Circus Birthday

Here's another birthday cake I created for a friend's son's 1st birthday.  I was challenged with a circus theme that in the end turned out to be one of my favorite cakes I have done in awhile.  First time I've used rice krispy treats which I used for the top of the circus tent.  I also loved my lil' elephant - I didn't want to part with him ;-)

 Happy Birthday Knox!!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Birthday

This weekend I created a cake for a very good friend of mine.  It was her son's first birthday!  When she told me she wanted to do The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle, my head was already swirling with ideas.  I have been wanting to do this themed cake for awhile.  Not just because it is so cute, but it has always been a childhood favorite of mine too ;-)  After scouring pinterest and the internet for ideas, I came up with this version.  I love the part when the caterpillar eats all the different foods and used that to design the cake board.  The caterpillar and butterfly were molded with fondant.

 

 

This was such a fun cake to make. Definitely one of my top cakes ;-)  Happy 1st Birthday Brayden!!

Happy Birthday Mom!

I am dedicating this weekend's post to my mom! It's her birthday Sunday October 23rd. I made her a simple little cake with fun sprinkles - it reminded me of my childhood. It was my mother who instilled my love of baking. Here I am with my little pink mixer... scrambling eggs was what I did best at 4 years old ;-)

Aside from baking, my mom has always been there for me. She is a strong woman I've always looked up to. She made sure my brother and I had all the opportunities we could growing up.
But lately my mom has been going through a tough time this year after losing her job. I never really thought much of the economy these past few years, but when it affects your family you then realize what many other Americans are going through right now. I just want to say I know it can be hard, but I hope you can enjoy your special day. And each day find something that brings you joy! Love you mom & Happy Birthday!! ~Cara

Valentine's Birthday

A friend of mine asked me to make some cupcakes for his girlfriend's birthday. He let me do anything I wanted, except the flavor had to be red velvet - her fave ;-) Since Valentine's Day is around the corner I used that as inspiration.



Even though I cannot stand the taste of those conversation hearts, I do think they are fun to look at. I made fondant conversation hearts and I thought it would be a cute idea to write things on each heart that had to do with them as a couple. Some phrases I used: "family" (since they are expecting), "farmville" (she loves that game), to really personalize it. I also put fun fondant curly ribbon on some of the cakes to make it more birthday-ish :)





So I had some left over red velvet batter and wanted to create something... I came up with a "red bottom" cupcake.


It's red velvet and cheesecake cupcake with chocolate chips. Traditionally you use a chocolate cake on the bottom. I attempted to make the cheesecake part look like a heart ...FAIL! But it tasted good. You don't even need frosting. You know I've met quite a few people who ... dare I say this....don't care for frosting! (My BF included... but I've been working on that ;-) ~Cara Lee

Tinkerbell Birthday

It has kind of become a tradition to make my neice's birthday cakes. Last year I did a Sesame Street cake with matching character cupcakes (which are still one of my top favorites I have done). This year for her 3rd birthday she wanted Tinkerbell. Off the bat, the is no way I was going to attempt to sculpt a Tinkerbell. I found a set of Tinkerbell and her fairy friends which I used to decorate with. Everything else was made by hang with fondant - flowers, vines.

The decor was pretty easy. Whenever I make a cake, I make the decor a few days before to dry out. For this cake it was simple flowers, name, number 3 and some vines and grass. I bought a small extruder (which is usually used for clay) to make the name and number. SO much easier than trying to roll it out. For the flowers - I have decided I just don't have patience for beautiful gumpaste flowers. So I use the small blossom cutter and mold as well as make ribbon roses. I also just kinda made up a flower (the big purple one with the white stamens). One day I will learn to make Ron Ben-Israel flowers ;-)

For the big flower on top I actually used the wilton leaf cutter for both the petals and the leaves. I gently pressed them in a flower veiner to give them some life like detail then brushed them with pearl dust. To form the flower I just put yellow royal icing in the middle and pushed the petals in to form the flower. I really loved the way it came out! The curly vines really make it whimsical too.

The cake was a vanilla cake with crusting buttercream. I rarely ever make traditional buttercream. It's really NOT my favorite frosting to use - anyone have a better recipe for that? Preferably one with out shortening? Though the cake looked good, unfortunately it was really dry :( People said it was still fine, but I'm always critical of myself.

I also made chocolate cupcakes. I actually decided to use some of my Naturally Nora mixes I had won. I mixed in Oreos in some and filled others with chocolate ganache or salted caramel. The birthday girl helped me put the sprinkles on (and eat them too! lol). The cupcakes were very moist and yummy :)

Here is the whole spread. I made a little Tinkerbell menu of the flavors of cupcakes and cake for a final touch. Hope you all had a great weekend! ~Cara Lee

~* Happy 3rd Birthday Cali *~

50th Birthday Cake

Had an order for another friend. It was her father's 50th Birthday this weekend. She basically told me the color scheme and we worked from that. This is what I ended up with :) (Wish I got better pics but I assembled it at their house. They were kind enough to hold up a white cloth for me though ;-)

Flavors included: chocolate cake with vanilla swiss meringue and chocolate ganache as well as white chocolate cake with white chocolate swiss meringue and raspberry preserves.


I'm very happy with the result and hope the birthday party went well. Ya know, the more three tier cakes I do, the more I'm just amazed at how time consuming they can be. I need a sous chef!!

Monster Truck Birthday

Here's a cake I did kinda last minute for my boss' son's 3rd birthday. Originally I wanted to do an actual monster truck tire, but I just did not have time. So I came up with this idea. It would also go great for a racing car theme too.

The bottom layer was chocolate cake with vanilla swiss meringue and covered in chocolate ganache. Top layer is vanilla with strawberry swiss meringue and covered also in chocolate ganache. I've become a big fan of covering cakes in ganache under the fondant.

I was up pretty late putting the cake together. I decided to buy the fondant for this cake because 1) red and black are the hardest colors to dye the fondant and 2) it tastes good and I think the kids would like it better 3) I'm lazy to make marshmallow fondant. I bought Duff's fondant at Michael's. I think it tastes good, but it's so hard to roll out! It's so soft and when I was covering the top layer with the red Duff fondant, I was almost done and sealing the bottom and trimming the excess and it rips!! It was 3am and there was no turning back. I ended up making a fondant "patch" and used it kind of like a sign for the Happy Birthday part. Whew! I almost freaked out! lol. What do you all think of the new Duff fondant?

Happy Birthday Lindsay

Here's a little cake I whipped up for one of my closest friend's birthday this weekend. I wanted to do something a little more simple but fun too. I did a tall 6 inch round cake with layers of vanilla and chocolate cake. Between them I put strawberry swiss meringue buttercream and coated the entire cake with amaretto chocolate ganache. I made some simple fondant flowers and leaves to decorate it. I think it came out pretty well and it lasted too (considering it's unseasonably hot again here in the DC area - another 90 degree day during fall!). *See below for easy chocolate ganache recipe*

So yummy! Who doesn't like chocolate and strawberry?! (I learned that from cupcake camp lol) I think it was a crowd pleaser ;-) But I am so annoyed at my horrible piping skills! I don't know what it is when I have to write something on a cake my hand shakes so much. Any tips??

Easy Chocolate Ganache

I'm always looking up how to make ganache and every recipe calls for weight measurements. I don't have a scale and then I end up having to look up a measurement converter on the internet, etc. So here is the amounts I used yesterday and it came out great! I still had some left over and it keeps in the fridge for a few days - just slowly heat it up int he micro when you're ready to use again (or snack on it with pretzel sticks! YUM)

Ingredients:

• 1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips (12 oz. pkg - I like to get the mini chips since they melt easier)
• 1 cup of whipping cream
• 3 tbls butter, softened
  
• 1-2 tbls Liquer of your choice (I tend to use amaretto, Grand Mariner, or Bailey's)

Directions:

1. Place chocolate chips in a glass bowl.
   
2. Slowly heat up the cream over the stove top, stirring and bringing it just before a boil.
3. Pour heated cream over chocolate chips and let sit for about 2 minutes.
4. Whisk the cream and chocolate chips until combined, then add the butter.
5. Whisk in the liquer. Voila! You're ready to cover a cake or have some fondue ;-)
   

Happy Birthday to ME

Well today is my birthday... officially hitting my late 20's. It still feels like my mid 20's, but I guess it hasn't kicked in yet. (UPDATE: I think it has kicked in... found some gray hairs! ACK!)
This past weekend we celebrated my birthday a little early and went camping for a night. It was nice to hang out with friends and relax by the fire and veg out (I can't tell you how many s'mores I had!).
Is it weird I didn't make myself a fancy cake?! It was kinda nice relaxing since I've been making cupcakes and cakes for others recently. However, my friend Jessica did make me a wonderful s'mores brownie concoction cake (thanks girl!!)
Well the rest of this week I will be preparing for Cupcake Camp DC! I'm kinda nervous - there are two other entries with (almost) the same kinda of cupcake I'm doing. So we'll see....

In the mean time enter my giveaway! Have a good one ~Cara Lee

Flower Garden Birthday

This weekend our family celebrated my little cousin's birthdays. I decided not to go with the princess theme - was not satisfied with the royal icing tiaras. I love being able to do whatever I want because I can really be creative. The design I came up with just kinda happened... and all the sudden it was 2:30am!! I love this color combo and so happy with the result. Flavor was vanilla cake layered with strawberry cream cheese frosting and black berry cream cheese frosting. Chocolate cupcakes were more for the adults with a Grand Mariner frosting :) Yummy!

The cake...

Up close....
Cuppies...
~* Happy Birthday Shawnee & Sienna *~

Flowery Birthday

A flowery birthday order today... I ended up adding more fondant flowers than a usual order. I kind of get carried away if I'm really into something :)

Love this quote!

A Coach's Birthday

I made these birthday cupcakes for a woman, whose husband is a baseball coach for their son's team. It was a surprise party and he had no idea! I hope it went well :) (I did hear kids were eating the cupcakes by the hand full *lol*)

Barney Birthday and an Engagement Pary

What a busy 2 days it has been! I had a Barney birthday cake and engagement cupcakes on the schedule today. I prepped as much as I could during the week (making the fondant, frostings, etc.) but no matter what I'm always racing the clock, and a majority of the time run late.

First up I had my, I guess she's like my niece, Chloe's 2nd birthday. She loves Barney. I decided to keep it simple and stuck to the Barney theme colors - green and purple with a little yellow. Then I topped it with a big pink Baby Bop bow on top. The decor was also very simple as well. I would loved to had added more details, but time is just never on my side lol. I was happy to use my new cupcake tower for the first time! I love it :) (PS - not happy about the pics I took. I didn't realize how to change the settings on my camera until after the cake was eaten! grrr)

UPDATE: 4/19
Here is a better pic of the cake colors! Not so frickin blue like the ones I took *lol*

I also had one of my best friend's brother's engagement party. I made a whole array of cupcakes and different flavors for them. Flavors included: Irish stout w/ Bailey's frosting, chocolate cake w/ green tea frosting, rainbow w/ lavender frosting, just to name a few. I topped them all off with a fondant "O" for their last name :)

Congrats Jon & Angela!