Since the NBA is back to doing something other than marrying Kardashians...

I had a request for a birthday cake for a 'bout-to-be 11-year-old who is a big fan of basketball. And the Miami Heat in particular. Did you know that's where Lebron James plays? I totally learned that because of this cake. :) Seriously...

I had grand intentions of making a 3D basketball with my ball pan, but one half of the cake had apparently become quite attached to the pan and who am I to argue with confectionery true love? So I ended up with a 2.5D ball. And since basketball is played on hardwood (yes, I Googled that too), I added some to the cake too. But it was really dark in color and I ran out of yellow Americolor gel. Sigh. This cake turned out pretty awesome for being such a pain in the butt. So here ya go:

 The Spaulding logo ended up looking pretty wonky. But I was freehanding it with a marker, so you can't be too picky, right?

Tiny little Heat logo and a look at the wood grain. I actually really love doing this technique.

Did you notice the awesome texture?

I regretted it by the fourth dang little dot. All done with a little round piping tip. That actually took longer than the rest of the cake combined. The fondant was playing nicely for once. Then again, wasn't summer here in AZ when I was doing it either. Have I told you about how I crank up the A/C when I do fondant? And the buttercream smoothed pretty well over the weird shape and crusted just enough to smooth it some more.  I guess the rest of the cake made up for the baking issues.

Happy Birthday William!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Got a quick one for you. I had two parties to go to this Saturday. Yes TWO! Considering I've been to four whole parties in the last 6 months (two first birthdays, one second, and one seventh[picture is behing held hostage by old cell phone, gotta find i]), I was pretty excited to go to "grown up" parties. And of course, it has been a while since I've baked so I had to bring a gift, and this is what they got:

Tiny little cupcakes! Yup, those are minis.

My go-to chocolate cake recipe makes the cupcake. Frosted with plain ol' American buttercream that I hit with some generous peppermint oil, topped with crushed peppermint candy (thanks to my hubbin for all the crushin), with a white chocolate snowflake on top. I totally made those snowflakes. I figured it had been quite a while since I last tried the chocolate decorations. But seriously, tiny cupcakes need tiny snowflakes and chocolate is pretty peculiar. But I have a whole bunch of the chocolate left. I'm either making more for my work Christmas lunch or I'm making cakepops.

And just cause it's awesome, I need to introduce you to my new favorite Christmas decoration: Kevin Bacon the Santa Pig. I found him at Big Lots and fell in love. And he totally lights up! He may stay out all year long.

Better Late than Never

I totally made cupcakes for Halloween and promptly forgot about them. I didn't put a whole lot of work into them, but they went over well.

I went with the white velvet cake recipe from the Cake Bible, but I subbed orange flavor in for the vanilla. Then I dyed the batter yellow and orange and layered them. The swiss meringue frosting on top stayed white but got the orange too. Then I put them all together and stuck a candy corn on top so that people would "get" the theme.

I should have actually looked at the color combination of a real candy corn before I got to working cause I totally should have put the yellow on bottom. Oh well, the two dozen I brought in only lasted until lunch, so my coworkers weren't too put off.

Of course the best part of the day was by dear doggie all dressed up to hand out candy to the neighborhood kids. You can tell she's excited since the tail wagging just blurs. And for the record, totally buy KitKats, the kiddos went NUTS for them!

Wayback Wednesday

Here's to You, New York, New York

I totally just found this post that I never actually published. Weird, right? Good excuse for a Wayback Wednesday since I'm out of ones I actually knew about.

This cake was made during my Wilton's classes, so it's been a while. It looks like we were learning about marbling (which was pretty cool, but I haven't used it since, and draping, which I have avoided like the plague. I did really like the boarder around the base of the cake. Gonna have to use that sometime.

This cake ended up going to TCTMNBN since one of the hubbin's coworkers was moving back to New York City. Totally jealous, though I know I'm a small town girl at heart. Apparently it was strawberry and I didn't have the right size cake circle to put it on. 

Y? Because we like you!

I had the opportunity to make a semi-wedding cake. I say semi because the wedding was held a while back at Disneyworld, but the happy couple wanted to share an evening with their friends here in the desert. The groom works at TCTMNBN with the hubbin. I might refer to him as the hubbin's boyfriend.

I was given pretty much free reign with the design. For some decorators this is freeing, but I will admit that it mortified me. What to do?! Good thing I have been jonesing to try quilting on a cake. Add in a Mickey and Minnie topper to use, and I ended up with a cake that was elegant and understated.

I like to post a sneak peek on Facebook while I'm working on the cake. Here's the one I posted the other night:

Of course here are the pictures you are here for:

The cake topper was from the wedding in Disneyworld, it was part of the package and the couple wanted to use it at this party. Minnie's dress actually served as my inspiration. I took the pearls and the roses and used them in the cake.

The quilting was actually a lot easier than I expected, but I'm looking for a tool that is supposed to make it even easier.

The roses gave the cake a bit of color that is was lacking.

Did you notice the awesome cake stand? I talked my parents into buying it for me while we were in an antique shop. I doubt it's an "antique," but I thought it was pretty.

Congratulations to Matt and Daina!

Wayback Wednesday

This one isn't even cake! I bake other stuff too. And even better, this one isn't a giant wreck like the last two throwback posts have been.

My friend Kristen was having a birthday and we all met at Chili's and then went to see a performance of Stomp. I was at a loss for an appropriate gift. I'd given her herpes for Christmas already. So I baked. This is what happens when you have a friend who 1) is cheap 2)can't think of anything better and 3)likes an excuse to bake. I've done it with family at Christmas too.

But you see, I wasn't exactly thinking well when I started and just used whatever cookie cutters I had.

Rockets, stars, and round planet-ish objects because she likes space:

dinosaurs because they're awesome:

Cats because her roommate had four:

Texas because it's awesome

And somewhere along the way I came up with this whole scenario and a story about the whole thing where evil Barney was trying to take over the world and Sara's four cats, led by Onyx (RIP little guy, you were awesome) had to save the day with karate training by Chuck Norris.

 

(Onyx cookie not to scale, he was the fattest cat I'd ever seen!)

This story had to be told!!! It couldn't stack locked in my brain! So there was a PowerPoint. I don't know how to do Flash animation, but I'm pretty good with making things move in PowerPoint, so there was a whole movie involved. With sound effects like meows, ringing phones, and karate chops. I've since lost the file, maybe Kristen or Sara still has it. But I came marching into Chilli's with a box FULL of cookies and my laptop and I made everyone watch it. I was laughing the whole time, can't say much for anyone else.

 See Onyx driving the blue car?

[This is the rambling of a sick, sad mind but I blame it on the fact that I was a grad student at the time and this was better than research. THIS IS WHAT GRAD SCHOOL WILL DO TO YOU! BEWARE CHILDREN! PROTECT YOUR LOVED ONES! A B.S. REALLY IS ENOUGH! FIGHT THE PEER PRESSURE TO GET AN ADVANCED DEGREE!]

UPDATE!: Sara totally still had the PowerPoint file! So you can totally see it if you just ask. :)

Wayback Wednesday

I shared my first fondant cake last week. Let's see another pathetic cake! It isn't as bad as the last one, but it ain't much better.  You've met my friend Melinda a few times, like here, here, and guest appearance here, plus some others. Years ago, Melinda had a birthday. And it's pretty close to Cameron's birthday. You met him and his son a long time ago.

To celebrate their birthdays, we went out tubing on the river, a summer ritual around here full of all sorts of adult fun!  And I decided to use this as a cake theme. And this was my first try at fondant figures! I bit the bullet and bought the Wilton's precolored stuff. This was the result:

I apparently hadn't quite got the leveling thing figured out yet. It looks decidedly lopsided. And the writing? Text looks okay if you're drunk or have Taco Neck Syndrome.

 This tuber really shouldn't be out here. Gingers burn awful fast.

 This little guy was an homage to Erik, Melinda's hubby. See the six pack?

There isn't enough sunscreen in the world. What's up with the Wilton's skin tone choices?



The beer cooler, an integral part of the tubing experience. Beer and sunscreen.



The scenery along the river. Notice the beans? They're supposed to be rocks. They just don't look like it much, do they?

Headless Erik.

We've come a long way, haven't we? Next week is cookies!