BATMAN!

This cake looks deceivingly simple but was anything but. Once again I made the mistake of not researching a design before agreeing to it. Even if I had, I would have said "yes" to this cake, but still...I had no idea what I was in store for when I started. You think...oval...yeah, that's simple. And an outline of a bat...yeah, that's simple. Um...nope, not exactly. You see, pans do not come in an oval shape, and I only have a certain size of rectangle pan. Thankfully I have a perfectionist husband who enlarged and traced both the oval and bat to scale and encouraged me all along that it could be nearly perfect.

It ended up that I could piece together cake to make a true oval, which is a lot trickier to make out of a rectangle than I originally thought. You see, in some ways it's easier to carve an abstract shape than to create a symmetrical shape since the abstract leaves room for interpretation and even an ounce of imperfection.

For the bat, I used the paper template that my DH had made for me and by the third or fourth try, got it just right. I loved it when it came together, but the journey there was quite the learning experience!

Dinosaur Party

This summer, a my dear friend, C, really wanted to make her son an amazing birthday cake. Her son was turning two and loves dinosaurs. So the cake design was obvious. A dinosaur. She found a design online and phoned me to see if I could help her make this dream cake a reality.

She started out by borrowing my pans to make the base, which is an 8 inch double layer round cake and the dinosaur's body, made from half of a ball pan. We then set up an evening to me to come and show her how to drape the cake in fondant. That first evening we got both cakes draped and started forming the dinosaur's neck out of rice cereal treats. The next morning I went back and helped with the decorating. We cut out leaves to go around the base of the cake and made a cute tail and feet. C created the face, and I love it. It's the best part of that dinosaur and makes him super cute. A few more details of spots and spikes down the back, rocks to make it look complete and we were finished. It was fun to work together, and I do believe that C will be creating amazing cakes every birthday for her wonderful son!

Ladybug's Picnic

This past summer my oldest son turned four. Four! I can't believe it! I remember when he was born that kindergarten seemed worlds away. And now it will be here in a year's time. Birthdays always seem to remind me of how quickly time passes by and how important it is to cherish each moment. I forget this too often. I love how we make a big deal of each birthday at our house. Lots of friends, family, food and of course a special cake chosen by the birthday boy. O loves to think about what kind of birthday cake he'll have all year. He's already got his fifth birthday cake picked out!

So this year, O's cake of choice was a ladybug. He loves all things ladybug so this was a natural choice. He originally wanted another ball, but after I told him I could make him a ladybug...well...there was nothing to top that! He was excited. The crazy thing is, this cake just about didn't happen. I got really sick the week before his birthday and was confined to my bed the day I was to begin decorating his cake. Thankfully my sister was willing and able to come over the day before the party so I could quickly make this cake happen. I'm not sure I could have pulled it off without her help.

The cake design is pretty simple with the base being an 8 inch double layer cake and the ladybug body being half a ball pan. I covered the base with leaves for the ladybug to sit on and made her some fondant feet. To make the ladybug head, I mixed together some extra cake and buttercream to make a cake ball. I chilled the ball so it would be easier to cover with fondant. I love how it turned out. So cute!

O had also wanted a butterfly somewhere on the cake, but I didn't have a butterfly cutter, and my molding skills do not apparently extend to "butterfly" so in the end, just the caterpillar made it on the board. Oh well. Can't do it all! I have to constantly remind myself of that. O loved the cake, and had a blast at his party. I'm so thankful for all the friends and family we have who lavish love on our kids not only on their birthdays, but all year round. We are blessed!

An Early Birthday

This summer my brother-in-law got married and most of the Hoeppner clan came out for the festivities. It was a lot of fun, and a gorgeous wedding! In the weeks leading up to the wedding my cousin and I were emailing back and forth making plans for the days leading up to the wedding. She asked if I could possibly make her mom a birthday cake. Mind you it would be early, since her birthday is in September, but what better time to celebrate when the entire family is together in one spot, which rarely happens! I was so happy to make this cake. I love our dear Aunt Myrt and jumped at the chance to do something for her. She is one of the most generous and kind-hearted people we know, and she deserves all the recognition in the world!

So I was excited. Until I realized I had no inspiration. I wanted it to be perfect, and as such I was paralyzed to think of anything. A day or two before I had to start decorating I phoned my cousin and begged her to tell me what she really wanted and what her mom would truly love. We decided on blue and green daisies, since those are Aunt Myrt's favorite colors and flower. So, I went to work making a few three dimensional daisies, but it just wasn't working for me. So I started to think about what kind of person Aunt Myrt is, and a few words came to mind, which were elegant and not at all fussy. So instead of the large daisies which were looking a little out of place and juvenile on this cake, I decided to make a few tiny blue daisies and place them around a vine-inspired design. The resulting effect, I believe is elegant and not fussy. I love it when a cake can reflect a person, and I do beleive this one did.


The cake was a complete surprise to Aunt Myrt, which was the best part. Of course she wasn't expecting a birthday cake a month in advance! It was a lot of fun, and I'm so glad I got the opportunity to do this. This part of our family lives too far away to visit on any kind of regular basis. It was amazing to spend time with them, catching up and celebrating C and J as they walked down the isle! Such good memories!

Cake charms...or a charming cake?

So this was my first experience using cake charms.  And yes, there is such a thing!  They are they little jewels that can be hung on the end of a cake wire to give a cake a kind of different and funky look.  I kind of like them!  Originally I was going to go super simple with this cake and just do pink fondant with brown ribbon and wires and cake charms.  I did that, and felt like it was missing something.  So enter the circles.  I might have gone a little crazy with the circles, but oh well..it's still cute.

This cake happened to be a farewell cake for one of Nathan's coworkers, and she loved it.  Mission accomplished! 

A Sweet Little Smash Cake

I apologize for the lapse in time between posts. It's been such a busy summer and I haven't found the time to keep up with this blog! As such, I am a few cakes behind. Hopefully I'll be able to get them on here in the next few weeks!

So this cake I did for a good friend of mine, Joanne, who has a great eye and talent for photography and has a photography business called, Taken {photography by joanne}. Check out her blog here.

Joanne emailed me one day back at the end of June with the request for a smash cake for one of her clients, and of course I jumped at the chance! She had a picture that she sent me with all these cute little circles. I stayed as true to the original picture as possible, just changing up a few things to suite the sweet little guy that had the pleasure of smashing this cake! Of course I added a "G" to reflect his name, and then we decided on different shades of blue for the circles. It was fun and simple to do. I loved how it turned out and love how these photos turned out! Joanne is one talented lady!

Smash cakes are some of the most fun cakes to make since the resulting pictures are so dramatic! I love it when babies really get into destroying the cake, and this little one didn't disappoint!

Little Antique Clutch

This past weekend I threw a bridal shower for my sister-in-law-to-be! Of course I had to make a cake for her, and this one was so much fun. I've been wanting to make a purse cake, and since C & J's wedding has an antique theme, I figured an antique clutch was the perfect cake for this celebration. The whole shower was a tea party, complete with scones, Devonshire cream, beautiful antique tea cups and plates. Super girly and fun!

I had originally found an antique clutch cake online that I really liked and was hoping to make. I started out carving that particular shape (it was more rectangular), but ended carving more of an oval. Of course I panicked. That just has to happen at least once in a cake-making experience. But once I stood back and re-thought my cake strategy, I realized that this was now my design, not someone's that I was trying to re-create. This afforded some sort of freedom for the rest of the carving process. So I visualized a new cake...my cake...and got excited once again.

After carving, then came covering the cake in buttercream and fondant. I have found that Gum Tex and cornstarch are my new best friends when covering a cake in fondant during the summer. I used to struggle so much with soft fondant, and now by adding Gum Tex to the fondant and rolling it out with a combination of icing sugar and cornstarch I don't get all the pulling and stretching that result in stretch marks (yes, cakes can have stretch marks) and cracks. Covering cakes has become much less stressful. Doesn't mean it always goes amazingly well, but it sure is going better than it used to for me!

The flower and pearls were so much fun to design and I love how simple and monochromatic the whole cake turned out. I had a leftover rose from the cake I had made for my mom's birthday last week, so I put that on the cake board as just a last finishing touch. I love it.


The great thing was that the cake was just as much fun to eat as it was to stare at. Of course this was C's favorite...chocolate cake with peanut butter filling. Yum. My favorite, too. It was such a pleasure to do this for C. She's so wonderful, and I'm so excited for her to be my sister-in-law!