Curiouser and Curiouser

*I wrote this two years ago and finally got caught up enough to post it!  Only two years of cakes left to post to catch up . .  . . .*

Laura [used to] work in my office.  Her niece was getting baptized and they wanted to have a cake to celebrate.  Apparently, Curious George is quite popular in their family.  So she commissioned a two-tier, yellow cake, with raspberry whipped cream filling and the theme of Curious George.

I decided to do George, sitting amongst the trees.  But you can't have a monkey without bananas!  So, first, I made some fondant bunches of bananas.  They turned out pretty darn good.

Next I made the leaves for the trees and some single bananas.  I had to make the leaves ahead of time so they would dry and harden.  That way when I put them onto the trees, they would hold their shape.

(You may notice the banana peel there)

Now, I had to make George.  I'm getting better at figures, but they still freak me out and I'm not great with the balance.  I didn't take any pictures while I was making him, but I do have pictures of the final product.

I put George on a styrofoam circle, on top of some parchment paper.  This way, if you need to use toothpicks in the bottom or anything like that, you can just stick it in the styrofoam.  The Crisco can behind him is helping to make sure the body doesn't fall over.  I did use a tutorial to make the monkey.

I made the body first, then added the legs and arms.  I made the hands and feet separately and then added them to the arms and legs.  I made the head separately as well and then attached it to the body using a toothpick.  I started with the dark brown part, then added the thin layer of ivory color to the front.  Next I added the ivory colored part of the mouth which goes under the dark brown part.  Next came the nose and ears.  Finally, I added the eyes and piped on the pupils, eyebrows, and mouth.

Finally I made the banana that George is holding.  I used the calyx cutter to make the peeled banana.  It turned out so great!

What would curious George be without the man in the yellow hat?  So, as a tribute to him, a yellow fondant hat.

Now it was time to assemble the cake.  I covered both tiers with green fondant and stacked them.  Then I started adding trees and branches.  The trees are pretzels with green leaves glued on with icing.  The branches are fondant.  I also made a fondant leaf border where the two tiers connect.

I added more trees and started adding vines as well.  The yellow hat went on the top tier.

Then I added more piped leaves.  It really started to look like a jungle.

Finally, I added the bananas and a few flowers.

Meanwhile, George started to get a little tipsy.  So I propped him up with a chip clip against the crisco can and hoped that he would dry well and not fall over.

Delivery Day: I actually left work early to go to Wisconsin for a dance competition, but first I had to drop off the cake.  Fortunately, Laura lives only a few blocks away from me.  I got the cake set up and it was time to add George.

He looked fantastic!

Laura's family loved the cake.  Apparently, her husband said that my talents are being wasted, since I'm an attorney and not a professional baker.

Under the Sea

If you ever need an event planner, look no farther.  No, not me.  My friend Hillary is amazing at this stuff.  She was in charge of this shower for my sister-in-law and it was probably the best decorated shower I have ever attended!  Seriously, she has a gift.

So Hillary asked me to make some cupcakes for the shower.  The theme was Under the Sea - a Shellabration.  She found these super cute turtle cupcakes on Pinterest.

But I didn't really want to make 48 turtle cupcake toppers.  So I decided to do some starfish and shell cupcakes as well.

The shells were easy.  I used the Wilton shell candy mold and made sets of light blue, dark blue, green, and "sand" (aka peanut butter flavor) candy shells.  They turned out great!

The starfish were also really easy.  I used a star cutter and cut out thick orange fondant stars.  I used the wrong end of a piping tip to make the smiles.  I let the stars dry on the flower drying rack so that they would be slightly curved.  For the eyes, I dipped a toothpick into black food coloring and the stuck it into the star.

The turtles were slightly more complicated, but they were very cute.

I used the circle cutters for most of the turtle.  The small one made the feet.  I just had to cut off one side and reshape them.

I used the large cutter for the blue background and the medium cutter for the head and body.  I just made the head smaller.

I used the wrong end of a piping tip to make the smiles.  I used gum glue to attach the turtle to the blue background.

Then I added the legs.

I used piping tip 3 and cut the circles in half to make the little spots to go on the turtles back.

I also used a toothpick dipped in black food coloring for the turtles' eyes.

They dried overnight and then I just had to add them to the cupcakes.

I got a new cupcake stand that holds more than my old one and is a platform.  So we put brown sugar on it to look like sand and added a few candy shells.

We also placed some cupcakes on the tables as part of the centerpieces.

The cupcakes fit in great with the decor!

Who Let the Dogs Out?

Jim and Amie are good friends of mine who attend group swing dance classes with me at Chicago Dance Factory.  They are so much fun!  They are always hamming it up and making me laugh.  I had the privilege of competing in West Coast Swing with Jim.  They are some of my favorite people and I always enjoy hanging out with them.  Unfortunately, whenever we go out to eat, we end up with one of us having a bug(s) in our food!  So far Jim has escaped unscathed . . . . .

The week before Amie's birthday, Jim asked me if I could make her a cake.  He didn't really have any specifications, other than requesting chocolate.  Amie has a dog, Petunia, that she loves very much, so I decided to make a puppy cake.  No, this is not a replica of Petunia.  Amie said it would have been difficult to eat a cake that looked like her dog.  (Obviously it's not because I don't have the ability to make an exact replica of a real, live dog).

Now since the last fiasco with the fondant, I was very, very nervous about this cake.  It was a similar concept, with a dome instead of a ball covered in fondant.

I used the small sports ball pan again but only made half.  This would be the head.

I made an 8-inch round cake and the larger sports ball pan went on top of that.  I did have to carve it down a little bit to get the shape that I wanted.

Then I frosted both and put them in the fridge to harden.

Here was the moment of truth.  Would the fondant fail me again?  I opened the package of plain white fondant and relief swept over me.  It was soft and pliable, like PlayDoh, the way fondant was meant to be.  I rolled it out, covered the smaller cake, and . . . . .

Perfection!  No rips or tears.

The bigger one was slightly more challenging because it was, well, bigger.

But that one came out great too.

Then I put the two pieces together on the cake board.

I made three white feet and one black foot out of fondant.

Here's the three white feet.

And the black one.

The nose.

I freehanded the ears.

I added blue eyes with a little bit of blue fondant I had left over.

Finally I added the spots on the back and the tail.

Okay, now the collective, "awwwwwwwwww!!!"

I'm not a dog person, but that's a cute puppy dog face . . .

View from the rear.

I snuck the cake into class before Amie arrived.  Then afterwards, we surprised her with it and ate cake in the back room.  It was a hit!

Happy birthday Amie!!!!