In the Army Now

This cake was for a coworker's son who will be going into the Army shortly. It was a surprise and he loved eating all the leftovers for breakfast! :) Both layers were marbled cake with chocolate frosting.

Pretty Pretty Princess Cake

My niece recently turned 3. She loves the color pink and princesses, so this is her Pretty Pretty Princess cake.

The top layer  was white cake tie dyed pink, purple, and teal with chocolate frosting. The bottom layer was chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, She loved it!! :)

Baby Shower Cake

This is another Baby Shower Cake....imagine that! Good thing I like babies!! :) This one was chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.

ELVIS!!

My mom is a HUGE Elvis fan. I've been planning this cake for her since Easter! hahaha It was a chocolate cake with extra chocolate frosting. To say she LOVED it would be an understatement!!

Monster Hat

My brother in law has a Monster hat that he wears ALL THE TIME...so I figured what better cake for him??  The cake is German chocolate with coconut pecan filling and chocolate frosting. He loved it!

 

My First Wedding Cake

Our friends recently were married and I was honored to make their wedding cake. There colors were watermelon and black, and their flowers were star gazer lily's. Their cake was marble cake with chocolate frosting. In the picture, only the stacked cake is mine, not the sheet cakes :) 

Mixed Emotions Cake

This cake was for a coworker who was leaving our preschool to take a new job. We were happy for her for the great opportunity but sad to see her go.  The top layer of this cake was white cake tie dyed blue and orange (our school colors) with white frosting and the bottom layer was chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.

 

Kids and Cakes

Twice this month I had the opportunity to allow some of my favorite kids to make some really cool cakes. They all did just about everything to mix, bake, and decorate their own cakes. (Of course, I handled the oven parts!) All three of them really enjoyed making their cakes and working with fondant. Here are some pics of their creations.

Aislinn's cakes before they went into the oven! She chose white cake tie dyed pink, blue, and yellow. 

Here are Keegan's cakes before they went into the oven. He chose to have one layer of chocolate cake, and one layer of white cake tie dyed black, blue, and pink.

Aislinn's cakes after they came out of the oven

Keegan's cakes after they came out of the oven

And....their finished projects! Great job kids!

Miles chose to have a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. He did not want his cake covered in fondant, but he did want to use a Star Wars Lego edible image, as well as fondant cutouts to decorate his cake. He worked very hard reading the recipe, mixing, and pouring the batter in the pans all by himself. He also frosted the entire cake on his own (with just a little help getting everything smoothed out at the end). 

Here is a picture of his finished creations....the sides are wrapped in the edible image and the top is decorated with  fondant cutouts of his name, a rocket ship, ball and bat, ice cream cone, the united states of america, a cat, a bunny, a star, and a flower.
 He finished up with a layer of green stars along the bottom edge.

 Excellent job Buddy!!

\m/ \m/ Rock on Slayer fan!

A friend of mine's husband is a huge metal head. He plays in a band and is pretty much just a rocker star. His favorite band of all time is Slayer, so his wife decided to go with a Slayer theme, and in true rock star fashion, we decided to go all out and make the cake spew blood. Yup, that's right...spew blood. How can you have a Slayer cake without blood?? So we went with a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and raspberry flavored "blood". The blood is in cased in the middle of the cake, so when he cuts it, the blood with spew out all over everything. There ended up being about a cup and a half of raspberry blood in there, so it should be nice and messy!!

Here is the cake filled with the raspberry blood

Here is the front of the cake

Here is the back of the cake

Fishing Cake

This cake was for a guy who LOVES to fish! His girlfriend decided to make his birthday fishing themed by buying him a new Lund seat for his boat and by getting him a cake that included a custom topper incorporating his boat. I was super busy this month, so I found a lady who specializes in fondant sculpting and ordered a topper from her. My sister also had a hand in making this cake. She has been telling me that she wanted to try her hand at fondant sculpting, so for this cake, she made the little turtle on the left, the turtle head peeking up on the right, the cat tails, and the lily pad flowers. (Thanks J!)  The cake was German chocolate with chocolate frosting and coconut pecan filling. Everyone loved the cake and the birthday boy was completely surprised.

 Front of the cake

Back of the cake

Dora the Explorer

This was a cake for a little girl's 2nd birthday. The top layer is white cake tie dyed pink, purple, yellow and orange with chocolate frosting. The bottom layer is white cake tie dyed aqua, green, sky blue and orange with chocolate frosting. I am not sure who was more excited for this cake, the mom or the little girl, but in the end, everyone loved it! :) 

Top Layer

Bottom Layer

Dora the Explorer Cake

Baby Shower Cakes

Apparently this was the week for baby shower cakes. I did 2 cakes in 3 days. I love doing cakes for babies and moms to be...they always turn out so cuuute :) 

The first cake was for my sister-in-law. Of course, it was German chocolate cake with coconut and pecan filling and chocolate frosting. I just love the little baby feet on this one!

The second cake was for a coworker. This one had a top layer of white cake tie dyed blue, green, and yellow with white frosting. the bottom layer was chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.

Congrats to the new momma to be and the new momma!! :)

Packers Cake (If you're a Vikings fan, trust me, don't bother looking! LOL)

Back in March, my friend asked me to make a cake for him so he could surprise his wife at her baby shower. Then a month later, he needed a cake for his son's birthday...another surprise cake (the baseball stadium). So now it's his birthday and his wife wanted to surprise him with a cake! All I could say was, You guys and your surprises! Of course I was happy to help out...until we figured out what theme to go with. Yup, he's a Packers fan. I know, I know, I don't understand it either......but we knew that is the kind of cake he would want. Although it was tough, and I can't believe I stooped that low, I put together a Packers cake (and resisted smashing it!) If it was any other color, I would say it was a kick ass cake.....but its the total wrong color. (PS, I am NOT a Packers fan, in case you couldn't tell! LOL) Here's how it turned out:

Before it went in the oven

After it came out of the oven

The inside of the cake

And the final product:

Bridal Shower Cake

This cake was for my cousin-in-law's bridal shower. It was German chocolate with coconut pecan filling. The colors of the wedding are a deep burgundy and a dark eggplant purple. They wanted a simple, yet elegant cake for the bride-to-be. It was a fabulous shower and everyone loved the cake! 

Train Cake

This cake was for a train lovers second birthday. It was a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. Everything on the cake was edible, including the rocks! The train cars came off and were basically just like cupcakes for the kids. The birthday boy loved it and kept pointing at it and saying "choooo-choooo!!" 

Baseball Cake

My nephew's baseball team has had a great season this summer. They are a great group of kids who have worked hard and showed a lot of improvement with each game. My sister and I decided to surprise the team and the coaches with a big cake. Each tier had one layer of white cake and one layer of chocolate cake. There was white frosting between the layers and chocolate frosting under the fondant. The bottom layer was a baseball with a Taconite Squirts logo, the second layer had all of the kids' and coaches' names on the stars, and the top layer featured a baseball field. Everyone loved it!! 

Guitar Cake

My brother in law's birthday is on the 4th of July. I wanted to make him a sweet cake that had absolutely nothing to do with the 4th. I asked him what kind of cake he wanted, and he said it didn't matter what it looked like, just as long as it was German chocolate with coconut and pecan filling. I decided to go all out and secretly took pictures of his bass guitar (which is his baby) to make a replica of his bass out of cake. It was German chocolate, just how he wanted it, and he was so surprised when I brought it in the house. Right away he grabbed his bass and started comparing it to the cake, and he was shocked at how detailed the cake was, and how much it was the same as his bass. Overall, the cake turned out great and he was thrilled!! 

Here is his cake....

and here is the cake with the inspiration!

The cake got a thumbs up from the birthday boy! 

Star Wars Lego Cake

This was a really fun cake to work on. The birthday boy wanted a blue cake, and is a huge Star Wars fan...especially Star Wars Legos. We decided to dye a white cake blue, and use chocolate frosting. I found a Star Wars Lego dude wrap that was perfect for the bottom layer, and the top layer had the Star Wars logo. His mom and dad asked if there was any way to have an edible Death Star as a topper......so there goes my first attempt at sculpting with cereal treats! The Death Star won Round 1, but I came back in Round 2 and knocked it out. When the birthday boy saw his cake for the first time, the expression on his face was absolutely indescribable! He said, "Is that Star Wars Legos?!?" and before we could even finish saying yes, he exclaimed,  "IS THAT A DEATH STAR?!?" It was so awesome, and I was SO relieved he knew what it was! LOL

Graduations Galore!

Well, it's graduation time! In the span of a week, I did 3 graduation cakes. 

The first one was Leah's.....I don't really know what to say about her cake. She knew what she wanted on it, and provided me with a list, and what a list it was! hahaha Here is her list of things she wanted included on her cake:

3 tiers (bottom chocolate, middle and top tie dyed)
a beach scene with waves and sunshine
Live, Laugh, Love
her grad pic
her favorite colors (red, green, yellow)
hearts, stars, and peace signs
school spirit (GHS, 2010, green, white, and black)
name in 3D on the top
something funky and festive as a topper

 

I had no idea how I was going to get them all on one cake, but I did. I was so nervous to deliver this cake, but Leah and her family LOVED it, so all is good :) 

Here is Leah's cake:

This is the inside of the top 2 layers:

 (the bottom layer was chocolate)

Next came Kiersten's cake. This was a bit more of a traditional cake design. Her school colors are orange and blue, but the senior class colors were purple and silver. The class motto was Don't Stop Believing! Kiersten is a bit of a flower child, so I decided to incorporate some daisy type flowers on the cake as well. 

Here is how Kiersten's cake turned out:

 

Last came Susan's cake. She wanted to be totally surprised by her cake so I decided to go with a more traditional style with a funky twist. The top two layers are tie dyed green, black, and white, and the bottom layer is German chocolate with coconut and pecan filling. 

Here is Susan's cake:

And here is the inside of Susan's cake:

 

Ditch the Men in 2010!

Each year, the ladies of Taconite sponsor an all girls four wheeler ride. My sister goes on this ride every year and I have joined her a couple of times. It is always a great time with great friends. There is a big pot luck at the end of the ride, and this year I decided to make a cake as my contribution to the pot luck. Since Taconite is in the heart of the Iron Range, and our wheeler ride would take us on trails that would bring us through some of the local mining areas and on top of some tailing dumps, I decided to make an Iron Range cake. Anyone driving through the Range knows what the dumps are, and most people who live up here know about the pits. Those two things were my inspiration for the cake. For those of you who are not familiar with the Iron Range, here are some beautiful shots that I took along our ride:

 So with that in mind, here is the cake that I made:

The pit is chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, and the dump is white cake tie dyed rainbow colors with chocolate frosting.

Here is the inside of the dump:

The ladies loved it!! :-)