Watch out "Cake Boss"!

My friend, Bernadette, and her daughter, Sarah, came over on Thursday afternoon for some cake decorating fun. We started with making the buttercream frosting, sealing the crumbs with a thin layer, the final frosting and smoothing with plastic wrap.

Sarah did a little piping, but young hands have difficulty with the pastry bag! She LOVED using fondant. I had some leftover fondant from the "Giraffe Cake". I used this recipe for the fondant.

I think fondant is a great way for the younger crowd to decorate cakes. It is so similar to using playdough!

She did an awesome job.

I love her look of concentration.

I certainly had fun, and I'm pretty sure she did too!

Watch out "Cake Boss". (It is her favorite show.)

Y'all come back,

Lorilee



Giraffe theme cake.

My son requested a Giraffe themed cake for his girlfriend's 16th Birthday. This is what I came up with.

I also decided to make the inside spotted like a giraffe. I didn't get a photo of it sliced because I was unable to attend the actual party. I was attending the Double-Toe Jam. I will post about it on the Stars and Stripes Cloggers blog soon.

The cake is frosted with buttercream, while the "spots" are done with homemade fondant using this recipe. The cake is a Duncan Hines yellow cake with whole milk substituted for the water.

15 hours in the kitchen!

My sweet SIL, Marie, joined me on Friday for 15 hours of baking and decorating! She helped me mix the colors into the fondant, and she made all of the leaves. I used the homemade fondant recipe from Bake at 350 here.

I had baked and frozen one batch of cookies the weekend before to give the recipe a try. I mixed the dough for 2 more batches midweek, and Marie rolled, cut out and baked them while I worked on the cake. I used the Vanilla Almond Sugar Cookies recipe from Bake at 350 here.

I am so thankful for her help. We make a good team!

This was my first attempt at making a stacked cake without columns. I had never driven a dowel through layers to stabilize them, but it worked like a charm!

This "canelli lace" is pretty easy to do, but it sure made my hand tired! My grandma likes pink, so of course, her cake had to be pink.

This was our first attempt at using royal icing for outlining and flooding cookies.
Finally, around midnight, we had flooded the last cookie and straightened up the kitchen.
The cake made the 1 hour trip to the party site! I used the recipe for the "Mount Vernon Cake" from The Cake Mix Doctor. The cake is frosted with buttercream frosting and the flowers and leaves are marshmallow fondant.
The cookies are all arranged on the plates.
All our hard work on display! I also made the "Happy Birthday" banner-another first. Party photos to come later!

Y'all come back,

Lorilee

Bug's Birthday!

I was thrilled to make Bug's (my niece) 5th Birthday cake. Her gift from her Mom and Dad was a pair of cowgirl boots, so she had a "cowgirl" party.

They played cowgirl games-tossing quarters into boots, shooting cans (dart gun), and roping the cowskull. All the girls' got pink bandanas and sheriff's badges.

I made some cupcakes to have extra servings.

She requested a chocolate cake and pink frosting.

Daddy's hat!

Singing Happy Birthday!

Making a wish!

Opening gifts with some assistance from one of her big brothers.

Y'all Come Back,

Lorilee

Let Them Eat Cake!

One of my hobbies is cake decorating. I don't make them all that often, but I put quite a bit of time into them when I do! I usually make cakes for relatives, most often my sons or nephews! This cake is one of my youngest son's birthday cakes. This was the year he received a basketball backboard for his birthday.

I made this cake for my oldest son the year he started working for Jim's Big Burger!

For my nephew's 1st Birthday, I made the Tigger cake. I used a method called Frozen Buttercream Transfer.

This cake was for a wedding shower that my sister-in-law was hosting. I used buttercream on the cake, but I used fondant for the pearls, scallops, ribbon roses, and

blue streamers.

I love using fondant. It reminds me of working with playdough! My two most recent cakes are near the bottom of the blog page. You have to scroll through other photos to get to them. I am still learning how to use the blogging "tools"!

Ya'll Come Back Now!

Lorilee

Cake decorating

I have not made a cake lately, but it is one of my hobbies! I have not taken any classes. I just use the Wilton books and the internet to learn about it. I love working with fondant, although I am not particularly fond of its taste. I prefer buttercream for taste. I usually just use fondant for the decorating not on the overall cake.