Peace.Love.Bake

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Superhero Cake

How cute is this cake?? :) This was made for the most adorable little boys who were having a superhero party for their 3rd and 4th birthdays! Dimensions are 10 inch, 8 inch, and 6 inch rounds- all single layer and torted. The inside was white cake with strawberry filling and frosted entirely in buttercream. In case you can't tell, the bottom layer is superman in the clouds, middle layer is batman, and top layer is spiderman.

I was going to add a spiderman figurine on top of the web but I decided to place a superman on top to pull all the layers together. I envision him bursting out of the bottom layer and flying up into the sky!

Friday, July 27, 2012

Leopard Print Cake

I love this one! This cake was pretty tall; it was four layers of white cake with 3 layers of strawberry filling. The outside was frosted with homemade buttercream. I was a little nervous with this cake because it was the first time I've actually hand-painted onto buttercream (besides accent features) and really didn't want to mess up. I usually would pipe the leopard prints on with frosting, but I tried something new and I like the way it turned out. I think by doing it this way it gives a smoother, more finished look to the cake. For the leopard prints I used gel colors diluted with vodka. The customer who ordered this cake wanted it for a birthday party that was going to be held at a bar, and I joked "no need to purchase alcohol- vodka is already included in the cake!" Not entirely true since the vodka evaporates as it dries and only the color is left behind. I also used diluted coloring for the pink circle in the middle. I originally was going to use pink frosting for the center but I like the different swirl of watercolors it took on when painted, rather than frosted.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Zombie Cake

I made a Zombie cake this weekend! I had a blast making this one. The cake itself was a half sheet size; I used dark chocolate cake filled with chocolate fudge and frosted with silky smooth, chocolate Italian meringue buttercream. The "dirt" on top of the cake was made with finely crushed Oreo cookies, partly for aesthetic appeal and also because the birthday boy loves and requested Oreo cookies in his cake. I was very pleased with the way it turned out. By the way, it took almost an entire bag of Oreos to get enough crumbs to completely cover the top of the cake!

Bonus: Anyone who knows me knows that I love Halloween. It's my favorite time of year!! When I delivered the cake, the customer had a haunted house set up in their basement for the birthday party the next day, complete with a fog machine, strobe lights, music from the Halloween movie, and a Michael Myers with blinking red eyes! Super creepy! And guess who got a sneak peak?? It was unexpected and I was so scared! That being said, I am *always* a scaredy cat in haunted houses. It's the suspense that gets to me. The longer I go without something jumping out at me the scarier it gets! There was only one "jump out at you" monster, but I was told that there will be 5 monsters at the actual birthday party. Love that I got a taste of Halloween in the middle of July! :)

Here is a close up of the brain and eyeballs. For the brain I piped on buttercream that was tinted to a fleshy tone and then painted on details using watered down red gel color. The eyeballs were made with rice crispy treats, shaped into a ball about a teaspoon in size, and covered in fondant. The details on the eyeballs were hand painted.

This photo shows close up detail of the hand coming out of the grave, as well as the "tombstone." The hand were made of rice crispy treats covered in fondant, and the tombstone was made with only fondant. You can see from the writing on the stone just how silky the italian meringue buttercream icing was!

Finally, a few up close shots of the face showing the details. The birthday boy requested gummy worms, and I like that they added color and texture to the cake!