**~Willy Wonka~**

This was such a fun cake to make. A friend of a friend threw her daughter a very awesome 16th birthday party, and the theme was the original Willy Wonka movie. It was a surprise, so when I delivered the cake we hid it at Grandma's house, and I didn't get to see the birthday girl's reaction. But her mom loved it, which was great. The Oompah Loompah was made out of sculpey, and the letters and 16 on top of the hat were made out of gumpaste, as well as the little flag and rail and top thingee on the boat.




Happy Birthday Laurel !!

* Happy Birthday Sofia ! *

So, the same family that I made the Pokemon cake for asked for a cake to celebrate their sweet little baby, Sofia turning one. She looked like a princess when her mom brought her out all dressed up with a little pink tutu and tiara. So adorable !!!



Happy Birthday Princess Sofia !!

*~Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss !! ~*

So, every year in March, my kids' school has a birthday party for Dr. Seuss. It's a very fun and magical night, where the upper grade kids and some teachers read Dr. Seuss stories, and the rest of the kids and their families and friends all get dressed up in their jammies and wander from room to room, listening to Dr. Seuss stories. Afterwards there are cupcakes, and last year I made these cakes



And, this year I made this one



Check out the Sneetches !! hee hee !



It was a really fun magical night. The cake weighed a TON !! It took two men to carry it out. I, of course, brought it disassembled in my trunk.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss !!

~ Wine Party !! ~

My friend Margaret and I met at our daughters' preschool. It was one of those schools where parents work in the class and help to "raise" their own and other people's kids in the same environment. It's an awesome concept, this way you ensure that your kid is safe, and making friends in a controlled environment, yet it's not stuffy or stuck up, and everyone has a ton of fun.
Every year Margaret throws a wine and chocolate party, and this year she asked for a wine cake.
The cake was made almost identically to "Makoto's Cake", only I used toasted coconut for the "stuffing" instead of shaved chocolate. It smelled so good!
I wish I had been able to hang out at the party; however, we just bought a house and I was knee deep in primer and paint shavings. Yee-haw!

Ice Skating Cake

So, at my kids' school every year, there is this huge amazing fundraiser called the Halloween Carnival. Parents work their butts off, some for a whole year, most for like a week or two, to put on this carnival. There's a haunted forest, which is made of 2x4s and plywood so it's like a real maze, there's carnival games and little tickets the kids win and prizes, food, and a silent auction that spreads through three classrooms without any space to spare. It's so much fun for the kids and parents.
This year I put a gift certificate in the auction for a custom cake, and another parent at our school, Bill, won the certificate. A few parents came up to me afterward, saying they had bid on the cake too, and were disappointed to lose. That made me feel special. :)
Anyway Bill wanted to get a cake for his daughter's eighth birthday, and he also wanted to take part in creating the cake. So we brainstormed ideas for making an ice skate on the top of the cake. He actually carved and sanded an ice skate blade out of wood, and came over that morning and made the skate out of rice krispies and fondant. It turned out so awesome, and I painted it with "super pearl" luster dust and gave it the wood color for the sole.
Also, for the top of the cake I pinched the top edge of the fondant all the way around, and filled it with some light blue piping gel that was much easier to make than I thought.

Pokemon

So, I accomplished two things this week. One, I learned all about Pokemon characters and pokeballs, how some birdlike pokemon don't fly, and also how some do even though they are part penguin. Also some pokemon don't really do much, especially before they "evolve" into different pokemon. It's so complex, I can't believe my daughter knows so much about all these things, and is able to remember every little detail, yet she can't recite her multiplication tables without sounding like she's guessing "6 times 7 is...uhhhh....forty....two?" I tell her that even if she's guessing at least sound like you know it, right? It's good practice for when she has to wing it in college later. :)
My son has a friend in kindergarten, who's little brother had a birthday party today, and his mom asked me to make a pokemon cake for him. It was actually more like a family project than anything, my husband had a lot of input on which pokemons were good for the cake, and my daughter stood over me and made sure the little pokemon action figures I made for the cake from rice krispies and fondant were accurate "no mom, pikachu's mouth is red inside, not black". Needless to say, I was almost an hour late in delivering the cake but all of the pokemons were as accurate as could be!!
My favorite pokemons were the bat who looks like he's yelling at someone, and the blue radish guy, he's so cool.

~ Happy Birthday Andres !! ~

Gucci Purse for Gayla

So, my friend Gayla came back to visit from Colorado to have a birthday dinner at Blowfish in Santana Row. It was really fun, and if I had not been battling a vicious sinus thing I would probably have been able to hear much better over the loud music.
So I made her this cake, a Gucci purse, that has little "G's" all over it, I thought it was cute, since her name starts with a G. I added a tiny chihuahua, that's guarding her purse, after she told me a story about how her little chihuahua that weighs 5 pounds, viciously chases her alpaca and llamas around. heh heh, ya, don't underestimate small life forms!
And of course, a jonquil, March's birth flower (I looked it up).
The purse was pretty easy to do, although because it was a carved cake I had to keep refridgerating it to harden the buttercream so it would stay up straight.

Happy Birthday Gayla !!!