A Hero's Welcome

Guys, I'm so excited. My sister is about to have her second baby (a little boy!) in just under a month! While they don't have a name picked out yet (perfection doesn't come easy), I'm just going to refer to him as the Little Hero.

So last weekend, we had a superhero-themed baby shower to welcome the Little Hero into the world! And since my brother-in-law loves Marvel, I decided to bring the awesomeness into the cake realm!

Behold, the Superhero Baby Shower Cake!

I'm so excited about it. It was my first time sculpting actual figures out of edible modeling clay. The Wolverine is my favorite!!

I'm the best at what I do, and what I do is look adorable.

He was really fun to make, especially the boots! I modeled them loosely after the Funko Pop bobbleheads (of which I have a collection of six, and it's still growing!) but added my own spin to them.

And then there's the Hulk!

HULK SMASH YOU IN FACE WITH CUTENESS,.

I think I'm most excited about his hair. I've never done hair before! And--well, look at it!

HULK UNDERSTAND VALUE OF PERSONAL GROOMING.

I took a blob of black clay and snipped it randomly with scissors and pressed it on his head, and I was surprised by how well it came out!

My Spider-Man took FOREVER to do, since I had to individually place every web on his body and they kept falling off, but I think he turned out pretty okay! Although his stance makes me laugh. Compared to the battle stances of Wolverine and Hulk, his arms dangling at his side makes him look he's just so not into the whole crime-fighting thing.

With great power comes great. . . *sigh* who cares.

 The top of the cake was Captain America's Shield, made out of a Chinet paper plate (it's sturdier than card stock) and some good ol' fashioned marker drawings, complete with the phrase, "A Hero Is Born!"

Overall, I think if came out pretty well! The cityscape in the background was made by my younger sister and my friend out of old cereal boxes, paint, construction paper, and pom-poms to look like fireworks. They also put little Superman, Batman, and Flash figurines that they found from the dollar section at Target. It set the scene perfectly!

As far as the cake itself, I made cookies and cream pound cake with chocolate fudge in the layers and buttercream frosting with vanilla fondant. Om nom nom.

So when the Little Hero finally decides to make an appearance, we'll be ready for him! 

You better believe it, bub.

Merry (Belated) Christmas!

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year, Cakesters! Hope you all had a wonderful winter break and enjoyed spending time with your families and eating yummy things!

So I have a lot to update you guys on. Back in October, I made a wedding cake for my good friends Amy and Ryan for their fall-themed wedding.

It was a lot of fun to make, and was one of my better cakes I think! It's exciting to see my quality get a bit better with each cake =)

They had two little porcelain pumpkins as their cake toppers. Amy added a tiny top hat and veil to them. Adorable!

There were three different flavors of pound cake: sour cream, cookies and cream, and Italian Sweet Cream, all filled with white chocolate buttercream. Om nom nom.

I made the leaves out of fondant and gum paste with yellow gel color. I then painted them with a little bit of vodka (to dry fast without losing the color) and more gel color. 

Once they were dry, I used edible gold spray (Wilton brand), sprayed it on a piece of tin foil, and painted it over the leaves to give them the metallic gold sheen. The tiny gold heart sprinkled are also edible! (Can you tell I live at Michael's?)

I think it turned out really well! I'm excited about it. =) And that brings us to cake numero dos: The Christmas Cake!

Keeping it in the family, Amy's mother-in-law commissioned me to make her church group a cake for their Christmas party. When I asked her what she wanted, all she said was "Make it really, really cool."

And I thought, "Well, let's see what happens."

With the help of my mother (who went to Hallmark and found these fancy ornaments and such), I was able to pull this crafty cake together! The Santa silhouette was actually a sparkly addition that I cut out of this really beautiful Hallmark card and stuck it on the cake with candy melts. (I felt bad ruining the card, but hey, pretty cake! =D )

The whooshy winter winds was made from silver edible metal spray (that I used a paintbrush for yet again), and the stars were from white candy melts that I also painted on.

A beautiful nativity ornament!

The tree ties it all together.

Another pretty ornament that was perfect for the "O" in "Joy!"

So that's all of them so far! Sorry about the long-winded post. I really should update more often. Guess I've figured out my New Year's Resolution for 2015! =)