Toto's Picnic Basket

My department has a huge end of the year party.  Last year they had a cake contest. This year it was Cupcake Wars! Our theme for the year was centered around The Wizard of Oz, so our cupcakes had to be the same. I choose to add a little more and put in the Food and Nutrition side as well. So Toto’s Picnic Basket was my theme. I had such a blast doing this display. The cupcakes were a delicious cinnamon swirl with cream cheese icing. I made some sweet little labels for the place settings and each of the character a mini cupcake, they need dessert too!  I cannot decide what my favorite part was, each one is favorite in its own way to me. Oh well !>

This cake will self destruct....

Remember the Pirate Map cake? To this day one of my favorites, Toothless is pretty close!  Well I had a call from the Mom, the son wanted a Spy cake. I knew this was going to be another fun one! Oh I had a blast coming up with ideas for this cake, unfortunately time and money always get in the way of those cake plans. So this is what I came up with. My favorite part of this cake….well it is a toss-up between the fingerprints on the side of the case and the gigantic bomb that had a sparkler candle in it so it would look lit when they lighted it! The Mom told me that people were coming from all over the park to see the cake (blush) and that some of the kids did not believe that it was a cake and wanted to know where the real cake was!! (blush again!) That is the best part about this little hobby, peoples reactions, especially kids reactions!!  

A friend’s son loves the movie “How To Train Your Dragon” (can you blame him??!!) She made the actual cake but asked me to make a flying Toothless. Now, you must understand that my Sweet Knees grew up modeling with his Dad, so he has ALL the skills. I am slowly learning. He was working while I was making this and had absolutely no guidance from him. Um, scary? Yes. Yes it was. And I know if I were to have a catch phrase from this cake blog it would be something along the lines of …”but I think it turned out pretty good!” . So I must attempt another phrasing for this Toothless…..DID YOU SEE WHAT I MADE?  ALL BY MYSELF??  OH. MY. DEAR. GOODNESS> Okay, I am super proud of me…the wing connection could be better I know that. He is great though right? I love him, he is adorable!

Carnival for TWO!

A friend was having a carnival party for her son’s birthday (FUN!) so she had me make a simple carnival style cake. The letters and balloons were my favorite part! I saved the balloons for her to put on; I was not sure how they would travel. The letters were hand cut and then I put little white dots on them to look like the carnival lights! I  loved them so!

I helped my sister with a donation auction she does every year for my Mom who has breast cancer. I donated a cake this year. The winner asked for a simple traveling case for a bridal shower of a friend who was going to Italy on her honeymoon (awesome!). I was so nervous to do it, so incredibly nervous. It was actually a lot simpler than I thought it was going to be. My favorite part are the silver buckles!

Cardinal Christmas

I saw a bigger version of this cake somewhere and decided to copy it for a church activity. The cake was good, the filling waaaaay too sweet – BLECH! Why do I always experiment when I am doing cake for other people?  One day I hope to learn. But the cake was gorgeous, I love my homemade fondant, so much better than the store bought.

Thanksgiving Drumsticks

It’s Thanksgiving….or it was when I made these cupcakes! They were for the student workers for Thanksgiving. Little cuppies made to look like turkey legs! I thought they were adorable….the kids on the other hand had to be convinced that there was a cupcake under there somewhere. 

My friend loves 80’s rock bands, so for his birthday he ordered a cake with his three idols: (okay I am going to attempt to remember their names) Alice Cooper, Ozzy, and……and…..I have no idea! The flames were tricky and I had to call in the flame expert for guidance. Not too shabby for my first attempt at flames.

Trick . or . Treat - I will take the treat puh-lease!

Halloween is my favorite holiday and Fall my favorite season. I miss the weather, the smells, and the atmosphere of a Utah Fall. But that is not about cakes so I shall digress no more with that subject! For the student workers we put together a nice treat bar for Halloween! Mrs. B went all out with snack bags, popcorn hands, and mummy white chocolate covered pretzels. Here is my little contribution: Brain Cupcakes. I completed them with a name tag stuck into the cupcakes with a toothpick – thanks Sweet Knees and CutNCurls for cutting them all out!

 I loved the results, so cute!!

I recently happened upon a recipe on Martha Stewart’s site for a chocolate cake with a 100 grand bar filling. Totally homemade and totally a-m-a-z-i-n-g!!  I could not stop eating the filling. I knew I wanted to make this for the people I work with. But with Halloween I knew that I also needed to make me a MONSTER CAKE. Isn’t he cute! Yes I know the eyes are a little off center, but still…come on, how cute is he?  He tasted good too!  

YUM! 

gonna catch 'em all!

Do you remember the pirate map cake? (one of my favorites!) The brother requested a pokemon cake! AWESOME! And of course when one hears pokemon one immediately thinks of cute little Pikachu. He had to be the star of this cake. My pokeball sagged a little bit, which made my heart sink a little. I thought making it out of what was basically a gigantic cakepop would be good. I thought it would hold up better than it did. Lesson learned.  I made several lightning bolts to go around the cake – it is not supposed to be so bare! But I was worried that in transporting the cake, the bolts would fall or rip through the fondant so I left it up to the mom to stick them in when she arrived safely home. 

I loved the red stars around the bottom of the cake but am thinking a few more around the top of the white tier might have added a little more. I second guess how much is too much and then usually realize it should have been more!  Oh well, Sweet Knees said she loved the cake so that makes me happy! And that is what it is all about!