Volcano Cake

My nephew celebrated his ninth birthday this weekend. The only request for the cake was "something boyish." I thought on it, and decided I would make him this erupting volcano cake. The cake was super easy and fast to make, and the eruption was pretty awesome (if I do say so myself.) I wish I would have taken a picture before the eruption, but this is the picture during the eruption. The cake started off just a brown volcano shaped mountain. I built it around a drinking glass, so we could use the glass for the eruption part of the cake. just before singing happy birthday, Red marshmallow cream lava, along with some smoke, spued out of the top of the cake (with the help of some dry ice.) The "explosion" was a great hit with the nine year old boys! My sister got the eruption on video. I will have to get that from her and post it here, so you could see the actual action!

Butterfly Cupcakes

Today I made these cupcakes for a 9 year old's birthday party.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

When I first saw this idea in the "Hello Cupcake" book, I thought it was SO cute. At the time I didn't know who I would make it for. But now almost a year later, I decided I would make it for my Dad's Birthday party. My Dad LOVES his garden, and when he moved to Utah he had to adjust to not being able to garden year round...so I made him his new "winter garden."
The Hello Cupcake book has some really cute ideas, but the more I use the book, the less I like their methods for decorating! The directions told me to buy all different kinds of chewy candy to mold into veggies, but I just made one batch of fondant for the veggies instead.
Happy Birthday Dad, I hope you liked your cake!