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This year my oldest had a pool party birthday. She had wanted a High School Musical theme but going with the pool party theme, I managed to talk her into these invites. I found them on vistaprint.com. Once I found the invites I just kind of ran with it and decided to do a mermaid cake.

I looked at a lot of different cakes on the web, but inspiration just wasn't hitting me. After a lot of thought I decided to go big. I drew myself a little sketch and headed to Home Depot. Since I did a lot of things that I haven't done before with this cake, I took lots of pictures as I worked. I'll give you a bit of a breakdown on how I did the cake in this post.

When I got home, I pulled out the power tools.


I started by building the base for my cake supports. I built it up a little bit so that it would be easy to lift and so that the screws I put in to hold the supports wouldn't make the board uneven.

After building the base, I marked where the cakes would sit and screwed the bottoms of my supports in place. Then I took them out, covered the board in fondant and put them back in.

I started working on the tail first. 
I took the cake boards and cut holes in the middle so they fit around the pvc support. Then I filled, stacked the cakes and carved the cake. 
The tail of the mermaid was coconut with coconut cream filling.

The fin was a bit tricky, and took a bit of trial and error. I figured I would just use rice krispie treats for this part, but apparently rice krispie treats don't like to stick to plastic. I played around with it for a bit and ended up wrapping parts of the pvc in fondant and then forming the rice krispie treats to that. When I got the shape I wanted I covered the fin in fondant.

I covered tail piece in fondant before putting it in place on the cake base. Then I cut out the and applied the scales.

At this point I moved the cake from my table, where I do most of my work to my counter. When I did I noticed that something was uneven about the base. Looking underneath I found that when I reattached the piece holding the pvc support I had unscrewed the screw and it was now longer than the footings on my base.
I could have screamed, I was so frustrated.
And for some reason (maybe frustration causes stupidity?) I decided to take my drill and try and tighten up the screw. 
BAD IDEA!

The support stated to turn inside the cake and tore the fondant on the fin. I cut out more scales and managed to piece it back together.

See, not too noticeable now. 

The tail complete, I moved onto the head. Stacking and filling yellow cake with chocolate buttercream. I had once again cut holes in the boards to fit around the support. When everything was stable I carved the cake.

After icing it, I put on the fondant for the mermaid's face before putting the cake in place on the board. I waited to do the hair because I wanted it to drape into the "water".

After all the decorating was done, I thought "Where am I gonna put the candles." Not wanting to bake more cake, I formed some rice krispie treats into a ball. I covered it in 2 thick sheets of fondant, to bulk it up and to have a soft place to put the candles in.
After a steaming we were ready to make a splash at the pool party.

Here's my beautiful girl with her cake.

And the finished cake. I'm pretty proud of this one.

The first week of September brings two birthdays in my household. Landing right amongst the flurry of fall activities. At this point I really should be better prepared, but I'm not, every year the craziness catches me off guard.

First, there is my husband's birthday.
I would like to point out that my husband doesn't eat cake. But, for some reason, I have to make him one anyway. Fortunately I have discovered the joy of the mini cake so we weren't stuck with absolutely obscene amounts of cake in our house. 
The man who doesn't like cake, is also, as I've probably said before, a Star Wars dork. This year he requested a Jawa. I try to know as little about Star Wars as possible, but I will tell you that Jawas live on a desert planet and they are scavengers and they like hamburgers. Maybe I shouldn't try hand out Star Wars knowledge. But, I'm pretty sure that this Jawa does like hamburgers. 
This is banana cake with cream cheese icing as a filling. It's covered primarily in chocolate fondant.

Two days after his birthday is my oldest's birthday. This year she had to take her birthday treat to school the day after daddy's birthday. I really didn't think this through and felt really rushed with this project.

The birthday girl asked for lemon and coconut cake. Really, she did. I had already bought everything to make strawberry cake though, because she always wants strawberry, because it's pink. Kids always have to change things up on you. We decided to try for strawberry lemonade cupcakes, but she didn't give me much direction on how to decorate them. 
She loves High School Musical and after much searching I found this super cute cakelet from Cupcake Envy. This is no where near as cute or well executed but it served it's purpose, which was to not make the cupcakes look so random. Because I'm crazy. Because I'm sure a room full of 2nd graders really could care less about the "theme" of the cupcakes. They're just happy if they get to eat one.

And of course we had to have cake for her actual birthday, because if I have learned one thing, it's that a birthday isn't a birthday without cake.
I went the mini cake route again, this one is chocolate coconut cake with coconut cream filling. My daughter came up with the flavor again, she's apparently big into combining flavors right now.
It's a dance bag, made to look, at least in colors, slightly like her own dance bag.

Little ballet and jazz shoes, as they are the dance classes that she takes.

Thankfully, we decided to to her birthday party a little later in the month. So, I didn't have a big cake to do for her, but I did agree to make a cake for a friend. Don't know what I was thinking!

In the midst of all my family's birthdays, I made this chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream for her husband's 30th birthday. It's covered in marshmallow fondant and the design for the bra was piped with royal icing.

When I was asked to do this cake I groaned a little. Part of me wasn't looking forward to making a cake in late August. Especially, since I don't have air conditioning but I really don't like to turn down a chance to make a cake. So, it was with that groan, that I agreed to make this cake. Of course it was also a cake for a friend's one year old. Who could really say no to that.

After agreeing, I kind of forgot about the cake though. Even after getting an invite to the party, I didn't think about it until less than a week before the party. When I finally did, the friend who asked for the cake was out of town. Three days before the party I texted her to ask what she was thinking. 
Her reply, "Football Helmet!"
I rolled my eyes and said a couple bad words before texting her to ask about flavors. Thinking that I could start baking some cakes that night while it was a little cooler in my house. But, she didn't get back to me that night.

After talking to her the next day, I started baking, and making fondant, and looking for a recipe for strawberry filling (I found one, and it was good). I got all that done on Thursday and spent Friday decorating. The cake was made to go with the Lil' Quarterback theme decorations for the party.

The heat gave me some issues. My buttercream was softening too quickly, it made it hard to get it covered nicely. 
The helmet is marble cake with chocolate buttercream, the lower cake is yellow with strawberry filling, both covered with marshmallow fondant. The smash cake was yellow with strawberry filling covered with chocolate buttercream.

Yes, it's that time of year again. Time for the fair. I made an entry for all four decorated cake categories again and I also made a decorated cupcake entry.
I really don't know why I decided to do the cupcake category. I am not a fan of decorating cupcakes. I also waited until the last minute do even think about what to do with them. 

I ended up not at all impressed with my entry. But, it's done. 
If I had done a little more planning, I would have used a dark brown for these and probably something different for the flowers. Oh well, I guess they're not terrible. 

I also wasn't thrilled with my entry for the Holiday Cake. It's beginning to be a recurring theme I guess, I didn't like last year's Holiday cake either. 

I had planned on doing New Year's Cake for this category but decided to switch to this when I was looking over my other entries. I hadn't done any figure work and wanted at least one entry that showed my figure work (although, I will admit, my figure work needs some work). 
I did love the way the top of the cake turned out. 

Santa's chair came out super cute and Santa isn't half bad. That is his big toe sticking out of his sock.
I'm just not in love with the base cake. I wasn't sure where to end the pattern and it didn't go on very smoothly. I'm really not sure how I feel about this cake as a whole. On the other hand I know I like this next cake.

This is the only entry I made that was a duplicate of a cake I've done before. I had made this before for my son's 2nd birthday, though I used a Valentine's theme with that one, this truck is based on Chuck the Dump Truck from Tonka.
I went back and forth about what I wanted to do for the Small World category, this was not even one I was thinking about doing. One night I was looking at some of my old cakes and saw the Chuck pics and had to do it for the fair.
The red and the black are the Duff fondant you can get in stores now and not my usual marshmallow fondant. It was really easy to work with and tasted amazing. The cost will probably keep me working with mmf though, unless I need a lot of red or black because mixing those colors can be kind of a pain. 

This is my Adult entry, I made a birthday cake for a mom, or it could be a Mother's Day cake.
I had a terrible time making the bow for this cake! It fell apart on me three times before I got this one on the cake. I'm not happy with this bow either, the colors are off and it's just kind of funny looking, but I wasn't going to attempt it again.

I cut all of the larger flower petals with a fondant cutter. The smaller petals were all cut from a small daisy cutter, I cut them in half and also cut all the petals down the center to make them small and frilly. It was very, very time consuming but I think the results are worth it.

This last cake is by far my favorite.

It's an engagement cake for the Special Occasion category. I'm in love with the black on white! I used my new Circut Cake for the design on the cake. Getting the cutouts on the cake was a challenge! I'm sure it would be no matter what the cake looked like but putting the black on the white without leaving marks! When I got it all on I breathed a sigh of relief. 
Like Santa's chair the ring box was another chance to work on the mini cakes I am now so in love with. Again, I used gumpaste flowers on an entry, this time anemoes. It took me a while to figure out where to place the flowers but I really liked my arrangement.

My girls also got in on the action. They both decorated cupcakes for judging.
These were decorated by my 6 year old.

And these are my 4 year old's.

I think they both did a pretty good job and I know they are both excited to see their cupcakes on display at the fair.

One of my good friends is expecting a little girl and we threw her a shower to celebrate. Like all good celebrations it involved cake.

It was based on these decorations the mommy to be chose.


She requested Peanut Butter and Jelly cake with chocolate, unfortunately I forgot to get chocolate. I did manage to get some for the "gift" cake on top, so that was the guest of honors serving. 

The baby is being named for my friend's grandmother, who apparently loved elephants and the color green. I decided that this little gumpaste elephant would be a great addition to the cake top.

Cake decorating can get messy. I usually work in a pair of jeans and a tee shirt which will be coated in powdered sugar when I'm done. I haven't wore an apron since I was in junior high cooking class, but thought I'd give them a shot again. 
I also decided to make my apron. 

I found some clearance fabric at Joann's and made this.

Meh. I don't really like it that much. It serves it's purpose, but I think I'm going to try making another.

The fabric was cute though. See, little wedding cakes.

Anyhow, Joann's is one of those places that I tend to get a little crazy and buy a bunch of stuff I didn't plan on buying. Like more fabric than I typically know what to do with. When I was there they had patterns on sale 5 for $1, of course I bought 5. I'm not sure when, or if, I'm actually going to use all of them, but it was such a good deal!

I did use one of them and some of the fabric I bought to make this pillowcase dress. 

Isn't it adorable?!?

It is even cuter on my 4 year old. I swear. Even though I don't have any picture of her in it. You'll just have to trust me.

But that's not all I did. Once I pull out my sewing machine I tend to get a lot of use out it. 
I had seen these cute art smocks online and decided to try one. Since I had also scored this Little Mermaid fabric on clearance.

Again, cute. Huh?

And even better than being cute, it was easy! So easy in fact, I had to make another.

For a boy this time, hence the cute bug print. I also covered the front with plastic to protect it.

I love this one.

I also made matching dresses for my girls, since my oldest was a little jealous that she didn't get a dress too.

I don't usually get them matching outfits, but honestly it was just easier to do them the same! And, the do really look cute in matching outfits- shh, don't tell anyone I said that.


Sewing machine is still out and I still have an abundance of fabric, maybe I should go make something else. 

Some times I just want to play with my food. I like to experiment  and see what I can do. 

This was one of those occasions.

Ever since I first watched the youtube tutorials from cupcake envy I have been in love with making little bitty cakes. It's a fun challenge to see what you can make little and it makes for a lot less cake to be eaten when I want to play. 

These mini cakes are white cake covered in marshmallow fondant.

Aren't they cute!

I was lucky enough to be asked to make a cake similar to this one for a recent wedding. All white cake with vanilla buttercream, lemon and raspberry fillings, covered with marshmallow fondant. All the petals were cut and shaped from fondant/gumpaste blend. 
The bride also asked for a German Chocolate cake.

I had never had German Chocolate filling prior to making this cake. Can I just say... YUMMO!