{Pink and Yellow} Giraffe Baby Shower

This pink and yellow giraffe baby shower was designed for my friend Veronica. This was for her 2nd baby, baby Abigail. Her shower was in November and it was cold, so we opted for an indoor shower. We set up several tables and decorated them with carnation milk glass vase centerpieces. 

Pink, yellow, and white carnations filled the milk glasses. We used 6 dozen carnations. Ikea frames also decorated the tables. The inserts in the Ikea frames where created in Photoshop and matched the invitation. 

We had several games that required writing so we used pink golf pencils and added a giraffe pattern flag stickers. We also handed out giraffe buttons that we ordered from Etsy. I designed them in Photoshop. 

For the dessert table we had a small cake flanked by pink, yellow, and brown candy and desserts.

 

 The dessert table consisted of chocolate covered pretzels, sugar cookies with giraffe print, cupcakes, pink gumballs, and some Mexican candy and cookies.

As favors we also gave out the giraffe cookies and set them at each place setting.

The cake with a fondant giraffe decal. 

Giraffe balloon clusters added to the giraffe theme. 

Thanks for reading!

{Pink and Gold} Elegant Royal Gilded Bird Cage Baby Shower

My sister had my niece almost a year ago and I still have not shared with you all this goodness! I also hadn't mentioned that her shower was featured on the Baby Lifestyles Blog. So excited to have my first feature. Back when they featured it they only mentioned my name not my business but that is ok, I was just elated to have one of my cakes on another blog :)

My sister wanted something super girly and sophisticated, so pink and gold it is. Since the shower would be outdoor and in spring we incorporated bird cages filled with lush pink blooms and other arrangements in milk glass. My poor momma would wake up early to seek out the milk glass at yard sales and thrift shops. We ended up with so much we did not use them all. 

Like all of our parties everything is DIY!! I mean EVERYTHING! Its a lot of work but so rewarding. The flower arrangements were done by my mom, my sisters, and I. They were a challenge but  they are amazing, at least to us lol.

For favors we used pink and gold pearl gumballs in a tube and finished them off with a pink ribbon and Thank You note card. We placed them at each place setting. 

My sister Yanavith wanted to have a pictures of her bump as part of the decorations so I put on my photographer hat and viola! We spread her pictures around the tables and it added a nice personal touch. 

I also incorporated one of the pictures into the invitation which I created in Photoshop and printed at Mpix. They are the Luxe Ornate Invitations on pearl paper. They were gorgeous! 

This is one of my favorite cakes I have made. The fondant tiara was definitely the show stopping detail of the cake. The swags were made using different size fondant pearls that I dusted gold. This cake had more than 200 of those suckers it was a late night for sure. If you are wondering why would she put a white ribbon on this cake...well what had happened was :) ... the bow that was supposed to be there broke and I had no time to repair it. I guess that is why they say to make an extra (I usually do but since this cake was for myself I just didnt want to). My sister Nadine and I made those tiny tiaras for the cupcakes we made 48 of them. This was more time consuming than the large one. I also made the cakepops, and hand painted that G on the sugar cookies. Its all in the details. 

The infamous Ikea Mirror was painted in gold. These frames are just so fabulous. We framed the verse: For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I love this little detail. We also used huge 36" pink balloons and the letter G gold balloon.

My sister loved her shower I am so happy to be able to be given the honor to host these memorable events for my family. I know this blog is about my cakes and desserts but I love to share with you the whole picture of what my cakes were part of. I wont get to do this for all my cakes just the ones I create for friends and family. Thanks for reading! XOXO

Gender Reveal

My sister is having her first baby. It is an exciting time as we await Baby Villanueva! My sister’s husband is in the Army and he was coming home one last time before his deployment to Afghanistan. Since it was too early to tell via ultrasound the gender of the baby we decided to try www.tellmepinkorblue.com, (as seen on Copper Anderson) a site where you can order a blood test to determine gender. The theme of the gender reveal party came from the name of the company: Pink or Blue. 

Centerpieces: I wrapped paper mache letters in pink and blue yarn. The BOY was wrapped in blue and the GIRL letters in pink. I also used two wooden boxes that I picked up at JoAnn’s for flowers. Each box took 2 dz. pink carnations. The picks in the centerpieces were designed by me. Milk glass vases also held some yarn pom-poms and pinwheels in pink and blue.

Favors: I made the whoopie pies with pink and blue filling and set them at each place setting. The boxes came from Etsy's PoshBoxCouture.

Desserts: Consisted of cake pops, cheesecake jell-o, cupcakes, pink and blue chocolate lollipops, sugar cookies, macaroons, and cotton candy. The cake was two tiered vanilla with strawberry buttercream, accented with blue pinwheels. All desserts were made by me www.sisterlylovebakeshop.com ;) The backdrop was made up of three foam boards taped and covered by pink felt, and two individual foam boards wrapped with blue wrapping paper. The banner was designed by me as well. Stripped straws for cotton candy and cupcake wrappers came from Etsy's isakayboutique. The chandelier cakestand came from Amazon.com by LampsPlus. 

Food & Drinks: Strawberry water made by me and my mom made Tamales.

I also purchased buttons from an Etsy store called cheapestbuttonsnet  that read TEAM PINK and TEAM BLUE.

Invite: Bunting clip art to design the invite came from Etsy's LillyBimble. 

Throughout the whole process I was the only one that knew the gender of the baby. To reveal the gender I purchased a 24x24 in box and filled it with balloons according to the gender. Then wrapped it like a present. Both my sister and brother in-law opened it at the same time to reveal a burst of pink balloons. IT’S A GIRL!!! We are overjoyed and cannot wait to meet baby Genesis Villanueva!

We recorded the box opening..my brother in-law's reaction is priceless...he was SURE he was having a boy. I will post it as soon as I find it :)

Baby Shower Cakes

I haven't been posting for a while. I need to finally put some effort into this blog. I love baking and there is no reason why I shouldn't share my creations for all of you. I am going back into my files to find pictures of cakes I have been doing. I hope that you are able to see my progression in skills and also in photography. I have to learn to take better pictures of my stuff!

I get a lot of requests for baby shower cakes. I particularly like designing for the little girls but lately the boys have grown on me ;) I hope you enjoy the images!

I made this cake for one of my friends who plans parties. The theme of the cake come from this website it is from a collection called Modern Baby Girl Caucasian (this name is a little weird if you ask me). The baby on top is made of rice crispy treats and fondant. some of the accents also have pink luster dust to add some sparkle and contrast in the pinks. I also hand rolled all of those yummy soft edible pearls. 

My dear friend from church and my sister's sister in law, had her baby shower not to long ago. She requested a Cherry Blossom Theme. Besides baking I love to plan parties and this is one of the parties I planned. The dessert table was so cute. It had cupcakes, some old fashion suckers, and and assortment of cookies and candy. 

The cake was a a two tiered vanilla cake with strawberry filling. I used the Wilton's Cherry Blossom silicone mold. 

The baby bums have been very popular and I have had several requests. The diaper part was made with half of the ball pan from Wilton. The legs are rice crispy treats covered in fondant. 

This one is a single tiered and only blue and pink.

 This one is two tiers blue and brown. 

Thanks for reading!

Mommy's Birthday

We had never thrown a party for my mom’s birthday before. My sister and I decided to put together a Pink, red, birdie, theme for her. The cake in the middle picture was done by me. I am very proud of this cake. It was some work but I pushed myself beyond my expertise.

We had a dessert buffet that I put together. I baked chocolate chips cookies, mini cheesecakes, chocolate covered strawberries, brownies, cupcakes and sugar cookies. It was beautifully displayed on red plates and platters most of them from Target.

I made pink lemonade, and fruit punch and added strawberries to the drink dispenser. The drink dispensers were a steal from Wal-Mart. For food we had an array of sandwiches with chips.

The centerpieces were made from branches and tissue paper flowers. We affixed them to the branches with glue dots. We had pink table covers and red plates and cups. .We also hung pink and red hearts and tissue pom-poms from the ceiling.

Baby Shower Rattle Cake

This rattle cake was a last minute order. It was for a baby girl. I decided to go with a pale pink and bright yellow. Despite the time crunch it was a very cute cake.




1. The first step is to bake the cake and level it. I baked a 12 in and 6 in cakes.

2. In an electric mixer I whip the PuraWhip I use for almoslt all my cakes. (I love this because its light and the perfect sweetness to it) I pick this up at Smart&Final for about 3 dollars.

3. I wrapped a Wilton stacking tube with yellow ribbon and set it aside.

4. I sliced about 4 pints of strawberries..it was a pretty big cake.

5. Mix all your strawberries with about 4 cups of the whipped cream you just whipped.

6. Fill the cakes with the strawberry and whipped cream mixture. Not to the edges leave about 1/4 of an edge..that way when you frost it you dont get any strawberries spilling out. When you frost it then fill in the gap :)

7. Color your icing the desired color...this case pale pink. I used Wilton Rose Color.

8. Frost the cake...I use a piping bag 16-18 in ones from Wilton. I also use a large tip No. 789
to frost the cake...also a turntable is a must!

Finishing touches

Smooth it out..as much as you can. I added a shell border at the bottom and a star border on top. I also used a round tip to write It's a Girl! I also used edible pink pearls that I had to put on every star I made on the top. I also added them to the letters. I inserted the middle rod and tied a pink ribbon to finish it off.

Birthday Cakes

I have been baking quite a few birthday cakes this month and I wanted to share some of the pictures with you. I wish I had more time to photograph all the cakes I have done but sometimes I am in such a time crunch to finish them that I forget to take pictures of all of them. In the future I also plan to do more of a tutorial style posts so stay tuned for those.

This cake was baked for a surprise party for Aracely, a very dear friend of mine. Her sister is one of my top customers J The cake she requested was a Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Cake. It got rave reviews from the guests at the party. Its three layers of cake and two layers of mint chocolate chip ice cream. The cake also has mini chocolate chips mixed with Andes mint chocolate candies that I processed in the food processor. I used them to garnish the cake. I wrote Happy Birthday Aracely on it with a light minty green frosting just before they picked it up.

This cake was for Aracely’s brother. They have birthdays in the same month. It was a chocolate cake with fresh strawberry cheesecake filling. I used strawberry glaze and fresh strawberries to garnish the cake. It has a shell border at the bottom of the cake and rosettes on top where the strawberries are placed. This was the first time I made this cake, and they all loved it so I am adding it to the menu.

I would make my niece a birthday cake every month for her birthday. So this is an old cake but i really love it and wanted to share it. I made two one square and one round. They are both chocolate cake with jam in the middle. I used MMF (marshmallow fondant) to cover the cakes as well as add the decorations. I also used cookie cutters to cut out all the shapes and used a little bit of water with sugar to attach the cutouts to the cake. This cake was really moist and delicious. My niece smashed her little hands all over the cake! Shes too cute.