Martha's 30th Birthday Cake

Last weekend Jessica had her first client since getting back from our trip to China. One of our friends turned 30 and a couple of friends wanted to get a birthday cake for her. Here's what Jessica ended up making:

Each layer was a different flavor:

-Top tier = chocolate cake with chocolate ganache

-Middle tier = orange cake with chocolate ganache

-Bottom tier = lemon cake with rasberry whipped cream

The whole thing is covered in a buttercream and piped with colored royal icing.

Cheeto also took an interest in what Jessica had created:

Joshua's First Birthday

This post is a couple of months late, but better late than never. A few months ago, a little boy named Joshua turned 1. Being a very exciting time for the parents, they decided to throw a teddy bear party and asked me to make the cake.

One parent wanted chocolate cake and the other wanted vanilla, so we compromised. The bottom tier was a vanilla cake with vanilla frosting and fondant. The teddy bear was made out of dark chocolate cake with chocolate filling and piped in chocolate frosting. The extra cupcakes were all out of chocolate cake also.

Of course the Birthday Boy had have his own "smash cake" so he could make as big of a mess as he wanted. The family said that he treated the bear with the utmost respect before devouring it. I don't know about you, but I think he's pretty adorable.

Going to a Luau

When a teenage girl has a birthday, there is no better way to celebrate than by having a Luau party. My friend went all out when planning this party, and I tried my best to give her the cake of her dreams. She found one that she liked online, so I modeled this one after it.

There was really something for everyone on this cake. The bottom tier was chocolate cake with chocolate ganache filling, the middle tier was lemon cake with raspberry whipped cream filling, and the top was vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream filling. Scott had fun licking the bowls.

Everything was edible, too, except for the flowers. My husband, Scott, helped me out a bunch too by painting the sunset onto the middle tier. He did a good job, didn't he?

Emma's Ladybugs

My friend's daughter was turning 1, and she wanted a ladybug themed birthday. She went searching online and found a picture of a cake that she wanted on www.cakecentral.com's gallery. This cake was vanilla with vanilla buttercream filling. It was all gone before I even got to the party!

After the cake was done, though, I still thought that Emma needed more lady bugs, so I turned to Martha Stewart's Cupcake Cookbook for an idea:

Of course I had to had some little roses to the mix for color. By the end, I don't think there was any lack of ladybugs, do you?

Timmy's Birthday Cake

This is a birthday cake Jessica made for a coworker's son. He's 15 years old who loves Rubik's cubes, Jimi Hendrix, Guitar Hero, and skateboarding. This was also Jessica's first cake for a paying customer. Yay, business! The cake is vanilla cake with strawberry whipped cream filling. I got to sample some and it tastes like strawberry shortcake. Delicious.

That's a mock-up of Hendrix's guitar.

Notice the edge of the cake are the notes to Guitar Hero. You can get really creative with these notes. I'm a fan of the game. But some kids just spend way too much time playing. This 9 year-old is amazing.

Leadership Training

Jessica had a leadership training at work the last few weeks. She wanted to make an "edible summary" of the different things that they learned about. Some of the symbols are a little strange...

For the cake, the bottom layer is a chocolate cake with strawberry cream filling. The middle layer is vanilla cake, also with strawberry cream filling. And the top triangle is a large rice crispy treat. It's all covered in fondant and painted.

The glasses were a theme to "look through different lenses." I think they were for nerd support. Anyways, the lenses on the glasses were made from sugar.

Curious George even made an appearance on the cake. Although as a happy monkey, not an evil one.

To finish it off, Jessica made little sugar cookies cut into stars with the initials of everyone who participated in the training.