How much booze can you fit into a cake?

I decided to find out with the help of Captain Morgan. :) The answer is: not enough to get a buzz. But it turned out yummy. A friend and coworker hosted a Mardi Gras party and I volunteered to bring a cake (duh). It gave me an excuse to bust out my cake sprinkles.

Going with the Mardi Gras theme, I decided the cake needed some serious booze. As luck would have it, one of my favorite bloggers posted a recipe for Pina Colada cake. I colored the cakes purple and green (to go with the color scheme). Once the cake was done, I brushed on coconut rum. As much as I could add without making the cake soggy. And I whipped up a batch of coconut buttercream, using coconut milk in place of the normal liquids and coconut extract in place of the normal vanillla. And rum, lots of rum. :)

Then of course lots of gratuitous purple, green, and gold/yellow decorations. And sprinkles. And I found a great excuse to pick up some gold dragees (yay!).

The mask is made of gumpaste and then handpainted.



Are You Ready for Some Football?!

Did you know that when they say that they're going to play "The Anthem" before Monday night football, they don't mean the national anthem? They mean the Hank Williams, Jr. song. I was confused.

And yes, it has been months since the SuperBowl, literally. But now is as good a time as any to finally put up pictures. I have to say it may be my favorite cake I've ever made.

The cake was for one of the hubbin's coworkers at TCTMNBN. Her only request was that they wanted a cake "just like John's." Which was a Pittsburg Steelers cake. (And for the record, I still think that Ben Roethlisberger is a terrible person [allegedly], I'm just sayin'.) But seeing as how it was the SuperBowl, I thought I'd do it up a little. The addition of the SuperBowl logo, complete with ther Jerry Jones Stadium, was perfect.

I adore the tiny little Steelers helmet. Look at the little indention near the mask!

 The Greenbay helmet didn't turn out as nice, but still...

AND the Packers won and I rejoiced at the demise of Mr. Roethisberger.

Happy Birthday Marissa!

It's been a while since I've posted, so I thought I start it off with something awesome. A friend of a friend saw a cake I made and asked me about making her soon-to-be two-year-old daughter a Toy Story birthday cake. Yay!

Since it was for a girl, she wanted something feminine added to it and suggested Jessie. Now I hadn't seen the second Toy Story (or even the third) so I borrowed the DVD from my particularly attractive friends Melinda and Erik. Can I admit something? Didn't think it was very good. Yes, I said it. It was just not... the first one.

The cake is Sylvia Weistock's Yellow Cake recipe with fresh strawberries between the layers and vanilla buttercream.

But I got a picture of a cake that the MOBG (mom of the birthday girl) liked and ran with it. Fondant models all the way! The hard part is that these characters are so well known, that I couldn't mess it up. People would know it looked...off. The faces of Jessie, Woody, and Buzz were the worst and I wasn't happy at all with them. But the other details that were added hopefully saved them. Without further ado:

The alien- Because he's one of my favorite characters from the original. This is a blurry picture because it's from my phone, but it's such a great shot that I can't help but share.

Mr. Potatohead- I love him too, he was actually a really fun one to make, but the arms were a pain.

And check out the details on his little blue shoes:

Hamm- The picture is a little blurry, but I was enchanted by this little guy.

And look at the perfect little squiggly tail!

I tried to put all the details I could, so check out Jessie's braid:

And Woody's handkerchief:

And pay attention to the hats these two have on. I seriously thought these things were going to be the death of me.

And Buzz's suit:

I wanted to do something nice with the base and thought wood floors would fit the theme. I marbled two colors of brown together, then used a knife to make the boards, a toothpick to make more wood grain texture, and the end of a piping tip for the nails.

Happy Birthday Marissa!