Shower cakes!

K's class has two teachers and one of the teachers is pregnant, while the other one recently got engaged.

Two of the other class' teachers decided to be sneaky and sent home secret notes asking the kids' parents if anyone wanted to contribute to a stroller and dish set for them, but not to say a word to them!

So, of course, my brain thought of cakes!!

They are what every celebration needs, right?

So here's a little close up of the cakes:

As you know from the previous posts, I chose to make two 8" cakes, because of the design I wanted for the inside: ombre and checkerboard.

(Incidentally, the recipe that came with the checkerboard pan tastes just like a sugar cookie to me - fantastic!) 

I'm working on my frosting skills for inside the fondant. It's tricky when using a regular knife but I can't justify the price on a frosting spreader just yet...

And, oh man, I just love how smooth fondant feels. I even made my husband feel an extra little piece.

I don't think he cared as much as I did.

So, first up is the bridal shower cake.

I have to admit that these cake ideas were totally found on pinterest...but were so cute I just had to do it!

First I got to make a little wedding dress.

See those little imperfections? yeah, I forgot to sift the powdered sugar first.

But it's all good - that's what little pearls are for!

And I just love how the folds fell at the bottom of the cake!

Next is the baby shower cake:

She's having a boy, so I knew this was the one!

The little laundry basket and socks are too cute!

Oh, how I'm in love with this cake!!

*****update!*****

So, we just gave them the cakes! They were speechless! :)

Sweet kids who kept a secret for nearly a month!

And what I've been waiting for - the insides!

The baby shower cake was the ombre cake.

Blue was definitely a good choice! Turns out that is also her favorite color - score!!

Haha - thank goodness for frosting filling - those cakes did *not* bake evenly!

Seems like it might be a good time to invest in some baking strips.

Then, in the bridal cake was the checkerboard cake.

A rough cut, but man they look so good with those colors!

I doubt I'll ever do a black and white one again :)

I'm so happy I had a reason to make these cakes!!

I'm so happy I had an opportunity to make it!

AAAAAH! Real Monsters!

K's 5th birthday! 

Oh man, 5 years?? 

just craziness!

So, she wanted something pink, and something with googly eyes (Thanks Nana and Poppie!)

We went with monsters.

Here they are:

She wanted strawberry and chocolate - so I complied! 

Shiny pink frosting looks great!

Adding a little purple for hair....eyebrows...beards...whatever sounded fun!

Then we added some mini m&ms for noses:

and added the googly eyes :)

fun and unique!

and then some fun mouths!

Then we started on the purple ones....

SO pretty!

looking silly!

See?

And now for their mouths...

And my personal favorite!

It's not easy...being green

For my niece's 13th birthday we had a lot of discussion about Hello Kitty cake.

And at the last minute, somehow Kermit got thrown in the mix.

Man. I looked at tons of Kermit pics. Tough.

What did it though, was when I found a 3D Kermit cake from a British Site, and then I was finally able to conceptualize it!

I used rice crispies to make the inside of his body and head, so that everything stayed edible.

One of the best parts of this cake, though, was that it was a checkerboard cake! One of my favorites. The pans came with a tasty recipe too! Sort of tastes like a sugar cookie cake. Yum!

But, the best part, is that we can use fun colored batter together for an awesome look!

This was definitely a fun one :)

Varied assortment

These next cakes ... well ... I'm just not sure when I made them. I know the house I made them in, so I know they were all within a year and a half period...but that's not too helpful...

Anyway, this first one was made for one of my 5th grade music classes. They were a little depressed that the other 5th graders got to do a lot of special things (math comps, regional science fair, etc.) and they got nothing. So, since they were one of my better classes, I decided to have a celebration with cake of their awesomeness. 

I remember making the school's logo the morning of (procrastinate much?) and using a toothpick to dab on fluffy frosting to make the words. Seriously. I'm not too fond of the giant slab of fondant I just slapped on the fluffy frosting though.... but all in all, it was fun. I even had the inside layers in red and blue (school colors.)

Next is a cake a coworker asked me to make for her sons' birthdays. They were having a knight theme and she had seen my previous dragon cake and asked if I could do something for them. This was the first paid cake ever :) WOOHOO! 

It was fun to make but also had the same problem of differently shaped pans. But you already saw that, didn't you? ;)

Lastly was a fun cake! Our friend's birthday was coming up and we asked her about her favorite flavor of cake. She told us that her mom made her a koolaid cake once. That's right. Flavored cake! 

My friend and I decided this was a great time to bust out the checkered pan and make three different flavors: Cherry, Orange, and Grape. 

Well... we probably shouldn't have used the entire packet in only a third of the cake batter. It was tangy. Really tangy. But everyone was nice and ate it anyway :)

Will be posting more from the past in the morning!