Baby Sneaker

I am currently making a Baseball Baby Shower Cake for a dear friend. I was looking for a shoe template all over the internet and found this one from Verusca Walker.

The only problem with the link and image is that the template is that tiny and I couldn't find just the template. Using photoshop I took the image of the template and resized it. The size of the template will give you a approximately a 4-4.5" shoe from front to back.

I recommend you download the pdf file instead of just using the jpeg image above. The link to the file can be found HERE. 

{Part 1} Nautical Baby Shower Dessert Table

I know my blog is about baking and awesome cakes but I have to share the events that I am am so blessed to host. My sister is having her second baby and its a boy! My sister has a gorgeous daughter who is soon to be 5 years old so it was a long time coming for their second bundle of joy.

All images were taken by me with my Canon Rebel T4i and using the 50 mm 1.8. Today I am going to give you a closer look at the dessert table. I tend to go overboard but we had limited space and ended up going with some simple items. Some of the items are store bought since I was extremely busy with the cake and hosting the whole event. 

On the dessert table we had yellow and navy blue chocolate cake pops on swirl straws by moi. My sister Nadine, she is my brave soldier and in this battlefield of cake, made the chocolate covered marshmallows and rice crispie treats. The lemon little cakes were store bought as well as all the candy. We had lemon heads, sugary strips, peach flavored gummies, red vines, and mint lifesavers. We even had cute little bags for guests to take their goodies in. 

The cake that I designed was the centerpiece of the dessert table. My sister came to me with different ideas and I love the way it came out. I feel like I am progressively getting better and each cake I make challenges my skills. Some of my favorite details is the mini sailor baby, the ship wheel, and the sail boat. Everything on the cake is completely edible.

Two of my favorite details were the onesie cookies my niece decorated for her baby brother Eli. The look great alongside the anchor, sailboat, and onesie cookies that I made.

Well that is is for the dessert details stay tuned for the tablescape pictures and other details.

It's My Time and a Safari Birthday Cake

Hi everyone! I want to share some special news! I was chosen to participate in the Citi Bank's, "It's Your Time: An Entrepreneurial Training Series for Women who are partnered with the Inland Empire Women's Business Center. The purpose of the program is to acquire the necessary knowledge to put together a business plan. I have to go through a series of workshops and webinars. I have also been taking my little sister Nadine. Hopefully once we complete Culinary School (Pastry Chef Program). We have gotten the necessary skills to go operational. Plus there's the little pesky problem of FINANCING. Our business plan will be build upon the idea of creating a cake design studio, preferably somewhere in my area. Since for now it will be a fictional business we are thinking of Redlands. This little dream of ours has to be developed and it will take some time, and by that I mean several years. But all dreams start somewhere and well here we GO!

Now lets talk cakes. This cake took me forever! But I loved it. It was for my sister's best friend's son. Sorry for the blurry pics this was my phone :( I forgot my camera. The cake also look glossy because it started to rain and the cake was initially outside. 

The tree had the mommy's inital and her son's carved into the tree. I wish you could see it. The money and lion were the easiest to create. I used fondant and tylose to accelerate the drying process. There are a few tutorials that you can look at on YouTube that deal with gumpaste/fondant animals. 

Thanks for reading :)

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.

21st Birthday!

My sister turned 21 this past October (I’m sooooo behind on blogging!) We hadn’t made a big deal of her birthday for a while; don’t know why we just hadn’t. This year we tried to do something a little more special. I don’t get paid until the 10^th of every month (only bad thing ‘bout working for a school district) so usually she doesn’t get gifts until then. Her birthday is the 3^rd. So yes, we’re often late. This year we were able to get gifts the same day for her to open. She felt extra special and she got some nice gifts.

Since her day was going to be special well then so should her cake right? Right! So I looked on CakeCentral where I like to go for inspiration, and fell in love with a cake that was black and green. I went with a lighter green and incorporated a soft pink. The bottom tier is 4 layers of 10” rounds filled with strawberries, and the top 2 layers of 8” rounds filled with cream cheese and strawberries.

The bottom tier was covered in green marshmallow fondant and decorated with pink and black balls pressed onto the sides of the cake. I wanted them to look more like pearls but ended up looking like M&Ms J The top tier was covered in black marshmallow fondant and decorated with different size circles of fondant. I used a Wilton Impression Mat (Happy Birthday) to make an impression on the top of the tier. I finished it off with a 21 made out of pink fondant and her name, Diana, spelled out with pink and black fondant. The board was also covered with green fondant and a black ribbon border around it.

I really love this cake. It was sooo much work but sooo worth it. Enjoy leave me some comments, I love to hear from you!!!

♥ Audrey's Cupcake Party ♥

My gorgeous niece Audrey just turned one. We celebrated her birthday with a cupcake themed party. The colors we used were a fuchsia pink and purple. It was so much fun to put together, and a lot of work. I was in charge of the baking of course ( I didn't bake the sheet cake). I made 100 Cookie Lollies, simply sugar cookies (click for recipe) on a stick, Pink and Purple Cupcakes, and a Giant Cupcake Cake!

The piñata pictured is custom made and not sold in stores. We searched and searched for a cupcake shaped piñata that was large but we had no luck. So my wonderful mom conjured up her creativity and made the piñata herself. I was beautiful and super sturdy.

The party was so much fun thanks to all who joined us to celebrate!

1. These are cupcake shaped cookie lollies. Cookie cutter is from Sweet Shapes. Outlined in white, top flooded with purple and bottoms with pink, and the top part of the cupcake was drizzled with pink jimmies.
2. My cupcake tower is from Wilton all dressed up with pink and purple ribbon alternating o the layers and a small tutu around the bottom tier. I also added rhinestones I found at Michael's. I had made two of these. It took some time to make them gorgeous but worth the time. Everything is removable which allows you to reuse the cupcake stands over and over again. I affixed the ribbon and tutu with double stick tape and glue dots. The cupcake liners were in hot pink and purple which looked beautiful. I got those from Etsy seller Bake It Pretty. The cupcake picks I made using small lollipop sticks, and a 2 in. scalloped whole punch, a 1 1/4 in. round punch, and the Martha Stewart cupcake whole punch all purchased at Michael's.
3. The Candle Lollies were outlined in white, flooded with purple or pink and before the flooded icing dried I added sprinkles to them.
4. The Letter A Lollies are so cute. I outlined them in white, flooded them with pink or purple icing. Once dried I finished them off with writing "udrey" the remaining letters of her name. Cookie cutter from Martha Stewart Alphabet set.
5. The Number 1 Lollies are outlined in white, flooded with pink or purple icing. Once dried I finished them off by writing Audrey on them. Cookie cutter from Sweet Shapes.
6. The Balloon Lollies are outlined in white, flooded with pink or purple icing. Once dried I finished them off by piping dots on them. Cookie cutter from Sweet Shapes.
7. The pinwheels were made with cardstock using a pinwheel template I found online. I made some in the fuchsia pink and purple. I finished them off by adding a cupcake pick minus the pick :)

Total Cuteness!

How I wish I had better pictures of this cake. It was my first time making MMF and using it. It was super easy to make and use that I will be doing more projects with it in the future. I had also used the giant cupcake pan before but had some issues with it, but it was fabulous this time. I was adding elements as I went along because I did not have it planned. I was pleasantly surprised at how good it came out. I am so happy my niece enjoyed the cake as you can all see. She is so adorable!!!

To complete the Giant Cupcake I:

• Made two batches of the MMF and colored one purple and the other pink. I divided each of the colored MMF in half and made half of the pink bolder and half the purple bolder as well giving me two shades of each of the colors.
• Baked the giant cupcake in the Wilton Pan. I used two boxes of Duncan Hines White Cake Mix. I used Cake Release to grease the pan. I love it cake releases from the pan perfectly.
• Let it completely cool on a cooling rack.
• Used Strawberry Jam, warmed in the microwave to make it runny, and spread it all over the bottom and top to help the MMF stick to the cake.
• Rolled out the darker pink for the top of the cupcake and smoothed it out and worked into the swirls to get the shape to come through.
• Rolled out the darker purple for the bottom of the cupcake and smoothed it out and worked into the grooves to get the shape to come through.
• Then stacked them and cut and inserted wooden dowels so that I had a stable cake.
• Used the dark purple to make the sprinkles.
• Used the lighter pink to make a tootsie roll shape for the candle cut a strip of the light purple and wrapped it around the candle.
• The flame was created swirling the light pink and purple and shaped it to look like a flame.
  A lollipop stick served as the wick. Another lollipop stick was used to insert the candle into the cake (Before inserting candle into cake candle must be completely dry or it will loose its shape. Do insert the wick, attach flame, and insert lollipop stick to the bottom of the candle and make an insertion point on the cake before it MMF dries)

Marshmallow Fondant Recipe from CakeJournal
Ingredients

• 1 bag of white marshmallows (8 oz)
• Water (2 tbsp)
• Icing sugar sifted (1 to 2 pounds)
• Crisco
• Heatproof bowl
• Spoon
• Food colors or cocoa powder
• Flavoring optional

Directions

• Put the marshmallows in a heatproof bowl and add the water.
• Put the bowl in the microwave oven and heat it for approx. 2 mins. until the marshmallows puff up.
• Stir the marshmallows until they get smooth. This is the time where you can add your chosen food color/cocoa powder or give it flavor.
• Now add the icing sugar and stir the mixture with a well greased spoon. Keep adding icing sugar until it looks like a dough.
• Turn out the “dough” on a greased work board and with your hands greased with Crisco start kneading the marshmallow fondant. Keep adding a little icing sugar at a time until it is not sticky anymore.
• Be careful not to use all the icing sugar as to much icing sugar can make it too dry.
• It is ready when it feels pliable and ready to roll.
• If you are not using the marshmallow fondant straight away then rub a bit of Crisco on it and wrap it in cling-film and seal it in an airtight bag.
• If your marshmallow fondant feels very hard you can always warm it up in the microwave for a few sec. at a time. Then it should be more pliable to work with.
• If it feels dry then knead in some Crisco or if it is too soft add more icing sugar.