America's Favorite Serial Killer

Maria got me hooked on Dexter during the first season. I've been wanting to make a Dexter themed cake for awhile and I finally got the chance! My lady friend, Danielle, is also into Dexter and her birthday is tomorrow. Perfect opportunity to finally make this cake!


I covered a red velvet cake in white fondant. I really wanted it to be clean so I took my time. It's the best I've ever covered a cake! I'm super proud.


Then I made a fondant knife and put it on a lollipop stick.


I used red fondant and the Dexter font for her name.


Added "Happy Birthday" and some red "blood" splatter.

Here it is in all its gory glory:


This is by far my favorite cake. It turned out exactly how I wanted it to. I can't wait for Season 4 to start!

Lights, Camera, Action

Some ladies in customer service asked me to make a camera cake as a thank you to the video production guy for helping them out. I already had a lot of cakes booked, so I couldn't do anything fancy.



White cake with strawberry filling. It's a film negative with a video camera cutout in the center. The writing came out a little wonky, but that's ok. Writing isn't my strong point. Practice makes perfect!

Drink Up!

I'm getting more and more orders for small birthday cakes in the office. I love making them because they're cute and much easier to do.

Here's a cherry martini cake:


Chocolate cake with chocolate filling. I got the diamond/circle side design idea from another cake. I was going to use a plastic martini glass topper, but I lost it. I made one with fondant instead. I think it came out way better than the plastic one. So I guess it's good that I lost it!

The problem I'm having with these cakes is that people don't want to eat them because they love them too much. Maybe I should start making my cakes ugly on purpose? haha

Dance to a Sweet Tune

My mom and I recently started volunteering at the Downtown Women's Center (www.dwcweb.org). DWC is a "nonprofit organization that provides 40,000 meals, 47 permanent supportive housing apartments, and a wide array of health, education and other supportive services to more than 2,000 homeless and very low-income women each year."

The center has a committee called the Birthday Guild. The Guild organizes monthly themed birthday parties for the women living at the center. I LOVE celebrating birthdays. And, of course, my cake making would come in handy for this. My mom is the same way and she's my assistant when I need help with cakes.

The theme for this month's party is dance. Each table has a different dance theme. We're in charge of decorating the salsa table. We also volunteered to make a cake for each table. It's only six cakes and with the help of my mom, we finished those bad boys in record time!

Ballet:

The slippers were a lot harder to make than I expected. It's my least favorite of the bunch, but I'm sure the women will like it.

Ballroom:

I couldn't think of a design for this cake, but then I came across this image on a cake. It's perfect for ballroom.

Country:

Can't go wrong with a cowboy boot!

Hip Hop:

A vinyl record.

Jazz:

A sparkly top hat. It was a little difficult getting the glitter on the sides. My step dad created some sort of slingshot to do it.

Salsa:

A pair of maracas! This is my favorite one.

The birthday party is today! I'm excited for the ladies to see the cakes.

Queen of the Castle

I didn't take step-by-step pictures of this cake. I started putting it together after getting up from a nap so I was a bit fussy. But as I was making it, I became more cheerful. Note to self: don't decorate cakes right after a nap, take some time to wake up. =)



I frosted the cake pink and then added fondant "brick" panels. Some of the bricks didn't match up, but it worked because most castles have cracks and imperfections. The tops of the towers are sugar cones covered in fondant and then painted with pink pearl dust. The front of the castle has a brown fondant door, purple fondant flowers and green grass/vines piped on.

This was my first castle cake. I loved how it turned out. It's fit for a queen!

Step by Step

Julie in staffing hinted about her birthday for a few weeks. She's a fan of my baked treats, so she wanted a cake. I asked Maria for ideas since she works closely with her. Maria came up with a great one...New Kids On The Block! I really wanted to make this into a cake:



But the picture was too small and too detailed for a 6" cake. We were pretty sure Jordan Knight is her favorite, so we went with that.

Step 1 (We can have lots of fun): I started off with the cake topper. I took a picture of Jordan and made a thought bubble with her high school picture in it. So cheesy. I love it!


Step 2 (There's so much we can do): I baked a lemon cake and added a vanilla filling.


Step 3 (It's just you and me): I wanted the cake to be bright and totally 80s.


Step 4 (I can give you more): Of course it needed some super rad shapes!


Step 5 (Don't you know that the time is right): What would a New Kids cake be without some classic lyrics?


Here it is all complete:


Making this cake was such a blast! I sang NKOTB songs the whole time. I wish I could have kept it for myself!

Star Light, Star Bright

As I mentioned in the previous post, I'm part of Free Cakes For Kids (www.freecakesforkids.com). We make birthday cakes for kids of families in need. Whatever the reason may be for a family not being able to give a kid a birthday cake, we're there to help. For the most part, I make cakes for a Womens' and Children's shelter in Brea. A super sweet lady, Mary Lou, gives me a call at the beginning of the month and let's me know what cakes are coming up. She'll tell me a little about the kid and what he/she would like on the cake (decorations, flavor). Those are definitely my favorite cakes to make.

This month, the shelter only had one cake for me. This was for a girl named Rachel who was turning 12. She wanted a star-shaped cake; white cake with chocolate frosting. Not an exciting cake, but simple cakes are lovely. Plus, it gave me an excuse to buy a star-shaped pan! Yessssss.

Ready to frost:


Basic white coat:


I didn't know her favorite colors so I stuck with the usual yellow color for stars:


The yellow star looked too plain, so I spiced it up with some sprinkles. Yay!


A birthday greeting and voila!


The writing didn't come out as nice as I wanted, because I piped yellow stars instead of making the yellow smooth. I still think it came out cute though!

A Little Background

I started making cakes for my friends' birthdays in high school. I think people should feel special on their birthdays and what better way than with a cake!? My cakes started out like this:



I know, I know. Total wreck, but it was made with tons o' love! That counts for something, right?

Last September, I joined Free Cakes For Kids and took a series of decorating classes. That's when things started to pick up. I never thought word of mouth would get me so many cake orders. Now, I spend 99% of my free time making cakes. It's the best hobby ever.

This is where the magic and sometimes disaster happens...


Join me in my baking adventures! =)