feeling {bridal}

 

This is my only post today that happened a reasonable amount of time ago to blog about, but that's the way life goes!  And now I'm caught up on blogging about my creative time as of late.  :)

This morning I made a red velvet cake for a bachelorette party.  I am excited about how it turned out... simple, classy and elegant.  The bride's colors are a pear green and chocolate brown, so that's the reason for the green!

 

 I found the inspiration idea for this cake online.  My favorite part is the white butter cream details.  Lovely.

long overdue... another ELMO birthday!

Beautiful Haven celebrated her second birthday months ago now and I have yet to blog about it!  Fail.  She also wanted an "Elmo cake" that we made a bit more girlie in purple.

Elmo is always fun to make, especially when there's an adorable kiddo who will get to enjoy the cake on their special day.

Happy birthday miss Haven!

happy birthday to {asher}

Our friend Asher got to celebrate his THIRD birthday in style with a fun Elmo cake.  I had so much fun making it, which was probably due to all his excitement for a strawberry "Elmo cake"!  He helped me pick out and bake the Dora cake for Praja's birthday in October and actually fell off a chair in the kitchen as we were mixing the batter because he couldn't contain his excitement.  :)

The stats: 9" round strawberry cake with buttercream and fondant icing.  3 year old kiwi with a serious sweet tooth.  1 sweet family and 1 fun Sunday afternoon.

We met the MacDonalds a year ago this week when God brought them to Omaha from New Zealand for Asher's big sister, Aria, to get a multi-organ transplant.  You can follow them and the incredible story of how God is at work in their lives here.

Happy birthday, little man.  Thanks for the joy you bring to your family and all those you meet!

praja's a{dora}ble birthday

Praja's mom asked me to make a Dora birthday cake for her 5th birthday party today.  I was a little nervous because it was my first attempt at making a character cake that people are supposed to recognize and I know from other art projects that these things usually go one of two ways... they're a huge hit or a major flop.  Just google "Dora birthday cake" like I did for inspiration and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about!

Praja's cake is a strawberry 10" cake (yum) with white buttercream filling and icing.  All of the decorations are in gumpaste and fondant.

My favorite part is the fact that it imitates Dora's actual logo.  I like the little Nick Jr. logo turned into "She's 5!".

I had so much fun making it and am really excited about how it turned out!  Happy birthday miss Praja.  You are loved!

{congrats} to david and nicole

All done!  Wedding cake #1 of my life is a memory.  It was a lot of fun, but I'm relieved.  :)

David and Nicole got married in a gorgeous {outdoor} wedding in Nicole's parents' backyard.  The wedding was beautiful and so much of it was DIY which I thought was very fun!  Their colors were gold, ivory, and brown and we dreamed up their cake with a little help from the embellishments they chose for their invitations and programs.

I got prepped Thursday evening and my dining room table looked something like this.  And for those who are concerned, the eggs made their way back to the fridge after their photo shoot appearance:

Friday morning baking began.  I think I would have been much more overwhelmed with all the mixing, frosting batches, and cake crumbs, but a happy little elf stopped by on her way home from work and stayed ALL day.  Thanks, Meg, you're the best.

By Friday evening, this is what we'd accomplished:

Saturday was devoted to the chocolate fondant ribbons on the sides of the cakes and painting Nicole and David's design in gold dust.

Sunday after church was operation "prep, deliver, and build this cake!"  I found a dreamy guy I happen to know that made all of that go much more smoothly.

AND... the finished product!  David's dad made the topper, which looked great!  I was a little worried about the cake outside in the heat until the wedding, but it did just fine!

by the numbers...

I must have Husker fever, because all of the hubs' "By the Numbers" articles on ESPN have inspired me to update on the status of my dining room table:

6 cake pans
10+ lbs of cake mix
10 lbs white fondant
2 lbs chocolate fondant
10 lbs powdered sugar
2 dozen eggs
4 cake circles
2 fondant mats
4 flavorings
2 dyes
2 paintbrushes
15 + fondant, frosting, and cutting tools

...and hopefully the next time I update, all of that will come together in ONE cake! (To celebrate TWO people becoming ONE.)  Stay tuned.  :)

look whooo's {one}

My cousin's little girl, Gwen, has her first birthday party last week.  She was welcomed into year two of life with an owl themed birthday party.  I found cupcakes similar to these on one of my favorite blogs, Annie's Eats.  Annie's cupcakes used Oreos, M&M's, and Runts for the owl faces, but I made them with fondant.

I love their eyes and the little feather accents.  Too fun.

Gwen had a smash cake all to herself too:

All boxed up and ready to go!  Happy birthday, Gwen!

to birthdays and fireworks

This weekend marked some significant birthdays... in addition to the good ol' red, white and blue, my family got to celebrate my uncle and great aunt's birthdays too.

Aunt Betty has blessed our family with her creativity for decades.  She's incredibly talented and has made the most beautiful quilts I've ever seen.

Sooo that explains the "Fourth of July Happy Birthday" cake I whipped up, complete with a little fireworks topper!

So much fun.  My favorite details are the quilted cake board at the bottom and the fun fondant buttons.  This was my first experience with painting on fondant and I'm loving the result!

{fun} in the sun

Kudos to beautiful Abby for coming over last night and helping me with my latest cake project.

These are some fun summery cupcake-inis!  They're for a woman who's turning 4 - 2 this weekend and they just turned out so fun!

I love all the bright colors, the variety in the little swimsuits and just how fresh and fun they are.  They'd be really neat in a group of summer themed cupcakes with flip flops, sunshine, sunscreen bottles (Don't burn out there people!  Your skin will hate you later!), beach balls, and other little poolside toppers. 

I also enjoyed making someone else's creative vision reality and getting to do it alongside Abs!  She had some great ideas to help me out... and has some mad bikini cutting skills.

spring {bridal} showers

Last weekend included lots of grilling and enjoying the gorgeous weather for us.  It was a pretty wonderful weekend for a party... which is good news, because I'd been busy working on some fun purple cupcakes and a fresh spring-y cake for a couple of bridal showers all week!

The first was for a bride I knew from college.  Her summer wedding will feature a fresh green color, so naturally her cake did as well!  Anna, who requested the cake, said to just have fun with it, so this is what I came up with (daisies are probably a surprise to no one...).  The cake is a two layer 9" basic white cake with white butter cream and fondant.  Something I've really enjoyed the last few weeks is some new cardboard cake boxes and display plates.  Makes me feel official.  :)

Here it is:

Next up were 4 dozen cupcakes for a cupcake tower at a bridal shower my friend from work hosted.  The wedding's main color is a soft pink/purple, so we went with purple cupcakes in a variety of shades.  Cupcakes are fun, fresh, and just delightful to look at.  This was my first time using my new cupcake tip for the piles of frosting on top of these beautiful cakes, and I think I'm in love with it!  Decide for yourself...

I especially enjoy the hued frostings on these cupcakes and the variety of different toppers.  This is a technique I will definitely use again.  The pearled sprinkles are so simple and turn out very elegant.  Fun.

a {colorful} little finish

As of this Wednesday evening, I am "Wilton certified".  That's right, I COMPLETED my fourth course and am done (phew!) for now with my cake-u-cation.  Wilton is revamping it's classes, though, and rolls out new product in June, so I have a few more things to learn.  Top of my list are gum paste calla lilies and mums.  Gorgeous.

Here's my "class final" cake, which is a colorful whimsical birthday cake for the "June birthdays" for a friend.  It's got some delightfully colorful gerber daisies, which, I must say, are probably one of my favorite flowers thus far.  Too fun.

Boxed up and ready to go!

"On deck" for next week are two wedding showers... both with some delightful little daisies, I believe.  One will have a cake and the other opted for a cupcake tower.  Stay tuned.

congrats grad

A friend of mine's daughter graduated from high school last week.  We got together to discuss ideas for her grad party cakes.  The grad party had a black/white/red accent color scheme.  She wanted a vintage/elegant feel to the event and her fondant cakes and absolutely LOVES music.  She has a heart "logo" she draws using the trebel and base clefs that she loves so we decided to feature it on her cakes.  Here's the results!