February & March Cakes

I managed to squeeze out a few cakes in the last couple of months. Learning every time I do a cake....what NOT to do next time around. It's fun, and I enjoy doing it. I'm always looking forward to the next project. The first cake pictured was for a 1-year old boy's birthday. My friend Rachelle asked me to make him a little cake he could smash into-so Monster Truck theme was the perfect route to go! It's a chocolate cake with a whipped strawberry filling, vanilla buttercream and vanilla fondant. The pics are kind of dark....oh well. There's a fondant fence holding up the "dirt" (oreo crumbs) on top...and then a toy truck to finish off the look. The tire tracks were challenging-and FAR from perfect-I had to hand draw them on the fondant with and edible marker. There's something I haven't done before! It turned out cute, but had some structural problems once I inserted the fence on top-the fence was a little to thick, so next time it has to be a lot thinner to not damage the structure of the cake. It was fun to see some old friends when I dropped off the cake. They seemed to like it.

The next picture is just cupcakes. I had some leftover frosting that I didn't want to waste, and also some gumpaste I thought I'd use up. Dan wanted to take a few people some cupcakes, and then we used the rest for dessert for our Sunday dinner. They were fun to make, chocolate and white cake, vanilla buttercream tinted yellow-gumpaste flower. Very Springy!

Lastly, the motherload! This cake was a whole new experience for me. I have never done a 3-tiered cake before. The things you have to do to support the weight of a cake!! There was a wood rod down the center to keep them all from toppling over, and then also some plastic supports throughout the cakes to support the weight of the cake above it. The cakes were all baked, layered, frosted, and covered in fondant before you could stack them. Then I decorated it to match the party decor. I will hopefully have some more pics of the cake soon-the cake was chocolate with peanut butter buttercream in the layers and also frosted underneath the fondant. I can definitely pick out all of my "oops's" on the cake, but everyone thought it looked good-and it DID taste good...so that's all that matters! It took forever to do, especially since I had to do it in secret. There's no way you can bake/make a cake without smelling it in the house. Thanks to my parents for letting me use their house to make the cake and help out with the kids!

I've got a nieces birthday coming up soon, we'll see what she wants to do for her cake.....