"Justice for Girls" Monkey Themed Cake

My little niece turned 8 and loves the monkey from the Justice for Girls clothing store and with a sleep over party, I wanted to create the perfect little cake incorporating the Monkey, the bright and funky store themed style and a bed. Her father said she was always laying on her bed listening to her iTouch so I just had to add that too =)

The cake is an 8 x 5 x 3 inch Dark Chocolate Cake covered in Chocolate IMBC - here's a picture of it in the middle of being crumb coated.

Once I covered the cake over with the IMBC, I let it sit in the fridge to firm up while I prepared the bed spread to lay over it.

I rolled the MMF out into a rectangle (11 x 11 inch - 5x8 inch top with 3 inches down 3 of the sides), I used a diamond impression mat to lightly mark the pattern over it.  With a sewing tracing wheel, I marked the lines then lightly pressed in the creases at each intersection with a gumpaste veining tool.

I then lay it over the cake and smoothed it into place.  The headboard was made 2 days prior to allow time to dry out of MMF mixed with Tylose and it sits flat up against the back of the cake.

I then added a small round "button" into each intersection and dusted the creases of the bed spread with pink petal dust.

The texture on the little rug was made by using the tip of the star piping tip then dusted over with lilac petal dust.  I topped them with a pair of slippers =) for the little monkey.

The monkey is made out of modeling chocolate (the head is a RKT covered in modeling chocolate).  I loved how she turned out - Laying on the bed, listening to her iTouch.

another view of the monkey....  I made the bow and the letters of her name out of MMF (mixed with Tylose) then dusted them with edible Glitter.

I just had to add the banana peel beside the bed =)

I also made a bunch of mini banana's to top the cupcakes with (1 to 1.5 inches).  Here they're being dusted in sunflower and dogwood brown petal dust.

The 4 steps to creating a gumpaste banana (left to right):

1) Model the banana out of yellow gumpaste (here I used MMF mixed with Tylose)

2) Dust them over with a yellow or sunflower petal dust

3) Lightly and randomly, dust them with brown or dogwood petal dust

4) Steam them lightly to set the color = perfect, little, ripe bananas.  It would have been nice to have added some banana extract to them but I didn't think about it until they were done.

Some of the cupcake toppers.  We had 4 dozen Red Velvet cupcakes to top with decorations so I did an assortment of hearts, stars, flower blossoms, peace signs, banana's, the Monkey and #8.

My sister-in-law baked her Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting and I topped then off with the decorations and finished off the dessert table with some Chocolate Peppermint Cake Balls.  It all came together perfectly and I love the theme and colors - so Kayla!

Korean Hanbok Dol Cake

A very cute cake for such a cutie, Olivia.  My cousins best friend's daughter was turning 1 and celebrating it with a traditional Korean 1st Birthday Party.  The mom asked for a figurine of her daughter, Olivia over a 6-inch cake while my cousin baked the cupcakes to go with them.  She sent me a couple pictures of Olivia's outfit, a traditional Hanbok dress and hat in silk with flowers and butterflies.

3 inch tall Hanbok Dol Figurine (modeling Chocolate)

Olivia's Hanbok Dress, close up of details on sleeve and Hanbok Hat

I made the figurine out of modeling chocolate and she stands at 3 inches tall.  Some of the details were added in MMF and some in modeling chocolate.   The flowers on her shirt and sleeves were painted in with gel colors and the skirt was dusted in red luster dust to look like silk.

I used a 6 inch popsicle stick and stuck half of it into a 6-inch cake dummy to help with getting the sizing correct then built up the dress to look like the outfit in the photo.

Making the stripes for the sides of the cake to match the ones on the sleeves

The cake was sectioned off with 3 sets of stripes that matched the ones on her sleeves.  I made the stripes separately by color attaching them side by side with a little bit of water over a flat surface.  I then cut each set of stripes down to the height of the cake and attached them to the side of the cake - repeating the pattern 3 times around.

6 inch IMBC covered cake (upside down method)

To get the tall, straight sides with IMBC (ganache or BC), I use the upside down method and you can find more info about it here:

- Baptism Cake (square and round cake covered in IMBC including more links to other posts)

In between each set of stripes, I added butterflies, vines, and flowers to match the ones on her shirt and hat.  The butterflies were made using a PME Plunger and dusted/painted with various colors of petal dust and luster dust.  The blossoms were made using various blossom cutters.  The red/white flower was made using 3 different sized scalloped circle cutters - a larger one for the back petal, 2 medium circles for the middle, and 2 small ones for the bottom that are curling over (a left petal and a right petal).  With no professional flower making knowledge, I improvised and came up with my own interpretation of the flower and painted the petals with gel colors in white and red - they matched the ones on the dress perfectly!

photo courtesy of Stacy C.

Since my cousin was baking 3 dozen cupcakes and to have them match the cake, we got together a few days before and with their help, we made just over 5 dozen butterflies and 5 dozen blossoms.  They were used to top 3 dozen cupcakes with and displayed next to the Cake...Gluten Free Banana Cake with Cream Cheese IMBC. 

Cream Cheese IMBC:  I used my basic recipe for IMBC found here (under the Music Themed 80th Birthday Cake post) but added 1/2 dram of Cream Cheese LorAnn Oil to it.  For the filling, I beat some cream cheese until light and fluffy then mixed some IMBC into it.   I got the recipe idea from Jennifer, www.fromscratchsf.wordpress.com.  She also shared some really nice tips about making SMBC that you can also apply to making IMBC - I used her method at the very end with adding the butter in with the mixer on VERY LOW and it turned out perfect and was so much faster - I'll be doing this from now on!  See links below...

- Jennifer Bratko's SMBC Recipe and tips

- Jennifer Bratko's Cream Cheese SMBC Recipe

Baptism Cake

A Baptism cake for my little niece.  10" square and 8" round Vanilla cake filled with Lemon Mousse and covered in a pale pink, Lemon Italian Meringue Buttercream (IMBC).  The flowers, butterflies and ribbon are MMF and the cross is made out of modeling chocolate dusted in pearl dust.

This was also the 1st time I covered a square cake in IMBC and I must have spent about 2 hours just smoothing it out to get the perfectly sharp corners and sides.  Round cakes are so much easier!  I love using the upside down technique to ice my cakes - Helps with getting nice, leveled tops and nice, crisp corners with.  Here are other posts about using the upside down method which I use on basically anything that firms up in the fridge with...regular buttercream, IMBC, ganache:
- Covering a Cake in Ganache
- Music Themed 80th Birthday Cake (and IMBC Recipe)

There were a few things I had one to this cake that I would not have typically done.  I had to drive the cake 40 minutes away and keep it stored in the car for about 2 more hours during the ceremony and until we got to the reception location in the midst of a heat wave in the middle of winter (SoCal!).  So to ensure the cake stayed intact throughout the morning, I took extra precaution in adding a regular, stiffened buttercream dam to add extra support for the lemon mousse filling.  Typically when I fill a cake with mousse and use IMBC, I don't add a dam since I don't like to mix in regular buttercream with IMBC.  Either way, just fill the cake, stack and wrap it up really tightly with saran wrap, place the wrapped cakes back inside the pan they were baked in, add another layer of tightly wrapped saran wrap and then put the whole thing in the fridge overnight to settle and for the mousse to set....Or use a springform pan or a cake ring and build up the cakes inside them.

The following day, add a layer of IMBC on the cake board, place the bottom of the cake on it, add a thick layer of IMBC along the top and smooth it out.

Right Side Up

Add a layer of wax or parchment paper and use a straight-edged dough scraper to smooth that out and get rid of any air bubbles caught under there.

Upside Down

Place a larger, stable board over that and quickly but carefully flip the entire cake over so it's upside down.  Use a Leveler to make sure it's leveled, if not, gently press down where needed to get it leveled.

Still Upside Down

Add a thin coat of IMBC around the cake filling in any grooves and gaps - be sure to press the IMBC into the gaps and fill it up really well.

Still Upside Down

Layer by layer, add the IMBC around the cake just until you are about 1/4" out past the cake board.  You want to add more than needed and just scrape off the excess.

Still Upside Down - use the cake board as a guide to scrape off the excess IMBC

Keep scraping away using a clean and warm blade with each swipe.  With IMBC, you don't want to use too hot of a blade or it'll turn the BC slightly yellow - patchy yellow.  I just heat up a moist dish cloth in the microwave and wipe the scraper with it to warm it up just enough to glide smoothly over the BC.  Stick the entire cake back into either the freezer or fridge for at least a 1/2 hour.  Remove from the fridge, flip the cake back over and carefully peel off the parchment/wax paper off the top.   Smooth any imperfections you may have with an  angled spatula and put the entire cake back into the fridge to stay firm while you prep the decorations.  It's much easier to decorate an IMBC cake while it's cold and hard.  As soon as it starts to come back down to room temperature and the IMBC gets soft, just stick it back in the fridge for a few minutes to firm up again and continue decorating.

I did keep the bottom tier in the freezer overnight all smoothed and covered in IMBC and the top tier with the ribbon and name plaque in the fridge.  On the morning of the baptism, I stacked the cakes and added the flowers and butterflies the ribbon along the bottom tier, packed it all up inside a large box and ran out the door to the baptism all within an hour (I wanted to cakes as cold as possible for the long morning in the car).  We made sure to park the car under a tree for some shade and luckily, our morning stayed cool.   The chilled cake kept the inside of the box cool as well and made it to the reception intact and unmelted.  It all defrosted perfectly by the time we had to eat it.

The butterflies were made using a butterfly cutter then lightly painted in pink gel colors and dusted in pearl dust.  The cross was molded by hand, an impression mat was used to add some texture to the front and back and then dusted with pearl dust.  I used 2 different sized flower blossom cutters to make the flowers and dusted those with pearl dust as well.

I completely ran out of time in the midst of everything else going on and had to cover the cake board with Royal Icing - wish I had just an extra day to cover it in fondant.  But the cake still turned out perfect...perfect for little Emily.

Some types of tools used:

               

Tennis Court Cake

I made this for my Father-in-law who plays tennis daily.  Last year I made a tennis racket, this year the court, next year...hmmm, it'll most likely be tennis related.  I've been wanting to make a pair of sneakers but didn't have any time last week and had to do a much simpler cake.  I used a loaf pan to bake the Chocolate Sour Cream Cake (8"x4") then carved the sides straight down.  Covered in MMF and filled with Oreo IMBC - my new favorite filling, it's so delicious:  Just make IMBC then blend in some finely crushed Oreo cookies...delish!

For the net, I mixed some of the green fondant from the court with white, made the net markings by lightly indenting in the fondant and brushed it very lightly with moss green petal dust to help make it pop.  I then used a stitching wheel along the white bands and let the net dry overnight so it would stand up nicely over the cake.

The tennis balls were about 1/4" round and I used a round piping tip to press in the markings on the sides of the ball...all 41 of them!

I used some of the tennis balls along the lettering and scattered the remaining ones over the rest of the cake.

A small and simple cake but it was perfect for him and the family loved it!

Super Mario Bros Cake (and Oreo IMBC Recipe)

A birthday cake for Rowen who wanted Bowser, Mario, Luigi and Goomba's and this is what I came up with to pull it all together.  My crazy story behind  the idea - Bowser's Castle with Bowser chasing the Bros while they were running away trying to catch the stars and jump into the Pipe.

Bowser was the hardest and most time consuming of the characters to make; so many pieces!  All hand cut and put together piece by piece, layer by layer.  He took 2 hours but I loved how he turned out...grrrr! 

Mario's and Luigi's outline was cut out of fondant then I lightly engraved in all the details and painted in all the features.

The Goomba's were put together from 3 seperate pieces (feet, legs, head).  Each piece was left to dry for 1 day before assembling it together.

I made the bricks by using "Duff Brick Texture Tile" bought at Michael's (with my 40% off coupon - whoo hoo).  It made it so easy to create instant tiles that worked perfectly with the cake.

And Rowen's name was made using the Wilton Alphabet Cutterwhich fit perfectly over the brick blocks.  Plus I added 6 gold coins around the cake since he was turning 6 (I used a flower tip impressed in the middle of each coin to give it some dimension).

Rowen loved his cake and so did I!  I hope you do too :)

Lesson learned:  Make extra Goomba's, at least one per guest - the kids all wanted to eat one and I only had 4...ay yay yay!

8" round Chocolate Sour Cream Cake filled with Oreo IMBC.  Covered and decorated in MMF.

Oreo IMBC:  Make your usual IMBC or Buttercream, set aside.  Take Oreo Cookies, break them apart, scrape off the cream filling and set the filling aside. Crush the oreo cookies (without the cream center) in a blender or chopper (I used a Magic Bullet). Take about a third of your buttercream (enough to fill and thinly crumb coat the cake with) and fold the crushed cookies into the buttercream. For the actual filling that goes between the cake layers, I mixed the cream filling from the middle of the cookies into it (so that it won't go to waste ). Spread the oreo buttercream filling over the cake layer, sprinkle with additional crushed cookies if you want, and top with another cake layer. Repeat between the layers.  Cover the entire cake with the rest of the oreo buttercream.  Add another layer of plain buttercream over that then top with fondant (this way, any chunks from the oreo won't show through to the fondant).

I do the same technique with fresh strawberries blended into the buttercream/IMBC. You can pretty much add anything to it and just be sure to save some aside plain to use as the final coating over the cake if you want to cover it with fondant.