Harry Potter Snitch Cake

My friend Katie turns 18 in a couple of days. She had a party yesterday and I got to make the cake. :) The party was Harry Potter themed, so after a couple of ideas thrown around we decided a snitch cake would be good. Katie thought of everything for the party; she had butterbeer, Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, homemade chocolate frogs with boxes and wizard cards that she put together by hand. It was amazing and a lot of fun!

I debated on how to make the wings for the cake for days, and after searching the internet many times (CakeCentral is amazing by the way) I decided to make them out of a 50/50 mix of gumpaste and fondant.

I formed the ends around dowel rods and let them dry in a flower former and brushed them with gold pearl dust. The cake itself was covered in gold buttercream that I also brushed with gold pearl dust after chilling it.

Before the pearl dust

After the pearl dust

Transporting it was a bit of a nightmare, but I managed to get it there safely. There were no major problems, and everybody liked it!

The Birthday Girl!

I'm really happy with how it turned out! 

Mischievous Kitten Cake

I got to put my Sports Ball pan that I won from the Wilton contest to use!

Isn't he cute?!

This cake turned into a two day project for me. It was very time consuming making all of the yarn strands, plus the fact that I would get annoyed at it for various reasons and take breaks. But I had really wanted to make it ever since I saw it in a decorating book and I'm glad I finally made it.

It is just a simple yellow cake and the yarn and kitten are fondant. I drew his pupils and mouth with a black edible marker. I had originally wanted to make him black so he would be like my cat, but the grey was easier to make and I think the pink and grey look good together anyway, so it all worked out.

He likes you :)

My Wilton Goodies

Wow, it seems that I have been MIA for quite some time. I started my first full time college semester in August and unfortunately it took up almost all of my time until now. I am on winter break and finally have some free time!

Anyway, on to the exciting stuff. A little while back, Wilton held a Pin it and Win Scavenger Hunt Sweepstakes on Pinterest. The prize was $200 worth of any products from Wilton's website store. I entered the contest and was contacted a little while later and told that I was a winner! I had never been so exited to shop for things on the internet, and definitely never been so anxious waiting for a package to be delivered.

Here's a picture of the goodies that arrived!

I got 4 books: Wilton Wedding Style, Uses of Decorating Tips, Wilton Wedding Cakes - A Romantic Portfolio, and The Wilton School - Decorating Cakes. I also got a cake caddy, an icing comb set, a sports ball pan, a cake marker, a lady bug pan, a Princess Ariel pan, a tart/quiche pan, 2 fondant and gum paste molds (Baroque and Sea Life), FoodWriter edible markers, and Edible Accents pink hearts.

 And I wasn't the only one who was excited about the delivery. My cat, Milo, enjoyed what he got out of it, too. :)

 Many thanks to Wilton!

My Sister's Wedding Cake

Last Saturday one of my older sisters, Jessica, married her fiance, Andrew. I had the honor of being one of her bridesmaids and making their wedding cake.

Jessica designed every little detail about the cake, I just created it. I was worried about a couple of things with this cake. One of them was that since I was going to be in the wedding and making the cake, I thought I wouldn't have nearly enough time, but that turned out to be no problem. The second was that I was afraid it was going to be really hot and the buttercream would melt. Fortunately, the temperature was in the mid 70's the day of the wedding, so that wasn't a problem either. I really couldn't have asked for better circumstances.

Jessica and my new brother-in-law getting ready to cut the cake :)

White Velvet, mmm...

The three of us

Congratulations Jess and Andrew, I love you both!

It's What's Inside that Counts

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Devil's Food Cake Cheesecake is what I saw on my favorite food blog, SprinkleBakes, a few days ago and I couldn't go much longer without having it in my life. So I decided to try to tackle the beast.

While this cake is pretty on the outside, the real star is the inside of it.

The bottom layer is devil's food cake, the middle is cheesecake, and the top is cookie dough. And I love the way the top isn't covered up by the buttercream, it's just around the sides, so the cookie dough can shine through.

If you would like the recipe, just click on the link at the top of this post. The buttercream tasted exactly like chocolate malt balls to me, it was delicious.  For the swirls around the top of the cake I used a Wilton tip 2D, and I used the "I love a little cookie dough" recipe.

I think I'll go have another piece now.

Mocha Basket Weave

I made this cake the other day:

It was a chocolate cake with mocha icing. I was disappointed though because the mocha icing was delicious by itself, but after it was on the cake, it just tasted like chocolate icing. Oh well though, it was still good. :)

I used a different tip for this basket weave than my last basket weave. Which one do you like better?

My First Wedding Cake

I made my first wedding cake for a couple of friends who got married about a week ago. I was so nervous about transporting it and putting it all together, but thankfully nothing went wrong. The hardest part was carrying it, it was so heavy! The bottom tier was 16 inches, middle was 12 inches, and the top was 8 inches. I am so happy with how it turned out!

The bottom and middle tier were white velvet cake, and the top was spice cake. The filling between the layers was buttercream, as well as on the outside of the cake.

The lovely bride and groom cutting the cake. :) Sorry for the blurriness.

 The bride, groom, and myself.

Me taking over the cutting of the rest of the cake.

My best wishes to the bride and groom, may your lives together be filled with great joy.