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! 

Mrs. Potato Head

So, I thought that I was ready to post the Curious George cake, but I have since discovered that I skipped 4 cakes that I made before the last one I posted.  Oops.  That's what happens when you get so far behind . . . .

My niece Chloe was born in the month of December.  As all you December babies are aware, sometimes this means her birthday gets celebrated in a completely different month.  If I remember correctly, this was the year that her baby sister arrived on New Year's Eve.  So we celebrated Chloe's third birthday in January instead.  Chloe always gives me easy ideas for her cakes and this year was no exception.  She wanted a Mrs. Potato Head cake.

I was pretty excited about making all the little elements for this cake.  However, first I had to carve the right shape for the cake itself.

As most of my sister's kids do, she requested chocolate cake (although I believe her older brother had something to do with that . . . .)

I knew I would have a lot of fondant elements, and I tried to stick with traditional potato head colors.

 I colored the fondant and then started making the pieces.  The shoes and the earrings:

The purse and the eyes (I love the eyes so much)

The lips, ears, nose, and hands:

 I thought about leaving off some of the elements and just putting them on the cakeboard as if the child had not put in all of the pieces yet.  I started with the hat.

Then added the lips.

 Then the nose, eyes, and shoes.

At this point I just decided it would look best with all of the elements on, so I added the arms, purse, ears, earrings, and a little bling for the hat.

Here's a closer look at some of the elements:

I love that purse!

And here is the star of the day, wearing her I'm the big sister shirt.

Unlike her sister Elisa, Chloe is ready to cut the cake and eat it.  We are done admiring it, just take a picture and dole it out already!

Happy third birthday Chlo Chlo!

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.