This cake was done for a young lady turning 40. Her husband had surprised her with a trip to the city that never sleeps for a New Years Eve/Birthday celebration and she was head-over-heels in love with that magical city!

My beautiful daughter turned 23 last month! Because she has inherited my love for travel, I decided to make her a suitcase cake. She loves anything vintage so the style was easy enough to plan. What wasn’t so easy was getting the cake from Michigan to Virginia, where she moved to last summer! I had to make a new handle, buckles, and brackets at the hotel, as those parts were somewhat “squished”, as well as make the travel “stickers” and luggage tag. She had been a little sad about the prospect of not getting one of “mom’s cakes” this year, so was absolutely thrilled when I surprised her with it!

Birthday cake for a girl who loves the color orange, anything tropical, the ocean, the beach…basically everything that Michigan is NOT during the month of November! All decorations were hand sculpted with fondant/gumpaste. The top tier is caramel apple cake with sauteed apple filling and covered in caramel swiss meringue buttercream frosting. The bottom tier is vanilla cake with american buttercream frosting

This was a joint birthday cake I made for my in-laws who love bird watching and gardening. It was somewhat last minute because my husband and sister in-law couldn’t make up their minds on a theme, and we celebrated at our Thanksgiving dinner get-together. It wasn’t an easy task putting this and several side dishes together AND transporting it all to the party in an SUV that I’m pretty sure hit every bump and pothole in our lovely Michigan roads! It was delicious though! It was a 3-layer vanilla cake with eggnog cream cheese frosting. All decorations are fondant and gumpaste,

The birthday girl loves anything zebra striped and pink! Her mom sent me a picture of a cake and asked if I could make that cake but a little smaller. I don’t know who to give credit for the original but everyone loved it! She also sent a picture of the birthday girl literally bending over to kiss the cake! And some people wonder why I do this “cake thing.” The top tier is chocolate chip cake with american buttercream. The bottom tier is my Caramel Apple cake recipe, torted with my homemade caramel sauce and sauteed apples between each layer and covered in Caramel Swiss Buttercream.

As a last minute cake (why do relatives call less than 2 days before a party?), this has got to be one of the most trying cakes I’ve ever done. The little boy turning 2 years old absolutely loved it, and he especially loved Larry. The first thing he did after blowing out the candles was pick Larry up and bite his head off! The pirate ship was made from molded RKT and covered in fondant. I’ve had success with RKT in the past but this time I couldn’t get it as smooth as I wanted, resulting in the uneven surface and spots that required “patches”. Also, the original masts were molded from RKT like the cannon on the front, but all 3 broke as I tried to insert them into the ship. I just didn’t have the time I would’ve liked to work on it. The cake itself (the water) was absolutely delicious! I used Magnolia Bakery’s recipe for Vanilla Birthday Cake and Vanilla Buttercream. It’s always a big hit!

This was made for a young man turning 21 on Halloween. He loves German Chocolate cake so I knew I had to use the ultimate David Lebovitz recipe I’d found awhile back. Best German Chocolate cake. Ever. I torted each of the layers and filled with the coconut/pecan mixture and covered it in chocolate ganache with a rough finish. His mom left it up to me on the design – Halloween theme or not, they didn’t care – so I decided to go creepy but not gross, and not too busy on the decorations. This, I was later told, was the best cake he’d ever gotten. I really wished the spider web had turned out better but I was dealing with super sticky melted marshmallows that decided to stick to my fingers rather than the ganache. However, the effect was was perfect for his age. The giant spider was a simple fondant oval with a round head attached. The legs I made extra long and bent at sharp angles for more creep-factor. It worked. One guest at the party couldn’t look at the cake until the spider was gone. Success!!

Even though I had about 3 days notice to make this cake along with 17 DOZEN cupcakes in my little kitchen with one oven (!!), it was so much fun creating these cute little baby forest animals and their mama’s. The mom to-be couldn’t decide what type of cake she wanted or the theme for her shower. The tree’s have carved hearts with H+B and Baby Boy carved in them.

I had the honor of making this cake at the request of our town’s “Event Coordinator” for a woman turning 30. It was a pretty big deal for me because I’ve only been making cakes for about a year now and “the” very woman who can get my name out there asked me to make it after tasting my Caramel Apple cupcakes. The birthday girl is also the VP of a local bank branch and a student in law school. She loves handbags and shoes, and gold and pink are her favorite colors, so I went with a favorite purse style of hers in her favorite colors. I made the flower on the front by cutting each flower petal and prepping them almost as if I were going to make the billow effect, but only on one side. Then I painted it with a little gold dust mixed with clear vanilla. HUGE thank you to Jessicakes for her amazingly easy tutorial on the purse! I also made 7 dozen cupcakes in a variety of flavors for the party (including LOTS of Caramel Apple, lol). TFL!

I’m going to be a step-gramma! My step daughter is having a baby so naturally I made the cake for her baby shower. I made this cake to match the invitations and the bedding she chose for her nursery. Thanks to Leslie at the Royal Bakery for her wonderful, easy-to-follow tutorial on the giraffe and bamboo framed name plate! The clouds I made from little balls of fondant in many shapes stuck together and covered with a thin layer of white fondant. There were also about 75 cupcakes in a variety of flavors for the guests. TFL!

My niece Avery turns 5 this October. Since she lives so far away and I won’t get to see her on her birthday, I made her an early birthday cake, or a ‘just because’ cake. Her favorite thing in the world (besides her big brother Nate) is puppies. She has a bathing suit with a puppy on it that she would wear all day every day if she could. I recently saw a picture of a bathing suit cake on the MyCakeSchool.com blog by Melissa that I thought couldn’t be more perfect for little Avery! So I made it (in an 8×8 square rather than the 9×13 in the tutorial) and she LOVED it! It wasn’t the easiest to make, as we’ve had the hottest summer on record here in Michigan and I had to re-do the buttercream twice on top of having 3 cakes to do in two days with an ancient wooden rolling pin malfunction, but the result was pretty good. It was my first time doing ruffles! They weren’t perfect but I know what to do different next time: roll the fondant a little thinner with a new rolling pin! It’s chocolate cake with buttercream frosting and filling and fondant decorations. TFL!

My niece Maddie had her 11th birthday this past May. Since I only see her during the summer, I decided to make her and her sister “just because” cakes. And since she adores her parakeet named Yogi Bird, I decided to make her this cake. It’s my first birdcage cake. It wasn’t perfect, as I was making 3 cakes in a matter of 2 days, but I’m very pleased with the results. She was absolutely surprised and loved the cake! It’s a chocolate cake with buttercream frosting and filling with fondant decorations. TFL!

My nephew Nate had his 7th birthday this year. Since I started my hobby making cakes last year, he’s developed this ‘thing’ in which he believes whole-heartedly that I’m a very famous cake decorator, like Buddy from The Cake Boss. I haven’t bothered correcting him. Last year he asked if I could make him a camping party cake since we were having his party while camping. It had to have pirates. He liked the cake I made (which included a retro camper complete with awning and string lights, pirates, a “campfire”, etc) so much that this year he asked for an army guy cake. He specifically asked for “an army guy cake on a desert army base, and there has to be gold. And a campfire.” He even drew me a design. I believe the gold part came from the movie “Kelly’s Heroes.” So that’s what he got. A chocolate cake covered in buttercream, brown sugar for the sand, fondant army decorations, campfire made from chocolate rocks, candles for the fire, “gold” bubblegum, and pretzels for the sticks with mini marshmallows. Unfortunately, while rushing from home to the party spot, I forgot the second “E” in Heroes. Good thing he’s only 7 and didn’t notice. TFL!!

This cake was for a little girl turning 7. It was such a fun theme to work with, from design to finish. It’s a chocolate cake with buttercream frosting and filling covered in fondant. The decorations are all fondant, which I cut by hand (eye-balled every one except the hearts). It took forever!

This cake was made for a guy who loves his new kayak! I got the order for this cake the day before it was needed, so it lacked some small details that are on the real kayak. The client was extremely happy with this cake and even let out a “Holy cow, that’s awesome!” Made my day :)

I made this smash cake for a baby’s 1st birthday. I designed the cake from the party invitations. The cake is vanilla covered in buttercream with handmade fondant butterflies. I loved working with these colors!

I made this cake for a couple who have absolutely nothing in common – no similar hobbies or interests – except that they both love each other very deeply! Their daughter asked for the cake to be white with silver and navy blue stars in chocolate and vanilla.

I made this cake for my sweet, beautiful niece for her 13th birthday. She asked for a beach theme with a beach chair and umbrella on a choc/vanilla marble cake covered in buttercream. I had so much fun making this for her and adding small touches, such as footprints in the brown sugar “sand” and a book called The Teen Life by S.C.!

I’m not sure why the pictures rotated when I uploaded them but I will try to fix it asap! TFL!!

I was super excited when I was asked to make this cake! I’ve seen these cakes floating around on many sites for some time now and always wanted to make one. I was given a picture of the cake they wanted – same colors and all – so I’m not sure who to give credit for it but the design was simple and sweet! The cakes are fluffy vanilla cake – recipe by Sweetopia, and strawberry cake, all with buttercream filling.

I made these cute pinwheels to use as cupcake toppers after seeing a tutorial on Facebook. I don’t remember who posted it originally but she made it super easy!