A Sampler Of Quilt Block Cookies
Today is my dear friend Liz's mother's birthday. Both Liz (Liz_on_Crack on cc) and her mother are exceptional quilters, so we made twelve classic quilt block patterned cookies for her birthday. We haven't done much flooding technique, but were delighted with how they turned out. Her mom flipped!
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Mermaid And Ocean Cookies
My daughter requested a Mermaid Tea Party for her 6th birthday party theme (she never makes things easy for me). The cake was all tea party, but the cookies are a nod to the undersea portion of the fete. The picture isn't great, but you can see all the different shapes I did. Mermaids, two kinds of fish, sea stars, seashells, sea horses, and dolphins. Royal icing floodwork, sugar cookies, and lots of disco dust. The stuff is cake crack, I can't help myself. ;-)
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Tea Party Birthday Party Cupcake Tower
My daughter asked for a Mermaid Tea Party party for her 6th birthday. Much of the decor for tomorrow's party will be under-the-sea, and the cookies are all mermaids and sea-life, but the cake is all tea party. I got the idea for the miniature tea set cupcakes from Zalita on flickr. Her work is absolutely exquisite.
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Teal, Brown, And Green Birthday Cake
Cake made for my daughter's friend, Maia's 11th birthday. She requested something in green, teal, and brown and gave me free reign on the design. The flavors were Neapolitan--each tier had chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. I tried adding freeze dried strawberries to the scratch strawberry cake recipe I use, and the extra flavor boost was *excellent*.
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Anchor Nautical Birthday Cake
Birthday cake for my next door neighbors' daughter, who is incredibly sweet to my five year old. I promised to make the cake for her, despite the fact that I gave birth two weeks ago. My mom heroically offered to bake, ice, and cover the cakes with fondant, so I just got to do the fun stuff. 8 and 6 inch layers, gumpaste embellishments.
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Fairy Princess Gumpaste Figure
Closeup of the fairy princess figure from the birthday cake I made for my daughter's best friend. Figure made in Aine2's style, except with freakishly long legs. ;-) The wings were made by drawing with food coloring markers on rice paper. They curled a bit, so next time I'll use dry petal dust--my butterfly experiment using rice paper and petal dust was delightfully successful.
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Pink Fairy Princess Garden Cake
My daughter's best friend requested a cake for her birthday, and gave me free reign on the design. "I like pink and fairies," she told me. It's busy, even by my standards, but I love the way it turned out! I was particularly happy with my edible butterfly experiment. I drew butterfly shape outlines on rice paper with food coloring markers, used dry petal dust to give it color, and used royal icing for the bodies. So delicate, so pretty!
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Cornelli Lace Massive Cake
My mom and I made this for her friend's daughter (along with the basketball groom's cake in my photos). They had HUNDREDS of extra (party size) servings, but we couldn't talk them out of it. If it could go wrong with these cakes, it did. Ack! Thank goodness cornelli lace covers a lot of sins. ;-) We couldn't physically do the design the bride wanted (standard swags of fondant crossing each layer) because of the scale of this cake, but we tried to give her a similar effect.
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Phoenix Suns Basketball Groom's Cake
My mom and I made these cakes for her friend's daughter. They had hundreds of extra servings of cake, but we couldn't talk them down. If it could go wrong, it did go wrong with these monsters, but by going with plan B and sometimes plan C, we managed to pull it together. Glad to be done with that favor! Chocolate cake, filled and covered with chocolate ganache and chocolate fondant. Gumpaste figures. Basketball on top made with a sports ball pan, fondant strips, and dots of buttercream.
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Unicorn Rainbow Birthday Cake
My daughter requested a Unicorn Rainbow cake this year for her 5th birthday. The rainbows and unicorn are gumpaste, sprinkled with disco dust. 10-8-6" layers--yeah, I made too much cake. ;-) I tried the aerosol luster dust spray for the first time on this cake, and though it doesn't show up well in this photo, it works gorgeously. It's more subtle than I thought, but I certainly could have continued to add more layers to get a more dramatic effect; I just wanted a subtle shimmer.
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Cherry Blossom Wedding Cake
This cake turned out a little wonky, thanks in part to an incident involving the enthusiastic bride's father, the center dowel, a mallet, and too much tequila after the rehearsal dinner. ;-) But I pulled it together as best I could. It was for my brother in law and his bride, and I did it for free, so they couldn't complain. ;-) 12-10-8-6" layers, fondant covered, gumpaste and royal icing decorations.
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Henri's Phd Graduation Cake
My friend Henri just successfully defended his PhD dissertation! The party this evening could range from 30-100 people, so I made this cake, plus a bunch of bumblebee and rose cupcakes (also in my photos). He gave me free reign on the cake design, so it ended up looking a little girly. But hey, free cake. Who is going to complain?
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Akua's 5Th Birthday--Bratz Pixies Theme
I made this cake for one of my daughter's little friends from preschool. It was a Bratz pixies/fairies themed party, so I made a bratz-esque figure of the birthday girl. The toadstool house comes from Debbie Brown's Easy Party Cakes. I hand painted the bottom layer to pick up details from the birthday card. This was my first use of disco dust--I'm in LOVE. I particularly adore how the little red and white toadstools around the bottom layer turned out. So easy, so precious!
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Second Girl From Desert Sun Preschool Cake
My daughter's preschool, Desert Sun, turned 30 today. They had a picnic celebration, and I made this cake to honor the event. The modeling is done with a mixture of gumpaste and fondant (mostly gumpaste, because my fondant turned out very stretchy and floppy this time). The figures owe a lot to Aine2's work, obviously!
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Girl Figure From Desert Sun Preschool Cake
My daughter's preschool, Desert Sun, turned 30 today. They had a picnic celebration, and I made this cake to honor the event. The modeling is done with a mixture of gumpaste and fondant (mostly gumpaste, because my fondant turned out very stretchy and floppy this time). The figures owe a lot to Aine2's work, obviously!
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Desert Sun Preschool's 30Th Birthday
My daughter's preschool, Desert Sun, turned 30 today. They had a picnic celebration, and I made this cake to honor the event. The modeling is done with a mixture of gumpaste and fondant (mostly gumpaste, because my fondant turned out very stretchy and floppy this time). 10, 8, and 6 inch layers, stacked off-center so that the edges lined up in the back. The figures owe a lot to Aine2's work, obviously! And credit for the style of tree goes to Dydemus.
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Pirateprincesscake.jpg
My daughter Ainsley couldn't decide on one theme for her fourth birthday party--so we ended up with a Madeline-Dora the Explorer-Pirate-Princess-Pink party. That was a little crazy for one cake, but I managed to pull off pirate princess! All edible except for the Swarovski crystals dangling off the gumpaste petals on the bottom layer. Anyone is free to copy this design with my permission.
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Renovators' Baby Shower Cake Detail
Our friends Henri and Jill are expecting their first child--and are in the thick of a MAJOR home renovation. I'm talking ripping out almost every surface. These people really know how to nest. ;-) 8 and 6 inch layers, fondant covered, fondant and gumpaste decorations. Trees and idea for a house on the side credit goes to dydemus and her gorgeous fairy tale cake. Here's a detail of the top figurines.
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Baby Shower For Renovators
Our friends Henri and Jill are expecting their first child--and are in the thick of a MAJOR home renovation. I'm talking ripping out almost every surface. These people really know how to nest. ;-) 8 and 6 inch layers, fondant covered, fondant and gumpaste decorations. Trees and idea for a house on the side credit goes to dydemus and her gorgeous fairy tale cake.