Nah-nah nah-nah nah-nah nah-nah Bat Girl!

 Well hello 2021!

It's been over a year since I made fancy decorated cake and probably even longer since I've posted a cake on this blog.  I've gone through a lot of life changes over the past year including getting married and moving to a new state.  But now that I've settled in, it's time to start baking again!

One of the best things about my new house is that I have my very own cake kitchen, separate from our regular kitchen.  This is awesome because now I can make a huge mess over a period of several days and still be able to make dinner (or let my husband make dinner).

Part of my workspace

Two of my favorite people, my nieces Chloe and Sarah, were born in December.  I was in the delivery room for both of their births.  But I realized that I've never made a cake for Sarah!  In my defense, she was born after I moved 3.5 hours away from my family, so it was a little more difficult to make cakes for anyone.

So I decided to make a co-birthday cake for the two of them.  Like all of my nieces, they are obsessed with super heroes.  Sarah loves the color purple and her favorite super hero is Batgirl.  Chloe's favorite (although not sure if she's really a super hero) is Harley Quinn.  Super hero cake to the rescue!

Now I didn't know very much about either of these characters but I knew I wanted to make figurines to go on the top of the cake.  So I started by getting some pictures.

For those of you not familiar with Batgirl and Harley Quinn

I've done some figures in the past but not as well as I would like.  So I bought this tutorial on Etsy from CrumbAvenue.  It was so helpful!  I highly recommend it.  The tutorial was for basic female bodies and I just modified it to work for Batgirl and Harley Quinn.  Batgirl was first.

I had a heck of a time trying to get the dowels in at the right angle and close enough to each other.  This was the first time I used a dowel rod to help support my figures.

It's the little details that make a difference

Then I had to make the head.  Heads are the hardest because mine always just come out looking . . . odd.  But with the help of the tutorial, it turned out pretty awesome.

Batgirl's face

I even made eye lids!  And those lips don't look ridiculous!  I was very happy with my success, but unfortunately, I had to cover some of it with a mask.  I was super nervous to add the head and the cape because I was really worried that she was going to fall over from the weight.  I didn't balance it correctly when I made the body, so the head was not right on top of the dowel rods.

The cape is the shape of a bat.

For the same reason, I wanted to let the head and body dry for awhile before I added the hair, so I started on Harley Quinn.  Her outfit was slightly more involved.  Again, I used the tutorial for the skirt and shirt and modified it.

Next I added the detail for Harley's shirt and made her head and arms.

Harley Quinn's face

Just need some hair!

Now I couldn't put it off any longer and I had to do the hair.  I didn't do much with the back of Batgirl's head because I knew it would be covered by the hood.  But it turned out amazingly well.

And she was still standing up!  Harley's hair was a little different.  I covered her head and made some bangs.  Then I made her pigtails and let them dry so they would hold their shape.  I also was concerned about transport, so I decided to wait to put them in until I put everything together.

Now the figures were done but I still had to make the cake.  Batgirl was the bottom layer.  I made a chocolate cake with chocolate fudge and mini chocolate chip filling, covered in purple buttercream and fondant.  The fondant was on point!  The Batgirl symbol went on the front and Chloe and Sarah's names graced the sides (thanks to the bazillion cookie cutters I got as a wedding gift!).

Harley Quinn was represented on the top tier.  I covered this one in white fondant first.  Then I used my diamond cutter (which I usually use to make a quilted pattern on fondant) to cut out the diamonds in red and black.  I used the cutter again to mark where they should go on the cake and attached them with gum glue.  As a final touch, I made a border of blue for the bottom.

And then came the problems.  I made the dowels on the figures too long!  Batgirl was too tall for the cake.  So my husband got out a saw and a vice grip and ever so carefully cut off some of the dowel rods while I held on tightly and held my breath, hoping it wouldn't damage the figure.  Success!

To transport, I put the figures in a plastic container on top of those air bag things you get in Amazon packages.  But upon arrival, Harley's head had come loose.  On top of that, we discovered the dowel rods on her figure were also way too long!  I took the head off completely so it wouldn't jiggle off while my husband bravely used another saw to get through the dowel rods.  I was so nervous it was going to fall apart.

But it worked!  We were able to place the head back on and everything was fine.  Batgirl was a little too tall as well, but I had some extra yellow fondant so I just made some platform boots for her instead of trying to saw off some more.

The finished cake!

These are easily the best figures I have ever made.

The girls loved it!  (Don't worry, there was no birthday party, I just wanted to make them a fun cake).

Happy birthday to some of my favorite SuperGirls, Sarah and Chloe! 

I am Obsessed With Angry Birds!

I am obsessed with Angry Birds!!!

That's what my nephew Peter said when he begged me to make him an angry birds cake several months ago.  He's six.  And he LOVES Angry Birds.

Now Peter knows my methods, so he wanted to look at Angry Birds pictures with me to find the perfect cake.  The first one we found was a playable cake.  (This dad is such an over-achiever.  Yeah, I'm jealous)  Peter's eyes lit up.  "Can you make this one Aunt Joy?" he asked.  Oh boy.

After sifting through tons of pictures, Peter picked about 8 that he liked.  He specified some details - for example, there were to be no black birds.  And he definitely wanted a sun and clouds.  Oh, and there should be a bird in the air and it should be a red one.  (Thanks whoever was genius enough to figure that one out.)

My main task was to make the birds.  The cake would be two tiers, a 10-inch and a 6-inch.  But the birds (and the pigs, of course) were the main attraction.  Now, if you don't know anything about Angry Birds, I suggest you go educate yourself online.  I had to.  Otherwise this cake will not really make sense to you.

I started by finding the best picture online of all the birds, collectively.  I found this one, a picture of edible cake toppers made by the Artisan Cake Company.

They were selling these for $115.

Say what?????  Maybe I'm in the wrong business . . . .

I made all of the birds and pigs out of fondant.  A few of the details were added with icing.  When you are using fondant, don't forget to cover, cover, cover!  You don't want it to dry out.  Wrap the part you aren't using in plastic wrap.

I won't bore you with exact details of how I made each character.  If you are making some yourself and really want to know, shoot me an email (email address is in the upper right hand corner).

I started with the pigs:

Rolling out the green fondant

The Pig King
(I know, he looks creepy because the eyes aren't finished)

Then I started on the birds, first the white and yellow ones.  I have no idea what each bird does, I was just going off of the picture.

The secret to the birds (and the pigs) is in the details.  And the real secret is the beak.  I cannot claim this idea as my own.  I found a tutorial on the red bird and whoever wrote it gave some great advice.  To make the beak look real, first you form it into the correct shape.  And then you cut it with scissors.  It just looks right.  I used this trick for all of the beaks.

This yellow guy was my favorite one.  He just turned out so well.
His eyes and eyebrows are made from fondant.
Most of the other bird's eyebrows are made with frosting.

First stage complete

Now I was pretty impressed with my bird making skills so far.  I am not a sculptor by any stretch of the imagination.  But give me basic shapes and I'm good.  That's what I loved about these characters, anyone could make them.  Or I guess you could spend 115 bucks.

Next I made the slingshot, eggs (which apparently the pigs stole) and the dreaded bird in the air.

I wasn't sure if this was going to work at all.  But I knew Peter really really wanted a bird in the air.  So I bought some wire and stuck it into one of the red birds.  I was hoping the fondant would harden around the wire and hold it in.  (No such luck)

DAY 2

I made the cakes and the blue frosting, filled the cakes and frosted them.  Then I had to finish the birds and pigs by adding black frosting for the eyes, eyebrows and other details..

I also had to make some structures for the birds to knock over.  I started with Nutty Bars, a delicious combination of chocolate and peanut butter.  I sliced them up in varying sizes.

I made some modeling chocolate using mint chocolate candy melts.  I didn't plan on using mint, but that was the only kind available when I was at the store.  I rolled out the chocolate (which I made the night before) and wrapped it around the nutty bars.

 Next I rolled out yellow fondant for the sun, white fondant for the clouds and green fondant for the grass and applied them to the cake.  All that was left was to place all the elements on.  I waited until the cake was delivered to put the slingshot and the bird-in-midair on so they wouldn't fall off on route.

The cake made it intact to its destination.  I added the slingshot.  Next was the bird in the air.  I managed to balance it on the wires.  It was totally intentional for it to be knocking the cake over.  Totally.

And the cake was done.

Here are some close-ups:

I love the pig with the mustache!

The birthday boy matches his cake.

Most people don't want to cut my cakes when they see them.  The first thing Peter said when he saw it was, "I can't wait to cut it!"

Peter wanted to take some pictures too.

And a shot of my favorite.

So, what was Peter's favorite element you ask?  Not the angry birds, nor the pigs, not even the bird-in-mid-air!!!  It was the crown on the king pig.  The crown????  He was so impressed with it.  He told me, "I didn't know you could do that!"  What a funny kid.

Peter thought the birds and pigs were so cool that he wanted to keep them.  So his mom bought some spray that would preserve them.  So now he has a collection of angry bird figurines.

Happy Birthday Peter!!!