Denim Pocket Toppers

I think I'm getting used to mixing fashion and fondant... I was asked to make a follow-up version to my last Denim Bottom Toppers by creating some Levi's Red Tab pocket cupcake toppers out of fondant.

The teeny tiny red tabs were just too too small to actually write "Levi's" on but I (almost) wanted to try it just to see if I could pull it off.

I think the clients might have actually been able to eat these this time.

Next up... cookie pants?

Fancy Shandelle Cupcake Tower

Feeling Fancy?

Birthday girl Shandelle is! When it comes to being fancy, she can teach me a thing or two any day. A Fancy Nancy themed cupcake tower was required for her fabulous soiree. I didn't want to disappoint so I sent these sketches to her mother to make sure my design was fanciful enough.

The party was decked out in Fancy Nancy's trademark fabulous style and my cupcake tower was a huge success.

Fancy Nancy cupcake tower for a glamorous young lady.

The cake topper is an 8" round double layer vanilla cake covered in fondant. I wrapped the fondant tiara around a soda bottle covered in parchment paper to dry and assembled it at the party.

The rest of the tower was made up of 40 delectable (fancy for yummy) cupcakes with fondant tiaras, purses, butterflies, flowers and the birthday girl's initials.

Chocolate & Vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and edible fondant decorations.

Happy 4th Birthday to Fancy Shandelle!

Disney 1st Birthday Tower

Nothing marks a special day quite like a party... and nothing makes a party quite like a cake.
A cake can make any occasion tastefully sweet, especially birthdays... even more so if it's a very first birthday.

 I received a special request for a lovely little girl who was celebrating her big day with a Disney celebration. Her family wanted a cupcake stand with a fake cake topper - a first for me. What they didn't want was the typical half-circle cake with Mickey ears so they challenged me to design something different that still captured the magic of Disney.

Here's the illustration I came up with for the styrofoam cake topper.
What's more magical than fireworks at the Disney castle? Even if you've never taken a trip there, you know you've seen those commercials ...

And here's my almost edible rendition. (I need to work on my flower scale a bit)

Along with the faux cake is 40 absolutely edible
Disney-themed cupcakes. Cuz nothing kills a party like a fake cake...

Some tiaras to represent the princesses...

I couldn't forgo the famous ears altogether...

Like Disney Parks new campaign states:
"Let the Memories Begin"

Happy Birthday Aaliyah!

Hello Cookie

My co-worker's birthday fell on the day we had the Halloween Bake-Off and she specifically asked for me to make her a Hello Kitty cupcake. Well... between the giant sugar cookie pumpkins and the fondant denim pocket cupcake toppers, I didn't have time to make a batch of cupcakes.

I didn't want to disappoint, so I used my noggin and made use of the sugar cookie dough from the pumpkins to make Hello Kitty birthday cookies.

Problem - no Hello Kitty shaped cookie cutter.

Solution - hand-cut cookie shape using paper template printed from my computer.

Since I had to hand cut them, I only made two.

I also used the paper template to attempt making a royal icing transfer on parchment paper. I figured I'd waste too much time trying to freehand onto the cookies... good idea, right? Umm, well, it seems that I didn't leave the icing enough time to dry so when I tried to remove the royal icing from the parchment paper in the morning, I lost the middle of Hello Kitty's face. Oops.

Remember my last post? I'll say it again... Royal icing and I are not friends.

Here she is pre-trauma.

Pretty cute, except I don't know what's going on with the runny icing in her armpits.

I was able to save her face (the one on the left) and used some extra icing to glue her to the cookie.

Happy Birthday to my lil' HK lover!

Maybe if I make royal icing everyday, I'll learn to love it?


Nah, I doubt that.

Halloween Bake-Off

I started the annual Halloween Bake-Off at my office only a few months after I started working there. I don't really know why it started or even what I made that first year but it has become a seasonal tradition that has extended to all other major holidays.

When I was trying to decide what I was going to make for our 2010 bake-off, I came across the cutest Jack-o-lantern cookie cutters from Wilton.

That meant I would have to tackle my least favorite thing in the baking realm... royal icing.

Royal icing and I have not been friends.

Regardless, I had to make these cutie sugar cookie pumpkins with custom designed faces. Okay, okay. Royal icing is not that bad. The only challenge was the size of the cookie, they're massive! I had to really make sure the icing was the right consistency to flood the middle evenly.

Here's my pumpkin gang I brought for this year's baking event.

This happy lil' guy is my fave! I made him for my boyfriend, but he thought it was too cute to eat.

*wink* *wink*

My fellow cake-making office mate made this phenomenal mummy cake!

The fondant strips are flawless and the gummy worms add the perfect creepy touch!

My friend/roommate/colleague made yummy pumpkin swirl brownies.

Another crafty co-worker made this spooky eyeball "cauldron" cake.

Our Halloween feast was complete with homemade gourd pie and pumpkin cheesecake. Shamefully, I have to admit my favorite thing on the table was the juice-filled gummies in the skull cup (bottom left). I'm pretty sure that says "Hey guys, thanks for all your hard work baking, but I'm just gonna these store-bought gummies the first place prize."

Haha... like there was going to be a prize! That's the trick to this treat.


Happy Haunting!