Kangaroo Baby Shower

I received an order for a baby shower cake, for a mom who is from Australia. So, I made a baby block, with a mommy kangaroo and her baby on top. And, on the sides of the cake, I put fondant cutouts of Australian animals, an emu, koala, wombat, and platypus. It came out really cute, and I even received an email from the woman who ordered it, with kind words of gratitude :)

Trudy's Birthday Cake

This cake was so much fun to make, it was uber personalized for Trudy's birthday, with the birthday girl herself, along with 7 of her close friends all recreated in sugar, standing on the top. Around the cake were gum paste representations of all her loves- photography, Friends tv show, camping, girl scouts, and scrapbooking. And the cake read "celebrating 40 years of Trudy"

Twilight Cake

An old friend from elementary school ordered a cake for her big sister's birthday. Her sister, Kristina, is an avid Twilight fan. Having never read the book, I looked to my daughter for some expertise. I downloaded a picture of the actual book, and recreated it.

Happy Birthday Kristina!!

Prada Cake

My friend Melanie wanted something girly and blingy for her sister's birthday. They went on an all day trip to the wine country to celebrate her 40th.
It took me almost an hour to make each one of the little indentations in the purse, my daughter and I used many different things to make those teeny circles-straws, piping tips, rolled up paper, etc.




And, tiny pink swarovski crystals added to the bling too :)

Cake Balls !!

So, sometimes on a Monday or Friday morning, I'll have time to create these scrumptious little cake balls and hand them out to the parents at my kids' school as a little morning treat. These ones just so happen to be chocolate kahlua flavored...

~ Bikini Bottom ~

My friend, who also works with my hubby, wanted a cake for her daughter's birthday. And, I must say, I was very excited when she told me the theme was bikini bottom !! We are huge spongebob fans, so this one came together in my head in a snap.
I knew that the figures would be too heavy if they were made of gumpaste, so I made them out of polymer oven bake clay. And the "water" is made out of piping gel.



Happy Birthday Ashley!!!

Briana's Sweet 16

My dear friends, Steve and Launa, had a party for their daughter's 16th birthday. And they ordered a cake to celebrate. Surprisingly, and thankfully, she didn't have a very picky or difficult theme, so this was one of the most fun times I had with my daughter, sitting at the table, cutting out a zillion little dots out of fondant. She's become quite a good fondant cutter now.
Briana wanted the cake to have some bright colors, and I wanted it to be fun, yet not childish, so we went with a paisley pattern. I really think it turned out fabulous, if I may say so myself.

Happy Birthday Briana!!!

Scooby Doo Cake

My husband's friend had a scooby doo party for her son's 6th birthday. I was so excited to make this one, being a child of the 80s/90s, raised on scooby doo cartoons. I actually think I watched scooby cartoons when I was pregnant, and couldn't sleep too.
For this cake, I made Shaggy and Scooby sitting on top of their ultimate dream, a giant sandwich!!
The characters are made of rice krispie treats, which I covered with fondant, and the olive is made of fondant too.

Happy Birthday Andrew !!

Owl Cake

I received an order from a friend of a friend of my sister's. She sent me a copy of the most adorable birthday invitation, with a little chubby owl, sitting on a tree branch holding a balloon. It was all in a warm pink and fern green, simple retroish style. I instantly fell in love with the design and immediately started visualizing the cake in my head.
This cake was pumpkin flavored with vanilla cinnamon cream cheese filling.
I also made her a little smash cake, with a little baby owl sleeping on a pillow.
I had to experiment with gumpaste, and found that if I had made the balloon and owl out of pure gumpaste, they would be much too heavy for the branch to support, so I covered a foam egg for the owl, and a tiny foam egg for the balloon, with gumpaste, and this worked pretty well.

Tea party Cakes

The funniest thing happened. I received two identical cake orders for one weekend. Two small tea party themed cakes and cupcake toppers. So, I made what seemed like a hundred teacups and saucers out of gumpaste, it was actually more like 4 dozen.




Now, this doesn't happen all the time, but the kids and I were actually invited to the party of the second cake picture. I had another cake to deliver, though, so I quickly dropped off this one, ran to the car, delivered the other one, drove back, and when we got back, I realized that this was going to be one of my only cake in action pictures :)
I'm sure you can visualize the hot pink tea set on top of the cake, right?? They had quite a delicious spread as well~ and the little pink teacup cards that had the name of the dishes on them were all handmade by my awesome friend Shelly, who is also a yarn diva :)

Gucci cake

My wonderful friend Mandy asked me if I would like to donate a cake to her sister's charity silent auction. Of course I said "yes!"
The silent auction/dinner event was at this totally ritzy fancy car dealership, where they had exotic cars all over, the type that gazillionaires drive, ya know what I mean?
So, I was happy that my cake was modeled after an expensive Gucci purse, it seemed to fit in on the auction table.
The inside was chocolate with chocolate/ grand marnier filling...mmmm....

Skateboarding is not a crime

My daughter's friend, Maurice, had his 10th birthday last weekend. I made this skateboard half pipe for him. The logo for Tony Hawk is on the side, and I found a cool silhouette of a skater, which I cut out of gumpaste and put inside the ramp.

Happy Birthday Maurice!!

Auntie Lisa's Birthday cake

My sister in law had her birthday last Sunday. She is such a kind soul, who just happens to find stray dogs and take them in. I declared their house "hotel for dogs" a while back.
And, our doggie just loves her. So, I made her a cake that looked like our mini weenie, Bee.
Bee's wearing a hat that says 'I heart Auntie Lisa'. This cake was coconut, Lisa's favorite. I used coconut milk in the cake batter, and added shredded coconut to both the batter and the buttercream. Then I added crushed pineapple to the filling, which really tasted great!! I think I'll have to use this combo again.
Happy Bday Lisa!!! Love you !!


and here's a picture of Bee:

Princess Cake

So, a friend of a friend of a friend ordered this princess cake for her daughter's first birthday. She sent me a picture of the dress her daughter would be wearing at the party, and asked that I replicate it in cake. She also wanted a tiara, so I decided to make a separate princess pillow cake for that. And, she was making 4 dozen cupcakes, and wanted tiara toppers too, so I piped out 52 (some extra) royal icing tiaras and hand painted them. Whew!

Maleah's cake

My friend's daughter, Maleah, just turned 5, and for her birthday, her parents turned their backyard into a carnival, with a ton of sand, carnival games, popcorn and cotton candy machine, everything you would find at the boardwalk (except I didn't see churros, my fave)
She asked me to make a cake for the party, so I made this carousel horse cake, with gumpaste horses, and a bumper car cake, with rice krispie and fondant bumper cars.
I also spelled out her name on gumpaste surf boards, and made "sand" out of cake crumblies.

Rob's cake

So, my hubby is a nurse in the burn unit, and once or twice a year, he gets a patient who he grows attached to, and really takes a big place in his heart. One of them is Jacob. You can read all about him and his family here : www.journeythroughfire.com
Jake's brother, Rob, just turned 20, and his mom ordered a cake from me. It was really fun to do, because it was a very personalized cake. I made little gumpaste figures of the three brothers, doing what they love to do most, one was reading, one was holding a bike helmet and sitting with his feet on his bike, and Rob was playing his guitar, with his djembe drum nearby. All of them were sitting atop a trampoline.
I'm so happy I got the chance to make this cake for the family. It was so nice to meet all of them. They are so positive, despite all the trauma they've gone through. I swear, they're the strongest family in the universe! Now go check out their blog.

Arrrrrgh!

I made this pirate cake for Camren's 3rd birthday. It was all made out of two sheet cakes that were strategically stacked and carved. I made the sails out of gumpaste and wooden dowels, and some cannons coming out the side, also gumpaste, had sparkler candles in them.
The treasure chest is made of rice krispie treats and fondant, and the little pirate hat is gumpaste. I added some royal icing water and a black feather boa.

Grignon gang beer party

Andy made his own hefeweizen, and the official unveiling was at the special Grignon bbq on labor day. It was also a potluck, so I brought some dessert. I had casually asked if they had made a label for their beer, and Mandy sent me a copy of the label they created, which I used to make a "label" for the cake.
They were surprised, even though I think they were sort of expecting me to bring dessert in some form of a cake. They're onto me now, I better send them over a casserole to throw them off so I can keep surprising them in the future. :)
Great food, and great beer too! It was the first one I drank since I was 15. After that it was nothing but fancy drinks for me. Yep, I'm a foofy screwdriver drinker now! ha ha

Moo Moo Cake

Rebecca loves her stuffed cow, and for her 6th birthday, her mom ordered a cow cake. I just love this cake! I really hope to make more animal cakes like this, it was a lot of fun!
My assistant (my daughter) cut out the flowers, which I painted and then wrote on the centers to spell out happy birthday Rebecca
The body and head are round cake that I carved into dome shapes, and the snout is rice krispie treats.

Happy Birthday Mikey !!!

So, one of Ron's friends, Mikey, was having a birthday party, and I had asked Ron for a few days if he wanted me to make a cake. He knew I had other cakes to make, and with school starting I was doing all I could to keep from pulling my hair out from stress, so he didn't really say yes right away, until Saturday morning, the day of the party, I convinced him that I could whip something up for the party if he wanted. So of course he said "ok".
I must say, making a cake in one day is a tremendous challenge.
But, here it is. I made a record case (Mikey is a dj / owner of Oaklyn Records), which, again I modeled after one that Ron had. This was also my first attempt to paint (and spell) camouflage.
The two bridge cutout is made of gumpaste, which is the company logo, and it is leaning against the platinum records. The lid of the case is made of rice krispie treats, and the hinges and handle are all made out of gumpaste.

Happy Birthday Mikey!!!

Lightning McQueen Cake for Om !!

Another ebay employee ordered a cake for his son, Om, who turned 3 and loves Lightning McQueen. So, I made them this cake.
The squares are all hand cut fondant, and the car is made of rice krispies and covered with fondant. Om was very excited when I showed up to deliver the cake, he was so cute and very happy to be 3!

Yee-Haw !

So, Adrian (baptism cake in June) and his brother, Aidan, had a birthday party with a cowboy theme. I made them this little star shaped cake with a red fondant bandanna that I piped with royal icing, and two little cowboy hats on top with their names and ages on stars.
Then I made 4 dozen cupcakes with fondant toppers, little cowboy hats, sheriff stars, horseshoes, and cacti. Whew! They turned out really cute. I love making little cupcakes!

Congratulations Dr. Danni !!!

One of our friends from ages ago, like back in the day when we were in high school, cutting class, partying way too hard for being 15, and going to the Rocky Horror Picture Show in down town San Jose, just graduated and earned her M.D. in naturopathic medicine. So, her parents threw her a grad party, and her mom contacted me about a cake.
Now, I don't usually have the pleasure of attending the party that I make a cake for, but this time I dropped off the cake, went home and made another cake, and then returned to the party at night for a drink and some catch up with Danni. It has been 15 years since the last time we hung out, after all.
The coolest thing was that I could hear people telling the guests as they showed up "go look at the cake" and they would come to the table and go, where's the cake? All I see are some plants and a doctors bag. :)
It was fun, everyone loved the cake, and even though they didn't eat it while I was there, I heard that it was finally cut up and devoured later in the wee hours of the night (I was there until 10, but I had the kids, so I had to leave-they were getting all glazed over and delirious)
Congrats Danni!!! Great to see you again, old friend !!

Happy Birthday Ray !!

Ray is a pilot, whose daughter goes to the same school as our kids. He's also a 49ers fan, so it only made sense to make him a 49ers airplane cake for his 40th birthday, right??
His wife said he was surprised and really enjoyed it, which is the best compliment I can possibly receive, and I have some more orders coming in the future from them too :)

Happy Birthday Ray !!

Happy 10th Tahnee!!

My wonderful niece turned 10, which made me feel so old. I don't know why, my daughter is the same exact age, but when my niece gets older I feel older. Hm.
Anyway, this year she wanted a Paris themed cake. She's the one who ordered the monkey cake a long time ago, which caught me off guard. So Paris, not too unusual.
She has always loved shoes, so I knew that a shoe box would be perfect for her. We were having a small family get together, so I couldn't go too crazy with size, anyway. But I also wanted to make her a cute handbag.
I made the shoe out of gumpaste, and on the box, I attemted to paint leopard spots for the first time. It's way harder than it looks!
Anyway she loved the cake, and I was really happy. Anything for my favorite niece!!
Love you T!! ~ XOXO

Harry Whoo's 50th

One of my husband's friends, Harry Whoo, turned 50. He's a very popular guy, a dj and an awesome photographer. A bunch of friends threw him a party in honor of his b-day at a park, with a hawaiian theme, who-aii 50, instead of hawaii 50, I thought it was really clever~
And although neither one of us could make it, I sent this cake with a friend to help celebrate.
This was the first "moving" cake I ever made, it took quite a bit of pre-planning, which is usually not my cup of tea. But, after a trip to Target and some brainstorming, I glued the cake board to the bottom of one of those spice turny thingees that i dismantled, and figured out how to create it.
This cake was huge, with enough for at least 150 to 200 people. It was two sheet cakes side by side, with a 14 inch round cake in the center. I cut out a hole in the center of the sheet cake rectangle first, then iced and covered it with fondant. Then I created the circular cake separately, and beveled the edge, iced and fondanted it. Then I drank a cup of coffee and stared at the two cakes for a while as I figured out how to macguyver the round one into the hole, finally settling on using loops of tooth floss to lower it down slowly. Hey, I never claimed to be a "good" structural planner. Besides, it worked!
The record, tone arm, and other buttons are all made out of gumpaste. Lucky for me, my husband is a dj, so I had a real turntable to use as a model. My hubby even signed the record too.
I heard that the cake was devoured, and that Harry enjoyed it :)

Andy's Cake

The last remaining member of the Foster cake family had his birthday, and Mandy, his wife, ordered a surprise cake. He's building a wine cellar in his office, so we thought it would be appropriate to make him a wine cake.
He loves German chocolate cake, so I had the honor of making that yucky filling with the coconut and pecans. It actually wasn't that bad. But the wine bottle is chocolate cake with chocolate ganache filling for the non-yucky filling lovers.
Happy Birthday Andy!! Hope it was a surprise!

Ravi's cake

Ravi emailed me and wanted a cake for his mother in law and very pregnant wife, Rashmi. He also asked that I include a stork with baby Ria in its pouch.
This cake was really fun to make, since I don't always get the chance to sculpt, which is my favorite thing to do in cake making.
I went to Google images and studied sari patterns, so I could paint the designs onto the pillows.
In the picture you can't really tell, the ladies' saris are different colors, one's more teal and one's more sky blue.
They were so nice, when we got there to deliver the cake they invited us in and gave us a soda, and talked with us for a while. Great people.
Congratulations !!! I'm sure little Ria has been welcomed into the world by now, and I hope you guys are having fun, hanging in there, and getting enough sleep in order to function :)

Congratulations Eric !!

My baby brother graduated from college. I still can't believe it!! It makes me feel so old, and a hundred times more proud of him. What a rockstar! Not only did he graduate, he moved out of mom and dads house and was living independently, paying bills, feeding his stomach, for four years! I feel as though the independence was more worth celebrating than the diploma.
Eric earned his B.S. in social ecology, which, when I googled it, sounded like an environmental kind of thing. Which is why I put the earth on the cake, and the little white dove.
Congrats Eric!! So proud of you !!
now go get a job ~

Kristie's 30th B-day

Kristie is my daughter's friend's sister. She's super nice, and a great teacher. I wish she had time to come to more school functions, because she seems like a really fun person to be around.
Anyway, Kristie's mom, Leanne, who is also super nice, asked me to make a cake for Kristie's 30th birthday. (I still can't believe Leanne had a baby 30 years ago, she must have been 10 when it happened).
Kristie asked for something pink with zebra stripes, and "girly".
I love the way this cake turned out, such a modern girly cake!!

~ Happy Birthday Chiara !! ~

One of the first cakes I ever posted was the stacked presents cake with teddy bears and lollipops. That cake was for Chiara's mommy's baby shower. And Chiara just turned 1 ! I can't believe it's been over a year since I made that other cake.
Chiara is Italian and Japanese, and her mommy wanted to incorporate both of her cultures into her cake. So, I found this tuscan pottery design of lemons, and painted it on one of the pillows. The other pillow has japanese cherry blossoms, and the hello kitty on the top is made of rice krispies and fondant.



~ Happy Birthday Chiara! Can't believe you're already one ! ~

~Congratulations Jesse ! ~

Ron's coworker called me up. Her son was turning 17, had just graduated from high school, AND got accepted to Stanford University on an academic scholarship! Amazing! So of course she threw a party for him, and she ordered a cake.
I made a stack of textbooks, they were almost the actual size of the books Ron and I had when we were at San Jose State.
The Stanford Logo is handpainted on a piece of fondant.

Bon Voyage to the Andersson Family !!!

So, our wonderful friends, the Anderssons, decided to move back to Sweden. We first met when their son was in kindergarten with our daughter, they became great friends right away. My other friend, another mom, Sonja, decided to throw them a going away party, so I made them this cake. I looked up those words on google, and the translation is something like "Good Luck! You will be missed!"
And we miss them already. Good luck you guys!!! Come and visit soon!!

Mary Jane Cupcakes

These were a gift for a friend of ours. The plants are all made out of gumpaste, so don't get all excited. Well, I guess that if you thought they were real, I should be the one getting all excited~
I did spend a good amount of time looking at google images to get the right texture on those purple buds. :)
and, no, they're not "specialty" cupcakes, they were chocolate and red velvet flavored.

Happy Trails !!!

Happy Birthday Mandy !!!

My friend Mandy is the mom of the recipients of the Foster beer cake and butterfly cake. Her birthday was a few days after the butterfly cake party, and I decided to surprise her with a gucci purse cake. I used a technique I found on the internet somewhere, on how to make fondant look like croc skin. Basically you use different circular cutters and piping tips and kind of randomly push them all over a piece of fondant you've rolled out.
Her favorite color is green, so I dusted it with green luster dust.
Oh, and her husband is the Palm Pre guru, who just bought a porsche for her, so I included a palm pre that said "happy birthday Mandy" on it, and on the other side of the purse I made a gumpaste porsche key.
She was really surprised!!!

Butterfly Cake

One of my son's friends is an avid butterfly fan. She knows all about different species, and has even raised butterflies of her own and released them to the wild! Pretty amazing.
I made a bunch of leaves, butterflies, and flowers all out of gumpaste, and she came over the day before her party and painted them with luster dust and food coloring. So cute!!

60th Birthday

One of my friends ordered a cake for her mom's 60th birthday, and she wanted a white cake with flowers that matched her hot pink and apple green theme. So cute!
This was the first time I actually made flowers out of gumpaste with little stamens and stuff. It was pretty fun, just really time consuming!