Baby Cakes

Lots of baby shower cakes recently, and lots of babies! At Bliss, there were 2 baby shower cakes and a cupcake order last week. I took quite a few cake orders at Publix, too. Plus there was the cake that I got to make! :)

I modeled it off this cake I found at Cake Central. The baby shower's theme colors were green and pink, and I just loved the swirls and polka dots. I was a little worried about the border, but I practiced on some wax paper before-hand, and it really brings the whole cake together. I used the #12 tip for that, and a #5 for everything else, except the writing, which is a #2.

It's all buttercream, with a delicious yellow cake underneath. And it turns out that simple syrup really isn't that simple, because I ran out of granulated sugar. I tried it with Splenda, but it left a funny taste; the brown sugar turned the liquid a maple brown color, which wouldn't have looked good on the yellow cake; and the powdered sugar was murky because of the corn starch. So my parents picked up some sugar on their way home, and the crisis was averted.

But other than that (and the fact that I was babysitting all day, dropped a hot, cheesy pizza on the floor, and didn't get to bed until 1am), this cake was a breeze to make. I smoothed down the dots with a paper towel to get them flat, which took some manuvering, but it worked out quite nicely.

And I still can't get over how cute that swirly border is!

19 Years and Counting

Happy birthday to me!

Yup, it's official, guys. I'm 19. (even though I've totally been telling people I'm 19 for weeks, it's just true now!)

And to celebrate, I made myself a cake. Well, a cake and cupcakes.

But I have this weird quirk that I had to overcome first: I hate starting a cake. Once I get going, I'm fine, but the beginning is rough. Which is probably why I end up decorating cakes at four in the morning the day before they're due. I am a true procrastinator, and it's an awful trait, but at least I have a good answer when job interviewers ask, "What's one of your weaknesses?" (Because "Tayor Lautner" probably isn't a very professional answer.)

Right. So it's 5:00pm Sunday and I still haven't started yet. Instead I'm half-heartedly looking through photos on Flickr trying to figure out how I'm going to tie my black/white/pink/girly/swirly/flower themed cupcakes into the cake topper, instead of making buttercream and covering my cake in delicious Duff fondant.

But fast-forward a few hours, and I have a fondant-covered cake (that smells amazing), and a handful of fondant daisies. And finally around midnight, I've finished the cake.... well, except for the 19 on top. That was done last-minute as party guests started arriving. And instead of the gumpaste 19 I wanted to do, it's made of fondant & cardboard & toothpicks & electrical tape. And it didn't fall apart until after we served the cake!

So this post is getting extremely long. I guess with age comes a verboseness I wasn't expecting. So how 'bout another picture?

It's not a perfect cake. I'm spoiled because at Bliss there's a fondant sheeter and ribbon cutters that I can use. I had to improvise here. :) I also couldn't get the pink buttercream quite the right color, so I did end up at Bliss this afternoon & bought some Fuschia Americolor gel. But really, other than that, the decorating and construction went smoothly. I was going to put a 3D daisy on top (next to the 19) but it didn't look as good as I thought it would, so Sarah ate it. :)

And the two flavors-- cookies and cream (the pink cupcakes & the top cake), and the mint chocolate (white cupcakes; the b/c was mint too!) tasted amazing! I'm so proud of this cake!

Now that the party's over, I'm going to enjoy the rest of my birthday by watching A Very Potter Sequel and recovering from my sugar-induced coma (which is a metaphor and not an actual diabetes-related medical issue, so no worries there!)