Rainbow Birthday Cake!!!

I've basically been plotting this cake for a year, maybe more...I can't remember when I first saw it here ~ at Almota Roses and here ~ at i am baker. I feel in love. I love rainbows. L.O.V.E them. Kind of (still) want a tattoo of one but I'm too chicken to do it. I've been known to pull over to take pictures of rainbows...okay, you get it :)

For some reason I was craving boxed cake, maybe it was because that's what I grew up on. More than likely it was the fact that my birthday was on a Wednesday and I didn't want to make a "from scratch" cake during the week. I also used canned frosting (gasp!) but I was CRAVING sugar...hum...weird.

Anyways, I had a blast making this cake. I used one boxed white cake in the 6 inch round cake pans from some Wilton decorating class I took. I'm not sure I'd readily make this for tons of other people but it certainly has that WOW! factor once it is opened.

Preparing the cake.

Tasty rainbow!

Teddy bear sprinkles!!!

It is GORGEOUS!!!

Taste the rainbow :)

love it.

two mini cakes...

...for two mini kids.

Jason has a lot of family. Like, his Mom was one of 8 and they all have kids and most of their kids have kids! It certainly makes get-togethers on his side of the family interesting. We are closer to some of his family than others, which I suppose is natural. The best man in our wedding was Jason's cousin Kenny. Kenny married Shana and they have two kids, Linkin who is 3 and Adeline (Addy) who is 1. We call then out "niece and nephew" even though they are technically second cousins. But hey, they're babies and it seems more appropriate.

Well Link and Addy are born just a bit over two years apart in the month of October. Thankfully their parents decided to do one joint birthday part for the family and friends because this enabled us to no have to choose which kiddo's party to attend this year! We were happy for that. A while back Shana had asked me to make Addy's 'smash cake' that she would eat and I had asked if she wanted one for Link too so he wouldn't feel excluded. We decided to go ahead and do that. Shana ordered a 9X13 cake from somewhere up there...see, they live in Auburn which is over 200 miles away and I didn't want to be in charge of the only cake with a driving distance that great.

So I made two 6inch cakes about 3 layers high. Nothing too fancy since I knew the store bought cake (Spongebob to be exact) would be colorful. I did the standard boy and girl colors...because well, it made sense. The cakes themselves are pretty simple but they were intended to be destroyed by children and drive in the car for 3+ hours...so I figured that best.

The cakes!

happy first birthday Addy!

happy third birthday Linkin!

one.

three! look at his toes :)

digging in!

crissy's first birthday (baking extravaganza)...

One of my dearest friends Stacy had a baby girl about a year ago and this weekend we celebrated her first birthday! Stacy and I grew up two houses down from each other and I consider her more family than friend. I was honored to be invited to the celebration and even more honored to bake for it! Actually, Stacy baked and made the frosting for the cat cake and I did the rest!

The cat cake was chocolate with chocolate covered in vanilla fondant. The cupcakes were vanilla with Swiss meringue butter creme. The cakepops were vanilla/vanilla pop dipped in white chocolate.

This was my first real trial at cakepops. I had tried a few before cupcake camp because I knew that at camp I'd be meeting and learning from Bakerella - who 'invented' these little things, but they'd all been flubs! While at camp I learned about the real difference between melting chips, which is the coating on the outside of the cakepop. Then on Friday I visited my friend Megan who I made this farm cake for a few months ago, and she happens to live a few blocks from The Decorette Shop in Portland! There I bought too many just enough new supplies to make me happy :)

On to the pictures!!

Crissy's kitty cake!

The set up. Stacy did a wonderful job making it all look pretty!

Setting up the cakepop station! Please mind the mess.

Patting and Patting the cakepop!

Look at them!!

My favorite. Mrs. Purple cat cakepop.

My second favorite!

Pretty pretty cakepops.

Cupcakes! I always forget I have this stand :-)

Happy First Birthday Christine Elizabeth!!!

lylasttdid...

One of my other favorite friends Bree has been working at 'home' in Portland this summer. Though she currently resides in the OTHER Washington (DC that is) she convinced her job as part of her rotations to let her come home this summer. Its been great having her back! We've been over to her house for a couple camp fires as well as pool parties and sewing nights!!!

Before Bree came back she requested a cake, to which I was happy to oblige! Though I was certainly surprised to know she wanted a carrot cake but I was happy to try that out. I got the recipe I used from my Mom who'd tried it many times before so I had encouragement that between that cake recipe and Martha Stewart's creme cheese frosting recipe I'd be in good hands.

action icing shot! thanks hunny.

going for a 'tropical' theme. lemon yellow, pink, orange, and sky blue.

i used a cookie cutter to get the flowers 'about right'

Bree and her cake. This is the first cake I've ever made for anybody else :)

Later that week we had a sewing party. Bree has been wanting to learn to sew for a while but has been wanting my mom to teach her. You see, Kathy and I are like-sewers. We eye everything, don't really measure...etc. My Mom and Bree are like-sewers. They measure everything twice and worryworryworry!

A funny thing happened though. My mom brought over a project for us to work on because she wasn't sure if Kathy and Bree would have anything. The project...a burp cloth. You know...for people who might be having babies some day. The razzing started there! Kathy and Bree had a HAYDAY teasing my Mom about being passive agressive about wanting grandchildren...and she did not deny it. Oh no, she did not admit it either. Not sure which is worse.

So my mom prefaced the project with "you can buy ribbon to customize it to who you are giving it to. You could buy basketballs for a sport fanatic, ABC letters for a teacher OR...AND THIS IS THE FUNNIEST PART...you could buy cupcake ribbon for someone who likes cupcakes". That brought on even MORE razzing!!! Bree decided to first make me an eventual baby shower gift of a burp cloth made out of a cloth diaper with cupcake ribbon sewn on. How thoughtful ;-)

My Mom teaching Bree (with her little helper Maya).

Bree and I sewing. I think our Mom's were very proud of this moment.

B hard at work. Making a reusable bag.

B and her bag. Now all she has to do is add handles. I taught her how to do this and my Mom had taught me. I love family :)

Bree is only home for one more weekend so hopefully I get to see her again!!!

little Lizzy turns one...

I have successfuly made my first cake for someone else, as in, to show off at a family gathering. For Bree's cake it was for many many people I'd met before but for Little Lizzy, it was a different story.

Lizzy's Mom Megan and I went to college together! We were even roommates for a while. A few months back Megan and I had met up for a walk and lunch in downtown and were talking about Lizzy's first birthday. I said I would be honored if she'd let me make the cake and she agreed to it! Lizzy's favorite book is about farm animals so Megan had a farm animal themed birthday party. I googled a bunch of different cakes about farms and emailed them to Megan. She and her husband Bill decided they wanted the bottom tier to be a fence/pasture and the top tier to be a cow pattern. They also wanted a 'smash cake' that Lizzy could eat and so they decided on the form of a pig cupcake.

It was very interesting making something for someone else. Asking them what they wanted flavor wise, hue wise (bright, light, pastel, etc) but it was such a fun experience and Megan and Bill seemed very greatful. Now...on to the pictures!!!

WOW. Messy kitchen!!! Eek!

Pink Pig cupcake.

from the top.

from the side.

My first clients! Megan, Lizzy, and myself :)

attack of the minis (cake version)...

Last week I made a good luck/good-bye cake for our two student teachers Katie & Kristin.

Here are the pictures :)

this is what a KitchenAid looks like with a double batch of icing!!!

this is what my husband does with the cake scraps!

a couple dozen mini cupcakes!

a mini 6 inch cake. covered in fondant and bordered with fondant circles.

the spread :)

cake and a peak at the cupcakes :)

mini goodness!

(first) stackable cake...

Last week I made a cake for the end of secretaries week for our awesome secretaries Margaret and Michelle. It happened to coinside with my last lesson of this cake course...so I killed to birds with one stone. Well really, satisfied to needs with one cake :) I made my first homemade chocolate cake using Martha's One Bowl Chocolate Cake recipe. While I am not a fan of chocolate cake...it was a HUGE hit. I filled it with starwberry filling. Here are the pictures!

new way of frosting. just pipe it on!!! so easy and even.

crumb coat.

homemade fondant. yummy and pretty! and really easy to work with *surprisingly

both tiers covered. found out the next day I shouldn't have put them in the freezer...

stacked. the long dowel was to keep it from falling over in the car...

since I am not good at freehand artwork...i traced :)

paw print on. now to cover up the cracks...look at the where the red icing is...

decorating in class :)

fully decorated. simple yet fun.

it is totally leaning to the left...whoops!

@ work setting up.

helping to decorate the table.

every friday a different team is in charge of snacks. it is great!!!