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It was his 55th birthday, get it? I know it's a stretch, but in the company of domino-lovers, hopefully everyone else caught on. 9" square chocolate cake, vanilla buttercream filling, buttercream decorations.
My husband *finally* got management to put a stereo in his work truck so he doesn't have to drive in monotony all day long. We made this cake as a thank-you to celebrate the improvement. It was a frozen buttercream transfer, but only my 2nd one and I wasn't thrilled with how it turned out (just not very smooth... I don't think I let it freeze long enough but I was in a hurry as usual!).
I decided on Christmas Eve that it would be really fun to make a cake to take with us to my parents' house as a surprise. After it came out of the oven, however, I realized that I had a completely unrealistic timeline for cooling, frosting, and decorating the cake before we had to leave. I had less than 45 minutes to decorate it after smoothing the frosting, but I think it turned out OK considering. If I had slowed down I think I could have paid a little more attention to detail and placement, and maybe added some yellow centers to my poinsettias. It was fun though and delicious. :) 8" round with buttercream.
I made this cake for a friend's son's birthday party. I used the technique called "frozen buttercream transfer" that I learned from the cake central articles. It's great! I certainly have room for improvement with the technique, but it opens up a whole new world of possibilities for decorating. It was really fun, too. This was a two-layer 10" square chocolate cake with buttercream filling and buttercream frosting and decorations. Thanks!
A friend was organizing an auction for the non-profit she works for and asked me to donate a cake. After dinner at the auction was the 'dessert dash' where each table collectively bids money to have the first pick off the dessert table. The desserts (about 20-25 of them) raised about $2700, so I figured my cake was worth around $100. :) It was a really really fun event and I will participate again next year if they let me! Chocolate cake with strawberry jam filling and buttercream frosting.
This is the first cake I've ever done for more money than just cost of materials. :) The writing was a little tricky because I was writing on a 3D surface, but it turned out pretty good. The customer was pleased, so that's what matters. 8" German chocolate with homemade strawberry jam filling and buttercream frosting.
A friend had me make this cake for her mother's surprise 50th birthday party. Her mom loves lilies, but I had never made them before, so I just put fake lilies on. The "Fabulous at Fifty" part is made of royal icing run-out. It was my first time trying RI and it was a lot of fun! I will definitely use it more in the future. Also my first time doing a tiered cake. She was happy with it, and so was I.
My first time using fondant! I much prefer buttercream for two reasons: 1. It's way more fun. 2. It tastes waaaaay better. I used Wilton's ready-to-use rolled fondant or something like that, and while it looked good, it tasted pretty vile. I will try making my own some other time as my mom assures me that there IS good fondant out there! :) This cake was to celebrate the fact that both me and my husband got jobs on the same day.
This was a super fast pattern that I based off one I saw in a book one time. All buttercream.
This was for my mom's birthday. It was my first time doing a square cake, and I won't do a square one again until I get good square pans. Square cakes are my mom's favorite though, and she was very happy. That's what counts!
Well, almost like a sombrero anyway. I used an 8" round for the 'brim' and a Pampered Chef small batter bowl for the top. Next time I would use a bigger brim or a smaller top to make the proportions a little better. German chocolate cake (the coconut pecan was between the torted layers) and buttercream decorations. Gordy was thrilled. :)
30 tulips for Kristie's 30th birthday. I was really irritated with myself for that one shell in the top shell border that was all crooked, but I'm learning not to point that stuff out to anyone, and no one notices. :)
My first 'comissioned' cake. I was nervous, but they were pleased! I couldn't charge her, though. I'm just not confident enough that it will turn out yet. :)
Just a cake for fun. I think it's my favorite so far!
My car wasn't starting one weekend so I got on Facebook and changed my status to "My car won't start! If you fix it, I will make you a really pretty cake!!" This was the reward. (Car still runs great!)
At first I wasn't very happy with this cake. I think it's that I just wasn't wild about the colors, mostly. It's grown on me since I've been looking at the pictures though. It was gobbled up fast, regardless!
I have to admit, I made these cupcakes because I really needed a favor and thought maybe this would up my chances. (We'll see!) Chocolate cupcakes (no paper liners; I used cake release instead because I was out of paper liners when I went to make them.), with buttercream decorations piped directly on top (no smooth layer of frosting underneath the decorations, I mean). I used a dot or two of frosting underneath to 'glue' them to the plate so they wouldn't roll around in transport, and put them on a paper plate even though it wasn't as pretty but it took me 2 months to get the last person to return my plate. :)
Oh my goodness this cake was a disaster. I had to put it together on a weeknight so I asked my husband to bake the cake so it would be cool when I got home. He did (great guy!) but forgot to use Cake Release and so when I went to take the cake from the pans it just ended up a HUGE PILE OF CRUMBS! So... I tossed another cake in the oven at around 8:00pm and just went from there. I ended up just using 2 colors to save time, and didn't even bother to smooth the icing because I didn't have time to let it crust. It was still slightly warm even! The next morning I went to grab it to take it with me to work and 5 or 6 of my drop strings had broken and so I kind of mushed them back together with a toothpick. But... despite the headache, the cake was a success. I am learning not to point out my errors and usually no one notices anyway. Most importantly, Amy was delighted, and it was very very tasty. :)
I sort of had to piece together this cake since I didn't have an egg-shaped pan, but it worked out pretty well. I tried a new recipe for lemon buttercream frosting for the yellow base and it tasted great but didn't crust well and got kind of runny on the sides. The goal was to cover as much yellow as possible with regular buttercream decorations, so as to hide the many imperfections. :) I had a blast doing this cake.
This was for my husband's birthday, and he loved it. I frosted with cream cheese frosting for the first time, and it was OK to work with but it doesn't crust or anything so it's not as smooth as it could be. The orange decorations are buttercream. He loved it! I always struggle to find themes and colors that are good for men but are still pretty because I really only like making pretty cakes. :)
I made this cake to welcome in the Spring, but it snowed the next morning so I guess it didn't work. It was fun to get creative with the flowers.
My dad wanted an angelfood cake for his birthday, but I still wanted to decorate some. This was my first attempt at drop strings... and they turned out pretty well, I think! I found out (the hard way) that buttercream frosting doesn't really stick to bare angelfood cake. Half of my strings fell off and so I just peeled them all off and started over. :)
I made these little disasters for my parents just for kicks. Fortunately, my parents think everything their kids do is just amazing! :) They were stressful to make, and driving an hour with them was a nightmare, but it was worth it when we devoured them later!
Made this for a co-worker's birthday, and she was very pleased! I was pretty happy with it myself, although it was nothing like I had originally intended. Learned a lot though!
I made this one for my husband and me to enjoy on Valentine's Day... he even helped a little! :) All buttercream, with a little strawberry flavoring in the frosting. Strawberry cake with chocolate filling. MMMM!
I baked this in an oven-proof bowl and then cut it in half. Because the bowl was flat, I had to add extra cake scraps to get the points on either end of the football. The chocolate buttercream icing I used didn't work out so well (see the chocolate chunks??) but I didn't have time to re-make before the party, so I had to use it anyway. I traced the logo onto wax paper and rested it on the cake, poking along the outline with a pin to transfer the image... and it did NOT work. Just messed up the icing because the wax paper stuck. I ended up just drawing the logo on freehand with a pin and then filling it in with icing. Despite the headache, I was pleased with how it turned out, and it was the hit of the party. Not bad for my 3rd cake, anyway! :)
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