Garden Cake

This was a surprise 60th bday cake for a guy who loves Hawaiian shirts, is a U of Miami fan (hat), loves to read, is an avid gardener, is a world traveler (book-"Europe"), studies brain mapping (book title) and just planted a Sequoia tree from seed (the little seedling and sign in the garden says Sequoia). Phew! Got all that incorporated.

12x12 carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.  YUM! 

 

Tiffany Blue Bling Cake!

Just a few pictures of the cake I put together for my own birthday!   Each tier is covered with fondant.  The bottom tier has buttercream stenciling, middle tier has fondant ruffles and satin ribbon, top tier is fondant with buttercream dots.

The bottom tier is a dummy.  Believe it or not, dummy tiers are harder to work with (for me at least) because they are so light and slide around.  I suppose that could be avoided by adhering it to a cake board, but that wasn't possible with this stand.

Here are the pics.  When we take it apart I'll take some pics to show the inner supports.  Planning to put a stacking tutorial up on my facebook page soon (SweetCelebrations).

Ravens Nation!

Typically, I'm not a football fan.  However, my hubby's cousin Chris is on the stunt team for the Ravens and after something like 7 years cheering for them, they're going to the Super Bowl!  So, I'm REALLY hoping the Ravens win.  Hubby and I have a Super Bowl party tonight and I made this cake to bring. 

Let's Go Ravens!!

This cake is 4 layers, two are an almond sour cream  flavor and two are a chocolate fudge flavor.  It is filled with my signature cookie cream filling (which tastes like Oreos).  I iced it with vanilla buttercream and covered in fondant.  All the details are made from fondant.  The grass is buttercream.  The face mask is gumpaste. 

This is my second carved cake ever and I think it turned out..well...AWESOME.  I owe some of the success to all the other cakers who have shared how-to pics, so to pay it forward, I'm posting pics of the process and instructions on my facebook page later (sweetcelebrations).

Take a look:

rib-bit rib-bit Froggy Birthday Cake

Happy 2nd Birthday Megan!!  Froggy Birthday cake.  Vanilla sprinkle cake with vanilla buttercream, covered in vanilla fondant.  Froggy and decorations are fondant, as well.  The whole thing is edible.

Nemo Under the Sea Cake

This was such a fun cake! Nemo and all the sea things are made from fondant. Almond cake with chocolate buttercream filling, covered in fondant.

 

 

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Happy Holidays from Sweet Celebrations!

4 layers of chocolate cake, layered with ganache filling,

frosted with peppermint buttercream frosting and covered in fondant.

The snowman is made from fondant, too...everything you see is edible!

Happy 1st Birthday Parker!

I woke up yesterday morning and decided that I was going to try to make a first birthday cake for my friend Melissa's little guy, who is turning 1 in a few days.  Another impulsive and last minute cake idea.  Parker's birthday is the day after my due date and although his cake is a bit early, I didn't want to chance missing it.


Here are some pictures of Parker's teddy bear nautical theme cake.

Gumpaste Teddy with sailor hat!

Fondant waves around the base of the cake.

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY PARKER!!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

My little guy and I whipped this together today for hubby's bday tomorrow.  Not too bad for such a rushed cake with no planning.  I initially was going to put "Happy Birthday Daddy" on the top, but I ran out of energy so I just went with "Dad". He'll still think its delish and he'll love it!

Chocolate fudge cake with raspberry buttercream filling and fondant.  This is actually my first fondant covered cake.   Usually, I do buttercream with fondant accents. 

Pink & Green baby shower cake

My sweet little boy is turning 3! (almost!)

We celebrated Charlie's 3rd birthday a bit early this year, figuring it would be easier to do with mommy 36 weeks pregnant than with a 3-ish week old (which seems somewhat impossible and which would probably mean no fancy cake and no fancy anything).  I still cannot believe that my sweet baby boy is turning three soon.  I heard once that when you are a parent, the days go slowly but the years fly by. 

So.Very.True.

Charlie is loving Thomas Trains these days, so a Thomas Train party it was.  We  decided to have his party at a local kiddie play area, which meant that I was just in charge of the food, cake and favors.   With pinterest and cakecentral as my starting points, the party planning started weeks ago.  It is safe to say that every minute of my time these past few weeks that wasn't spent working or preparing for the arrival of Charlie's little brother was spent on Charlie's party.   There were a LOT of late nights and early mornings working on Charlie's party, but I wanted every single detail to be perfect for him!  And, it is no secret that I love the cake making  and party planning and crafty parts of all this...
Here are some pics from Charlie's party:

       

  

Charlie's Cake!

4 tiers of chocolate fudge cake layered with vanilla buttercream and oreo cookie cream filling.

Yummmm......

I made this Sir Topham Hat our of gumpaste - so he is completely food safe (though rock hard)

              

  

The trees, hills, sun and tracks and tunnel are made from Satin Ice fondant.

The clouds and grass are made from buttercream.

The rocks are chocolate.

360 degrees of decorated train cake! 

And finally, singing Happy Birthday to our little boy:

 

Happy early birthday Charlie!  I never knew just how perfect life could really be until almost  3 years ago when you came into ours and I love you so much! 

Stork seating....pregnancy announcement cake

Happily Ever After - Happy Adoption Day to three lucky kiddos!

It has been over a year (over 2 years for the older two) since these three lucky children came into the lives of two very dedicated mommies.  Tomorrow is the day that they will officially be adopted.  Forever and happily ever after, at last!  This is the cake I made for their very special celebration! 
Happy Adoption Day S Family!!

Blue dessert table to announce a little baby boy who is on the way!

All things blue to announce that a little boy is due in July!

-our blue ruffle cake was filled with layers of lemon and coconut buttercream
-sugar cookies
-pretzel rods dipped in white chocolate that was dyed blue
-chocolate cupcakes with blue frosting

Valentine's Day Cookies

Sweet little heart cookies for my little guy's friends at daycare. 

Shabby Chic Little Ruffle Cake

I've been waiting for the perfect occasion to try out this new technique I have seen so much recently - the ever so pretty ruffle cake! My very good friend has a birthday this week (which I forgot about until Monday - eeek!). I somehow managed to create this cute little cake on Tuesday night and get it to her on Wednesday, just in time for her birthday. Love how it turned out. This was my signature white almond cake, layered with chocolate buttercream and covered in vanilla buttercream ruffles. Take a look!

     

 

                 

Happy Birthday Sonia!

Giraffe 1st Birthday Cake

I'm told that Megan absolutely LOVES giraffes. Her first birthday cake had to travel to Vermont, so I decided to stick with colorful cupcakes and a smash cake for Megan, instead of something big and difficult to travel with.  Of course, Megan's smash cake had a little giraffe to top it off! The giraffe is hand made of gumpaste.  When Megan saw her cake, she shrieked and laughed with delight!

  Take a look:

Happy 1st Birthday, Megan!!

Alex is 1 - Farm themed first birthday & smash cake!

I've never met Alex, but his mother is a colleague of mine.  Alex isn't quite old enough to decide what kind of fabulous, awesome, fun birthday cake he wants, so his mom decided on a farm theme (similar to my little guy's 2nd bday cake).  She requested a sheep, a pig and a family of ducks with a farm themed cake - my signature chocolate cake with cookie-cream filling and vanilla buttercream.  Of course, she also needed a SMASH cake for little Alex.  I can't wait to see some photos of the little guy tearing into his first cake!

Here is the cake - The red barn is a sugar sheet and the rolling hills are SatinIce fondant, everything else is buttercream.

Gumpaste sheep sitting in the buttercream grass

Gumpaste mommy & baby ducks quacking around a buttercream pond.



Gumpaste piggy rolling in chocolate mud.


And here is Alex's "SMASH cake" - he gets this one all to himself, to smash like a birthday boy should on his first birthday! 

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEX!!