Let them eat cake! (And sew it, too!)

As you may have seen, I made a birthday cake block to share as my 52 Quilters contribution.

You can read all about it here

I was inspired by this pattern, but had to design my own to accommodate the size specifications, and my desire to have three candles.

So I set to work using Excel to plan out the picture. I decided each square would represent a quarter inch, so it was easy to figure out what size to cut all the pieces.

I cut and sewed the pieces together in groups from the bottom up. To make the angled corners (pieces B, E, H, M), line up the square pieces over the base piece and sew along the diagonal of the square, then press open.

At the end of building the block, I sewed long strips along all four sides, then squared up the block so that it measures 8.5x8.5 inches. 

If you use this pattern, please let me know how it goes! I planned it out initially, and amended as I went, but I haven't "tested it", so to speak. So if you try it and find any mistakes, please tell me. Or if you try it and don't find any mistakes, let me know that too! 

Black Adam likes to eat cake!

My nephew loves Black Adam, a rather obscure super villain from the DC universe. And he recently turned 3, which means Birthday Party Time!

Black Adam

Of course he wanted a superhero themed party, and what better cake to fit the theme than Black Adam? I had seen this version on Pinterest, and I thought it could easily be adapted to look like Black Adam. 

The inspiration

The realization

I've never been able to successfully make black icing, which I thought may have been a real wrench in my plans. But up until now, I've always started with a white icing. Tip: start with chocolate icing! It takes much less food colouring to get to black when you start with dark brown! 

I made a buttercream cake with a chocolate/butter "quick" icing (which took me an hour!), and a vanilla quick icing to tint for the face and yellow accents. The party was expecting around 40 people, so I used two 9x13, double layer cakes to construct the body, arms and head. 

The cake was a hit! My nephew loved it, and one of the young party-goers couldn't stop calling it awesome. Compliments from small children are the best! 

That's his Black Adam face

A Tea Party Cake

For my mother-in-law's 50th, I wanted to make a special cake for her to celebrate.  She is an avid tea-drinker, so I figured a tea set would be the perfect decoration.

Tea set birthday cake

I made a 9x13" sheet cake for the base (my fave 4 egg yellow cake recipe) and filled and crumb coated it with an orange buttercream.  I covered it with homemade marshmallow fondant tinted with brown gel food colouring, but not fully kneaded in to give it a marbled look similar to wood grain.  I made a table runner from a strip of fondant, then got to work crafting the toppers.

I made a teapot, creamer, sugar bowl and two teacup shapes from rice crispy treats, then coated them with icing to make them smoother and covered them with white fondant.  I sculpted the handles, spout, and lids from fondant and let them dry overnight in the desired shape, otherwise they were very droopy.  Using a quick confectioner sugar icing and a small circular icing tip, I piped a floral/vine pattern onto the tea set, and used the brushed embroidery technique to make it look like china.

Tea pot with brushed embroidery flowers

Creamer

Sugar bowl

I painted the inside of the teacups with brown gel food colouring to make it look like they were filled with tea.

Tea cup filled with "tea"

I attached the much stiffer dried handles/spout the next day with toothpicks, and stuck the tea set to the cake with skewers.  I piped a Happy Birthday message in the corner and the cake was ready to present!

The finished cake

Bird's eye view

This was a fun project, and tasty too (love that orange buttercream).  I love the brushed embroidery, it is an easy technique with big results!

Shabby Chic First Birthday Cake

I spent today enjoying an exciting cake project for my beautiful Goddaughter, my niece Briar Rose.  I was given virtual free reign by her mom for the cake; she requested it to fit with the shabby chic theme, and to be pretty and girly.  She needed the cake to feed 40 people, so I decided to do a two tier cake.  I made Four-Egg Yellow Cakes with a homemade strawberry filling, and used a classic buttercream for the icing.  Now to decorate: I immediately thought "pink, of course", then took to Pinterest for some inspiration.  I have always loved the look of buttercream rosette cakes, but assumed it was beyond my skill set. But..... I found an online tutorial (Thrifty and Chic) and decided to give it a try, since I can definitely use a piping bag.  I covered the top tier with the rosettes, and it was actually very simple! 

Rosettes

I wanted to do a nice ruffle on the lower tier, because nothing says shabby chic to me like ruffles.  Again, I found an online tutorial (Jessica Cakes) and picked up my icing bag.  

Ruffles

It turned out so lovely, I think the rosettes will be my new go-to when I need to do something quick and pretty!  I topped it with a cute bunting I made out of burlap, lace, ribbon, and pearls.  I made the little fabric pompoms (again, tutorial: Lovely Indeed) out of some leftover fabric from a dress I made for Briar Rose last Christmas.  I love the bunting, too!  

Happy Birthday Bunting

Fabric pompoms

The finished product!

And what first birthday party is complete without a personal cake for the birthday girl?  I made a giant cupcake and decorated it with the rosettes on top, and a vertical ruffle on the sides to mimic the cupcake liner.  

Cupcake smash cake

She loved it!  And did a great job "smashing" it!  

Not too much left!