Baby Rump Cake

My little sister wanted to throw a baby shower for a friend.  She asked if I would help make the cake.  She sent me a few pictures of baby shower cakes that she liked.  One of them was a cake that I had seen before and thought was really pretty cute.  We decided to tackle the baby rump cake.  Again, short on time (did this in two evenings) so all I got pictures of was the final product. 

Night 1:  We made the gluten free yellow cake and raspberry frosting.  We also shaped rice crispy treats for the rump, legs, and feet.  We covered them in chocolate to try and fill in some of the divots.  I hadn't tried that before - and didn't think it really made a difference - maybe I needed more chocolate on top?  Anyway, we called it done for the night.

Night 2:  We split tasks here.  My sister began smoothing out the chocolate on the rice crispy body parts with a knife while I cut the cake into three sections, filled it and covered it with the raspberry frosting.  I find, with fondant covered cakes, the more layers of frosting inside the cake the better.  Next, she began coloring fondant while I covered the cake with white.  FYI, we did put some dowels in the cake and cardboard between the rump and cake to help hold some of the weight.  I added the ribbon around the border and created the bow.  Then, we tucked the baby rump in by covering it with a blanket and added some frills to the diaper.  While I did that, my sister cut out the circles and placed them on the cake.  Last, we put the feet on and added the toes.  Great team work and a really cute little baby shower cake!

Hello Kitty Cake Pops

 My daughter's 3rd birthday was quickly approaching and I was going to be out of town for several days leading up to it.  I was concerned that I would not have enough time to prep and execute the decorating of a cake.  I decided to try out cake pops.  I could make the cake and frosting ahead of time, shape them into cake balls and finish decorating them the morning of the party.  I love the bakerella website and drew my inspiration from her.  I didn't get pictures of the process as I was in a rush.  However, know that it may have been just as easy for me to do a cake.  These little gals were quite time consuming, and I ran into many difficulties.  But as always, I learned a few things and the final product was delicious. 

I basically followed bakerellas directions as to how to do these pretty little kitties.  A few difference: 1) I had to double dip my cake pops in the white chocolate as my daughter wanted chocolate cake.  In order to cover up the chocolate I had to double dip.  2)  I used royal icing for the eyes and whiskers.  I have the very same marker as bakeralla, but for some reason it did not produce very solid lines.  3)  I used royal icing instead of a mini m&m for the middle of the bow.  I decided to go with a pink bow rather than a red and I don't think they have pink mini m&m's. 

My daughter's favorite part?  Picking out all of the pink heart sprinkles (come with red white and pink) for Kitty's bows.  If you ask her, she'd tell you that she did the bows :). 

Onesie Cookies

I have wanted to make onesie cookies for a LONG time.  I saw them once on an episode of the Martha Stewart Show.  She actually wrapped them in clear plastic bags and handed them out as party favors - cute idea.  My neighbor asked if I'd make some cookies for a baby shower.  She explained to me that everyone who came to the shower was to bring a onesie.  The mom-to-be then had to guess which guest brought each onesie.  So, the idea was to make several different designs to kind of go with the theme of the game.

First, I made my favorite sugar cookie recipe and baked several onesie shaped cookies.  This was done using a wilton cookie cutter. 

I made a few different colors of thin royal icing and did a quick flood coat.  With some of them (light green in the back) I placed some blue drops on the cookie while the green was still very wet.  The blue sank right into the green and it looked like one solid coat.  Very neat!

Using some thicker royal icing I added some details. The plan was to use some mini dragees as snaps, but they didn't ship in time.  Instead I used the white royal icing and came back and painted it with a bit of silver luster dust and vodka.

  

All in all, I was pretty pleased with the way they turned out.  

"Watercolor" Owls

 My inspiration for this cake was Lauren Alexander's watercolor paintings.  This cake went a long with the onesie cookies.  The mother-to-be had made an etsy wish list of items she wanted for the baby and for the baby's nursery.  One of the items she had on her wish list were Alexander's "Triple Threat Set of 3 Owl Prints".  I loved the colors!  I wanted this cake to have a bit of artistic flair, so rather than using a standard sized cake I made a really tall cake and then cut the top at an angle.  I used five 6" round cakes and split each in half to fill with chocolate ganache.  It stood over a foot high.

If you look closely, you'll notice that the munchkin in the back is smiling - she thinks I am taking a picture of her :)

Then I frosted the tower of cake with more chocolate ganache.

Then covered it with fondant - this was not a pretty process.  The final product turned out just fine.  I need to find a better way to cover a cylinder cake with fondant though.

I then sponge painted blue and purple (using color dust and vodka) on my clean canvas.  This gave me blue fingers.

My husband knows that I am not taking his picture - but he thinks it's funny to sneak in anyway.

I then began to paint my tree (again using color dust and vodka), which was on a separate piece of fondant.  I wanted the tree and owls to literally pop off the cake - so I made them on separate layers.

See the blue fingers?

This time we were taking her picture - isn't she cute!

I applied the tree to the cake using some royal icing.  Then I began adding the owls (which were another layer).  I attached the owls with royal icing as well.  I also added a strip of white along the bottom to serve as a taped off border - like the print.

I added in some details with royal icing and more painting.  I also added another border along the top.

This was my final cake.  I was pretty happy with the overall look.  I wish that I had made the background a little bit lighter.  I have to remind myself to take a step back from time to time as I'm working to see what I am making.  I have a tendency to get in this zone and just keep plugging away. 

I do love the little owls though :)

Grace quickly grabbed her camera.  I think she has seen us do this a time or two.