Hershey's Chocolate Buttercream!

I really LOVE chocolate buttercream icing made with Hershey's cocoa. It is like getting a spoonful of sweet hot chocolate in cake form!

This is a vanilla almond sour cream cake with chocolate buttercream icing. It's a great combination of flavors. My car smelled delicious on the way to deliver it!

The birthday girl is turning 25 today. Her mom wanted to have a pink girly design with her daughter's monogram. And all topped off with a bow.

I love making fondant bows. Each one is unique. I added some curly cues to give this bow more depth and personality.

Happy Halloween

I am the official room mother for my oldest son's class this year. So I wanted to make the kiddos some treats to have at lunch today. The school doesn't have Halloween parties, but I can get away with a treat at lunch!

There were mummies.....

Pumpkins.....
Spider Webs.....
and......

My new favorite halloween item.....Candy Corn Cupcakes!

Halloween just keeps getting sweeter!

The kids all enjoyed and of course my son takes great pleasure in passing the cupcakes out at lunch.
Hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween!

Make Your Own Candy Corn!

When I saw a candy corn recipe (along with her totally cute pictures!)posted on Cakespy....
I knew I HAD to make my own!

It is really a pretty straight forward recipe, not a ton of ingredients and a short list of steps. Cutting each individual "kernel" can be a bit time consuming......but it was worth the effort. I thought I would share my tips on making candy corn in case you want to make your own!

Make sure you don't overcook!
I followed the recipe that says to bring to a boil and then lower to medium heat and cook for 5 minutes. (I had a candy thermometer and checked the ball stage and it went to a hard ball.)
I think my boil was too hot! Once I combined the ingredients and turned it out of the sauce pan to cool....I realized it was the wrong consistency.

So I made a second batch and this time I followed the candy thermometer instead of the clock. When it reached the soft ball stage I pulled it from the heat.You can see the difference in the candy.....soft ball on left ~ hard ball on right.
You don't want to play hard ball! Hee Hee
So I think it is worth it to pick up a candy thermometer if you don't have one. They aren't expensive and it can save you the guessing game and a second batch of candy!

Once the candy has cooled, divide into three equal parts and color with your choices. I used the familiar colors of white, orange and yellow. *But just think of the holiday options you have~ Christmas (red, green and white), Fourth of July (red, white and blue), Easter (pastels).....you get the idea!
I was even thinking of making some in our school colors!

Roll each color separately into their own rope then press them together side by side. I smoothed the top with my fingers. This will help the sections stick together. The candy should not be overly sticky but they will adhere to each other.
The bigger your ropes, the bigger your kernels.

Then taking a sharp knife, you want to cut alternating triangles out of your rope. So some will have white tops and yellow bottoms, while the others will have yellow tops with white bottoms. Once cut, I smoothed the edges a bit with my fingers.

See all the size options?

Click here for the link to the recipe at SeriousEats. And thanks for the idea Cakespy!

Pink Brick Castle

I have a lot of fun making castle cakes.
I love the chance to change things up and put different details that give each cake it's own personality.

I really like this pink brick castle.

The accent of the darker brick really brings out the pattern.The turrets are made from sugar cones that are coated in pink chocolate and then covered in sparkling sugar and all topped off with an edible pearl.
And check out the sugar cube wall barriers that have the birthday girl's initial!


Climbing ivy with hand piped leaves and two toned flowers.
This corner view shows you how all sides are different!

A cake fit for a princess....plus you can eat the WHOLE thing!

Happy Birthday Anna!

No, I love YOU more!

What an amazing weekend I had! We traveled to the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and stayed in a cabin for a few nights. It's the perfect time of year, the boys are off school for fall break, and the leaves are changing colors.....AND it is almost my little niece's 2nd birthday!

Put that all together and you get a car loaded with suitcases and cake decorating supplies heading north! See, I was blessed with the opportunity to make her first birthday cake....

And when the timing worked out again this year....I jumped at the chance. Now you have to know that Leah's first word......was more than likely......SPONGEBOB. It's crazy but this little girl is enchanted by Spongebob....maybe it's the music, maybe the bright colors or maybe she is mature beyond her years (all 2 of them) that she just has to get a good laugh in every once in a while.

'Are you ready kids?'

'Aye, aye captain!'

'I can't heeear you!'

'Aye, aye captain!!!'

'Ooooooooooooh, who lives in a pineapple under the sea?'

'Spongebob Squarepants!'
(I hope you're singing with me!)

So Spongebob it had to be! I had some great guidance from Cake Fixation (check out her tutorial on her blog) and some of my own ideas and this is what I created!

When Leah saw it she knew right away who it was...(thank goodness, whew~).
He was sitting on my cake turntable and she spun him around, she thought that was fun.

Of course when I HAD to get a picture of her sitting next to him (like last year) she wanted to spin him again.....only this time she ended up with fingers full of buttercream! She was surprised to say the least, and she was a little bit nervous. She wasn't expecting to touch something so squishy! We cleaned her up, said no problem, we'll fix him.....she still wasn't sure she wanted to sit next to him anymore.

Then auntie let her taste spongebob's yellow coating and then she didn't mind sitting there (just a little bit nervous). When I was smoothing out the mishap Leah wanted to "taste spongebob" again so I let her swipe her tiny little finger across the spatula. She did this with ease and straight to her mouth.....one more little taste for good measure....sure!
Then I said "all done" and she looked at her other index finger as if it weren't fair and she needed to taste from that finger also! Too funny!

After dinner it was time to light the candles and sing Happy Birthday!(I totally made her Mom break the rules and said she had to STAND on a chair to blow out the candles!)

Birthday girl always gets the first slice!

(This year she used a fork instead of fingers!)

I know it's crazy, I made a giant cake and there were only 7 of us. So my sister took Spongebob home and I'm hoping he survived the car ride into work today so she could share with her office. When the girls left the cabin yesterday, I kissed Leah and said "I love you!" and her response in her cute little Leah voice was "I love you mooore!" ~ I melted right there.
(In the interest of full disclosure, I believe she will say this to anyone who says "I love you".....but I know this time was really meant just for ME!)

I can hardly wait for next year!

Wonder what Leah will want then.......

Pumpkin Cake

It looks like a pumpkin cake on the outside, but inside is a vanilla almond sour cream cake with buttercream icing.

This cake is all buttercream with the exception of the fondant stem, leaves and vines. I don't have an airbrush machine so I had to give the pumpkin stripes with buttercream of a deeper orange color to help give it more depth. After the icing set, I smoothed and created the grooves to give it additional texture. I'm really happy with the overall result!

Here is a picture of the birthday message that I added with green buttercream.
(Kind of hard to see, but I wrote it to look like vines)

I found a great scrapbook page with a Halloween theme.....and a coordinating orange ribbon and viola!

Georgia Bulldog Birthday

If you aren't from Georgia, you might not know about the Georgia Bulldogs.

If you are from Georgia....or at least live here....you can't help but know about the Georgia Bulldogs.
Tyler's Mom requested a Bulldog themed cake for her son's 12th birthday and I was more than happy to take on the challenge.

You run a risk interpretting a well known character into a sugar form, that it will not resemble the original that everyone knows so well.

So I found some images on the www and moved forward.

You can find this logo on many University of Georgia sporting items.

This is the official logo you find on most University of Georgia sporting items.

And of course if you are from Georgia ~ they aren't dogs....they are dawgs!

I always love to deliver cakes and get the initial reaction from the recipient. The best ones are usually from the young ones, they speak their mind so easily.
Taylor was so polite and friendly and when he opened the box to take a look....the first word he said was "Dadgum". I'd say that was a pretty good reaction and it made my day!
Happy Birthday Tyler!

Winnie the Pooh First Birthday

I'm surprised that in all my years of making cakes that I haven't been asked for a Winnie the Pooh cake.....so I was really happy when Rachel called me and asked for her sweet little Jayla's first birthday to have a Pooh. I just love the chance to make something new!

She sent me a copy of her totally cute invitation and also a picture of the partyware that she was going to be using.

So I decided to combine both elements.

The top of the party cake really mirrors the plates and the sides brought in the characters and the 100 acre wood feel.

Tigger is a bit blurry.....sorry I'm working on getting a better camera!

Pooh is very happy to be at the party!

Piglet can hardly contain his joy!


Jayla was to have her very own Pooh smash cake. So here is the miniature 3D bear cake pan converted to look like Pooh.

I had a lot of fun making all the little elements of this cake....see the little mini m&m's that have been converted into bees? So fun.

Happy 1st Birthday Jayla!