3D Cakes

I don't have any finished projects this week so I figured I'd talk about the cakes I've made.  Cake decorating is a lot of fun.  I watch Ace of Cakes every once in awhile because I'm fascinated with all the amazing things they can do.   I want to be able to make cool cakes like that too.  My sister-in-law decorates cakes so she gave me a lot of helpful tips and will make frosting for me.

Cookie Monster

My first cake was for my daughter's first birthday in 2009.  At a year old infants don't really have a huge interest in anything so I decided to do the Sesame Street 1st Birthday theme.  For the cake I choose Cookie Monster.

Cookie Monster is made from I think 4-5 11x13 layers of white cake.  We had a lot of cake left over.  The small Cookie Monster(smash cake) was made using one of those small teddy bear 3D cake pans.  For some reason I didn't think there'd be enough cake/I want white cake and chocolate cake/I wanted to make more characters so I made cupcakes too.

 

The decorations I bought had Big Bird, Elmo, and Cookie Monster so since I had Cookie Monster I made Elmo and Big Bird cupcakes.  I also made little chocolate chip cookie cupcakes to go with the main cake.  There are two different kinds of Elmo because my sister-in-law and I had different ideas how to make them.  I liked both ideas so we did both.  I wasn't thrilled with the Big Bird ones but they're not too bad.

Cake with head removed and cut in half.

Curious George

The next cake I made was for my daughter's second birthday.  She likes Curious George so that was the theme.  I thought it would be cute to make George hugging the man's yellow hat.  While I was carving the cake the George part started separating from the hat, it was falling backwards.  I didn't think I would be able to save it but my father-in-law helped me pick up George and turn him around.  So then George was leaning against the hat.  It turned out alright especially with the near disaster.

I made Georges face and ears using gum paste.  His hands and feet I used fondant.  I lost a little bit of George when we had to turn him but I improvised with more icing and cake crumbs.  The only other thing I wished would have been different is the hat's brim.  I don't know why I made it so small.  The brim is supposed to be a lot wider.  But still not too bad.

Minnie Mouse

The next cake I made for my other daughter's first birthday in 2011.  Again, infant with not no major interest.   I looked all around online for a birthday theme but I didn't care for anything.  I finally decided on Minnie Mouse, the decorations were cute and girlie.  

She turned out great.  The problem I had here was that I wasn't too bright when we transported the cake.  I left the cake on the turn table and though I was holding it the cake board slipped half way off and the weight of the cake made the board bend causing a crack down the one side.  Luckily it didn't fall apart.  I took it inside and used icing to help glue it back together and some extra dowel rods to help support it.  I originally had the cake leaning a little but afterwards it leaned a lot.  It still worked with the happy giddy look I was going for with the character and fortunately it held up over night and through the party the next day. 

I also made cake pops with the help of my sister-in-law.  As you can tell they're little Minnie Mouse heads.  Cake pops are a new craze and I wanted to try them out.  We used the chocolate circles for the ears and made chocolate bows by piping/shaping them on parchment paper, letting them set, and then peeling them off. 

Old McDonald Birthday

The last cake I made was for my daughter's third birthday.  I let her look at all the birthday themes online and pick which one she wanted.  She chose a farm theme.  For the cake I decided to due a farm scene stealing some ideas from my sister-in-law who did something similar for a baby shower. 

The only problem I had with this cake was time management.  We traveled to my parents house to have the party.  I didn't want to try and transport a cake in an hour and a half drive so I decided to make the cake at my parents house.  After we got there and space was made for me I had about 2 hours before the party was going to begin to decorate the cake.  Two hours might seem like plenty of time but it really isn't, and I didn't plan out the design before I started it.  The animals I made using cake balls.  The fence I made by piping chocolate on parchment paper, letting it set, and then peeling it off.  I wish I would have done more with the cake, like after I finished it I remembered that I wanted to make a tractor,  but I am still happy with it.

I can't wait to make another cake.  Right now I've only made them for my daughter's birthdays, it's the only time I have a chance to make them.  I've taken one cake decorating class, it was before I made the Minnie Mouse cake.  It was the Wilton's basic decorating class.  I had messed around with cake decorating stuff before but I figured a class might do me some good.  It was ok.  We didn't get to do anything too creative, it was basics after all, but I learned how to use different icing tips and some new techniques for regular decorating.