iheartcakegf

I have a great, fun bunch of girlfriends and several of us are very into The Twilight Saga. Now that New Moon is out on DVD, several of us got together for viewing party. I have to say watching the DVD was so much funner than watching in the theater, because we could talk as much as we wanted. Which was a lot. 
I made a cake to help us celebrate.

I wanted to try and make sure to represent both "teams," so one side depicts a scene with Jacob and the other side depicts a scene with Edward.

The cake was Red Velvet with cream cheese filling for the top tier, the base was a cake dummy. I would have like to have spent more time decorating the base, but it was a busy weekend. The cake was covered in marshmallow fondant and the figures were mmf/gumpaste blend. I painted both emblems by hand with food color mixed with vanilla.

This is Bella and Jacob, after Bella jumped off the cliff.
I was really pleased with this part of the cake. I hadn't made figures this size before but I think they came out pretty good.

I also made sure to put a werewolf on the cake.

I loved the Jacob side of the cake, but I was really running short on time when it came to the Edward side. 

I would have like to have more detail on this side, like maybe a fountain, but oh well. Overall I think the clock tower came out nicely.

This wasn't the only cake that kept me busy this weekend. I also made this Batman cake for a friend's son, who turned 3. He apparently requested to his mom that I make his cake, which is too cute, so I tried to make something special for him.

It was a chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream filling covered in mmf. 
I think a lot of people know my issues with chocolate cake. Generally, it's just not my friend. I decided while working on this cake that the only thing that dislikes me more than chocolate cake, is black fondant. It took me two attempts to cover this cake. The first time the fondant tore everywhere. On the second try, I applied the fondant in two pieces, which left a seam, but was better than holes.
Honestly, the struggles were worth it though when I got to see how excited the birthday boy was about his cake.

Yeah, I know it's late, but, better late than never. Right?

I was already late with the post, then I typed it up twice and somehow lost the entire thing! My computer skills are lackluster at best.

I made this basket full of goodies to share with friends on St. Patrick's Day.

Green Velvet cake on a stick with a butter icing.

I tried a few different things to decorate these.

First, I tried piping shamrocks onto them. That did not go so well.

Then, I tried piping shamrocks onto waxed paper and attaching them after they dried. This didn't go much better.

I couldn't get the sizing or shape right and when I attached them they looked silly.

Oh well.

They still tasted good and our friends enjoyed them.

I treated myself to a new food processor today! I always use a food processor when I make cake on a stick and the old one didn't always want to cooperate. Plus, the old one was small this one is so much bigger. I'm so excited to try it out!!
It was on sale at Target and I had a coupon, SCORE! And the cashier remembered to give me my 5 cent discount for bringing my own bag. I love when they remember that!!

Look even my kids are excited! They better be, this is the only time they're going to touch it.

In the mood to bake over the weekend, I opened myself up to suggestion on my Facebook page. This one came from my husband, Bacon cake.
I looked up several recipes; some sweet, some savory. This one was as sweet one. I actually ended up combining two recipes I found, this one for Bacon Maple cupcakes and one for Brown Sugar cupcakes. The flavor was interesting, I'm going to find a few brave friends to try it out for me. It's iced with Maple icing, which is yummy.
I don't do cupcakes often and suck at icing them. But, this icing job was exceptionally terrible (I'm blaming my bum arm), hence I only took a picture of one cupcake. 
I did end up with several more flavor ideas that looked like fun, hope to try some of them soon.

I'm not a fan of cupcakes. I forget about them in the oven and burn them, and I never know what to do to decorate them. I was hoping not to mention my anti-cupcake sentiments to my friend who asked if I would make some for her daughter's birthday. I was hoping it wouldn't come up, but, of course it did. Another of my friends made sure to comment.
I do have to admit that this project went better than I would have expected. And, just maybe, cupcakes might be growing on me a bit.

I found this adorable cupcake tower, by Bella Cupcakes on flickr, and based mine on it. I built the tower myself, which took some work, but I made sure that it's sturdy and I can totally use it again. The cupcakes and cake are strawberry with vanilla icing. I had a great time making all the little crowns and wands from fondant and gumpaste. I haven't done anything that involved a lot of prep work like this in awhile and I really enjoyed it. 
I also loved that the birthday girl made sure her mom kept her princess.

I was asked to make a cake for a baby shower with a yellow and white theme. I thought on it and thought on it, and finally decided on a diaper bag cake.

I made the bag, and added the little duck applique to break up all the yellow. The cake was chocolate with very chocolate buttercream filling, all covered in marshmallow fondant. The binkie was also molded from marshmallow fondant. 

I had some cake left and decided to make some cake on a stick to match the cake. 

I know this stuff is probably only exciting to me, but, I do get really excited about it.

I finally ordered myself some bubble tea straws!!
Look how big they are! 
I'm totally looking forward to making a stacked cake now, to try these out. I ordered them from Boba Tea Direct after looking around for awhile. They had reasonable prices and shipping costs, and they shipped super fast.

Yay! I got new toys!

I'm a dork and get super excited about these things.
Here's my new goodies.

To start with, I asked my husband if he could pick me up an Exacto knife. Being the romantic that he is, my husband bought me this nifty little kit. I don't know how I've gone so long without having one, it really helps to make cutting fondant pieces easier.

Then, after watching a couple YouTube tutorials by Cupcake Envy I decided there were a few things I needed, like this quilting tool. Look at the little bitty stitching wheel!

Of course, if I'm ordering I may as well get a few other things I've been wanting, like a new set of alphabet cutters. Can't wait to try these out. I'm not a fan of writing on cakes. My handwriting is terrible anyway, and it gets worse when I'm trying to pipe. It will be nice to have a choice of what kind of letters to use. 

Then there was this ginormous tip I found.  I'm so stoked about this one, it's going to be perfect for filling my cakes.


I ordered most of these items from Global Sugar Art or Confectioner's Wares. Both sites were very easy to use and shipped quick.