Yoda Cake #2

I must admit, I have been very blessed with my customers in this first year of making cakes just outside of my family. When I posted the Yoda cake I made for Nephew K, a friend of my brother and sister asked if I could make a cake just the same for her father, a Star Wars fan. Nothing made me happier than to hear someone enjoyed one of my cakes enough to have the same cake for one of their own family members.

The cake was for approximately 15 people and she wanted chocolate and vanilla for the flavor. I started by making a layer of vanilla cake with orange juice and then made a layer of chocolate cake with orange juice. Between the layers of chocolate and vanilla I filled in with my homemade buttercream, extra whipped to make it very fluffy. I topped the cake with the buttercream and smoothed it out as much as possible, rotating the cake on my new turntable. It worked out perfectly! With this cake I wanted to do something different for the color. Since we were still going with a simple cake, focusing more on the Yoda, I airbrushed the cake with silver food coloring to make the cake look very galaxy-like. After airbrushing the cake silver, I piped some white stars in icing all over the cake. I then used a green type gel on the cake to write "Happy Birthday Dad!" It was definitely interesting writing "Happy Birthday Dad," for someone on a cake that wasn't my dad, and it made me giggle to myself a little; just an interesting tid-bit I thought I would share :) I outlined the green sparkly gel in white icing so it would stay together a little easier. I spent the rest of my time making the edible Yoda figuring out of fondant. I used chocolate fondant and buttercream fondant that I colored with food coloring.

Since this cake was being picked up by my new customer and I wasn't dropping it off, I was able to use my new "Reese's Cakes By Design" stickers on a traveling box! This was very exciting for me! I put some toothpicks in the Yoda to hold him onto the cake while in travel.

Enjoy :)

Star Wars Cake

I am very excited about this most recent cake. Nephew K let me know that he would like a Star Wars cake for his 5th birthday. "Can you do that Aunt Sarah?" How do I say no? I can't, so I didn't :) He asked me if I could put Yoda on the cake, and asked me if I knew who that guy was. I had an idea, and thought I could accomplish the task at hand. So, the night before my 4 year old nephew gave me a figuring of Yoda just in case I was confused at all as to what he looked like.

The cake I made was a vanilla cake, but I separated the batter so that I could dye different parts of it to make a rainbow type cake. It was vanilla flavored with a little bit of berry in the batter. I baked the cake in a circle pan so that I could place Yoda in the middle and replicate something similar to a cake I saw online. (Yes I happen to scope out ideas over the wonders of the internet) As the cake was baking I took the time to make my Yoda out of fondant. I took different pieces and dyed them to the colors I needed: green, light brown, dark brown, and tan. I rolled out the tan to make a cloak because K continued to remind me that Yoda was green, wore a coat/cloak, and had a stick. I took the dark brown fondant and rolled it into the body and wrapped the tan around it. Next I took pieces of the tan, rolled them, and placed them on the sides for the sleeves of the cloak. Then I rolled a part of the green into the shape of the head, and I followed by sculpting separate pieces for ears, hands, feet, a nose and eyes. Finally I made the stick. I used a tooth pick to sculpt all of the pieces to add wrinkles, and other details.

For the icing, I made extra whipped buttercream icing and dyed it blue. I spread the icing all over the cake before using a star tip and white buttercream icing to make stars all over the cake. Finally I added some sprinkles and wording to finish the cake before adding Yoda in the middle at the top.

Nephew K really loved the cake and could not wait to eat the Yoda. He couldn't believe that I made it so that he could eat him too! Please let me know what you think :)

The cake from the front 

From on top 

Yoda close up 

Another close up 

From the very front 

From the top, after adding all of the sprinkles.

Let's Talk About Gluten Free Cakes

WARNING, this posting does not contain any cake I have actually made...YET!

Over the last year or so I have heard a lot of people talk about Gluten free food, or actually I have seen Gluten free food. I spent a good bit of time talking to a co-worker of mine about him having to eat food that was completely Gluten free. As a whole, he does not do choose to eat certain foods like a Vegan or Vegetarian would. He eats food that is Gluten free because he has to. Now some people do choose to be Gluten free for various reasons, but he found out he has Celiac's Disease. This means he CANNOT eat anything that pretty much has wheat in because his body is allergic to it. Turns out, there is a lot of food that he cannot eat. I learned that not only can those with Celiac's have to have food that is Gluten free, but they cannot eat anything that has touched other things that may have contained Gluten, which turns out to be almost everything. Food cannot be cooked in the same things. You cannot use the same plate as someone else, or their knife, because this can contaminate the food with Gluten. This brought on a thought, or I should really say he told me, I needed to start making Gluten Free Cakes. Wow, that a thought. Everyone loves cake, cupcakes, and other treats. There are ways for people to make Vegan cupcakes, trust me I have seen it on TV shows. So why not make sure that all of those Gluten Free people out there, for what ever reason, can have their cake and eat it too?

Reese's Cakes By Design is here to answer that question. I am making Gluten Free Cakes! I know that I need different pans, got them. I must have different utensils, got them. I will also need Gluten Free recipes, got them too. The last thing I need are some customers that are looking for Gluten Free Cakes to support their lifestyle. If you are interested please let me know. I am very interested in making cakes for everyone. Also, if you know anyone else that is Gluten Free, send them my way!

Of course, I am not only interested in making cakes for those who are Gluten free, but anyone. Everyone deserves to have a delicious treat to celebrate something, or just to satisfy that sweet tooth. If you have any other specific needs for your cakes such as allergies, feel free to ask me what I can do. I am willing and interested in baking for everyone :)

SER :)

Are You Ready For Some Football?

My girlfriend from work, because like I said before--my coworkers are fueling my business, had been planning different things for her Hubby's 30th birthday this year. I suppose it was a good bit sports theme because her adorable self surprised him with a trip to the Phillie's game with a group of friends, then she contacted me. She asked me to make him an Eagles cake in the shape of a football. She's a very good wife, I'll have to take note on how to be like that myself! :)

The cake wasn't going to be very big, since it was for about 10 people or so. I started out making this homemade chocolate cake (My favorite chocolate cake to make). When it finished baking I planned on cutting it and making the cake two layers so I could have it tall enough but cut the cake into a football shape. Unfortunately, when I did this the cake started to fall apart since it was so moist. I should have known this was going to happen. Step 2 was to do it all over again, so I did with a different mix. This time it turned out really well! So I cut the big square cake in half and put one half on top of the other to make it thicker so I can cut it into the shape of a football.

After I cut the football shape out of the cake I iced it with some chocolate buttercream icing. I covered the whole cake before I added the lacing and end stripes with some creamy vanilla icing. Next, I added "Eagles" at the bottom of the football. I finished the cake off with a little football helmet and a jersey out of fondant. I wrote his last name and birthday on the jersey. Here is the cake below. Let me know what you think :)

Since I wasn't able to use my other cake I iced some of it with the extra icing so that everyone at work can enjoy the extra cake. So don't worry, it was not wasted :)

Bridal Butterfly Cupcake Cake

A friend of mine, and coworker, asked me a few months ago if I would be able to make her some cupcakes or a cake for a Bridal Shower coming up for one of her best friends. (My co-workers have obviously been the on the fore-front of my baking business, and I love it and them for it! Thank you all) We had a few months to decide on what to do for the Purple Butterfly theme. Eventually we decided on a Butterfly cake made of individual cupcakes. This was going to be fun because I had not yet made a cake of cupcakes before aside from a turtle I made for Nephew E a few years ago and this would be a little different.


I started out by making a few batches of buttercream icing and baking chocolate, and then vanilla cupcakes. There was definitely a plan in the works when C asked me to make these because the fiancee bought me an airbrush kit a few months ago that I have been aching to try! The plan was to make the cupcakes and shape them into a big Butterfly and ice them individually instead of across all of them, in white buttercream. Then I would be able to use my airbrush kit to color the cake. I was able to use a few extra cupcakes in a box on the side and put some fondant on top with a cute little Bridal saying on it. The plan worked out accordingly but since I made the cupcakes, iced and airbrushed them a few days ahead of time I was nervous that the color would get moist and lift up a bit off of the cupcakes but it turned out well. Something I did learn was that after I airbrushed the cupcakes the color darkened after a bit. With all of my new gadgets I am happy to learn everything about how they work :)


When I arranged all of the cupcakes I used a star tip and chocolate buttercream icing to make the middle of the body. Next I used a rounded tip and made small swirls on each of the other cupcakes in vanilla buttercream to give it a fun look. After I let the icing set and harden a little in the fridge, and practicing with the airbrush kit, I started the cupcake cake.  They turned out really well, learned some tricks along the way but they came out very cute :) Enjoy!

First Bridal Shower Cake (Purple Flowers)

This past weekend I was so honored to have been asked to make a Bridal Shower Cake for my boyfriends sister. The theme was flowers and purple and "just pretty" as I was told, which was perfectly fine by me! :)

So for this event I made a small cake and cupcakes. I made a mix of chocolate cupcakes and vanilla cupcakes.  For these cupcakes I added a little bit of orange flavoring which really enhanced the chocolate and vanilla flavors. I made about 5 batches of buttercream icing to use on the cake and cupcakes and I used every ounce of it! The buttercream needed to be very fluffy and airy to hold the marshmallow flowers up, and in doing this I discovered that I LOVE buttercream icing more when it is fluffy :) After icing all of the cupcakes I cut up large and regular sized marshmallows dipped in purple sprinkles to look like purple petals. I arranged them in layers and then used green icing to make vines.

Next I made the cake. A few nights before the shower I had a completely different idea for the cake, but I threw that idea out the window when I spend about an hour helping Becky and her sisters fold ribbons around invitations. This made me re-evaluate what I wanted to do for the small cake that would be for Becky specifically and her Bridal Party to enjoy. I made a small square vanilla cake with buttercream icing and a layer of vanilla fondant on top. After I covered the cake in white fondant and smoothed it all out, I cut a strip of purple fondant and put it around the bottom edge of the cake, and another larger piece with bubbled edges to look like a ribbon wrapping up a present. I then made a bow cut the same way for the middle of the ribbon of fondant. We chose to write "From Miss to Mrs. Our Best Wishes" on the cake because it was a little different, and cute. I wrote it in green to match the vines on the cupcakes. The cake and cupcakes were displayed on a long table with a three tiered cake display and beautiful lights.

I think it all came out beautifully :)

Enjoy.

The cake and cupcakes

The cake by itself

A group of the cupcakes

A close up of a cupcake

With the beautiful lights and Cala Lilies

Easter Chick Cupcakes

Happy Easter 2012! Today I made cupcakes, again found on Pinterest but this time my mom found them. I made vanilla cupcakes with homemade buttercream icing. The cupcakes had a hint of orange flavoring. After icing all of the cupcakes I rubbed them all into a bowl of yellow sprinkles. I dyed some of the icing and used it to make a beak, wings, and feet. On some of the chicks I added some hair at the top. Mini chocolate chips were a great addition for eyes. I definitely did them a little differently than what we found on Pinterest, but only because I ran out of yellow sprinkles, Haha. The nephews thought they turned out GREAT and enjoyed them.

Happy Easter!

Helicopter Cupcakes!

My girlfriend from work had the amazing idea to take her sons to the Helicopter Museum for their 3rd Birthday Party. Well, what is a party at the Helicopter Museum without Helicopter Cupcakes. That's right, individual helicopters for each little one at the party to enjoy. I was so happy and thankful that she asked me to do these cupcakes, but I was also excited to see that it would be testing my talents. For these cupcakes I used royal icing for the first time, as well as a star tip design across a whole cupcake, both things I have always wanted to do. The cupcakes were a vanilla cake with a hint of orange. A few days ahead of time I made royal icing and piped circles out on wax paper and let them harden for a day or so. Then I dyed some royal icing and made hair. I really enjoyed working with royal icing and I think that I will try to use it more often. Next, I made homemade buttercream icing in blue and red. With the red I had incredible difficulty with my first try to make it, which ended up with A at Acme getting me more food coloring. The second try was PERFECT and we moved on :) I iced the cupcakes one day ahead of time with white buttercream to keep the cupcakes fresh and the next day used the red and blue to create star designs over all of the cupcakes. I left a corner untouched by the colored icing for the window of the helicopters. On the day of the party I brought all of my things to the museum and finished them there because I did not want them to get messed up on the 35 minute drive. I used pieces of a Hershey bar as the tail of the helicopter, and iced them. Finally I placed fondant propellers that I cut out the night before on each cupcake, along with the faces. Everyone seemed to enjoy them and they turned out really cute. I am posting a few pictures of these because I they were so adorable! Thank you E, and Happy Birthday J & T!

I added a "3" to two cupcakes for the Birthday Boys

Enjoy :)

Valentine's Day Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

Every month at work we have a little social breakfast. The month I signed up for was February. Obviously our group decided to do a Valentine's Day theme. We had bagels, fruit, and some cereal but we wanted some kind of treat as well. We decided that making ice cream cone cupcakes was the best idea ever, and it was. I went home and baked two batches of cupcakes (one vanilla and one chocolate). Baking them in ice cream cones was much easier than I thought it would be, and each cone held less cake batter than a regular cupcake cup would be which makes this a really great treat for kids. I made the cupcakes and let them cool, deciding to decorate them at work because I was nervous about traveling with fully decorated cupcakes that were standing up in a box. It was a good idea in the end. I will admit I did not use homemade icing for these cupcakes, but I mixed up some of the icing and cake flavors. There were some vanilla cupcakes with vanilla icing, some with chocolate, and some chocolate cupcakes with vanilla icing, and some with chocolate. My coworker helped me put sprinkles and little candy hearts on them before we put them on display. They were a hit!

Angry Birds All Over!

Nephew C was turning 6 and he was REALLY EXCITED! He was now going to be able to bring cupcakes into school for his class. With the wonderful website of Pinterest my sister-in-law stumbled across a really cute idea to make Angry Bird cupcakes. Angry Birds is a fun, addictive game that you can play on a cell phone that gets the Internet. My nephews quickly found this game and discovered how much they loved it. We knew that it was going to have to be Angry Birds Cupcakes this year. We used different shaped marshmallows, colored sprinkles, and some black icing to make these fun cupcakes. His class really enjoyed them:

When it came to his party with family and friends my sister asked for me to make cupcakes. When I asked him what he wanted he said "The Red Ones!" Instantly his mom knew that he was looking for more Angry Birds Cupcakes and she said that plain cupcakes would be fine, but how could I disappoint him like that!?!? Even though he said that plain ones were "okay" as well, I had to add some special ones in for him, I made a bunch of plain cupcakes but put sprinkles on them that were the colors of the different Angry Birds characters. Then I made a few red Angry Birds just for him :) He was very happy to see them when I took them out of the box. So was my sister!

Someone's Turning 90!

One of my father's cousins needed 90 cupcakes for his mother-in-law's 90th birthday. I must admit I was truly flattered to be asked to make so many cupcakes for such a special event. They were not looking for anything too fancy, but wanted to make sure that I was using my homemade buttercream icing! I previously made Snickerdoodle cupcakes for this customer with the buttercream icing and that is why he thought of me to make the cupcakes :) I saw a great idea from a friend about a year ago where she made little flowers out of marshmallows. I thought this was a nice idea to keep things simple and pretty for the cupcakes. They turned out really nice. It took about 4 boxes to bring them all in, and I used two stands to hold only some of them. The picture below shows the ones that we put out on the dessert table. The rest of the cupcakes were still in boxes and were used to fill in gaps on the cake stands when people ate some.

I received a text the next day with "rave reviews." Their whole family really enjoyed them. I was so happy to be a part of such a special day, and it helped that they really enjoyed the treats!

Little C's 1st Birthday

It was my nephew's 1st birthday and my sister always had a party with family and friends. She already bought some animal printed plates with circles and blue and yellow all over them. She asked me to make a cake but did not know exactly what she wanted, but she wanted something that he would enjoy. I took the plate and thought about my options. C was only turning 1 so he would not fully be able to grasp the images of a lion or anything on a cake, so I decided to take the colors from the plate and make circles and stars with them. I made a round cake with blue and white insides to get a sort of zebra striped effect. Next I covered the cake in buttercream and white fondant. I cut out my shapes and placed them all over the cake, with the help of my artistic-perfectionist brother who was lurking over my shoulder the whole time to make sure that I did not place the shapes in the wrong place. The cake turned out really cute and C enjoyed digging into the blue and white inside!

This is the cake without any candles on top.

With all of the fun candles. It was his first birthday, I had to get him special candles!

This may have been my favorite part, the zebra inside!

Christening Cake

A little one was getting Christened and I knew just how to celebrate his beautiful day. A simple cake was all that was needed, with a giant baby blue cross of course. I was able to decorate this cake with some different colored flowers because it was also the middle of Spring, and I felt that it seemed to fit. My sister in law helped me with the writing because she wanted to try it. I loved using my new flower press for this cake, it turned out to be a really pretty cake.

The Wine Lover's Birthday Cake

It was my aunt's birthday and my cousin wanted to get a fun cake to go along with the wine-tasting party she was throwing for just the girls. There was only a small group of ladies getting together the party so I made a small circle cake. I used a chocolate chip cake recipe and covered it in buttercream icing. For the decorations I cut up different gummy treats to look like grapes and made a wine bottle out of fondant, an actual wine cork, and wrapper. With a few green vines and a "Happy Birthday," this cake was finished. It was delicious :)

Tiger Anniversary Cake

I was really excited when a High School friend asked me to make an Anniversary Cake for one of her family members. She saw some of the cakes I had made and put on facebook and asked me to make something special for someone in her family. She came up with the idea of mixing a tiger and having "Happy Anniversary" written on the cake, and I took the reigns from there. I decided to make a two tiered cake for the amount of people the cake would be for. For the top tier I wanted to make it a blank canvas so that I could write on it. I decided to make a circle cake then cover it with black fondant and make it pop by using orange icing to write on it. For the bottom tier I made a square cake and covered it with orange homemade buttercream (I ALWAYS use homemade buttercream, no bought icing here!). Next I cut strips of black fondant to create tiger stripes. It turned out looking really cool!

My First Order!

My mom's co-worker was throwing a big Sweet 16 party for her daughter and needed a cake to go with the Hollywood theme and asked me if I would be interested in doing it. My immediate thought "YES! YES! OF COURSE!" So that became my very first order :) I tried out some techniques I picked up from watching Baking shows on my favorite network, and used some fun new products that I had always wanted to get from an Arts and Craft store that I stop at often. This cake needed to feed 70 people so I decided to use my new square cake pans because they were three different sizes. I used the two largest sizes and made a two tiered cake. I made two squared cakes in each size so that it would hold together as two tiers and not fall in. This cake was chocolate on the bottom layer, and white cake on the top layer. In retrospect, I should have done it the opposite because of the colored fondant I used on the top tier and bottom tiers, but it turned out fine anyway. Next I was able to use Rice Krispie Treats to make shapes for the clapper, Hollywood Star, and film reel. From there I made some fun designs with my birthday present from the boyfriend, a Cricut Cake Cutter! This thing is incredible and I LOVE IT! I added some fun glittery dust to the top, and here is how it turned out:

This was a big task for my first cake, but it was so much fun!

How it all began.

Hello blogging world! I have been making cakes, cupcakes, and various treats for years now. Since I started, I have had some friends, and family friends ask me how much it costs for one of my cakes or a batch of cupcakes. This made me start thinking about a fun business idea...CAKES AND CUPCAKES FOR EVERYONE! :) If people were interested, why didn't I think of it before? So then it started. I took pictures of all of the cakes and different things I had made for my family: a turtle made out of cupcakes for nephew E, baseball cupcakes for nephew C, an under the sea theme for the boyfriend, a bunny with a bow-tie for Easter, two Toy Story cakes for the nephews, and more. Here are some pictures of my first cakes that interested some friends.

 

I started getting orders from here on :) This blog will be my way to share all of the great designs for cakes, cupcakes, and other treats that my customers and I come up with for different occasions. Hopefully it will also be a way for others to get some ideas, or inspire more ideas and future customers. Enjoy, and let me know what you think!