I finally made a Birdcage! I decided to make myself a cake for Mother’s Day, and play with my new Hydrangea cutter/former set. (LOVE!) I had a wonderful time working on this cake!

Cake is (no color) Velvet Cake with Vanilla Buttercream, Fondant accents and Gumpaste flowers. It’s also what’s for dinner tonight!

This was a last minute order for a very small second wedding. The bride’s mom is a friend who was horrified that her daughter’s dessert plan was to pick up cupcakes at the grocery store! The only colors to work with were Celadon and Ivory, which were on the few invitations she sent out.

One of the flowers on the lower tier was missing it’s center in the pictures (oops!), but I caught it before leaving the house. Whew! Two tiers, 9” and 6”, Vanilla Butter Cake with Raspberry Filling and Princess Buttercream with sugar pearl centers.

A dear friend wanted a special cake to take on an airplane (!) to celebrate her son’s engagement. Knowing the chaos of air travel, I baked a single tier 8” (Red Velvet with Cheesecake Buttercream filling, White Chocolate Ganache and White Fondant) and made separate posies for her to decorate the cake with.

The roses are made using Nicholas Lodge’s Craftsy class, and the Hydrangea are made based loosely on Jacqueline Butler’s Craftsy class. (I didn’t have the right cutters for the hydrangea, nor did I have time to make white gumpaste to use!) Filler flowers and two-toned ivy were pieces I had on hand.

The mom’s in my son’s class wanted to hold a baby shower for both our class and the partner class (47 kids!). I provided the cake and fifty sets of cookies as party favors. The children made a tree wall hanging, each one painted a leaf and wrote their name. There was a heart in the center of the trunk, and I used this as the design for the cake and cookies.

10, 8, and 6” tiers. Top and bottom are chocolate with vanilla buttercream. Center is double-barrel vanilla with vanilla buttercream. The teacher took the top layer home to share with her husband.

Thanks to Callye of http://www.sweetsugarbelle.com/ for the wood-grain idea (from a father’s day post a couple of years ago).

This was for my friend’s darling daughter, Savannah, who just turned 2. Made to match the invitation from Shutterfly (cropped photo shown here). Vanilla cake and buttercream with modeling chocolate accents. (No Fondant Allowed!)

All those diving bunny cupcakes made me want to do a cake in that style. This one is Lemon cake with White Chocolate buttercream. The dirt is made from toasted cake crumbs. The eggs are modelling chocolate with royal icing decorations as the customer hates fondant. I did convince her to let me make the bunny from fondant since they are easily removed.

I wish I knew who originally designed this cake – it’s just hilarious! Many thanks to her/him.

Coconut Cake with Nutella Buttercream and Hazelnut Ganache.

This is a birthday cake for an older gentleman, a Huge Fan of UNC. Chocolate cake with Pecan Praline buttercream filling and vanilla frosting.

This was my first attempt at a FBCT, and I was NOT happy with the result. I left in the freezer overnight and placed it on a cold cake in the morning. I think the FBCT was too dried out and placing it on a hard surface meant it kept cracking and would smooth out. Ugh. Oh well, at least the over-piping on the top edge came out well!

I created this cake for darling little twins at my church. The original plan of two cakes (one for each) was scrapped for cost reasons, so I combined the tiaras on one cake. The mom also asked for cookie favors; this is the set she gave out. Vanilla cake with pink vanilla buttercream & fondant; vanilla sugar cookies. Gumpaste & dried fondant tiaras, sprayed silver.

I created this cake for a client’s wife. I was totally startled when, halfway through applying the black keys, the whole cake slipped off it’s stand! Fortunately I caught it before it hit the floor, and it “only” had this huge gash in the side. I’d already planned on the trim at the top, so I was able to fix it by cutting out two white keys and replacing them. Whew!

Chocolate with raspberry filling, chocolate buttercream, fondant, gumpaste roses.

I created this cake for a customer who wanted to use her Jake & the Neverland Pirates figurines on it. Marble cake with Oreo filling, chocolate ganache and chocolate buttercream. The railings and back wall are modeling chocolate; other details are fondant. Sail is gumpaste on a cookie-stick mast.

My customer sent me a Pinterest link for this cake: http://catchmyparty.com/photos/675050. It was for her daughter’s 2nd birthday, a Tutu party! It is HUGE – six 9” layers (vanilla) with ombre buttercream filling in reverse of the ombre ruffles outside. It weighed 18.5 lbs!

(As a note, in order to not make the thing weigh more than I knew it would, I skipped crumb-coating it. And you can totally tell! The slight unevenness of the cake edges was exaggerated by the ruffles. Ugh.)

This was for an office party where one woman was pregnant and another about to wed. Baby carriage and wedding dress were gumpaste, presents were fondant; all decorated with royal icing. Swags were fondant.

Created this small (5”) heart cake for V-day. Three layers of chocolate, raspberry filling, chocolate ganache. The rose is my first using modeling chocolate.

This birthday cake was for an admired boss, the Director of Parks and Recreation for a local town. It was designed by my friend/customer, who wanted the sides inscribed with their boss’s favorite saying: “We make you Nuts!” and to which they respond: “You drive us Bananas!”

Yellow Cake with Chocolate Buttercream filling, fondant accents and gumpaste crown.

I loved designing this cake! The topper I designed didn’t work out, but I like this one pretty well. The cake is two tiers, chocolate with oreo buttercream, chocolate ganache, and fondant. The tutus are fondant with tylose, attached with royal icing and a prayer. Topper is a cookie stick wrapped in the same pink gumpaste the ballet shoes are made from. Flowers and initial from fondant. The lower tier has pearlized stripes not visible in the pictures.

This was for a friend’s son, chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream for console, controller is RKT. Many thanks to the informative controller tutorial by Bellacakes!

I created this for a client who wanted a special gift for her friend’s birthday. There are three separate cakes, 2 layers each, carved and covered with fondant. It was a fun project, and I learned lots, but would have been more fun if it weren’t an ice storm (which explains the awful pictures!).

Created for my friend’s 7-year old daughter, who’s a huge fan of Hermione from the Harry Potter series. Strawberry Cake with White Chocolate Buttercream; book cover is fondant with tylose, and royal icing accents painted gold. Gumpaste and RI wand and Time Turner, fondant scarf.

Designed for a friend’s 70th Birthday, a surprise party. Willem is Dutch, and his wife thought it would be fun to do something a little kitsch. Twelve layers (six stacked tiers), alternating vanilla and chocolate with raspberry filling. Coated in ganache and covered in fondant. Top is RKT, windmill sails are gumpaste on cookie pop sticks. (I cut them so they’d fit snugly and secured them with a pin to the end of a third stick embedded into the RKT.)

Those darned shingles on the sides took forever, but I do like how they turned out. Biggest problem was lack of stability; I didn’t adjust my usual approach to account for all those tiers. It leaned a bit, but we shoved it into the corner so it was less obvious. :) Thanks for looking!