Happy Birthday, Jessica!

Yesterday I had the honor of preparing a cake for one of my favorite former students. The birthday girl wanted three tiers with pink ribbon and pink flowers and also some musical notes. All three tiers were vanilla flavored cake with vanilla buttercream filling and icing. The cake was covered with White Vanilla Satin Ice fondant. Flowers were handmade out of fondant. Musical notes were also made of fondant. Notes and flowers were adhered with royal icing. There are 16 flowers and 16 musical notes decorating the cake to represent the 16th birthday of the guest of honor.

Because it would be too difficult to travel with an already assembled three tier cake, the photos here are of the unassembled top and bottom tiers of the cake. The birthday girl has promised a couple of photos of the completed cake taken at the party. When those arrive, I'll post them here. When looking at the top tier, please disregard the cardboard circle; it was only used to transport the tier. Also, when viewing the bottom tier, please disregard the pillars. Those were invisible in the finished product, but I read somewhere that when using dowels to support a cake, it's easier to assemble at the venue if you leave the dowels sticking out of the cake a little. Gives you more room to position the tier and get your fingers out of the way.

Pirate cake

Here it is! This is a six-inch chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream filling and icing. The cake features the recipient's name which turns into a treasure map-style path leading to an X that's been claimed with a pirate's flag. Another decoration is a fondant anchor caught in some candy rocks. The skull and cross-bones on the top are made of fondant. Skull was made with a cutter, bones are free-hand.

Pirates tonight!

I began working on my next cake last night. This one is a just-because cake that a friend ordered for his son. Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate! The recipient is currently into pirates, so I'm watching my fondant pirate embellishments dry. There will be a skull and cross-bones, an anchor leaning on a pile of rocks, and an X marks the spot treasure map type something-or-other for decorations on the cake. Pictures tonight (hopefully)! Stay tuned! And have a great day!