was originally going to be salad on a stick but I decided to save time and energy and do it this way.

A yogurt bar.  You filled your waffle bowls with yogut, mixed fruit, and granola.

 

Elephant cookies.  Which I cheated and used already prepared cookie dough and I won't do that ever again.  Or at least not use the brand I used.  They did not hold their shape very well. :/

 

Last but not least Mexican Fiesta Bites.  These were by far the party favorite.  Everyone seemed to love them.  Even my mother-in-law who has a little stricter diet.

I also made the decorations.  Here a glimpse at some of them. As well as a few other party ones. 

 Her aunt made this adorable skirt to go with the top that I made.

New Cake Flavors

A couple weeks ago I decided to experiment with some new cake recipes.  I ended up making about 20 small cakes.  With some help from friends we choose the ones that turned out the best.  Here are the ones that made the list.

      * triple chocolate

      * mint chocolate

      * chocolate peanut butter

      * white almond

      * lemon
      * banana supreme

      * strawberry cheesecake

      * peanut butter crunch

      * snickerdoodle

      * hummingbird
      * butterscotch

      * red velvet

      * orange creamsicle

      * pumpkin caramel

      * pound cake

I hope to try a cookie dough flavored cake soon. =)