Princess Jordyn's Cake Smash

Recently I was employed to make a cake for a little princess' 1st Birthday. The sole function of this cake was to look pretty initially, for photos of course, and then, to be smashed into by the birthday girl. It's a fun thing to do, and I know a lot of people that have never heard of it. My mum being a photographer has actually been doing photo shoots of cake smashes. They are loads of fun!

Anyway, back to the point. There was no real theme for this birthday to begin with, so after putting together a few examples of what I could do, the customer decided on a girly pink theme. Im talking, pink spots, swirly ribbons on top, you name it!

The only problem that I could see, was with a cake smash, you want the subject to become extremely messy. I mean, whats the point in smashing into a cake, if your not going to get a little bit messy! (It honestly makes for some great photos) So my problem was, if I covered the cake completely in fondant it wasnt really going to be messy enough.

After speaking it over with the customer and telling her of these concerns, we agreed to cover the cake in a white buttercream and then decorate with fondant.

In the end this is what I came up with - It was all baked, covered and decorated in the same morning of the delivery. I finished it with a cute multi-colored spotted '1' candle. I thought it just looked too sweet in the end, don't you?! It looks like a little wrapped gift of cake to me. :)

Jordyn enjoying the cake! 

I was lucky enough to have the customer send me some of her own pictures as well. I think Jordyn looks too cute with frosting all over her face! I also made for the customer 3 dozen chocolate sour cream cupcakes with a milk chocolate swiss meringue buttercream with girly fondant toppers - including little ribbons. Such a sweet cake to make, for such a sweet little girl! :)

Little Mermaid Cake

I was asked by a friend back in June to help out a family in need by donating one of my cakes for a little girls birthday party.

They made the theme the Little Mermaid. I told them I would donate a 9 inch round cake and 3 dozen cupcakes. The plan was that the cupcakes would be served at the party and the cake could be taken home to be enjoyed by the family for Abby's birthday.

I spent a few days hand crafting the little mermaid and a few more days allowing her to dry. The overall design was based around another cake I had seen, but essentially it was all my own designs.

My one aim when making this cake was to make it as bright and colorful as possible to make the day a happy occasion whilst being bright and fun!

As I finished putting all of the components together on this cake, I discovered a fun way to make bubbles, which I decided to scatter around the "Happy birthday" to bring it to life a little bit more. I even made a flounder to try and tie it to the little mermaid as much as possible.

I think this is one of the top cakes I have had the most fun making, taking me back to my favorite childhood fairy tale  Having the freedom with this cake to make anything I pleased and design it however I felt was right, gave me a lot of satisfaction. The most satisfying moment was hearing feedback about how excited Abby was to have this cake on her birthday.

Angry Birds Cakes

I know its been a while since I have regularly updated my blog, but I promise Im getting into a new routine and will be sure to update at least once a week now. At the moment though I have a massive back log of blogs to write so coming up with today's was a tough choice.   I decided I would share with you the two Angry Birds cakes I've created in the past couple of months. Keep in mind these are custom designs and I make these to order and create them based on the customers specifications. I do venture off track a little and have not disappointed anyone yet.

My first Angry Birds cake was for a friend's son who turned 6 this year. Before this I had nothing to do with Angry Birds and kind of struggled with what they were all about. Steve added the Angry Birds trial App on my iphone and I started to play it a little in my spare time just to see what the fuss was all about. I'm still not 100% convinced, but this is mainly because I don't have the patience for video games - board games is a different story.

So my first Angry Birds cake was for Kye who turned 6, and he wanted it crossed with a jungle theme as well. He was very accurate - he wanted the cake to have a lion and a giraffe on it.

I taught myself how to make a giraffe and lion - my giraffe in this one was so bad that when my sister in law saw photos, she invited me to take a zoo animals class while I visited family in Australia. It was all in fun and a joke - I laughed - but it was a good first attempt I think. :)

My first ever giraffe ;)

My next Angry Birds cake was for a little girl named Jasmine. Again I custom designed it to suit the customers requests and added my own little twist to it. Being my second Angry Bird cake I had played a little more of the game and came across one called "seasons" which included cherry blossom on one of the levels. When I was told it was for a girl I had to make it relate to a girl so added in the flowers to make it a little more girly.

After speaking to the customer I asked if she would like me to do a two tiered cake so I could position the sling shot on the cake and make it relate more to the game. She was most happy to let me do what I wanted so I went wild with it.

placing straws in the bottom layer cake for support.

I decided to place the pigs on top and simulate "boxes" as per the game. I then placed the angry birds around the front and faced them forward. Before you ask - yes each and every one of my angry birds and pigs are hand sculpted - right down to the beak and they eyes - pretty sure the goofiness of the eyes should give it away.

I attempted to stand the sling shot around the front of the cake but the pure weight of the fondant just kept trying to pull itself over so I had to lean it against the side and kind of mounted it there with high hopes that it wouldn't move.

 I finished both tiers off with a few clouds scattered around which I made by using a daisy cutter and rolled them out till they looked more cloud like. It seemed to finish it off nicely and tie it all together.

So those are my two Angry Birds cakes to date. I'm desperately awaiting my chance to make Angry Birds cupcakes- I think it could be really fun to make the scene across multiple cupcakes and then arranging them so that the slingshot is on one and you can almost fire the birds to land on the other cupcakes. :)