Dan's 32nd Birthday cake, a life size Catan board!

This was the cake I made for Dan's 32nd birthday.  He said he wanted a board gaming party for his birthday, so we went for a cake that matched the theme. Dan and I both enjoy playing Settlers of Catan, and have placed fourth and sixteenth respectively different years at the World Boardgaming Championships in Lancaster.

Butterfly Mother's Day cake

This is the Mother's Day cake I made for my mom this year.  She really liked the details of the buttercream transfer.  The best part is that it works well with any coloring book page you can find.

Grandma Ottey's rose birthday cake

This is a cake I made for Dan's grandma, Bonnie.  It tured out pretty well overall.  After I made this cake and all the cupcakes, I had to call my mom and apologize for the time in kindergarten I asked for 48 cupcakes with roses on them for the next day.  :-p  They took awhile to make, mostly because I hadn't made roses in awhile before this cake.  The moral of this cake was that I shouldn't eyeball even lines in the middle, it's just no my forte.

Sudoku cake

My mom likes Sudoku puzzles, so I made a Sudoku cake!  It was a giant cake for not many people so that I could make the boxes big enough for me to actually write in.  And yes, you may check.  It is a completed, correct, Sudoku puzzle.  Coming soon will be the Mother's Day cake I made this year, but I have to upload the photos first!

Bucknell cake

This is the first buttercream transfer cake I have ever made. This was for Tim's surprise birthday party. He didn't realize it, but we planned to surprise him after his volleyball game on his birthday at a friends house and watch a football game that night. Dan thought it would be cool if I did the Bucknell logo on the cake. I looked at it and said no way, it's too detailed. Then I thought about it some more, agreed with Dan that it would be really neat to do this logo for him, and so I hopped on google. Google lead me to the frozen buttercream transfer method of things... You take a picture, reverse it, and cover it with parchment paper. Then you pipe the smallest details first, building up till you've constructed the whole thing. Then you freeze the whole kit and kaboodle solid in the freezer for a couple of days. Make sure it stays flat! Once you bake the cake, frost the top of it normally. Then pull the transfer out of the freezer, and IMMEDIATELY flip it upside-down on the cake. You don't want to let it thaw at all, lest it come apart in your hands. Then you can finish decorating the rest of the cake the way you normally would.

I'll be doing two more of these in the next couple of weeks, I've got some cool stuff planned!

Linux World cake

Time for a good old fashioned Friday evening cake FAIL!  I made this cake for Dan when he found out he was going to Linux World for work.  This was back in the beginning of making cakes when I thought that levelling cakes was dumb and a waste of cake.  Well, it's still a waste of cake, but there's a reason for it!  Check out the second picture in the slideshow.

Dragon cake

This is the dragon cake I made for my sister's birthday.  My first plan was to find the old retired Wilton dragon pan and just do that in stars, but when I found the pan on e-bay it was $45 and up.  I am NOT paying that much for a pan that I will likely only use a few times!  So I bought a football shaped pan for half off with a coupon, and created this lovely dragon instead.  It's a combination of cake and cookies.  I got the plan from Wilton, which had the cookie pattern pieces.  They recommended using sugar cookies, and if you wanted added depth to use icing to cement two layers together.  I said forget that, and went straight for chocolate chip cookies.  It turned out rather well I thought.  If I did it again I might do sugar cookies for the spikes, because those would take a better green color.  It was very tasty, my sister was thrilled, and why does my family cut the heads off all my creations???

Lisa's 50th Birthday cake

This is Lisa's 50th birthday cake.  She had her birthday on the Ladies Retreat for our church.  Daybreak Community Church  I made the cakes at home, and made about a hundred royal icing roses in advance to put on the cake.  I drove up with the cakes unstacked in carriers, and the roses in egg cartons to reduce breakage.  The evening we got there I was able to put the roses and leaves on in about two hours.  The moral of this cake is that you should not use gel colors to write on vertical surfaces!  It started dripping down immediately, and by the next morning one of the "p's" was touching the bottom border.

Pax's 1st birthday cake

These are the cakes I made for Paxton's first birthday party.  The main cake is 3 tiers tall, chocolate with chocolate chips.  All the frosting is buttercream.  The head of Mickey Mouse is two cupcakes for ears, and a 6" round cake cut down a little to be in proportion for the head.  That is done all in buttercream with the star tips.  The cupcakes were frosted just with a spatula, and then red white and black sprinkles in the shape of Mickey Mouse's head were applied to the edge, and plastic party rings were put in the middle for the kids to wear.  The cupcakes were a mix of chocolate and vanilla.