Baseball Cap Cake & Cupcakes

This cake is obviously for a Brave's fan.

The cupcakes were bonus cuz I had left over cake batter.  They turned out cute didn't they?

Of all the cakes we make, baseball caps just happen to be one of our all time faves!

A half round pan... a little fondant with some drying time and tah-da! a baseball hat!

The cupcakes were dipped in melted frosting for a smooth look and the stitches were added with a little bit of red frosting.  The birthday boy loved it and we loved that look of awe when he asked which part was cake!

Captain America

Made in America for two adorable little men Dane and Chase.

Happy 4th of July boys!

A pretty simple cake so I thought I'd broaden my cake decorating abilities and knowledge... this time I learned to make marshmallow fondant!  Regular fondant is chalky tasting and as my kiddos would say, "ew! nasty!".  I tested my concoction out on my kiddos and it was a hit!  Marshmallow fondant tastes like sugary marshmallows and is so much easier to work with and so much more fun to play with! 

If you've tried your hand at cake decorating you're probably staring in awe at the red colored frosting.  Yes, it's my very own homemade butter cream frosting, no it does not taste "yucky" according to my kids and yes I will let you in on the well guarded secret of creating it.

It's so easy to make you don't even need to take notes! Really!
Ready? 

After many years and many, many attempts at making red I stumbled across this amazing thing called powdered food coloring!  Who knew it could make all the difference?

For a frosting recipe that calls for 2lbs of powdered sugar use 6 ounces of powdered red food coloring (2 containers) and 1 1/2 ounces of red gel food coloring (about 1/2 a  large container of Wilton no-taste).  Mix it slowly into your white frosting.  When it's mixed well let it sit.  It'll appear to be a crazy color of reddish orange... don't stress, you did it right I promise... just let it sit and do something else.  Check on it in about half an hour and ta-dah! As if by magic you have primary red!  It'll continue to brighten over many hours so I suggest making it a day in advance.

How easy was that?!?  And you are so very welcome. ;)

Don't ever fear red again!

Party Cake

Simple yet festive! One of the few cakes I've used fondant.

My beliefs with fondant are simple...
A cake is not only made to be beautiful, stunning and amazing it's true purpose is to taste delightful. If a cake doesn't taste wonderful I've failed. Fondant is not a palatable taste or texture. It looks amazingly pleasing to the eye, but disappoints the taste buds. For this reason I choose a small amount of imperfection to use butter-cream frosting instead. However, I've realized fondant does have a place in the details... some cakes demand it's use.

This cake that screams party is 4 layers of moist devil's food cake frosted in white butter-cream and very simple for anyone to recreate.

I prefer to purchase rather than make fondant on the rare occasion that I use. Fondant can be found just about anywhere now days - even on the cake making isle at Walmart! It comes white or in colors. I purchase white and use my food coloring to create the colors I need.

For this project I chose my colors, worked in the coloring by kneading the fondant until thoroughly incorporated. I dusted my counter with powdered sugar and used a rolling pin to roll the fondant to a 1/4" thickness.

I then used a straight edged ruler and a small pizza cutter to cut 1/2" strips from the fondant, cutting them all at different lengths.

I used 1/2" dowels and wrapped the fondant around them at an angle leaving a slight gap all of the way down. I laid them on a cookie sheet and allowed them to dry for two days until they were hard.

I ran a large bead of butter-cream frosting along the bottom of the cake and placed the fondant curls all along the edge. The top curls were a little more tricky. They didn't want to stand on their own. To remedy this problem I pushed toothpicks into the cake and placed the curls over them where ever necessary. Not every curl needs a toothpick so don't go overboard with them.

I added fondant circles made by rolling out the fondant and using a small round cutter. Couldn't have been more simple.

Simplistic and impressive... even a beginner can create this cake with little stress.