My Little Pony Cakes

This weekend, we celebrated the birthdays of both of my nieces, Nevaeh who turned 4 and Amara who turned 1.

Amara of course is much too young to pick a theme or design (or really care), so Nevaeh's wish was a My
Little Pony theme. Purple and pink were her requests. I was on it.

Since I only have one child- who happens to be a rough and rowdy 100% boy- I get overly excited when shopping for the girls. Frilly things, glitter, dolls with big eyes, and pastels instead of primary. So naturally, I wanted this cake to be as girly and pretty as possible.

I decided on a 2-tier cake for Vaeh with the bottom tier being a chocolate fudge cake with homemade chocolate buttercream frosting, and the top being half strawberry and half funfetti (again, I wanted girliness galore) with a homemade whipped cream frosting. I used a little cream cheese so it would set and be sturdy enough to hold the fondant. I made a mini cake for Amara, in the same flavors as Vaeh's top tier.

I hope you enjoy it as much as my adorable nieces did! (We took the pictures after arriving at the park so I apologize for the background being busy).

Gio's Birthday Invites (Nightmare Before Christmas)

Giovanni is turning 4 next month :)

And this made me jump a little! Jeez, I need to get going on his party supplies!
This year, he decided on the theme "The Nightmare Before Christmas." Remembering how the film made a HUGE comeback during my high school years (Hot Topic was basically a Tim Burton tribute store), I figured, "No problem!" Well... it's been almost 10 years since high school, and apparently TNBC isn't as popular as it once was.

Not that I have a shortage of online stores to find merchandise.. everything from beanies to keychains to bobbleheads. And even the same shoelaces I wore during my freshman year of high school.

BUT NO PARTY SUPPLIES. The only ones I can find have been on eBay, going for ridiculous prices. Really? I don't think I want to pay more than $50 on cake plates that will be smeared with frosting and tossed in the trash. No thanks.

Instead, I have slowly but surely been accumulating pieces for his party. I decided to stick with a black and white (and somewhat purple) striped theme, using the characters as accents for the party. The showpiece will be the cake.

My first purchases were from The TomKat Studio. I went with the black and white striped theme, purchasing the cups, party favor bags, plates, straws, and baking cups for the kids invited. These will not serve as cupcake wrappers but as cups for little hands to store crackers, pretzels, and popcorn. I purchased plain black and white napkins, balloons, and streamers as well as extra plates and napkins. I decided on purple tablecloths and extra balloons for a little color, albeit a very Tim Burton "color."

I handmade Gio's invitations, because I couldn't really find anything I liked online. I wanted to do something kind of grandiose as this theme is somewhat gothic. I chose to do a tri-fold invitation. I first used a textured black paper found at Michael's, cutting them in half "hamburger" style. then I measured and folded them over twice so as to create flaps. I then used a black and white striped scrapbooking paper I found at Joann's. I measured out the middle space of the invites, and used double-sided tape (one of my FAVORITE inventions, along with hot glue) to secure the paper onto the invite. I then printed an image I found and modified in Photoshop of Jack Skellington. I liked how his pose is very inviting! I again measured it out, and secured it on top of the black and white paper. My last step was downloading The Nightmare Before Christmas font. I used this to type up the details of the party and printed it on vellum purchased at Joann's. After cutting those, I used the same double-sided tape to secure it to the picture of Jack. I folded over the flaps and used a black, glittery adhesive shape (I went with round but they have all kinds of shapes) purchased at Michael's to close the invite.

I am posting a picture of the finished invitations. Check back often as I will be posting other TNBC supplies I am handcrafting for the party!

Carter's 1st Birthday Cake!

Saturday we celebrated my nephew Carter's first birthday party :D

I asked if I could make the cake. Being a perfectionist, I instantly became nervous that I would not make it to my own or anyone else's standards. But I was excited to take on my first fully decorated 3 tier cake. Carter's theme was "Monkey Boy," and instead of overdoing the monkeys on the cake I went with a simple idea: incorporate banana flavoring.

I started by baking the cakes and home-making the frosting on Wednesday. The bottom tier was a vanilla cake with a banana frosting in the middle. The banana frosting was delicious, but almost more of an icing consistency so I decided to add a thicker chocolate frosting into the banana for the sides and top, to make a sturdier "wall" for the fondant. This was a good idea, and the chocolate banana was so yummy! The top tier and personal cake for Carter (the mini) were both chocolate cake with a rich chocolate frosting.

On Thursday, once the cakes and frosting had chilled overnight in the fridge, I covered them with fondant. I used the Wilton pre-rolled 5lb box of pure white fondant which was enough for all 3 tiers and plenty left over for decoration. I also used the Wilton fondant gel coloring, which saves a lot of money compared to buying already colored fondant.

Friday morning we did detail work. My hubby and I cut out circles using metal icing tips. We used shaped scissors for the border work (not my favorite tool- I wouldn't suggest it because it leaves marks where ever you stop cutting, and made it hard to keep a consistent width throughout the entire border. Go with a tool specifically for fondant!) I used alphabet shaped cookie cutters to cut out CARTER for the front of the cake. Luckily, the detail work was pretty simple so I didn't feel overwhelmed. My only wish was that I had used wooden dowels to hold up the top tier. It started to cave a tad bit (not overly noticeable, but again, I'm a perfectionist) and pulled the fondant.

And, finally, the finished cake. We packed this sucker in ice and it made it from Sacramento to Clearlake, then Clearlake to Santa Rosa. So apparently, it was sturdy. Everyone enjoyed the cake and I received a lot of compliments... now I feel ready to take on another!