Basketweave and Course 2

It has been awhile since I posted any cakes I have done, and that is because I really haven't done a lot of cakes lately. As some of you know, I am pregnant and not feeling really in the "cake making" mood! Luckily I have been getting better the last few weeks and I was able to attend and finish my Wilton course 2 class.
It was a fun course, we learned a lot of flowers, color flow, and worked with a lot of royal icing. The final night we learned Basketweave, and made our final cake with our flowers, the rope boarder, and the basketweave siding. I learned a lot on the final night...the thing that I had to learn the hard way was that the rope boarder was not as big as I thought, and so I have a little gap between my basketweave and my boarder! Oh well...now I know to take the basketweave all the way to the top and bottom, even if it will just get covered...always better safe then sorry!
Here are pictures of my final cake. I will get posting more cakes soon, promise!

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!

Happy Halloween

I made a double batch of these cupcakes for my Mom's class room, and Keith's work party. They were pumpkin spice cupcakes with cream cheese filling, and butter cream frosting. I got to the store to late in the week, and they didn't have enough orange sprinkles, so I had to mix in some white...I am sure they would have been cuter had I had all bright orange sprinkles. I also made some without the candy and sprinkles for the "big kids" who didn't want the crunchy sprinkle effect in their dessert!

Keep your fingers crossed...

I just applied for a position as a Wilton Cake Instructor. The job opening is here locally at a craft store...but I also said I would be willing to work a ways from home also. We will see what comes about!

Ian's Birthday Cake

I had one weeks notice and all the info I had was he liked Rhinos. So I thought on it, and I just played around and came up with this cake. It was suppose to have the number 14 on top (that is how old he was turning) between the rhino and the stars, but the 4 didn't dry firm enough, so it went without. The rhino was my first attempt to molding something with fondant...so don't look at it too close :) I wish the colors would have been bolder, but those were the colors I had. I really like the inconsistent strips on the bottom layer...and it was super fast to do!