Lilies and Daisies Cake

Made this cake for a Summer BBQ Desert Competition. I titled it Sunshine and I loved working with the yellow. I made some matching cupcakes to go with the cake.


The cake a 5"round lemon cake with lemon cheese filling. I made the filling a little more tangy this time just to enhance the flavor of lime and I thought it complemented the cake very well. Made the Calla Lilly and the Daisy with fondant.


It got the first place for Presentation and I was thrilled.

Bow Cake

I made this one for our New Years Party. It was my first bow cake and I made the entire cake just couple of hours before the party so the bow was not well dried. The cake was rich chocolate with chocolate filling .I was not very happy with the bow but the cake tasted so yummy no one except me cared about the bow !!

Duke Blue Devils Cake

A friend was headed to Duke university for his MBA so we had a party to wish him luck. He loves sports and we ran the Relay Marathon together this year. I wish him luck and between his busy schedule hopefully gets to enjoy the Duke games !

I found the blue devil logo online and cut out the logo on gum paste, it was tricky since it was all free hand but I liked the way it turned out.

Blue Devil

I made a black forest cake with a touch of rum and covered the cake with whipped cream frosting.The cake was four inches with three layers and was super moist.

Baby Booties

This was my first order and a good friend wanted this for her friend's baby shower. She wanted pink with brown and wanted a baby booties on the top. The cake was chocolate with cherry filling.

For some reason the picture does not reflect the pink, it was a light baby pink with little while booties on the top. Time to get new lens!!

Airplane Cake

This one was for my dear hubby, he said he didn't want a cake and as always got over ruled. It was tricky to make it without him knowing. He loves to fly as a hobby and is extremely passionate about planes so thought he'd love this one.
My aunt was visiting so for the first time  actually got pictures of the process, I usually forget until its all done.

Plane being built.

I used square cakes for the plane and since he is not a chocolate fan, I made moist pineapple cake with pineapple filling. Once the body of the plane was done, I attached the wings, the radar and the elevator. I was running out of time so I used Ferrero Roche chocolates for the engine !

Elegant Baby Shower Cake

This was for another friend and again I thought I will try something slightly different. I wanted to do something elegant for her and this was the result.

It was the first time I made roses and I tried the ribbon rose and needed a bit of practice..

Baby Shower Cake

This isnt a typical baby shower cake, I was looking to do something different.  Summertime and the mommy to be loves fresh and organic produce so thought I'll make something that signifies both.

Made a Organic Lemon cake with Lemon cheese filling and covered it with white fondant and decided to put lemons on the cake.
 

Topsy Turvy Candy Cake

Now my little munchkin wated a different cake for her party which was carnival theme this year. She wanted a Candy Cake and she said when she cuts it, candy should come put of the cake and she also shoed me how tall it should be and all coming from a three year old !!
This was definitely one of the most time consuming and challenging ones I have done so far. The 3 tier topsy turvy cake was made up of six cakes. I built them up one layer at a time and the top one was interesting since I had to make a cavity and fill it up with candy. When the cake was cut the candy didn't really tumble down as expected but just a handful came out, never the less my daughter had a smile on her face and that's all that matters.

Lesson learned making something to look crooked is not that easy after all.

5 Little Monkey's Jumping on the Bed

My daughter knew exactly what she wanted for her third birthday.  All I had was her first to do what I wanted !!! She wanted a Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed Cake.. Phew the first time I heard that I had to sit down for a minute to think how I am going to make this cake. The book came in handy and initially I was planning on making all the five monkeys on the bed  but the cake was for her play school party and I didnt want to have too much leftover. I have a sweet tooth and too much cake in the fridge is not such a good idea.

I made a twin bed with butter yellow cake and chocolate filling. I used the loaf pan for the bed. Made the monkey and the bed spreads with fondant. Now getting the expression on the monkey was tricky since one just got bumped and the other one is still jumping on the bed.

Baby Shower Basket

This was made for a friends baby shower, she was having girl and that made picking the colors real easy.
It was my first time decorating with buttercream icing and the basket weave was a fun experience. Here is an illustration on how to do the weave. In my cake it did it slightly different from the link. I have used brown fondant strips along with buttercream icing in the basket. I made the Tres Leches (Spanish Milk Cake) which is very moist and that's partly the reason why I decided to use buttercream icing.
Made a tiny baby bottle and a onezie which said "My Mommy Rocks!".  There were booties, a teddy and rattle to complete the picture. The bib said "I love daddy" which was sure to bring a smile on daddy's face.
I loved doing all the little baby stuff for the basket.

Purse Cake

I was really excited to make this cake for a dear friend. It was her 30th and her hubby thought a purse would be most appropriate.
I made a strawberry cake with chocolate filling for the purse. I used fondant to cover the base to get a neater finish. I made the flowers and the bow a couple of day earlier and hence were dry and ready to be attached to the cake.
I have always like the way pink and brown always complement each other !

Relay Marathon

Our group of friends have been running the Relay Marathon in aid of  Organs R Us  the past couple of years and this year I was fortunate to be able to train and run the marathon with all these absolutely wonderful people. (The Relay)
As a fundraiser, I decided to take orders until the relay. This cake was my first order from our coach for the team.

I made a square chocolate rum cake for the base and for the shoes I used my Asics running shoe as the model!! And yes Slow as Molasses is our team's name but we are everything but slow !!!

Look who's turning 1 !!!

There definitely was a pattern, I seemed to take out my cake pans only for my kids birthdays.

The theme was Krishna and to me when you say Krishna what comes to mind is a flute, peacock feather , pears around Krishna's neck and of course Gopikas. I tried to create this cake with the 3 elements that signify Krishna. I wanted the tiered cake for two reasons, one was to get more surface for the decoration and secondly to make sure everyone had enough cake at the party.
Another all nighter, well almost and the cake was done.

Top down View

Flute with the pearls

Another Birthday another adventure....

As much as I enjoyed discovering my creative streak with the first cake it took a full year before I embarked on my next cake. My daughter loved the "Wheels on the Bus" Rhyme and would sing it atleast the times a day !!! No guessing what her second birthday theme was... :-)
With bus cookies and bus favors and bus everything it was time for the bus cake.
I built the bus with two organic pound cakes made in the loaf pan with vanilla filling. Then covered the cake with yellow fondant. The headlights which looked like eyes made a very cute bus...
I know my little angel loved the cake cause she still talks about her "Bus Cake" !!

Front view of the Bus

Bus - view from the back

My First Cake

Recollecting how it all started ..... It was my daughters first birthday and was planning an animal theme party for her. Obviously she was too young to decide and I went all out planning the party. Planned and ordered all the decorations and all the minute details were taken care but was really stuck when it came to the cake. Like all mom's I wanted something special for her ya even thought she isnt old enough to to enjoy it!!!  After several nights of researching on the net I narrowed down this cake as my inspiration Wilton Animal Cake. Now that I knew what I wanted all I had to do was order it so now started my quest with finding a bakery that would do it. Found a coupe that agreed to do the custom animals but it came at a very steep price that didn't quite fit into my birthday budget. Two weeks before the party and no idea what I am going to do about the cake.. Well you could say whats the rush there's still two weeks but for someone who has everything planned almost a month at times two in advance with the task list all in google spreadsheets this was not looking good and to add to it, I was scheduled to be out on work the entire week before the party. My hubby looked at the cake I had in mind and said it should be easy to do the animals why dont you do it. I was in no mood for jokes but he was real serious and offered to help. Also that was the first time I heard about fondant !!! I spend the next two nights making the fondant from scratch and the the next night making the fondant animals. For some reason I didnt want to buy the ready one and am really glad I made my own. It tasted a lot better.
I had all four animals ready. I made the Lion, the elephant and the zebra and as promised my hubby made the monkey !!!! The great thing about fondant decorations if you can make it ahead of time.


The next problem was the cake. The lovely lady at a near by Grocery store saw the fondant animals and loved them so much that she said she would make the cake and the stand and will place the animals for me. Phew that was a huge relief since I was arriving the evening before the party.

Thus began my journey into the world of cake decorating !!!!

The four fondant animals

...and the cake..