Stop in the name of...cake?

I had the pleasure of making this Police Car cake for a good friend's little boy who just turned 4 years old! When my friend asked me to make this cake, I figured that it would be really difficult to carve a good car shape. So instead of carving the car, I cheated and used a three dimensional car pan. I was a little sad that I didn't attempt the carving, but in the end I liked how it turned out and it made the process so much less stressful. Although I did carve out the wheels so I could add more realistic-looking fondant wheels.

It was a lot of fun to think of the details on this cake. I was especially excited to make little piles of chocolate rocks (don't they look so real?!) and have fondant grass poking out of it. To me it's the details the make a cake an entire experience...not just a regular cake. Two details, however, I cannot take credit for, and that are the license plates. My husband volunteered to meticulously cut out "Elijah" for the front plate and "Is 4!" for the back plate. He did an amazing job! Hard to believe this was his first time working with fondant!


I also made 24 mini cupcakes for the party. Going along the Police theme, I hand cut 12 Police badges with the number "4" in the center as toppers. The other 12 cupcakes had a star topper. They were so adorable!


I now have a few weeks of a break until the next cake! As usual, I'm excited to start planning!

Blossoms and Branches

Considering that it still feels like the middle of Winter out here, it was really nice to make a cake that represented the hope of Spring. Well, it was actually a birthday cake...but it represented "Spring" to me as I was making it! (There was even a blizzard the night this cake was picked up. Seriously...Winter needs to be over!)

I really enjoyed making this cake. From a design standpoint it wasn't too difficult. The only thing that took a lot of time were the fondant blossoms since each had to be done by hand. I didn't count how many blossoms made it on the cake but I'm sure I made upwards of 50 fondant blossoms. After letting the blossoms dry for a day or two I brushed them with white pearl dust to give them a bit of dimension. Otherwise they kind of looked like fabric...neat, but not what I was going for. The only unfortunate thing about these blossoms is that they are so very delicate. I dropped more than my share in the process of making this cake, and they just shattered as they hit the floor. I really hope the cake made it to the party with all blossoms in tact!

In the end I was a little sad to see this cake walk out the door. I really liked how pretty it looked sitting in my kitchen. Glad that so many others got to enjoy it, though! And now to start thinking about next week's cake...