This past weekend two of my good friends, Merryl and Karen, got married. I was honored when they asked me to be a bridesmaid, but when they also trusted me to make their wedding cake I was truly grateful. Since they were getting married in January the theme of their wedding was everything winter and snowflakes. I knew they both loved penguins so I thought what would make a better cake topper for a winter wedding than a bride and groom penguin.

The bottom tier is a 15inch hexagon cake, chocolate cream cheese swirl with chocolate ganache filling, and caramel buttercream. It was covered in vanilla fondant and each face of the hexagon was decorated with a fondant snowflake. The second tier was a 10 inch round, maple cake, white chocolate cinnamon ganache filling, and white chocolate buttercream. It was also covered in vanilla fondant and painted with pearl dust to give it shine.

For the separator I covered a 6 inch 4 inch cylinder with fondant and then submerged it in a sugar solution for about a week in order to grow sugar crystals on it so that it would look like ice. I did the same thing with a piece of foam board I cut into an 8 inch hexagon, the top tier sat on the foam board. The top tier was the same flavor as the second tier, I covered it in fondant and then an alternating pattern of small fondant snowflakes. To top it off I hand made a bride and groom penguin out of fondant. The groom has a silver bow-tie and the bride a veil along with a Calla Lilly (the brides flowers).

We threw a bridal shower for one of my best friends this weekend. The theme of the bridal shower was “Summer Camp” since the bride and groom met working at a day camp. The bride also used to go to sleep away camp every summer while growing up and one of her favorite camp songs was “A boy and a girl in a little canoe”. I decided to use that song as the inspiration for the cake.

I made wood grain fondant by kneading together three difference shades of brown, then used it to mold a canoe.  The boy and girl in the canoe were also hand molded out of fondant. They are wearing jeans and a white collared shirt which was similar to the uniform the bride and groom wore when they worked at the day camp. The background was a sheet of fondant that had been airbrushed to show a mountain lake by moonlight. The flavor of the cake was what I call Peppermint Patty (white peppermint cake with a chocolate swirl). It had chocolate ganache filling and chocolate buttercream frosting that was then covered in blue fondant.

As part of the camp theme we named each table to be a different camp activity such as swimming, music, recreation, and arts & crafts. I made 4 mini cakes to go with the different table themes and made fondant decorations to go with each one.

Louis Vuitton a la Chocolate

For one of my best friend’s bridal shower’s we decided to make the theme designer handbags since she is so fond of them. I of course had to make a designer handbag cake to go with it. I actually made two different cakes. This one was my signature Witch’s Brew cake with chocolate ganache frosting and filling. I stacked four rectangular cakes and then carved them to get the shape of the handbag. After stacking the first two cakes I used lollypop sticks as supports for the next two layers so that the cake wouldn’t collapse. I covered it in chocolate fondant and then hand painted the LV pattern onto the cake. The handles are made of fondant as well. I had inserted some florist wire in them for support then let them harden before attaching to the cake.

Return of the COACH bag

This is the second cake I made for my friend’s bridal shower. I had made her a coach bag once before for her birthday, but that one was laying down so this is a little different. The cake was pecan cake with blackberry curd filling and vanilla buttercream frosting. I stacked the 4 rectangular cakes and carved them to get the shape of the purse. I covered it in purple fondant, then added the bow, handles, and signature COACH tag which were all fondant as well.

For my good friend’s bridal shower I decided to make these elegant cupcakes with a fun Wall-E topper. Both my friend and I have a strong affection for the movie Wall-E so I knew she would love this custom topper. Both Wall-E and Eve were hand molded out of fondant and then an airbrush was used for the detail. I made a fondant heart with “True Love” written on it in royal icing as the backdrop for the famous robot couple. The cupcakes themselves were two flavors, white chocolate with milk chocolate ganache, and chocolate with cream cheese frosting. My friend loves pink so I used that as the color scheme with pink cupcake wrappers and pink and white sugar borders on the cupcakes. I also made the double heart and engagement ring cupcake toppers out of royal icing that was then painted with luster dust. The bride’s engagement ring is a diamond flanked by two pink sapphires so I tried to match that.

This was a cake for my husband’s birthday. He loves the band Duran Duran and one of his favorite songs by them has the line “You shine like the midnight sun”. I made one of his favorite cakes, what I call the Witch’s Brew (coffee, cinnamon, and chocolate swirl), with chocolate frosting and covered it in rolled fondant. I used an airbrush to create a serene lake with mountains in the distance, and of course a giant glowing moon…the midnight sun.

A friend of mine moved to DC this summer so I brought her these cupcakes as a housewarming gift. The cake flavor is one I invented called the “Witch’s Brew”. Years ago when we both worked at Dunkin Donuts we used to serve a drink called the Witch’s Brew during the fall. The drink was half cinnamon coffee half hot chocolate. To re-create this flavor combination I made a coffee flavored cake with a cinnamon chocolate swirl. The cupcakes were topped with sea-foam green vanilla buttercream. The sea shells, sunglasses, and flip flops were all molded out of fondant

I made these cupcakes for a co-worker of mine who was having a graduation party for her son. His school colors were red and black so I decorated a cupcake stand with construction paper to match. I made two kinds of cupcakes: Boston cream (yellow cake, pastry cream filling, chocolate ganache frosting) and chocolate raspberry (chocolate cake, chocolate raspberry ganache filling, cream cheese frosting). I topped each cupcake with alternating red and black molded chocolates that were shaped like diplomas and graduation caps. The “Congrats Dan” sign was made out of fondant circles that were attached to lollipop sticks and stuck in to a Styrofoam dome I had covered in black tissue paper.

More experiments with cupcake decorations. The chocolate cupcakes were topped with cream cheese frosting applied using a pastry bag. I make some fondant cutouts to put on top. The vanilla cupcakes were also frosted using a pastry bag and a combination of silver dragees and royal icing flowers were used as decoration. 

I had recently jumped on the cupcake bandwagon and I wanted to explore the many ways you can “dress up” a cupcake. I thought adding these pretty royal icing flowers as toppers to the cupcakes was a really nice touch. I used a piping bag to swirl on the frosting which makes them look neater and more uniform.

This was a cake I decided to make to celebrate spring. Lemon cake was covered in vanilla buttercream and decorated with hand-piped royal icing flowers (Primrose, Pansey, Daffodil, Rose, Apple Blossom, and Violet).