Kitty Cat Face Cake

 

8 inch round cake with triangle ears from cupcakes. 

Scooter Birthday Cake

Baked in a large loaf pan, froze it, then carved out the ramp. Made scooter out of cookie painted with frosting paint and stick pretzels and small chocolate cookies for the wheels. I used a glue gun to assemble the scooter. 

 

Alladin Magic Carpet Cake

 

Free hand cut a sugar cookie for the lamp and baked it with a wooden skewer or popsicle stick so you can stick it into the cake. Coated with glaze and crushed graham cracker mixed with gold sprinkles. 

Mermaid Barbie Cake

 

Used a cream cheese mint recipe to create the tail and the star fish (star fish used a mold, tail I free handed formed) and the green stones. I painted the fin and stones with my edible frosting paint and crystal sprinkles. Used a barbie that already had a swimsuit painted on. Used crushed graham cracker for sand. Vanilla wafers for clam shells. 

Harry Potter Birthday Cake

 

I warmed a caramel in the microwave to soften it (about 10/15 seconds) and wrapped it around a pretzel rod for the wand. I used a fruit by the foot for the scarf and piped stripes with yellow stripes of frosting. The glasses were purchased from Amazon. The snitch is a ferrero rocher with paper wings glued to it. 

Elsa Frozen Birthday Cake

 

I made this cake for by daughter's fourth birthday! I did two layers of 6 inch rounds and 1 layer of a 4 inch round. I used 1 cake recipe found here on my blog and used two batches of my cream cheese decorator frosting found here on my blog. 

Rainbow Topped Birthday Cake

I used this recipe for the cake and this recipe for the frosting with blue food coloring. One batch of the frosting just barely covered the cake and the middle layer and did the clouds. I made the rainbow out of jolly ranchers. See picture below. I shaped foil into a thin rectangle with sides folded up to prevent spreadinng and sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Lined up jolly ranchers lengthwise, 3 rows. Cooked in oven on cookie sheet at 350 for 5-10 minutes until candy was melted. Remove from oven and let cool a little but not get hard, just pliable. Cover a large food can with foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Wrap candy around the foiled can to form rainbow and press to smooth and shape. Let cool until hard. Store in an airtight container until just before using. I wrapped mine in bubble wrap to make sure it didn't crack if bumped. Used 2-8 inch cake pans.

Princess Ballerina Cake

Tiara came from party section of Hobby Lobbby. Used the extra large petal tip Wilton 127D to do the ruffles (large end of tip on top). Lots of good YouTube videos out there for piping ruffles! Cut the cake topper with pink cardstock on my Cricut. Sprayed it with spray elmers glue and dusted on fine glitter, then sprayed it with clear gloss to prevent the glitter from falling off. Hot glued it to a long toothpick.

Little Einstein's Rocketship Cake

Made this for my daughter's birthday a few years ago. Used my cake paint for the red and blue on top of a white frosting. Colored the red sucker stick with a red sharpie. The wings are made of cut sugar cone and graham crackers. Links to my recipes below:

Cake Paint Recipe

Cake Recipe

Frosting Recipe

Girl or Boy Baby Monster Cake

Made this for my daughter's first birthday because she is our little Monster. Used a small circle with a half ball cake form on top. Used sugar cones for horns, oreos for eyes and teeth, chocolate chips for the center of the eyes, and sugar pearls from Hobby Lobby for the tops of the horns. Frosting was cream cheese buttercream flavored with crushed freeze dried strawberries. Could make green, blue, or yellow frosting for a boy cake. Link to my cake recipe.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star Cake

Made this cake for my daughter's second birthday, after her very favorite song! Moon and stars were made out of my sugar cookie recipe. Then I brushed a powdered sugar and milk glaze over them and dipped them in gold or white sprinkles. Made cake from two layers of 6 inch round cake pans. Cake stand is from Hobby Lobby. Frosting is my cream cheese buttercream recipe. Link to my cake recipe.

Rainbow Unicorn Cake

Made this for my daughter's 5th Birthday. Made the cakes in round pans and then trimmed off brown crust with a sharp knife. Horn is a sugar cone and ears are cut from graham crackers. Dipped both in a sugar water glaze and coated in chunky gold sprinkles from Hobby Lobby. 
Party ideas below. Rainbow twizzlers and bugles for horns. Made headbands as party favor. 

Layered Tres Leches Cake

Easy but fancy dessert. Perfect for summer dinner parties and potlucks.

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5 eggs, separated

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup milk (2% or whole)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup flour

1/2 tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 can evaporated milk

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 cup heavy cream

2-3 tablespoons sugar, to taste

fresh chopped strawberries (or other berries)

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Preheat oven to 350. Generously spray 2 - 8 or 9 inch round cake pans with cooking spray (I use silicon pans). Beat egg whites on high until stiff peaks form, set aside. Beat egg yolks and sugar on high until pale yellow. Stir in milk and vanilla.

Stir flour, baking soda, and salt together and add to the yolk mixture, stir to combine. Gently fold in egg whites to rest of batter until just combined. Gently spread into the two pans. Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and inserted toothpick is clean. Remove from oven, let cool, and poke holes all over each cake with a fork.

Combine evaporated and sweetened condensed milk in a pourable measuring glass and stir. Pour half of it over each cake (about 1 1/4 cup for each cake). Let cakes sit for about 20 minutes or until all the milk is absorbed. At this point you can also cover the cakes with plastic wrap and store in the fridge for up to one day.

Meanwhile, beat heavy cream and sugar on high until stiff peaks form. Spread layer of whip cream between the two layers of cake and on top. Sprinkle chopped strawberries over the whip cream. Serve immediately (room temperature is preferred).

Adapted from http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/tres-leches-cake/

Tool Box Cake

I made this cake for my son's birthday as he is obsessed with Bob the Builder and anything associated with building. He also loves tape measures. I included a picture collage below of how I assembled it. I used a loaf pan for the main cake, froze it, and trimmed the sides off. Then I made the sides of the tool box, the tools, and the tape measure with sugar cookies. I used this recipe which makes a nice firm cookie that will hold up well. I used a sharp steak knife to saw off the ends because they were a little too tall. I free handed the cookie shapes with a sharp paring knife. I used wilton gel to dye the frosting. I used a plastic straw for the handle.

Decorator Cream Cheese Buttercream - 5 variations

I optimized this recipe recently and now I use it for everything from sugar cookies to cakes. I think traditional buttercream is too strong and most cream cheese frosting recipes are too soft for decorating. This has just the right amount of cream cheese and as long as you add the right amount of milk it's also perfect when using a piping bag. I prefer to use a hand mixer with this recipe instead of a stand mixer. It provides better control and you won't have to scrape down the sides. 

Basic recipe below is vanilla (originally posted here), These updated variations include chocolate, peanut butter, lemon, and strawberry (or other freeze dried fruit).

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1/4 cup salted butter (room temp)

2 ounces cream cheese (room temp)

1/8-1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (white or dark)

300 grams powdered sugar

1-2 tablespoon milk

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In a medium mixing bowl, whip butter and cream cheese together with hand mixer until smooth. Mix in salt and vanilla. Add powdered sugar and mix with hand mixer at high speed until it clumps together and a stiff ball starts to form. Mix in milk in teaspoons or drops to achieve desired consistency. I always check my consistency with a butter knife. Since this frosting has cream cheese in it, it should be refrigerated if not consumed the same day.

Variations (may omit or reduce vanilla, according to taste preference):

Chocolate - Add 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder
Peanut Butter - Replace 2 tablespoons of the butter with 2 tablespoons of peanut butter
Lemon - Add 1/2-1 teaspoon lemon zest and use lemon juice instead of milk.
Strawberry (or any other freeze dried fruit) - Add two tablespoons of crushed freeze dried fruit powder (use a rolling pin or meat tenderizer to crush the freeze dried fruit in a ziptop bag).
Coconut - 1/8 teaspoon coconut flavoring extract

Thomas the Train Cake

The picture below shows the basic construction. I used a skinny loaf, a small loaf, and one cupcake. I cut the small loaf into three pieces. I used my cake paint for the blue and gray but used frosting dye for the black, red, and yellow. I used cream cheese frosting (had cream cheese and butter, no shortening) and discovered that the cake paint did not work well on it and the cream cheese frosting was hard to spread out completely smooth. The cake paint might have worked better if I let the frosting dry out overnight, but I think straight buttercream just works better since it crusts more and faster. I used mini chocolate chips for the eyes and double stuff fudge oreos for the wheels. 

Elmo Birthday Cupcakes

I made these this weekend to take to my son's preschool class for his birthday. Made zuchinni muffins instead of cake to make them a little bit healthier and used a cream cheese buttercream frosting.

Mouth - 1/2 of a oreo cookie (gently) sawed in half with a sharp steak knife
Nose - 1/2 of an orange smile fruit snack (walmart brand)
Eyes - mini chocolate chip pressed into a mini marshmallow

Frosting - used a #17 star tip

Little Piggy Cake

I used a 9 inch for the bottom layer, a small spring form for the middle, and the top half of a cupcake for the nose. I used the bottom side of large chocolate chips for the eyes. I found the cardboard cake holders at Walmart (4 for$4). 

Anniversary Cake

I made this cake for my grandparents 60th Anniversary Party. It was a triple layer (though each layer was single) with a 14" base. Bottom layer was carrott, middle was chocolate, and top was lemon. It was the first time I did the swirl roses and they were super easy! I just found a video on youtube and showed me how to make them. I did a cream cheese buttercream frosting which was too soft to work with but tasted good so I will need to look for a better recipe in the future. The cake has lots of flaws (I masked some of them by sprinkling a coarse sparkly sugar over the cake) but I think it turned out well and I learned a lot for the future while doing it.

DIY Edible Cake Paint

I love decorating cakes but I don't love making many different colors of frosting because one it is a pain, and two, it's hard to get the colors correct and dark enough without using the expensive dyes made specifically for frosting. I also do not like fondant. So I invented my own cake paint and it's super easy and costs almost nothing. You only need three ingredients - powdered sugar, food coloring, and water.

I just put about 1-3 teaspoons of powdered sugar in a little glass cup, added a few drops of food coloring and stirred with a paint brush. Then I added a drop or two of water to thin it out. You want it thin enough to paint but not too thin or it will run, basically about the consistency of acrylic paint, but maybe just a touch thinner. If it is too thin just add a pinch or two of powdered sugar. Then just paint it onto your frosting with paintbrushes.