Pretty Peacock

One of my former co-workers sent me a picture on Thursday of a very intricate jumbo peacock cupcake for her mother's birthday.  Admittedly, this thing was so intricate, I thought she was joking for a second.  Regardless, I (of course) told her "no problem! see you Sunday!"

The longer I stared at the photo, the less intimidating it became, and I finally figured out the logistics of this.  Despite wanting to charge punitive damages for the emotional distress {bad lawyer quip}, it actually was far less daunting.  It turned out so beautiful, and Sandy's mom said it was the prettiest cake she had ever seen.  {blushing a little!}

It was just a simple white cake in the jumbo mold. Instead of fondant, the peacock is covered in modeling chocolate for a better taste.  The tail feathers are also made of modeling chocolate.  Although the pictures don't display it, the feathers are painted with a gold luster dust.

Stay Sweet!

Oh What Fun! Dylan is One!

 

 

Yesterday I had the pleasure of making a host of sweets for a sweet little one-year-old's very first birthday.  My friend Samantha had an all out party planned for her little girl Dylan and needed plenty of pink treats to go with.  She sent a photo of a two-tiered pink cake with ribbons and spirals galore.  The cake resembled a present adorned with ribbons and bows, and matched the theme "Oh What Fun" so well.

 

 

The bottom tier was a 9-inch vanilla cake; the top, a giant chocolate cupcake.  Instead of fondant, since this was a child's birthday and most don't like the taste, the cakes were covered in modeling chocolate.

But for sweet Dylan's party, even a fun cake like this wasn't enough... obviously, matching cut-out cookies was a must!.

Finally, a first birthday wouldn't be complete without a smash cake!  We kept it simple and just used a rose-style frosting--in bright pink of course.

 and from the photos, it looked like little Dylan enjoyed her first smash!

 

Stay Sweet!

Happy Birthday, Rick!

So, today is my father-in-law's birthday, and I was lucky enough to make the cake for his dinner celebration with the family.  Also lucky for me is that Rick and I both share the same favorite cake-- red velvet!  

As muh as I love the traditional cream cheese frosting, I wanted to give this birthday cake a little extra pizazz. So I made a sight modification to get a cannoli frosting.  I also adorned the edge of the cake with chocolate hazelnut pirouette cookies.  I'm calling it "Italian Velvet."  The result was incredible.  

As you can see, I also wrote a tasty chocolate birthday message to Rick!

 

The cake was perfectly moist and a bright deep red, just as it should be. 

The cake was also incredibly rich.  I did my job of putting everyone into a sugar coma after dinner. 

Maybe the pieces should have been one pirouette smaller.... ;-)

Happy Birthday Rick!!