Thursday, June 11, 2009

Anthology of Cakes, Buttercream Baby

Let me preface this post by saying that I LOVE baking cakes.  I love baking in general, but cakes really take the cake.  Ha!  Any excuse I can get to make one, I jump on it.  I've even offered to make cakes for friends free of charge, though no one has jumped on that bandwagon yet.  

Now...even though Fondant covered cakes are some of the more beautiful confectionary creations known to man, you just can't beat buttercream, baby. So...these are some of buttercream cakes i've made.

This one was a devil's food cake with chocolate buttercream icing.  It was our First Annual Colburn Super Bowl Bash.  Lots of fun! I took the Wilton Football pan and doubled it.  My hand was cramping to HECK from piping all of those stars.  But so worth it.


I love this cake.  Hannah's 2nd birthday party was Lady Bug themed, and I just can't help but smile when I look at this one.  The cake is a from-scratch white cake out of the Southern Living cookbook.  Divine.  The little ladybug on the top of the cake is a cupcake.  This was the first cake I'd ever made and decorated.  Good memories there.


This monstrosity was Hannah's 4th Birthday cake from last year.  She had a Princess party, so I thought Cinderella's castle was fitting.  Thank GOODNESS for Wilton's cake set...It would not have been fun to make all of those steeples out of rice krispie treats and cover in fondant.  The cake was the same white cake recipe from the Southern Living cookbook (yeah...it's that good), but this time I put raspberry jam in between each layer.  SO GOOD! 

Everything is buttercream, except for the little fondant flowers.  Those were a real joy.  :)

This bad boy was so much fun to make.  Ethan's first birthday was a cookout (as has each subsequent birthday).  We're so original.  The top bun and bottom bun are pound cake, baked in a pyrex bowl to get them to curve.  The actual Patty is  one layer Devil's Food cake covered in chocolate icing.  The lettuce, pickles, onions, and tomatoes are fondant.  The mustard and Ketchup are icing.  

And the side of fries are sugar cookies with red icing ketchup. 


This one is the cake I made for my husbands grandmother Helen for her 75th birthday last year.  We had about 75 of her friends come to her house and surprise her!  It was a blast.  

She is a fan of pink, so I ran with it.  This is the tallest buttercream cake I'd made, and we had some SERIOUS leaning issues.  But, like Duff himself even says on Ace of Cakes, every cake has a back.  The "75" cake topper is gumpaste. 

I saw pink for about a week after that.

I'm always looking for my next chance to make a cake.  I've got some ideas floating around in my cake-crazed head!


Coming up next...FONDANT. 

5 comments:

Amy Cheatham said...

I'm constantly amazed by your creativity, sister! Martha Stewart has NOTHIN' on you, babe! :) By the way, you can make a cake for me anytime. I'm still dreaming about the "I Like Ike" birthday cake you did for our little man. So beautiful...and yummy!

Julia said...

Amy, I totally don't have a picture of that! Do you? I'd love a copy!!

Courtney @ Kisses Come in Twos said...

You've never offered to make me a cake. But then again, I guess you are a little busy considering that my birthday is your anniversary.

vanessa eberhart said...

You have such amazing talents!! I too love baking and always enjoy making the girls a birthday cake. My parents started the tradition when I was little... one of my favorites was an Eewok from Starwars. Abby and I enjoyed your creations. And she has decided your pink creation is what she wants for her 75th birthday! ;)

Bethany said...

These are so gorgeous! I love baking cakes too (I'm the official birthday dessert baker because of it), but I'm in the class that believes that as long as it tastes good, I don't need to worry about fancy frosting. :o)

Speaking of which... I have to make chocolate cake for my nephew's birthday tomorrow! And guess who hasn't gone to the store yet...