Elmo & Sesame Street - Happy Birthday Lydia!

If you ask Lydia how old she is, she'll tell you: "I'm TWO!"   Like every two year old I know (mine included), she is a big fan of Elmo.   Her mom wanted a Sesame street birthday cake, with the focus on Elmo.  Lydia's cake is my signature white cake with cookie cream filling and vanilla buttercream frosting.  The matching cupcakes were almond flavored, decorated as Cookie Monster & Elmo. 



Gumpaste Elmo jumping out of the cake!

  

Sesame Street themed "Lydia" sign

 

Cookie Monster cupcake

Elmo cupcake

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY LYDIA!!

Sundae themed 1st Birthday Party.

Kayla turned one on Thanksgiving and her moms threw her an Ice Cream Sundae themed first birthday party.  This isn't the first cake I've made for this family, but it might be the coolest one so far.  This cake has a false bottom tier.  The top tier is my signature chocolate cake with cookie cream filling.  Both tiers are covered with vanilla buttercream, the bottom drizzled with chocolate and top sprinkled with rainbow sprinkles.  The waffle bowl on top has gumpaste ice cream scoops with a gumpaste cherry to top it all off. 

The Show Must Go On....The Great Pumpkin Cake

I was asked to make a fancy cake for a charity bake-off.  The bake-off was scheduled for Monday, October 31st and it was Halloween themed.  I'd heard reports over the weekend that Connecticut was going to get an early snow storm and my husband mentioned that there was a possibility of some branches breaking from the weight of snow taking power lines out.  "Some" i thought, ok so that means there is going to be one poor schmuck who loses some tree branches.  I totally didn't expect the storm to be anything big.  Still though, I'd planned to start baking early on Saturday just in case we lost power.  The morning ended up being consumed by other important things...trips to Target for diapers, trips to Starbucks for coffee, trips to the grocery store for supplies....my early baking actually didn't start until 2pm.  I was making a huge double batch and it started to snow while I was mixing everything.  Starting to worry a bit, I popped the first cake into the oven....then 15minutes later some flickering of the lights.....worry.....25minutes later the power was gone.  WORRY.  Cake in oven, power gone.  In a mad attempt to save the cake, I started searching for friends who had power.  Glastonbury, out.  Manchester, out.  In-laws house, out.  It was starting to look like much of the state was without power. Was winter storm Alfred going to cancel the bake-off?!?!

My stress and concern for the cake and bake off was short lived.  Almost immediately, we started losing branches and what continued throughout the evening and night into Sunday morning was like nothing I'd ever seen...or heard.  Cracking branches every few minutes sounded like shotguns going off.  My husband and I decided that it was too unsafe to sleep on the second floor, so the family camped out in the living room.  We didn't exactly sleep though, with the constant Craaaaackkkkk!!! Thunk!!! of trees breaking and falling all around us, who could sleep?

My cake concern was gone and my concern soon became...WHAT are we going to wake up to in the morning.  Here it is; this is what we woke up to.  Needless to say, the bake off was cancelled.  Just under 1 million customers in Connecticut were without power.

Standing in front of my house looking down the street.

Half of this tree landed on my neighbor's fence; the other half took out their porch. 

These branches used to be pointing up.  This is the remainder of our Maple Tree.

Branches cracked and hanging down.  This is the top of an oak tree.

Wires down, everywhere.  There is an entire uprooted Oak tree behind this house.

Well, the bake off was cancelled. Sadly, the committee decided that it was an impossibility to reschedule it.  I had 30-40 hours of work already into my cake and I wanted the satisfaction of seeing the final product.  That, combined with numerous requests to bring the Great Pumpkin cake into work despite the bake off being cancelled was enough to keep me going.  I'm glad I finished it because the end product...WOW.  This just might be my best cake ever.  Take a look!

 

 

 

 

   

Pumpkin cake with maple buttercream.  All figures hand crafted from fondant and gumpaste.

Sneak Peek - It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Here are the gumpaste figurines for my upcoming Halloween cake.  This cake is for a charity event.  I have been a Snoopy & Peanuts fan for YEARS, so I am just loving making these!  Take a look:

First up, Linus waiting for the arrival of the Great Pumpkin:

Snoopy's house and the Trick-or-Treating house: 

Pumpkin costume: 

Leaf pile & ghosts: 

Charlie Brown himself: 

Snoopy (LOVE!!): 

Lucy in her green monster mask: 

dirty Pigpen ghost and other ghosts: 

and this one (not cake related) is MY sweet Charlie visiting a pumpkin patch at a Cider Mill this weekend.  He's just so cute I just had to include him in this blog post 

Happy Birthday Sasha! ~ Hungry Caterpillar Cake ~

Sasha turns one today and is having a hungry caterpillar themed party.   Her mom ordered these adorable invitations from Ebay and then ordered a cake to match.  The cake is my signature white cake with vanilla buttercream.  The caterpillar is gumpaste, as is the leaf sign.  The 1 is buttercream and the two lines of color on the base (to match the invite) are Satin Ice fondant. 

Here are the pics:

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY SASHA!!

Downhill Ski Cake ~ Happy 60th Birthday Joe!

Joe turned 60 this year.  He is an avid skier and his daughter thought an Over the Hill Downhill Skiing cake would be the perfect thing to surprise him with for his birthday!

Now, how exactly does one make a ski mountain out of gumpaste?  After much thought, I figured that a base of Rice Kirspie Treats might just work - here is the beginning of a ski mountain:

Sort of looks like a ski mountain, right?

AND, here are the pics of the cake...ahhhh....now it looks like a ski mountain :)
 
  

Skier w/ glittery snow on his clothing

The names of the runs were:  Agony,  Geezer Gulch, Tourist Trap and Young at Heart

HAPPY 60TH BIRTHDAY JOE!! 
Joe's cake details:
Signature White Cake
Raspberry Filling
Vanilla Buttercream
The Ski Mountain is gumpaste covering rice crispy treats.  The skier, trees and run names are all gumpaste as well.

Monkey themed 1st birthday! Happy Birthday Maggie!

Maggie celebrated her first birthday today and what a great party it was!  With a large under 3 crowd in attendance, Maggie's mom planned a fabulous party complete with a bouncy house, toddler sized tables and chairs, lots of ride on toys, toddler enticing play areas and food (and cake!!) to please toddler palates.  My little guy fell asleep en route, but when he awoke and looked around, his eyes lit up and he was off, full speed, for hours!  What a fun day it was!

Maggie's bedroom has monkey decals on the walls and her mom carried these cute little monkeys over into the theme for her first birthday party.  Monkey balloons, a monkey pinata and of course a monkey cake!  Here are the pics:

Matching cupcakes!!

And here are a few from the party:

 

CANDY!!



HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY MAGGIE!!!

Maggie's cake details:
Signature White Cake
Chocolate Buttercream Filling
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
Fondant accents
Sugar Pearls on Cupcakes