Twins Gender Reveal Party - Sneak Peak

It was a crazy busy weekend, but oh so much fun celebrating my little guy's 1st birthday with family and friends! As you know I was tempting you every day last week with sneak peaks of his party theme and decorations, and I'm sure you were hoping I'd be back this week to share all the fun details! Unfortunately, you all are going to have to wait just a little bit longer because between myself and my sister I've got hundreds of photos to sort through and narrow down in order to get the blog post together...which will probably turn into multiple posts so there aren't 100 pictures in one post!

So today, I wanted to share with you all another sneak peak of a Twins Gender Reveal party I recently got to make desserts for. If you follow me on Instagram then you may have already caught a few behind the scenes pics of the cakes I made and even revealed the genders. If you don't follow me on Instagram then follow me now and you can go through my photos until you find the pictures of these cakes if you absolutely cannot wait for the next post...and you will see a few of Sam's 1st birthday party pics too! I know you all are probably sick of all the sneak peaks and just want me to get to the good stuff, but this keeps you all coming back right? So here are a few quick pictures of what are quite possibly some of my all time favorite cakes I have made! When I heard the theme of the party was Owl Related "Look Whoo's Having Two" I was so excited because I've made little fondant owl cupcake toppers before and just knew they would be perfect as cake toppers too!

I coordinated the cake decorations and other desserts with my friend Jennifer who was in charge of all the party decorations for the dessert table! I love the party colors Jennifer and the mama to be picked and think these cakes turned out so fun!

The full dessert display and party decorations are coming up soon and you won't want to miss it!

Happy Birthday To Me!

I'd like to introduce you to my birthday cake! It's pretty fun don't you think? Definitely one of the most colorful and sprinkled cakes I have ever baked or indulged in. Oh and yes it was absolutely delicious too! I have been DYING to make my own version of this Pastel Swirl Cake ever since I saw it on Sweetapolita's blog a while back. If you have never visited Sweetapolita's blog, you sure have been missing out. Rosie makes the most decadent, delicious, unique, and most beautiful cakes that look like pure pieces of art! She is one talented lady and I am in awe every time I look at her latest cake creations! I wish I could spend a day in her kitchen and learn some of her techniques and be her taste tester!
 I have baked several of her cake recipes and they never disappoint! I have been anxiously awaiting the perfect time to try her Pastel Swirl Cake and figured I would give it a go for my birthday cake this year! I loved the three colors Rosie picked when she did her swirl cake, but I wanted to create a cake that was completely different so I decided to go with pink (since my birthday is the day after Valentine's day), purple because it's one of my favorites and then a teal green...well because as you can see from my blog I kinda have a thing for teal! And as far as I'm concerned every cake tastes better with sprinkles, so I loaded up the top with some Valentine jimmies, pink nonpareils and some pale pink sugar pearls!

Lucky for me and you, Rosie made a video tutorial (and yes I have watched it several times) of this very cake on her blog so you can learn just how to blend the colors to make the perfect pastel swirl cake! I decided to use the same Chocolate Cake Recipe and Whipped Vanilla Frosting recipe that Rosie used but just made a 6" cake instead of 8". This is seriously one of the best cakes I have ever tasted in my life and I've already had 2 slices today!

And then I got out my camera and snapped about a million pictures of my colorful cake because it just made me so happy!

Happy Birthday to me and thank you Sweetapolita for making my birthday so sweet with this beautiful cake idea! You truly are an inspiration!

Mardi Gras - Push-Up Pops

Mardi Gras is in full swing here in Mobile. Everywhere you look you see purple, green and yellow. Every weekend there are parades all day long with stuffed animals, cups, moon pies and beads a flying! This week I thought it would be fun to share a few easy and festive Mardi Gras treats with you all!

The first up is the Push-Up Pops. You may have seen or even own this book written by Courtney Whitmore of the popular entertaining blog Pizzazzerie. Unfortunately I do not have this book, but I have thumbed through it a time or two while at Michael's. This book is super cute with lots of fun ideas and recipes for making Push-Up Pops. It's also on Amazon's top 100 list...pretty amazing!

I bought my push-up pop containers from Cake Art Party Store back in the fall but they are also available online. So this weekend I figured it was about time to bring out the pops and see what I could come up with! I decided a trio of green, purple and yellow was appropriate for Mardi Gras. So I whipped up a 3 layer white box cake mix and tinted each layer green, purple and yellow. Once the cakes were cool I took the push-up pop container and cut circles into each layer.

Vibrant circles of cake ready to assemble.

Once all cake circles were cut out, I placed the green cake in the bottom of the push-up pop first. Then the yellow cake and then purple until the pop was full.

Such a cute, fun and quick idea!

Swirl with a dollop of buttercream icing and add a few sprinkles!

It's the perfect Mardi  Gras treat! I shared a few with our neighbors and they loved them!

Check back soon, I've got 2 more Mardi Gras ideas you don't want to miss!

Jake and the Neverland Pirates Birthday Cake

Yo ho ho! One of my favorite little guys just turned 5 last weekend! To help him celebrate such an important birthday I had the honor of creating his birthday cake for the fourth year in a row! This year he wanted Jake and the Neverland Pirates Theme! Let's just say Joshua is definitely paving the way for me and teaching me all kinds of things about what little boys like so I'll know what to expect as our little Sam gets older. We have just recently started turning on the tv for Sam to watch Disney Jr. and luckily I happened to catch a glimpse at Jake and the Neverland Pirates about a week before I made Joshua's birthday cake. I was getting a little worried that I would have no clue how to decorate a cake for a show I had never seen before! Luckily I was able to pick up a few of the key characters, Jake, Tick Tock Croc and Captain Hook at the store to use for cake toppers. In the past I have always created round cakes for Joshua so I thought it would be fun to switch things up this year and create a sheet cake to appear as both water and sand with a treasure hunt. Using some brown tinted fondant I made a map with the birthday boys name and age with a trail towards the treasure and crumbled crushed graham crackers on top to resemble sand. I had looked high and low for some gold deblumes at various stores and came up empty handed...what was I to do? Luckily Mardi Gras is in full swing right now and we just happened to go to the first parade the day before I needed to make this cake. And what do you know, the first float that comes by throws silver coins! Hooray...I finally have the treasure for the cake! I also added a strand of gold Mardi Gras beads. Joshua and his friends all loved the cake!

Hope you all enjoy the Jake Cake too!

Pumpkin Patch Cake

I having been dying to share this adorable 1st Birthday cake with you all! I absolutely love the idea of a "pumpkin patch" themed cake for a fall birthday. It can't get much cuter than this can it? This cake was so easy to make, as you can see the famous fall "candy pumpkins" are the star of the show! So no need to spend hours making your own fondant pumpkins, just grab a bag of these little candies and you are all set! I used brown fondant to create the fence around the sides of the cake and the sign. Using some green tinted buttercream and the Wilton tip # 233 I piped grass around the base of the cake and around the pumpkin clusters on the top.

Then I made one single cupcake for Finn to enjoy as his smash cake!

Not only is this cake perfect for a fall birthday, but it would be great to accompany your Thanksgiving Feast! You could change up the writing on the sign to say "Give Thanks" or "Happy Thanksgiving" and it would be perfect. You could even make a pumpkin flavored cake with a cream cheese frosting...yum wouldn't that be an amazing end to your turkey dinner. So if you are still looking for a festive fall dessert, give this cake a try and grab the kids to help you decorate. I guarantee they will love scattering the pumpkins all around.

The Lorax - 1st Birthday

I recently got to work on a super fun 1st birthday cake for my friend Jamie's little boy Jonah! The theme was The Lorax. I have not read the book or seen the movie, but Jamie pointed me in the right direction with what she was looking for! She wanted a smash cake for Jonah decorated in orange with yellow polka dots and then a larger cake covered in trufulla trees for the guests to enjoy! Each layer of the larger cake was dyed a different color...orange, yellow and green and then frosted in blue buttercream. Fondant truffula trees lined the outside of the cake. For a little something special, I used black and white striped paper straws to resemble the trunks of the truffula trees and then added puffs of cotton candy on top. I really love how both of these cakes came together and the fun color palette I got to work with. It was so much fun to see little Jonah dig into his smash cake! He was a little hesitant at first, but once his fingers hit the icing, it was all over and orange buttercream was everywhere! Hope you enjoy these pictures of Jonah's birthday cakes.

Candy Bar Cake

Halloween is only a few days away...have you been stocking up on all your candy for the trick-or-treaters? I must admit I haven't gone to the store to load up, but will definitely be making a trip this weekend to pick up some Butterfingers, M&M's, Reese's Cups and my all time favorite Snicker's! It has been way too long since I sank my teeth into the chocolate, caramel and nutty goodness of a Snicker's bar. Just thinking about grabbing a bag of this candy took me back to a few months ago when I made this Candy Bar Cake from the March, Chocolate Issue of Food Network Magazine. This is one of my favorite magazines to get in the mail each month because every recipe, especially the desserts always look amazing!

So when I saw the CHOCOLATE issue I was in heaven. While doing a quick flip through the pages I stumbled upon this cake and immediately I thought of a gigantic Snicker's Bar! So I gave the recipe a try and took it to a cookout with some friends and it was a huge hit! The best part about this recipe...there is NO BAKING involved. That's right, the base of the cake is pound cake! Now don't get me wrong I absolutely love to bake, but when you are in a pinch and need a quick, easy and delicious dessert you can't go wrong with this cake. It's all about combining a few key ingredients and layering them one on top of the other.

The base of the cake is pound cake, with a layer of chocolate buttercream, a layer of dulce de leche and salted peanuts and then the entire thing is coated in chocolate! YUM! So if you are looking to create a treat to impress your Halloween Party quests this year, you can't go wrong with this Candy Bar Cake! Check out the recipe here!