Scooby-Doo Cake - Cake of Cakes!

When I received a request to make a Sweet 16 cake I was shocked when I found out the girl wanted a Scooby-Doo cake. I have to admit I was less than thrilled for the mere fact that I thought I was going to get to make something ultra girly. However, when I started creating Scooby-Doo himself I fell in love with the theme which took me back to my childhood of sitting in blanket and pillow filled laundry baskets watching Scooby-Doo on TV with my sister. It was my absolute favorite show. This is one of my favorite cakes that I have ever made.

Scooby-Doo and all the other details/characters were created out of Wilton brand fondant.

Marvel Superheroes Cake

I can't believe how fast my boys are growing up. My youngest just turned FOUR years old and wanted a Marvel superheroes cake for his birthday. I was up for the challenge and making Marvel characters out of fondant turned out to be so much fun. He requested four Marvel superheroes since he was turning four years old - Spiderman, Wolverine, The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man!

I always make cakes at night when my kids have gone to sleep so they have a huge surprise in the morning when they wake up. I love to see their expressions when they see their cake for the first time.

Each Marvel superhero was created completely out of fondant. I like working with fondant to sculpt characters. It is forgiving (if I screw up!) and will last a long time if you let it dry out completely. However, I never cover my cakes in fondant just because I don't like how it tastes - and yes I have made my very own marshmallow fondant before and think it tastes bad too. Buttercream is the way to go in my house!

 

Spiderman was my favorite to make. I rolled out very thin snakes of black fondant to make all of the webbing on his suit and created a small black spider for the center. I based these Marvel superheroes from toys that I saw online. I searched Google images for 'Marvel plush toys' and it worked out great!

Happy Birthday Liam!

Despicable Me - Minion Cake

I can't believe my son is SIX years old. He is in love with the minions from Despicable Me! I think they are adorable and thought it was a great idea to make him the cake of cakes! We are anxiously awaiting Despicable Me 2!!!

My son was very clear that he needed six minions on his cake of cakes since he was turning six! They were so fun to make and the end product was fun too! It was a dark chocolate fudge layer cake so it was delicious too!

If you have ever read about my cakes before you will know that I refuse (unless someone requests) to cover a cake in fondant. I think it tastes horrible (yes, even marshmallow fondant) and when you go to peel it off so the cake can actually be eaten all the frosting comes too. Very disappointing, especially for kids, so I use buttercream and smooth it the best I can. It makes the cake even more delicious. With that said, I do, however, love to make characters and decorations with fondant!

Minions are so basic they are really easy to create with fondant. They are just an egg shape with some britches and some eyes! There are so many fondant tools and gadgets that are supposed to make creating fondant decorations easier. You certainly don't need them for making minions. I used only my hands and a toothpick!

Cut the Rope Cake - Cake of Cakes!

"Deliver candy to Om Nom!" I hear this phrase all the time. Both of my boys love Cut the Rope so for my son's third birthday he requested a cake with Om Nom - his favorite character, of course! Turns out he thought it was the cake of cakes!

There are many beautiful and amazing cakes out there that have been covered/decorated with fondant. I am sort of a fondant hater. Mainly because it tastes horrible! I have bought fondant and made (marshmallow) fondant from scratch with the same outcome. The cake tastes great but the fondant has to be picked off and thrown away.

Now, if you don't have kids you might not think this is a big deal but when they don't like the taste of fondant and you have to take it off of their cake and all the frosting goes with it.......well, there are many unwanted tears to deal with!

So, in an attempt to satisfy my little birthday boy I tried my best to smooth out buttercream frosting instead of using fondant. A usual event for me when making cakes. With that said, there is no better way (that I have tried) to create characters and/or graphic decorations than to use fondant. All of the dots and characters on this cake are made using store bought fondant.

I modeled this cake from the Fabric Box from Cut the Rope which includes: om nom, stars, candy, spiders, air balloons and the spikes that breaks the candy. I got the idea from searching google images for cut the rope cakes. This is the one my cake looks most like but with more details. http://kawaiidepartment.blogspot.com/2011/08/cut-rope-cake.html

Don't skimp on the details. It will take longer but the outcome will be well worth it!

If you want to see more details and step-by-step instructions visit http://www.instructables.com/id/Cut-the-Rope-Cake/

Birthday Cakes

Each year when my boys pick a theme for their birthday cakes each year they seem to get harder. I am posting a few pictures of the ones I have liked over the years. They are so fun to make and my boys love what they get. They are not professional in any way but fun none the less!

Angry Birds and Ninjago Cake - On my son's 5th birthday he insisted that he wanted an Angry Birds cake and a Lego Ninjago cake. Since I wasn't going to make two I just added some ninjas in with the birds. He, of course, thought it was the best thing ever!

Pirate Ship Cake - This cake was my favorite to make out of all that I have made. It is a chocolate layer cake with buttercream frosting for the layers and chocolate frosting for the outside of the pirate ship. I really enjoy trying to use frosting instead of fondant since fondant tastes terrible. We printed the sails and stuck them on wooden kabob sticks. I got the pirate figures from Party City and decorated with malted milk balls, chocolate coins, square pretzels, rolos, mini chocolate bars, and hershey kisses.

When I take my boys to parades or after Halloween I always save the left over candy the doesn't get eaten and use it for decorations on cakes, cupcakes and creations.

Dragon Cupcake Cake - This dragon was out of the Hello, Cupcake! book. It was surprisingly easy to make and I used Hershey chocolate bars for the spikes on its back instead of cookies.

Horse Cake with Southwestern Cupcakes and Cookies - This was a cowboy themed party for my son's 1st birthday. I made a simple sheet cake and cut it into the shape of a horse and made decorated southwest themed cookies on top of pudding filled cupcakes.