Do you Sudoku??

I'm really behind on posting my cakes, but I have to do James' cake next because every I see him, he asks, "Did you write my post yet?"  Thanks for keeping me on my toes, James.

Now one day at church, James came up to me and started to ask me to make his birthday cake.  He wanted a book cake and he thought that since I have the book pan, that wouldn't be too hard for me to do.

"Wait, how do you know I have the book pan?"  I asked.

"I read your blog," he said.

Now James is only 9 years old.  So I wanted to clarify some things.  "Do you mean you looked at the pictures or actually read it?" I queried.

"I actually read it," he said matter-of-factly.

As the conversation went on, James kept saying things that were straight out of what I had written on my blog.  Later his mother confirmed that he had indeed read my ENTIRE blog.  All on his own.  I think I found my biggest fan.

So of course, I wanted to make him a great cake.  James' mom emailed me his list of requirements.

Hello Joy!  I've made two lists of things for my cake:

THINGS I DON'T CARE ABOUT
I don't care if my cake is regular flavor or chocolate.
I don't care when you get it done (I'd prefer you finish before the end of the year though)
I don't care what the title of the book is, but I'd like it to have the word James in it.

THINGS I DO CARE ABOUT
I want it to be a book.
Can I have Orange frosting? Not the flavor, but the color.
I'd like to have some fondant on my cake. (I like fondant.)
I'd like it to have strawberry filling (the kind mixed with something like you used for Kingston's cake).

Ok, so a book made of yellow cake with strawberry filling . . .

Check.

Orange frosting, the color, not the flavor . . . .

Check.

Title with James in it . . . . .

Check.  

I don't remember if he came up with Boy Wonder or if that was my idea.  I'm sure he will let me know after he reads this.

I asked James what other kinds of things he liked to do, besides reading.  He suggested Sudoku.  So I made a solvable fondant Sudoku puzzle, complete with numbers to fill in the blank spots.

Fondant?

The numbers

Check.

But the cake needed a little something else to make it really special.  I knew that James likes Legos (I mean, who doesn't) and I had this Lego mold I had been dying to try out.  So I melted some candy and filled in the molds.

 They turned out great!

 Then I just had to add the Lego bricks and the rest of the numbers.

 

James, thanks for being so patient waiting for your cake!  I hope you enjoyed reading this post.  Happy Birthday!

A Cake Fit for a Princess

So for some reason my Rubik's Cube post has just blown up and is now my highest view post by over 100 views!  Craziness!  Thank you to all the math nerds making my post so popular.  Just thought I'd share that.

Annnnnnnnnnnnd back to your regularly scheduled program . . . .

My niece Elisa turned four in April.  (Yes, I realize that was months ago, I'm a bit behind).  She loves princesses.  She knew all of their names even before she had seen a single Disney movie. She loves dressing up and pretending all sorts of things with that fantastic imagination of hers.  So I made her a cake worthy of a princess - one of her favorites, Cinderella.  (Although I've been informed that now Cinderella is much lower on the list, trailing Rapunzel, Snow White, and a few others.)

I made this Cinderella cake using a character pan.  I bought it on ebay because this one is no longer available in stores.  Character pans are great because you don't have to use a lot of brain power to decorate them.  You just outline, fill in, and get to go to bed relatively on time.  They even have instructions on what tips and colors to use.  The only problem is that they are usually only good for one thing - and so your pantry quickly fills up with specialty cake pans . . . . .

I made a yellow cake and frosted the outside with white buttercream.  You don't want to cover the whole thing because then you can't see the outline.

Now usually adding a border is something you do last, when the cake is fully decorated.  This time, I did it near the beginning.  I wanted the border to be white, but I also didn't want to have to make a TON of frosting.  So my plan was to do all the white parts so I wouldn't have to save any for later when I mixed the colors.

So next, I did the eyes, teeth and nose.  Then I added some cream colored frosting to make the skin.  Pipe Outlines.

It looks a little creepy at this stage.

Next, add lips, blue part of the eyes and the necklace and headband outlines.

I need to work on my lips . . . .

Then I piped in the skin and added the eyelashes.  Cinderella's got a heavy hand with the mascara.

Starting to look more like Cinderella.

I needed two different blues for the dress, which I thought turned out pretty well.

And last but not least, the hair.

To get this affect, you use a big tip, like number 12.  Then you pipe out big blobs of icing.  Finally, smooth with a finger dipped in cornstarch.

And then finally, I added the scroll and piped the words, Happy Birthday!

Done and done.  No drama, no crazy balancing acts required, no fondant.  And it still looks beautiful.

You can appreciate the 3-d effect from this angle.
She looks ready to jump off the cake.

And here's my favorite little princess, posing with her cake.

She's four going on sixteen.

Happy Birthday Elisa!  I know you are already thinking about what next year's cake will be.

Is there a Doctor in the house?

Remember when I said I have a lot of cousins?  Well, my cousin Rebekah also got married this year.  Her wedding shower was in April.  At my cousin Annie's wedding shower, my Aunt Renee asked me if I would make the cake for Rebekah's shower.

This cake went SO smoothly.  It was so nice to have a cake without drama.  Seriously.

At the time, Rebekah was still in med school (she has since graduated).  So my aunt thought it would be fun to have a doctor cake.  Ah yes, I thought.  I can make a flat cake that looks like a lab coat and I won't have to worry about anything falling over or off the cake.

I baked the cake ahead of time and it turned out perfect.  Even when I cut it in half, it looked amazing.  Usually I get air pockets that I stuff with extra cake.

Beautiful!

This time I made a yellow cake with strawberry filling.

Next up, frosting the cake.  I had to take a picture of my mixer in my kitchen, first time making a cake in my new house!

I knew the frosting didn't have to be perfect because I was going to cover it with fondant.

First I made the part for the shirt.

Next I had to roll out a huge piece of fondant to cover the entire cake.  Now in order to do this, I used my super amazing, huge rolling pin.  Here it is next to a normal sized rolling pin:

Ok, just kidding.  It's not THAT big.  Here it is next to a real normal sized rolling pin:

This thing is awesome.

 I knew the fondant piece had to be about as big as my roll and cut mat.  I had never covered an entire rectangle cake before, so I was hoping it would work.

I rolled it out . . .

And draped it over the cake.  Perfect fit, the first time!

 I cut a slit down the middle to make the opening of the lab coat.

I used my medium circle cutter to make buttons.  The small holes are made using the small end of tip #3.

I glued the buttons on the coat.  But I couldn't just leave it at that!  We needed some more details.  So I fashioned a stethoscope.

Here's a close up of the stethoscope.

I also made a pocket with some other "doctory" things in it.

That's a pen, if you couldn't tell.  And a reflex hammer.

It's starting to look pretty good!

Finally I added a pearl necklace . . .

And a nametag with her new last name.

And I was done.

 It went in the box.  No drama.  Score!

Here is the lovely bride holding her cake.

Photo taken by my cousin, Charity Hoffman

And then before we cut it, all the girl cousins who were there took a picture together, with the cake.

Photo taken by Charity's camera - not sure who took it.

 Congratulations Rebekah (and Peter) both on graduating from med school and getting married!