Dinosaur 1st Birthday Cake

I'm lovin' this Dinosaur themed 1st birthday! I made this cake this past weekend for a little boy's first birthday. I loved the invite his mom sent me to design the cake from and the color theme. She was actually one of my first cake customers a few years back! I made her little girl's first birthday cake as well.

I cut the dinosaur shapes (inspired by the invite) out of fondant and "glued" them with clear vanilla around the white almond flavored cake (yum yum). I like to use clear vanilla for my "gluing" because it doesn't leave blotches when it dries.

 After delivering the cake, my boys and I spent some time shopping at Southpoint. Doesn't Landon look so cool and grown up with his sunglasses? Dave looks pretty studly himself ;)

College Mascot Cake Topper

Ok, I am super excited about this post! A friend of my from college (she went to State and I went to Meredith) asked me to make her wedding cake topper. She wanted something that would last so I sculpted these little figurines out of polymer clay. It was a lot like using gumpaste, just a little stiffer and it will last a lifetime. Here are the little cutey pattooty figurines - Mrs. Wolf (NC State) and PeeDee (ECU). Carolyn thought that one day she would have a Mr. Wolf next to the Mrs. Wolf but life surprised her with a PeeDee! I am thinking I might open up an etsy store to sell these...anyone have any experience with etsy??

Downhill Ski Cake

We have had the most mild winter so far so I was happy to get to see some snow this week! My snow consisted of white fondant, but it was still fun to get in the wintry mood. This cake was for a 30th birthday party and the birthday boy loves to ski. It was quite a challenge, but these are my favorite cakes to make. I like to get creative!

Here is a portrait of the lil' ski dude. He turned out so cute I hated to say goodbye to him....

Here is another pose. He was quite the model.

These little pine trees were so much fun to make! My mind went crazy with possibilities for next Christmas. I rolled the gumpaste into a raindrop shape, took mini scissors to cut the branches and sprinkled a little snow on them.

And now here are a few pics of the messy project, but first take a look at my lil trooper. He was so good while I made this cake ...just chilled in his little chair and listened to mommy explain the steps of making the cake. I think his favorite part was watching me make the trees.

Here is the tiered cake ready to get carved. The bottom two layers are yellow butter cake with raspberry filling and the top tiers are triple chocolate.

A little messy carving....

and....wa la! We have a mountain like shape.

Rolling out the white fondant. Let me tell you, this step sure does work my arm muscles....I really want one of those slab rollers for fondant.

Here it is before I trimmed it up. I kind of think it looks like a ghost...

Here is a little peak of the molding process...my little ski dude was about to get some legs. I hope everyone enjoyed the cake!

Chandelier Cake

Hello there...hope you are having a great weekend! I just finished up this birthday cake with a chandelier motif and standing monogram.  The party is taking place at the Angus Barn tonight and I must admit that my mouth is watering right now. The cake is the popular white almond with buttercream and covered in fondant. I piped the chandelier motif with royal icing and let me tell you our kitchen sink, as well as my fingers, turned a nasty black as I added the food coloring. I need to start wearing gloves, but I am not the neatest artist! Well I am off to spend the afternoon with my 2 boys who are currently watching the Syracuse basketball game. Dave is training Landon to cheer for Syracuse at 2 1/2 months old...I personally think he needs to just be a State fan. Happy weekend!

Happy 2nd Birthday Emma!

Here is my sweet niece, Emma Grace, who turned 2 this past weekend and celebrated her big day at Chuck E Cheese! She is in love with fairies, princesses, Dora and anything girly. Her new favorite Disney movie is "Tangled" so I made her a Rapunzel birthday cake. In this post I am going to try to give you the "how to" in making a princess cake. I have been really slack on taking pics during the process of making my cakes, but actually took the time to do so with this cake. So here it goes....

I bought a cake pan made for doll cakes and a Rapunzel barbie doll. I usually don't like putting things on my cakes that I have not made/molded from fondant, etc. I want my cakes to be 100% created by me, but in this case I thought it might look cheesy if I made the doll out of fondant. So I set aside my pride and went to Target to buy Rapunzel. I had so much fun browsing the aisles of barbies and baby dolls. Don't get me wrong, I love my little boy, but I do think it would be fun to have a girl one day :) Anywho, I found "Punz" (this is what Emma calls her) and had a lot of fun spending a few days playing with her...

Here she is just hangin' out in the kitchen while I make her dress out of yummy chocolate cake!

Here is the pan that I baked the cake in. I was surprised how even it cooked given the shape.

I iced the cake with buttercream and then started the fun part of creating the dress! Added this lighter shade of purple fondant for the inside part of her dress and.....

I start to make some edible paint by mixing clear vanilla and food coloring. This is one of my fave things to do - painting cakes! Here I am painting away and getting purple fingers in the process.

And here I have added another piece of fondant for the outer layer of the dress. Just need to clean it and trim it up.

This is where I ran into a problem. I have learned through making cakes to allow time for trial and error! At first I though I could leave her legs on and stick her down in the cake...well she ended up being too tall so I decided to break off her legs. I thought they would easily pop back on like they did on my barbies when I was a kid but I was wrong. Apparently, Punz is a much better quality and she didn't like being torn apart. The doll was also part of Emma's present so I hate that I broke her. Sometimes I have to take extreme measures to make a cake look good!  

Do you like how I gave Punz a bathing suit?? Gotta keep the blog family friendly :)

And here she is in her new attire. I added a little "bling" (not edible) and added her bodice. I always use clear vanilla as a glue to stick everything on my cakes. You can do this process with any barbie and you can also buy generic dolls specifically made for this type of cake that come with no legs.

 Gotta run cause my lil guy is hungry! Have a great day.

Monogrammed Wedding Shower Cake

And...we're back! Landon and I have been busy getting to know each other so cake baking has been put to the side for a few weeks. In case you didn't already know, Dave and I are now the proud parents of Landon David Eshleman, born November 28, 2011. Here are a few pics of the little guy helping mommy bake a cake....

He is so precious and I cannot believe God has blessed us with him! Being a mom is definitely challenging, but my little guy makes it all worth it. I love him so very much.

I was so excited that I had someone put in a cake order this week! I have been wanting to get back into baking and decorating, but business slowed down a bit right before Landon was born. I can't wait to get more orders, so please let me know if you are in need of a cake anytime soon. Here is the one that Landon and I worked on together:

This is a vanilla butter cake covered with buttercream and fondant. Of course, the famous quilted look made it very classy! Landon did an excellent job being patient with me as I tried to juggle taking care of him while making the cake. He was such a trooper, especially when we went to WalMart at 7:30am only to discover that they no longer sell Wilton cake products!! Good thing Michael's is just around the corner. I hope you have a fabulous weekend and I hope to be back blogging with more cakes soon :)

Polka Dot Pumpkin

I love Fall. Fall is full of pumkin spice latte's, my birthday, the fair, and those cool evenings when I get to snuggle in the PJ's! Lately, I have been making a ton of clay pumpkins with my 5th grade students and they are turning out so cute. I would loe to start a blog one day with all of their art...they are quite talented kids and always surprise me with their creativity!
Anwyays, I have been in the pumpkin mood lately and my friend Stephanie asked me to make a 1st birthday cake for her little girl. The party was full of little girls dressing up and lots of pink and orange. Steph told me I could come up with anything and I love being able to do that! Anywho, here is the final product. I made the pumpkin shape by baking two bundt cakes, one chocolate and one vanilla. I hope the kiddos enjoyed it! Happy 1st Birthday Emma!