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.
I cheated a little on the turtle cake; it's made of cupcakes from the Wilton Puzzle Cake kit. The Hungry Caterpillar cake is a combination of several I saw when looking for ways to incorporate the book into the cake. These were both for my son. The turtle cake was for his actual birthday and the Caterpillar cake was for his birthday/independence from the NICU celebration.
Here's a photo of the birthday girl with her cake. Many thanks to Jessica's mom for sending the pictures along and for giving me the opportunity to work on this cake! 
Here's a shot of the completed cake with the musical notes attached. Thanks again to Jessica's mom for providing the pictures.
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.
invitation which was a lovely cream color with rich brown lettering, gold trim around the edge, a ribbon at the top, and maple leaves across the top. It was yellow cake with buttercream icing. The ribbon is made out of Satin Ice ivory-colored fondant brushed with gold glitter. Leaves are also fondant; they were brushed with coloring and glitter to make them look a little more realistic. Because of the dampness in the air while I was preparing the cake and overnight, it was necessary to leave the paper towels in the bow loops to prevent drooping. They were removed before the cake was presented at the event.
