Jesse's Curious George Cake

Jesse turned 2 last month and had a Curious George themed party. The cake was vanilla bean with vanilla buttercream frosting. Decorations made from gumpaste and royal icing.

I realized again that noses are really hard to draw! Fortunately the rest of it looked enough like George that the nose didn't matter.

Talia's Swimming Pool Cake

Talia turned 5 last week and had a pool party, so naturally she wanted a swimming pool cake, and she specifically asked for one with a slide. I sent her some ideas from flickr and the favorite was this one made by the wonderfully talented Kelly O'Brien of Glass Slipper Gourmet.

411: vanilla bean cake with vanilla buttercream and raspberry buttercream filling (my new favorite flavor!) decorations made with gumpaste and fondant

9" and 8" cakes joined together, then I sliced a bit off the top of each top layer and cut out a smaller circle out of it to make the sides of the pool. Buttercream makes great glue!

Ready for chilling overnight (by this point it was 2am!)

I used a parchment template to help cut out the gumpaste for the water, making it much easier to fit it onto the cake.

Cake with water! I love the way the color isn't completely mixed in the gumpaste, so it looks a little more realistic.

The beach ball was a last-minute addition. I didn't have time for painted food coloring to dry, so I used powdered food coloring and petal dust for the colors.

Happy Birthday, Max!

First it was Mets/Max cupcakes for his kindergarten class, then Max requested a racetrack cake for his actual birthday party, held at a local slot car racing place.

I've had a lot of practice making racetrack cakes, because it's the exact same cake Max requested when he turned 4 and when he turned 5! So this is racetrack cake 3.0! Cake was a combo of vanilla bean and chocolate with vanilla buttercream. Track "dirt" made from crushed chocolate cookies, grass is buttercream, all other decorations made from gumpaste.

Racetrack cake, circa 2009

(thanks to Flickr user CakeJournal for the race car inspiration!)

Racetrack cake, circa 2008

Racetrack cake, circa 2007

My friend Mike Schneider (no relation) says at a good blog is all about video, so here goes!

Maxie's (or Mets) Cupcakes

My sweet Maxie (a non-cupcake lover/eater, imagine that) turned 6 on June 8 and today he got to celebrate with his kindergarten class. He's a huge Mets fan and requested baseballs with a M on them. Actually, what he originally asked for was "a big green wall on each cupcake, with a baseball flying over it," but since he wasn't a paying customer I steered him in the direction of a ball with an M on it:)

Max and I agreed that there may be some people in his class who aren't Mets fans, including his teacher, so we told everyone, it's M for Max OR for Mets.

The circles and Ms are made from gumpaste, and I painted on the stripes with some powdered orange food coloring mixed with vodka. Have been looking for a reason to use the striped liners I got last year at Surfas, and I think these are a perfect combo.

Ready for their trip to kindergarten

Fire Truck Cupcakes

Update! I'm thrilled that Cupcakes Take the Cake blogged about these cupcakes on March 27. Thanks!

I've always had a thing for firemen (they're the only guys who can really pull off a mustache), and now I have a thing for gumpaste fire trucks. My search for a MINI fire truck cookie cutter was fruitless, so I had to improvise and make my own.

Cupcakes are vanilla bean with vanilla buttercream, fire trucks are gumpaste. Couldn't decide if the ladders looked best up or down (Doug said up, I thought down) so I did some of both. Handpainted the number 4 with food coloring. If I make them again I'd probably use some silver dust to make the number pop a little more.

(btw - I love these cupcake boxes and holders. They make any cupcake look that much better)