Welcome little Ladybug!

My BFF is having a baby soon, which calls for a baby shower! Myself and another friend hosted this past Sunday, and it was such a lovely party. The mom-to-be received so many beautiful and useful presents, and everyone enjoyed some food and treats.

We decided on a ladybug theme, inspired by a cute ladybug cake I saw on Pinterest and was looking for an excuse to make. I designed and printed these invitations to send out to the invited guests. 

We stuck with the ladybug theme in our decor as well, using red and black streamers, balloons, tissue paper pompoms, and fans. We also had some banners and mobile hangers with ladybugs on them. I found these tiny wooden ladybug stickers at Michael's, so obviously I had to buy them, and we stuck them all over the place. So cute.

My co hosting friend made a diaper cake and a stroller out of blankets and bibs with ladybug accent ribbon. They turned out great! 

I crocheted a ladybug corsage for the guest of honour to wear using this pattern from one of my fave blogs, Repeat Crafter Me. 

We made a delicious apple punch in my mom's fabulous punch dispenser, and had coffee and soda available as well. For food, we had tiny sandwiches, stuffed mushrooms, mini caprese skewers, fancy cheese and crackers, taco dip, veggie and fruit trays, a plate of mixed cookies, and ladybug/baby girl themed sugar cookies from a local bakery. These cookies were also our take home favours. 

After eating and opening gifts, the guest of honour cut into the adorable ladybug cake. I made my favourite four egg yellow cake, filled with strawberry sauce, and iced with a quick vanilla icing. Then I used Wilton fondant to cover and decorate the cake.

I usually make my own marshmallow fondant when I make a fondant cake, and it is usually a little terrible. I find it difficult to work with, and you need to use so much icing sugar to roll it out, otherwise it turns into a big sticky mess. Also, it is so hard to tint a nice rich red or black, and it is so very sweet to eat. Like, teeth hurting sweet. 

So when I saw this stuff in black and red at Michael's, I figured I would give it a try. It couldn't be worse than the marshmallow stuff! And oh my goodness, it is a million times better. It was a dream to roll out, like rolling silk! It is so smooth, and the colour is so rich, and it even tastes good! And the best part? No icing sugar required at all!! I am officially a convert. I'm not sure I will ever use the marshmallow stuff again. Usually when I make a fondant cake, there is just a constant flow of swearing coming from the kitchen. My husband isn't convinced that I like making cakes, because it sure sounds like I hate every minute of it! But this time, he thought I hadn't even started yet because I was being so quiet! Amazing stuff, my sanity loves it. 

I gave the butterfly rag quilt to my BFF for her baby. The butterfly fabric is so perfect for her, and who doesn't like that cozy minky? I made a little label (which I had a heck of a time addressing, as I don't know baby's name yet), and hand stitched it on the back of the quilt. Then I folded it all up and tied it with a ribbon and a button. 

So after such a lovely party, momma has everything she needs for her new little gal. I can't wait to meet her!

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!