Belle and Buzz

I received an Etsy order last week for a split dozen Disney princess and Buzz Lightyear cookies. I have done Buzz before, but not and princesses. The Mom gave me a list of princesses and I chose to do Belle. I worked out a design and went to work. I had a tough time with her face. Characters are so hard to get right! I hope she is close enough for the birthday girl!

Buzz & Woody cake

This week's order is for a Toy Story cake. The Mom specifically asked for a Buzz and Woody cake. I found this cake online, and knew it had to be! So, here is my version.

The lucky birthday boy is also getting a dozen Toy Story Alien cookies.
The cake is chocolate with chocolate filling and a fondant finish.

Happy Birthday Luke!

Cars 2, two

See? I told you there was a fourth car to the Cars 2 series. I got photos immediately after the cookies were done this time (lesson learned). Introducing... Francesco Bernoulli.

 And, all together... the Cars 2 gang.

Cars 2 cookies

I bought these Cars 2 cookie cutters a few months back. I finally got around to using them this week. I'll admit it, I was a little overwhelmed at the detail the cookies require. Character cookies can go so wrong so easily. You have to get certain parts just right or they won't look like the intended character. I'm not saying mine turned out perfectly, but they did turn out a lot better than I feared they might.

There were actually 4 cars in this series. I had all 4 cut out and iced - a dozen of each one. I sent the majority to school with my seven-year old for his "All About Me" day today and the rest were sitting out of reach on my entertainment center, waiting for their turn to get photographed. At least, I thought they were out of reach. I went in to the family room this afternoon to check on my boys, and they had eaten every last "Francesco Bernouli" cookie. While watching Cars 2, ironically. They are little stinkers they are. So, I have no pictures of Francesco. Maybe next time.

Casablanca cake

A woman in our neighborhood asked me to make a birthday cake for her husband. He is a big fan of "Casablanca," so I went with that theme. I decided to try edible images for this cake, and I think it turned out all right, though it isn't my favorite of the year.

Lesson learned: Edible images don't really do black, or black and white photos. 

This cake was lemon cake with lemon filling & buttercream icing.

Toy Story Birthday Cake

My youngest turned three years old today. It is amazing how fast time flies when you have children! He loves Toy Story right now, so of course I had to make him a Toy Story cake.

Happy Birthday Grizz!

Buzz, babies and dinos!

I have been super busy with cookies this past week!

First, I had an order for 2 dozen blue baby onesies. I forgot to take a photo (again). They were pretty simple though - blue onesies with white writing. Try and picture it.

Second, I made a dozen Buzz Lightyear cookies for a customer in New Jersey. She requested the number "5" be written on his chest shield, and I added a couple more details to these guys, compared to my sample cookie here.

The next order was 2 dozen stegosaurus cookies.  I added the number "3" to them, per customer request. These were tied with orange ribbon & were so cute!

Lastly, I had an order for 4 dozen baby onesie cookies from New York City. She is having a shower for twins and requested white onesies with light green piping. They will be tied with light green ribbon as well.

Phew! I'm glad all that is done! I won't book my schedule that full again. Next up: Baby Shower goodies for a friend!

"How to Train Your Dragon" Cupcakes

Once my boys started having birthday parties with their friends, I quickly decided that I wasn't making two cakes (one for the friends party & one for the family party.) My solution was to make one cake, then serve cupcakes at the friends' party. He still gets to blow out the candles on the cake at both parties, but I don't have a boatload of cake leftover at the end. For his cupcakes I searched high and low for HTTYD toppers, but didn't find any. So, I made my own out of chocolate. I used the same method as I used for the characters on the "Up" cake. I call them chocolate transfers, but there is probably a better name for them. I had an email this week from Cori in Australia (Hi Cori!) asking if I made them myself, and I do. I don't usually ship them because they are extremely fragile. They also melt very easily. I had to stick this batch in the freezer because they wouldn't set up, even in my air conditioned house! Other than the transfers, the cupcakes are very simple - chocolate cake with white buttercream icing.

I also came across a fantastic tip for kids' birthday parties. Scoop out the ice cream before the party and put the scoop in muffin liners on a tray. Then stick it back in the freezer until it's cake time. It cuts down on the serving time immensely! All I had to do was plop a cupcake and an ice cream cup onto each plate and I was done!

"How to Train your Dragon" Cake

My oldest turned 6 today. Time flies so fast once those precious little souls are born! 

He has been planning his party ever since this time last year (and already has his theme picked out for next year). He chose "How to Train your Dragon." I find it funny because he has never seen the movie! Boys just love dragons I guess! I finished his cake last night. He was very pleased with it this morning when he saw it. (He liked the cupcakes too.) I took step by step photos this time, so you all can see how I do my cakes. So, here we go!

Step 1: Bake the cake & crumb coat it. Daniel's cake is a 3-layer chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream icing.

Step 2: Cover in fondant. I used to think I liked Utah's summer weather, but after last night the baker side of me  hates Utah's dry summer heat! My fondant dried out so quickly! Twice I rolled it out & put a cobblestone texture on the fondant and it  tore apart when I put it on the cake. So, it was supposed to have a marbled look & a cobblestone texture, but instead it was just flat and gray. And it had a big ol' crack in the back. Had it been for a customer I would have taken it off & rolled it out again, but I was tired of that so I just camouflaged it. I'll bet you can't even see it in the pictures.

Step 3: Buttercream details & chocolate rocks. One of my local grocery stores sells chocolate rocks in their bulk foods section. They are awesome. Far and away better than the jelly bean candy rocks. The images in red are viking "glyphs" I copied from my boys' HTTYD coloring book.

 

Step 4: The finished cake! I got the dragon figure at Walmart. 

Lessons learned: Two year old's like to taste. Mine tasted the cake while I had it cooling (and got a timeout). 

He also tasted the black food coloring while I was working the fondant. Ay, ay, AY!

Also, don't forget to leave space for the writing! I almost didn't have room for the "Happy Birthday Dan"!

Buzz Lightyear Cookies

I made an Etsy customer request Buzz Lightyear cookies. I have been meaning to work one up, so I did! I made my own cookie cutter again. Here is the handsome guy:

I know, his face isn't 100% right, is it? That's the smallest tip I've got though! The food color markers just didn't look right. **sigh** Oh well, I'm sure he will improve with practice. I think next I will work up a Woody cookie. 

These can be purchased here.

"Up" Birthday Cake

I made this cake back in March for my 4-year old's birthday party. (It served double duty as the last cake of a Wilton class I was taking too.) He loved it, and so did I. It was a ton of work but I was really pleased at how well it turned out and at how well it was received.

 All of the characters and really detailed bits are chocolate transfers. Chocolate transfers are basically paintings made of chocolate. They are kind of hard to describe.

These are definitely the most detailed transfers I have made to date, and they are reinforced with jewelers wire to keep them from breaking (since they are vertical on the cake).

 The other cake details such as the vines, picket fence, clouds, biplanes and airship are done in buttercream. The cake is covered in marshmallow fondant, and the balloons are fondant as well.

My husband didn't want me to serve the cake at Jack's friend's party (he wanted to save it for the family party) so I made him these cupcakes to serve to his friends. They were all pleased with their explorer badges and most of them wore them home.

Toy Story Birthday Cake

I made this cake for my sister-in-law's nephew. He is turning three (though I could have sworn he was younger than my youngest!) He is a big fan of Buzz & Woody from "Toy Story."

The figures are the only things that aren't edible. The cake is chocolate with buttercream filling and fondant covering. 

Lessons learned: First, use color-matching icing to attach fondant details. Second, don't leave the cake within reach of a two-year old. This is what happens:

He thought the fondant balls were "bum balls" (gumballs).

Little Green Men

I love these little guys!

I received an order from the wife of an old friend for their little boy's birthday party. The party has a Toy Story theme, so I made two dozen of these little green men for him. What is possibly the best part? I made my own cookie cutter!

I'm so excited to make more. My boys are asking me when I'm going to make Buzz and Woody cookies now (they're on a bit of a Toy Story kick). They are even planning on having Toy Story themed birthday parties for their next birthdays - which are 9 and 13 months away!
These can be ordered here.

"Twilight" Quileute Symbol Cookies

My first order is done! These 4" sugar cookies (3 dozen!) were ordered for a birthday party. The party had a "Twilight" theme, and the colors were pink and black. The image on the cookies is the Quileute tattoo that the werewolf boys have in the movie "New Moon."

Tanya sent me this photo of her daughter at her birthday party. Marley loved the cookies, and Tanya left me a very nice review here. Yay for cookies!

I have two extra chocolate transfers (pink and black) that I will sell to any interested party for $5 each. If you are interested, click here. They are about 3.5" in diameter.